Cytotoxic effects of methanolic extract of ferula assa-foetida on skov-3 and mia paca-2 cells

Introduction: Previous studies have demonstrated cytotoxic effects of Ferula assa-foetida. In the present study, the antiproliferative effect of this plant on two species of cancer cells related to pancreatic cancer (MIA PaCa-2) and ovarian cancer (SKOV-3) was investigated. Materials and Methods: 100 grams of powdered herb dissolved in 500 milliliter of methanol was placed in Soxhlet extractor for 72 hours. After adding trypsin to the medium, cells were cultured in serum containing medium. A serial dilution of extract was created with 25, 50, 100, 200 and 400 microgram per milliliter concentrations. Plates were fed with 200 microliters of new mediums at the end of their growth and 50 microliters of MTT were added to all wells of 1 to 11 columns. After incubation, mediums and MTT were removed from the wells and remaining crystals were resolved by adding DMSO. After adding glycine buffer (25 μl per well), we immediately read the results at wavelength of 570 nanometer using an ELISA reader. Results: Concentrations of 25, 50, 100, 200 and 400 micrograms per milliliter of methanolic extract of Ferula asa-foetida had significant cytotoxic effect on SKOV-3 and MIA PaCa-2 cancer cells with a P-Value of <0.05. These changes were timedependent. Discussion and Conclusion: Besides their several medical uses, medicinal herbs have recently turned out to have antineoplastic effects. One of these herbs is Ferula assa-foetida. In the present study, we evaluated the anti-proliferative effects of this plant on ovarian and pancreatic cancer cells

Identification and ranking of specific balanced scorecard performance measures for hospitals: a case study of private hospitals in the Klang Valley area, Malaysia

Performance measurement is a necessity for private hospitals as they need to be efficient, attract customers, increase profitability, and survive in the competitive environment of the health care industry. Hospitals typically struggle to identify appropriate performance measures because of lack of reliable source of performance measures for private hospitals. Despite numerous studies on performance measurement, few studies have focused on performance measures in private hospitals. This paper aims to fill that gap by identifying and ranking a specific set of performance measures that are feasible and relevant for private hospitals. Forty-four health care performance measures in four balanced scorecard (BSC) performance perspectives (financial, customer, internal business processes, and learning and growth) were compiled and filtered based on “feasibility” and “relevance” criteria using a questionnaire survey in private hospitals in the Klang Valley area, Malaysia. Since all collected data were in numeric format, data analysis was performed quantitatively. Consequently, 31 BSC performance measures were identified for private hospitals. Next, the 31 performance measures went through a ranking survey in Klang Valley private hospitals. Therefore, a weight between 0 and 1 with a range of 0.095 to 0.207 was obtained for each performance measure to help hospitals quantify their overall performance more accurately