Prescription audit study in a tertiary care hospital using the anatomical therapeutic chemical and defined daily dose classification concept

Background: In 1996, WHO recognized the need to develop and use the anatomical therapeutic chemical (ATC) and defined daily dose (DDD) as an international standard for utilization studies wherein it appointed experts in clinical pharmacology, drug utilization, drug regulation, drug evaluation, statistics, and medicine to monitor drug utilization on a standard and uniform pattern around the world.Methods: All the prescriptions presented to main dispensary of the hospital from January-December 2013 in mid-month period of 10 days were taken for the analysis in terms of pharmacovigilance, polypharmacy, drug usage group wise, pharmacoeconomics, and drug utilization in DDD/1000/day along with ATC classification using customized software.Results: 35,808 prescription forms containing 121, 303 drugs were presented to main dispensary of the hospital across which medicines were dispensed. Polypharmacy was calculated to be 3.27±0.44 standard deviation. Approximately, 60% of total prescription forms analyzed were lacking essential and basic such information as age, gender, or diagnosis. Pharmacoeconomics of this study indicates that a major budget was mainly spent on drug groups belonging to - metabolic, antibiotics, hormones, and related drugs. A voluminous consumption of drugs belonged to drug groups - metabolic drugs like statins, hormones, and related drugs such as various oral hypoglycemics, anti-hypertensives, psychotropics, and proton pump inhibitors or H2 blockers, all indicative toward stressful and sedentary lifestyle of modern era and unhealthy lifestyles, a trend of increasing morbidity and mortality, reducing significantly the productive man-hours.Conclusions: This study was undertaken in a government tertiary care hospital which gives insight into the day to day functioning status of our health care delivery system. It is an opportunity on self-assessment in further improving the health care delivery by implementing measures which economizes on scarce health care budget as well as minimizing the common prescription errors

Isolation and Characterization of Tamarind Seed Gum as Pharmaceutical Excipient

Objective: Tamarind seed gum (TSG) is a polysaccharide having galactomannans as chemical constituents, and it is extracted from the seeds of Tamarindus indica L (Family Fabaceae). Generally, polysaccharides play most important roles as thickening, gelling, emulsifying, hydrating, and suspending agents in pharmaceutical formulations. The purpose of this work was to investigate the film coating potential of tamarind seed gum (TSG), using paracetamol as a model drug. Material and Method: Tamarind seed gum, Paracetamol tablet, Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose Sodium alginate, and Distilled water. Core tablets of paracetamol were obtained from a pharmacy shop in the local market and the physicochemical properties such as weight, hardness, friability, and disintegration time were evaluated. Aqueous coating solution consists of 2% TSG hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) (2% w/v), and sodium alginate (1% w/v) were prepared and used to coat the tablets by dip coating technique. The coated tablets were evaluated. Result: The coated tablets showed lower friability; increased disintegration time (14 min) as compared to the core tablet (3 min), improved hardness, and improved drug release profile. TSG film coated batches showed drug release profile up to 10 hrs and HPMC coated batches showed drug release up to 12 hrs. The results of drug release rate of TSG film is very closed to HPMC release profile. This TSG have good film formers properties. It is a promising natural, biodegradable, cheap and eco-friendly film former, particularly when masking of taste or objectionable odor in a solid dosage formulation is desired. It can be used as carrier in sustained release formulation.Conclusion: On the basis of result we can conclude that TSG has promising properties as pharmaceutical excipient. It could be used in the formulation of sustained release matrix as coating agent. &nbsp

A Fixation Based Segmentation Framework

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Development and characterization of paclitaxel and embelin loaded solid lipid nanoparticles for breast cancer

In an effort to develop an alternative formulation of combination of paclitaxel (PTX) and embelin (EMB) suitable for parenteral administration, PTX-EMB loaded sterically stabilized solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) were prepared, characterized and examined for in vitro cytotoxicity. The SLNs, comprising glycerol mono stearate (GMS) as a solid lipid core, Brij 35 used as surfactant and PEGylated phospholipid used as stabilizer, were prepared using a hot homogenization method. Optimized PTX-EMB loaded formulation, the particle sizes of the prepared SLNs were around 300 nm, suggesting that they would be suitable as a parenteral formulation. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the SLNs were homogeneous and spherical in shape. Entrapment efficiency of paclitaxel and embelin was 92.83 ± 2.2%, 83.25 ± 2.4% respectively. An in vitro drug release study were performed in PBS (pH 7.4) for 80 hrs and observed that paclitaxel and embelin released from the PEGylated SLNs was 93.91 ± 4.1 % and 75.63 ± 4.37 % respectively. Furthermore, treatment of the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line with PTX-EMB loaded SLNs yielded cytotoxicities comparable to PTX solution, PTX-EMB mixture solution and PTX loaded PEGylated SLNs. These results collectively suggest that our optimized SLN formulation may have a potential as alternative delivery system for parenteral administration of paclitaxel and embelin. Keywords: Embelin, Apoptosis, Cancer, Cytotoxicity, Breast Cancer, Solid lipid nanoparticles

AUTOMATIC SYMMETRIC NETWORK ADDRESS TRANSLATION DISCOVERY AND TRAVERSE BETWEEN SOFTWARE-DEFINED WIDE AREA NETWORK EDGE DEVICES

The techniques presented herein relate to automatic network address translation (NAT) discovery and traverse for edge devices in a software-defined network in a wide area network (SD-WAN). More specifically, the techniques presented herein relate to techniques for automatic, symmetric NAT discovery and traverse between SD-WAN edge devices that ensure new branches can become part of an SD-WAN overlay network without explicit user (e.g., customer/administrator) involvement. Accordingly, and advantageously, the techniques presented herein can dynamically provide NAT-T hub connectivity for symmetric devices that can be used for service insertion of NAT-T functions. These techniques may vastly simplify SD-WAN deployment in diverse deployments and, thus, may provide significant business value

Low-cost Adsorbents for the Removal of Mercury (11) from Aqueous Solution-A Comparative Study

The establishments of the Ministry of Defence, specifically ordnance factories and public sector undertakings (like Bharat Electronics Ltd), carry out operations like electroplating, metal1surface finishing, solid-state wafer processing, and initiatory manufacturing (lead azide, mercury fulminate), which generate waste water contaminated with hazardous heavy metals. Mercuryand its compounds are known to be highly toxic, both for the living organisms and theenvironment. To protect public health, a regulatory discharge standard of mercury, as low as 0.01 mgll, has been imposed and is expected to be even stricter in the future. A promising method for effective mercury discharge control is to employ suitable adsorbents for the removal of mercury from the contaminated aqueous stream.This paper describes the effectiveness of low cost and locally available, untreated and chemically-treated adsorbents for the removal of mercury from the aqueous solution. Their effectiveness has been compared with that of chemically-treated granular activated carbon. Treated sawdust and untreated weathered coal were found to be the most suitable low-cost adsorbents in addition to treated granular activated carbon for the removal of mercury from aqueous solution. Under the optimised conditions, ie, adsorbent dose 10 gll, pH 6, contact time 48 h, and initial concentration of mercury 3 mgll, the removal of mercury was found to be 99.8 per cent, 99.8 per cent, and 99.7per cent, using treated granular activated carbon, treated sawhust, and untreated weathered coal, respectively.The adsorption parameters were determined using both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Surface complexation and ion exchange were the major removal mechanisms involved.The adsorption isotherm studies clearly indicated that the Langmuir model is in good agreement, with the experimental data on the adsorptive behaviour of mercury on treated granular activated carbon, whereas, the experimental data on adsorptive behaviour of mercury on weathered coal and treated sawdust follow both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The paper presents the results of the experimental studies as well as the model parameters

Cardiac drugs and outcome in COVID-19

We read with much interest the article “Are certain drugs associated with enhanced mortality in COVID -19” by Goldstein et al your esteemed Journal. Authors have discussed the theoretical basis of angiotensin receptor blockers, statins in worsening outcome of COVID – 19 patients.(1) We believe that this topic is rapidly evolving and requires further evidence and discussion for understanding the multiple factors which contribute to the pathogenesis and outcome. We have the following comments

Moringa oleifera seeds extracts/magnetite based bionanocomposites for hexavalent chromium uptake

Abstract: Please refer to full text to view abstract