Willingness to bank cord blood for research (if given an option), keeping in mind the larger picture of future benefit to the society.

<p>Willingness to bank cord blood for research (if given an option), keeping in mind the larger picture of future benefit to the society.</p

Banking Umbilical Cord Blood (UCB) Stem Cells: Awareness, Attitude and Expectations of Potential Donors from One of the Largest Potential Repository (India)

<div><p>Background</p><p>The concept of Umbilical Cord blood (UCB) stem cells is emerging as a non-invasive, efficacious alternative source of hematopoietic stem cells to treat a variety of blood and bone marrow diseases, blood cancers, metabolic disorders and immune deficiencies. Aim of the present study was to determine the level of awareness about banking UCB among pregnant women in India. We also assessed patient perception for banking of UCB and explored the patient expectations of banking UCB in future. This is the first study to assess current attitudes, in a sample population of potential donors from one of the largest potential UCB repository (India). Obtaining this information may help optimize recruitment efforts and improve patient education.</p><p>Material and Method</p><p>Present explorative questionnaire based survey included 254 pregnant women in the final analysis.</p><p>Results</p><p>We established only 26.5% pregnant women in our study population knew what exactly is meant by UCB. A large proportion (55.1%) was undecided on whether they want to bank UCB or not. Women were more aware of the more advertised private cord blood banking compared to public banking. More than half of the pregnant women expected their obstetrician to inform them regarding UCB. One-third of the women in our population had undue expectations from banking of the UCB.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>Obstetricians should play a more active role in explaining the patients regarding pros and cons of UCB banking.</p></div

Awareness regarding stem cell banking.

<p>Awareness regarding stem cell banking.</p

Willingness to store cord blood stem cells for the index pregnancy.

<p>Willingness to store cord blood stem cells for the index pregnancy.</p

Demographic characteristics of the population studied.

<p>Demographic characteristics of the population studied.</p

Multivariate logistic regression analysis for the correlates of pre-hypertension among young adults (20–30 years) in coastal villages of Udupi <i>taluk</i>, Karnataka, India, Oct 2013 (N = 1152).

<p>Multivariate logistic regression analysis for the correlates of pre-hypertension among young adults (20–30 years) in coastal villages of Udupi <i>taluk</i>, Karnataka, India, Oct 2013 (N = 1152).</p

Univariate analysis of various study variables among prehypertensive and normotensive young adults (20–30 years) in coastal villages of Udupi <i>taluk</i>, Karnataka, India, Oct 2013 (N = 1117).

<p>Univariate analysis of various study variables among prehypertensive and normotensive young adults (20–30 years) in coastal villages of Udupi <i>taluk</i>, Karnataka, India, Oct 2013 (N = 1117).</p

Key socio-demographic parameters of young adults (20–30 years) in coastal villages of Udupi <i>taluk</i>, Karnataka, India, Oct 2013 (N = 1152)^#.

<p>Key socio-demographic parameters of young adults (20–30 years) in coastal villages of Udupi <i>taluk</i>, Karnataka, India, Oct 2013 (N = 1152)<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0154538#t001fn001" target="_blank">^#</a>.</p

Direct costs for nonsurgical management of Chronic Pancreatitis in a tertiary care teaching hospital

<p><b>Background:</b> Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a leading cause of hospitalization among gastrointestinal diseases resulting in considerable financial burden to patients. However the direct costs for nonsurgical management in CP remains unexplored.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> A cross sectional study was carried out (2011–14) in the Department of Gastroenterology, Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, India. Demographic and clinical data on laboratory investigations, interventions and follow up were obtained from the medical records department. Item costs were derived from the hospital electronic billing section. Cost was expressed as median annual cost per patient.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> 65 (male 48; 73.8%) patients were included. Their median age was 31 (range 12–68) years. The annual median (IQR) total cost per patient was INR 88,892 (70,550.5–116,004); [USD 1410(1119–1841); € 1155(916–1507)], comprising of INR 61,089 (39,102.5–90,360.5) [USD 970 (621–1434); € 793(508–1174)] for outpatient management and INR 32,450 (11,016–46,958) [USD 515 (175–745); €421(143–610)] for hospitalization. 69.5% of the treatment cost was attributed to outpatient treatment. Drugs contributed to 54%, hospitalization incurred 30.5%, investigations 12% and professional fees (3.5%) of the total cost. Pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) cost contributed to three-quarters of drug therapy. Use of rabeprazole as against pantoprazole reduced the overall annual cost of therapy by 4%.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> This study depicts the first nonsurgical management of accrued direct costs associated with CP due to expensive medications. Due to the high cost for PERT, its usefulness needs proper validation by cost benefit analysis.</p

Monthly incidences of malaria cases from January 2010 till October 2015 in Udupi district, Karnataka, India.

<p>Monthly incidences of malaria cases from January 2010 till October 2015 in Udupi district, Karnataka, India.</p