Study on assessment of awareness about concepts in undergraduate pharmacology curriculum among clinicians in a tertiary care teaching hospital

Background: Rational prescribing forms the corner stone of successful implementation of rational drug use. To boost the cause of rational use of Medicine, the P-drug concept was given in late nineties. The idea was to make Physicians familiar with few personal drugs chosen from National Essential drug list based on efficacy, safety, suitability and cost. The present study was conducted to assess the awareness of clinicians about basic pharmacological concepts.Methods: It is a cross sectional study with a study population of 100, conducted in RRMCH for a period of one month. It is a questionnaire based study involving clinicians and post graduates working in this hospital. Descriptive statistical analysis has been carried out in the present study.Results: In our study, 38% of physicians were aware of the term Essential drugs and 26% of doctors prescribed drugs from National Essential drug list. 56% of respondents were aware of term rational drug use but only 1/3 of them were aware of adverse effects, drug interactions of the drugs they prescribed. Majority of physicians (85%) used standard text book as the source of drug information.Conclusions: Lack of knowledge among physicians about new concepts like p-drug, rational drug use and essential drugs points towards need for having more CMEs on basic pharmacological concepts

Pattern of drug utilization in pediatric out patient department of a tertiary care teaching hospital

Background: Drug utilization studies have special significance among paediatric age groups as infant and children represent about 42% of the population in developing countries. This is the vital period of rapid growth and development. Therefore, drugs should be used very cautiously and rationally among these sub groups. The present study is conducted to analyse the prescribing pattern of drugs in paediatric age group for various illnesses. Methods: It was a prospective observational study, conducted in paediatric outpatient department of Raja Rajeswari medical college and research hospital for a period of 6 months after obtaining approval from institutional ethical committee. Descriptive statistical was used to determine the frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation.Results: In the present study, fever (30.8%) followed by respiratory diseases were most common diseases seen. The commonly used drugs include antipyretics (66%), antimicrobials (53.6%), cough syrups (34.4%), antihistaminic (31.2%) and nasal decongestants (23.2%). Prescribing indicator shows existence of polypharmacy. Prescribing drugs by generic name was seen only in 8.1% and 47.82% of the drugs were prescribed from EDL. The frequency of use of injectables in our study was 5.8%. Conclusions: Irrational use of antibiotics and polypharmacy needs to be curbed. Prescribing drugs in their generic name and prescribing drugs from EDL need to be promoted. The present prescribing pattern can be improved by advocating rational drug prescribing, patient education and improving hospitals

Study on antihyperglycemic effect of bromocriptine in dexamethasone induced hyperglycemic wistar rats

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder that develops due to insulin deficiency or insulin resistance. Recent animal and human studies have reported bromocriptine to be effective in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus. The present study was done to evaluate the antihyperglycemic effect of bromocriptine in dexamethasone induced hyperglycemic rats.Methods: Male wistar rats were used and divided into 5 groups. Dexamethosone was used to induce hyperglycemia in group B-E. Group A was the untreated control group, group B was the standard control group, group C was the oral 10 mg/kg of bromocriptine dissolved in 0.9% normal saline, group D was the oral 20 mg/kg metformin dissolved in 0.9% normal saline, group E was the oral 10 mg/kg bromocriptine+20 mg/kg metformin dissolved in 0.9% normal saline. Fasting blood glucose, post prandial blood glucose and body weight was estimated on day 1, 15, 30.Results: It was seen that dexamethasone induced hyperglycemia and increase in body weight in male wistar rats, which were significantly controlled by oral bromocriptine and bromocriptine with metformin combination.Conclusions: Results obtained from this study showed that bromocriptine can be a promising drug with novel mechanism to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus

Melitracenium chloride

In the title compound [systematic name: 3-(10,10-dimethyl­anthracen-9-yl­idene)-N,N,N-trimethyl­propanaminium chlor­ide], C21H26N+·Cl−, the cyclo­hexane ring adopts a chair conformation. The dihedral angle between the terminal benzene rings is 40.43 (12)°. In the crystal, ions are linked through inter­molecular N—H⋯Cl and C—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds, forming supra­molecular layers parallel to the bc plane

10,10-Dimethyl­anthrone

In the title compound, C16H14O, the asymmetric unit consists of three crystallographically independent mol­ecules. The anthracene units are essentially planar, with maximum deviations of 0.165 (1), 0.153 (1) and 0.045 (1) Å in the three mol­ecules. In the crystal structure, mol­ecules are linked via inter­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. Further stabilization is provided by C—H⋯π inter­actions

Cyclo­benzaprinium salicylate

In the title mol­ecular salt [systematic name: 3-(5H-di­benzo[a,d]cyclo­hepten-5-yl­idene)-N,N-dimethyl-1-propanaminium 2-hy­droxy­benzoate], C20H22N+·C7H5O3 −, the benzene rings of the cyclo­benzaprinium cation are inclined with a dihedral angle of 61.66 (7)°. An intra­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bond occurs within the salicylate anion, generating an S(6) ring. In the crystal, the cation and anion are linked by an N—H⋯O inter­action

Identification of Rice Transcription Factors Associated with Drought Tolerance Using the Ecotilling Method

The drought tolerance (DT) of plants is a complex quantitative trait. Under natural and artificial selection, drought tolerance represents the crop survival ability and production capacity under drought conditions (Luo, 2010). To understand the regulation mechanism of varied drought tolerance among rice genotypes, 95 diverse rice landraces or varieties were evaluated within a field screen facility based on the ‘line–source soil moisture gradient’, and their resistance varied from extremely resistant to sensitive. The method of Ecotype Targeting Induced Local Lesions in Genomes (Ecotilling) was used to analyze the diversity in the promoters of 24 transcription factor families. The bands separated by electrophoresis using Ecotilling were converted into molecular markers. STRUCTURE analysis revealed a value of K = 2, namely, the population with two subgroups (i.e., indica and japonica), which coincided very well with the UPGMA clusters (NTSYS-pc software) using distance-based analysis and InDel markers. Then the association analysis between the promoter diversity of these transcription factors and the DT index/level of each variety was performed. The results showed that three genes were associated with the DT index and that five genes were associated with the DT level. The sequences of these associated genes are complex and variable, especially at approximately 1000 bp upstream of the transcription initiation sites. The study illuminated that association analysis aimed at Ecotilling diversity of natural groups could facilitate the isolation of rice genes related to complex quantitative traits