Drug utilization study in dengue infection in a tertiary care hospital

Background: Dengue fever (DF) is a serious public health problem, gaining global attention because of its morbidity and mortality. Less studies on Drug utilization pattern of DF in India. The present study was undertaken to analyze Drug utilization pattern of dengue infection in a tertiary care hospital.Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted for a period of 2 months in a tertiary care hospital and the data was analyzed by using various drug use indicators.Results: A total of 52 prescriptions were analyzed. Male and female were (46.16%, 53.84%), A total of 330 drugs were prescribed. 86 (26.06%) antibiotics, 70 (21.21%) antipyretics, 51 (15.46%) antacids, 19 (5.76%) multivitamins, 52 (15.76%) anti-emetics and 52 (15.76%) papaya leaf extract was prescribed. 84 (25.46%) oral and 246 (74.54%) injectable drugs. IV-fluids given to all patients. 10 (19.24%) were given blood transfusion. 6.17 drugs per prescription. 96% drugs were prescribed by brand names. High DDD for drugs like diclofenac (184), doxycycline (115), metronidazole (2.5), pantoprazole (161.5), rabeprazole (34.6), ondansetron (200) was observed.Conclusions: Most commonly used drugs are antipyretics, antibiotics, antacids, antiemetic, papaya leaf extract. As the incidence of DF is increasing with epidemics, demand for specific treatment guidelines is in great need. Early recognition of the disease, with a rational approach in case management leads good clinical outcome

A prospective study on the prescription pattern of anti-cancer drugs and adverse drug reaction in a tertiary care hospital

Background: Cancers is a group of disease involving abnormal cell multiplication with the ability to spread to other parts of the body. Common side effects seen with chemotherapy are fatigue, hair loss, easy bruising and bleeding, infection, anemia, nausea and vomiting, appetite changes, constipation etc. The need of this study is to evaluate the prescribing pattern and the adverse drug reaction associated with chemotherapeutic drugs. The study is aimed to analyze the prescribing pattern of anticancer drugs in medical oncology department of a tertiary care hospital, Karnataka.Methods: An observational study was conducted on 30 patients of either sex admitted for chemotherapy for a period of 6 months in at HCG Cancer Institute, Gulbarga and Basaveshwar Teaching and General Hospital (BTGH), Gulbarga. The data collected is analysed statistically using descriptive statistics and presented as counts and percentages. Results are depicted in the form of tables.Results: A total of 30 prescriptions were collected with 10 (33.3%) male and 20 (66.6%) female. the maximum number of cases were noted in the age group of 46years to 55 years (10) and least in age group of 15-25 years having a single patient. In our study we found that more number of patients are breast cancer (12 patients) followed by cervical cancer and ovarian cancer (3 patients) and least are Ewing’s sarcoma and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (1 patient). Most commonly prescribed anti-cancer drug is carboplatin and paclitaxel i.e. for 12 patients out of 30 patients, followed by cyclophosphamide for 10 patients and less commonly prescribed drug being dactinomycin and pemitrexate. Adverse drug reactions seen in maximum patients is hair loss among 20 pts followed by peripheral neuropathy (17) and taste change (16) and the less commonly noted side effects being chest pain and ototoxicity.Conclusions: The study concluded that the drugs which were used in the treatment of various neoplastic conditions are in adherence and in accordance with the standard treatment guidelines and most of them were prescribed with generic name which leads to reduce in cost of treatment

Seasonal variations of protein in the ovary of fish Channa gachua

          The present study was carried out in the breeding seasons from 2004 to 2006. The ovary of fresh water fish Channa gachua was analyzed for its protein content during period of four different phases of reproductive cycle, in Channa gachua i.e. preparatory, pre-spawning, and post-spawning. Protein content found in preparatory phase was non significant, and significantly increased from pre-spawning to spawning and declined in post-spawning (mg/g wet weight of ovary)

Synthesis, and biological screening of chloropyrazine conjugated benzothiazepine derivatives as potential antimicrobial, antitubercular and cytotoxic agents

A series of twenty new chloropyrazine conjugated benzothiazepines (22-41) have been synthesized with 58%–95% yields. The compounds were characterized by using different spectroscopic techniques including FT-IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. The synthesized compounds (22-41) and their precursor chalcones (2-21) were evaluated for antitubercular and cytotoxic activities. Additionally, compounds 22-41 were also tested for antimicrobial activity. Among the chalcone series (2-21), compounds 7 and 14 showed significant antitubercular activities (MICs 25.51 and 23.89 µM, respectively), whereas among benzothiazepines (22-41), compounds 27 and 34 displayed significant antimicrobial (MICs 38.02 µM, 19.01 µM) and antitubercular (MIC 18.10 µM) activities. Compounds 7 and 41 displayed cytotoxic activities with IC₅₀ of 46.03 ± 1 and 35.10 ± 2 µM respectively. All the compounds were evaluated for cytotoxic activity on normal human liver cell lines (L02) and found to be relatively less selective towards this cell line. The most active compounds identified through this study could be considered as potential leads for the development of drugs with possible antimicrobial, antitubercular, and cytotoxic activities

Physico-Chemical Properties of Biodiesel Produced from Neem oil

ABSTRACT Biodiesel is becoming prominent among the alternatives to conventional petro-diesel due to economic, environmental and social factors. The quality of biodiesel is influenced by the nature of feedstock and the production processes employed. High amounts of free fatty acids (FFA) in the feedstock are known to be detrimental to the quality of biodiesel. In addition, oils with compounds containing hydroxyl groups possess high viscosity due to hydrogen bonding. American Standards and Testing Materials, (ASTM D 6751) recommends FFA content of not more than 0.5% in biodiesel and a viscosity of less than 6 mm 2 /s. In this experiment the seed oils of 30 Neem (Azadirachta indica. A. juss) biotypes were screened and evaluated for their physico-chemical parameters for their potential in biodiesel. The properties of Neem biodiesel were compared with Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and the fuel properties of diesel. Results showed that high amounts of FFA in oils produced low quality biodiesel while neutralized oils with low amounts of FFA produced high quality biodiesel. The quality of biodiesel from jatropha and castor oils was improved greatly by neutralising the crude oils

Design, Facile Synthesis and Characterization of Dichloro Substituted Chalcones and Dihydropyrazole Derivatives for Their Antifungal, Antitubercular and Antiproliferative Activities

Infectious diseases caused by fungi and mycobacteria pose an important problem for humankind. Similarly, cancer is one of the leading causes of death globally. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the development of novel agents to combat the deadly problems of cancer, tuberculosis, and also fungal infections. Hence, in the present study, we designed, synthesized, and characterized 30 compounds including 15 chalcones (2–16) and 15 dihydropyrazoles (17–31) containing dichlorophenyl moiety and also screened these compounds for their antifungal, antitubercular, and antiproliferative activities. Among these compounds, the dihydropyrazoles showed excellent antifungal and antitubercular activities whereas the chalcones exhibited promising antiproliferative activity. Among the dihydropyrazoles, compound 31 containing 2-thienyl moiety showed promising antifungal activity (MIC 5.35 µM), whereas compounds 22 and 24 containing 2,4-difluorophenyl and 4-trifluoromethyl scaffolds revealed significant antitubercular activity with the MICs of 3.96 and 3.67 µM, respectively. Compound 16 containing 2-thienyl moiety in the chalcone series showed the highest anti-proliferative activity with an IC₅₀ value of 17 ± 1 µM. The most active compounds identified through this study could be considered as starting points in the development of drugs with potential antifungal, antitubercular, and antiproliferative activities

Antitubercular activity assessment of fluorinated chalcones, 2-aminopyridine-3-carbonitrile and 2-amino-4H-pyran-3-carbonitrile derivatives: In vitro, molecular docking and in-silico drug likeliness studies

A series of newer previously synthesized fluorinated chalcones and their 2-amino-pyridine-3-carbonitrile and 2-amino-4H-pyran-3-carbonitrile derivatives were screened for their in vitro antitubercular activity and in silico methods. Compound 40 (MIC~ 8 μM) was the most potent among all 60 compounds, whose potency is comparable with broad spectrum antibiotics like ciprofloxacin and streptomycin and three times more potent than pyrazinamide. Additionally, compound 40 was also less selective and hence non-toxic towards the human live cell lines-LO2 in its MTT assay. Compounds 30, 27, 50, 41, 51, and 60 have exhibited streptomycin like activity (MIC~16–18 μM). Fluorinated chalcones, pyridine and pyran derivatives were found to occupy prime position in thymidylate kinase enzymatic pockets in molecular docking studies. The molecule 40 being most potent had shown a binding energy of -9.67 Kcal/mol, while docking against thymidylate kinase, which was compared with its in vitro MIC value (~8 μM). These findings suggest that 2-aminopyridine-3-carbonitrile and 2-amino-4H-pyran-3-carbonitrile derivatives are prospective lead molecules for the development of novel antitubercular drugs

Effect of physiotherapy on single breath count and breath holding time in COVID-19 patients

Background: The novel Coronavirus is known to primarily affect the respiratory system and physiotherapy treatment is integral to combat this infection. However, the assessment of pulmonary function poses a difficult challenge considering the risk of spread of infection and sanitisation of the devices used. Single breath count (SBC) and breath holding time (BHT) can be thus adopted as bedside assessment tests for pulmonary function following physiotherapy treatment.Method: In this a retrospective observational study of 51 COVID-19 patients, mean age 51.7±14.56 years, on room air, admitted in the step-down units of a tertiary care hospital. Patients received standard physiotherapy treatment, within safe hemodynamic limits. Pre and post treatment session SBC was recorded in 32 patients and BHT in 19 patients. Three reading were noted and the best of three readings were used for analysis.Results: The paired t test was used to analyse SBC and BHT. Mean pre and post SBC was 18.25±8.96 and 23.31±9.96 respectively with a mean difference of 5.06 and p<0.0001. Mean pre and post BHT were 19.37 and 23.05 seconds respectively with a mean difference of 3.68 and p<0.0001.  Statistically significant difference in the pre and post treatment session SBC and BHT was observed, indicating a positive effect of physiotherapy treatment on pulmonary function.Conclusion: Physiotherapy treatment shows significant improvement in the pulmonary function in COVID-19 patients. SBC and BHT tests can be used as assessment and prognostic tools for pulmonary function in COVID-19 patients