Nutritional Composition of Selected Commercially Sold Ready-to-eat Indian Meat and Vegetable Curried Dishes

A significant influence of dietary and nutrition transition is on the food behaviour of populace reflected in higher dependence on processed or catered foods. The traditional home cooked meals have been largely replaced by street or restaurant foods. While the nutritional composition of processed foods is declared on the label, there is no such information available regarding catered foods and the consumer cannot make an informed choice while selecting food at an eatery. With this premise, the present study was undertaken to analyse the nutritional composition of selected meat and vegetables based Indian dishes sourced from three different catering establishments. Similar dishes were also prepared in laboratory and the nutritional value computed using food composition database. The dishes selected were curries made with chicken, mutton, fish, mixed vegetable, Malai kofta (potato and cheese balls in creamy gravy) and Gobi Manchurian (deep fried spiced cauliflower snack). The results revealed that there were wide variations in the energy and fat content of foods sourced from different eateries. In general, the fat content of dishes was very high. In comparison, laboratory prepared items had lesser energy and fat content. The information will help in creating a nutrient database of ready-to-eat foods and help the consumer in selectin of dishes

Assessment of depression among patients undergoing haemodialysis: a cross-sectional study

Background: Depression is the most important neuropsychiatric complication in chronic kidney disease because it reduces quality of life and increases mortality. The beginning of dialysis treatment causes subtle changes in the life of CKD patients, mainly in the physical and social spheres. It affects the self-care of these patients which lead to poor adherence to dialysis. Hence, the present study was conducted to screen for depression.Methods: This was an observational study among 100 patients undergoing haemodialysis at HIMS, HASSAN. After taking informed consent, subjects were requested to complete Beck, depression Inventory, a 21-question multiple-choice self-report inventory for measuring the severity of depression. Descriptive statistics was applied to infer the findings.Results: The study population showed depression of mild (31%), borderline (10%), moderate (17%), severe (7%) and extreme (3%) grade and the remaining subjects did not show depressive symptoms (32%).Conclusions: Majority of patients undergoing hemodialysis were depressed. Major risk factors for depression were marital status of the patients, low literacy rate, gender and those started on dialysis recently

Adherence to treatment in patients undergoing dialysis

Background: Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a silent disease that is frequently diagnosed in advanced stages. The prevalence and incidence of chronic kidney disease (end-stage renal disease) are continuously increasing, particularly in elderly patients. Poor adherence to complex multimodal therapies is a widely recognized problem in the daily care of dialysis patients, contributing to excess morbidity and mortality of this population. Aims and objectives was to assess the adherence to medications among patients undergoing haemodialysis and to explore the factors affecting non adherence.Methods: After obtaining approval from Institutional Ethics Committee, a prospective observational study was carried out among 150 patients, who were on dialysis in a tertiary care hospital, Hassan. An eight item Morisky Medication adherence questionnaire was used to assess medication adherence. Chi-square test applied to assess statistics.Results: Adherence levels were 28%, 42% and 30% for high, medium and poor adherence respectively. The overall prevalence of non-adherence among respondents was 30%. Among them 77.77% were males, 44.44% belonged to age group of 41-60 years, 40% illiterate, 60% employed, 51.11% of patients with smoking and alcoholic habits were not adherent to Dialysis. Other reasons contributing to non-adherence to treatment were forget fullness (86.66%), inadequate knowledge about side effects (80%), unhappy clinical visits (71.11%) and lack of assistance (48.88%).Conclusions: In this study patient showed moderate adherence. This emphasizes the need for constant motivation and education at frequent intervals to ensure better adherence

Comparison of safety and toxicity of liposomal versus conventional Doxorubicin: an updated review

Cancer persists to be a major cause of hospitalization and death every year. With the passage of time, new formulations of anticancer drugs are being introduced to the market and are drawing the concern of healthcare professionals in terms of the superiority, toxicology, and cost-effectiveness of the new formulations in comparison to the conventional formulation of the same drugs. Doxorubicin, a highly potent chemotherapeutic agent, it comes with three formulations (pegylated liposomal, nonpegylated liposomal and non-liposomal conventional formulations). English-language literature of the three formulations of Doxorubicin has been reviewed to inform the healthcare professionals regarding the differences between these formulations. Liposomal Doxorubicin promotes better toxicology profile than non-liposomal conventional Doxorubicin with an increased cost. Due to very limited studies, the cost-effectiveness of liposomal Doxorubicin is not well defined. Apart from that, this review highlights the inter patient variability in regard to the clearance and volume of distribution following the administration of liposomal Doxorubicin. In conclusion, further studies regarding the superiority of liposomal formulation of Doxorubicin , efficacy and dose standardization of liposomal Doxorubicin should be sought in the near future in a more better way

Analysis of cost between branded medicines and generic medicines in a tertiary care hospital

Background: There is much debate regarding the importance of promoting the use of cheaper generic alternatives over brand-name drugs. While generic drugs have been noted to be comparable to brand-name drugs in their ability to treat conditions, significant debate surrounding their bioavailability or the concentration of the drug that reaches its site of action has arisen. Many experts continue to believe that generic and brand-name drugs are bioequivalent and equally viable options for effective drug treatment, as assumed in this review.Methods: Prices of commonly used branded and generic medicines in same concentration, dosage form and combination were compared with the help of Indian Drug Review, brochures of pharmaceuticals and pharmacies and Jan Aushadhi price list 2017. Mean of all the prices available of branded and generic medicine were calculated and the percentage difference in the mean costs of generic and branded medicines were calculated.Results: The mean cost of 47 branded medicines out of the selected 50 medicines was higher than their generic versions. Mean cost of 3 generic medicines was higher than branded ones. Percentage difference in the mean costs of branded and generic medicines varied from 70%.Conclusions: This study has shown a very noteworthy difference of prices between branded and generic drugs. Efforts should be taken to promote the generic medication. Misconception about low efficacy with generic drugs should be erased

A prospective observational study on drug utilization pattern in medical intensive care unit of a tertiary medical care hospital

Background: Drug utilization research is a part of Pharmacoepidemiology defined by the WHO as the study of marketing, distribution, prescription, and use of drugs in a society, with special emphasis on the resulting medical, social and economic consequences. Conducting periodic studies of pattern of drug use in our hospital setting is essential to critically analyse the current hospital drug policies and to make recommendations based on various guidelines to improve upon the current drug usage pattern. Aims and objectives of the study was to generate data on the drug utilization pattern in Medical ICU and to monitor antimicrobial usage in MICU.Methods: Patients who were admitted in medical ICU of Hassan institute of Medical Sciences were recruited based on inclusion-exclusion criteria. The study was conducted over a period of 3 months from April 2018 to June 2018. The demographic and clinical treatment data of patients were collected. The prescriptions were assessed as per the WHO indicators.Results: Common causes of admission were suicidal poisoning, snake bite, viral thrombocytopenia, myocardial infarction and stroke. The average duration of stay was 5.74 days and average number of drugs/patient was 5.26. Pantoprazole, Ranitidine, Ceftriaxone, Atropine, Pralidoxime, ASV, Ondansetron, and N-acetylcysteine were commonly prescribed drugs. 42.4% of drugs were prescribed by generic names and 84.2% of the drugs were prescribed from Essential Medicine List.Conclusions: This study will provide database to address prescription protocols and guide appropriate use of drugs in the ICU setting

Asymptomatic bacteriuria and associated host factors in Diabetic patients with special reference to UTI Chromagar

Introduction: To study the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) in diabetics compared to non-diabetics and to determine the associated host factors responsible for ASB in diabetics. Materials and Methods: 250 diabetics and 100 controls were enrolled in the study and were screened for ASB using semi-quantitative culture methods and UTIchrom agar. The samples were screened for glucosuria, ketonuria and pyuria. Results: ASB was more common in diabetics compared to non-diabetics(12.8% v/s 6% ) and the increase was more in female diabetics when compared to female non-diabetics(16% v/s 6.15%) whereas male counterparts did not show much difference from the non-diabetics (6.09% v/s 5.71%). There was significant influence of age, duration of diabetes, glucosuria, ketonuria, proteinuria and pyuria on the incidence of ASB in diabetics thus proving them as possible risk factors for development of ASB. E.coli was the most common organism found in both diabetic as well as non diabetic cases of ASB (40.6% and 57.14% respectively). The next frequent organisms were Klebsiella and Staphylococcus. The sensitivity pattern was similar in both the population with ASB. Culture on UTI CHROMagar yielded quicker results when compared to standard culture methods. Conclusion: ASB is almost 3 times more common in female diabetics compared to female non-diabetics whereas there is not much difference among the male counterparts. The risk factors for ASB in diabetics included age, longer duration of diabetes, poor glycaemic control and renal dysfunction indicated by proteinuria. Culture on UTI CHROMagar is an easy and faster means of identification of organisms

Improved Clinical Diagnosis Using Predictive Analytics

The strength of Predictive analytics lies in the ability to reveal interesting patterns obscured within the data and aid the decision-making process. Predictive analytics when deployed using high-end techniques, tools, and methods plays a significant life savior role in the early detection and diagnosis of several human diseases. This research work proposes the implementation of predictive analytics using a multi-stratified algorithm named the “Local Weight Global Mean K-Nearest Neighbor (LWGMK-NN)” under the supervised classification category built over the foundation of analytical techniques without any preset assumptions to discover insights and make predictions. Ten standard clinical datasets are considered to demonstrate the performance of the proposed work against nine state-of-the-art classification algorithms: Logistic Regression, Decision trees, Gaussian Naive Bayes, Random Forest, Linear Support Vector Machine, Stochastic Gradient Descent, Artificial Neural Networks, and XGBoost used as benchmark algorithms. Experimental results shown through performance metrics obtained for simple random sampling, 5-fold cross-validation- a statistical re-sampling method, and 5 times iterated 5-fold cross-validation techniques justify the efficiency of the LWGMK-NN algorithm, and its implementation as a predictive model