Use of proton pump inhibitors in dialysis unit in tertiary care hospital: a pharmaco-epidemiological study

Background: Proton pump inhibitors (PPI) are generally thought to be safer drug with fewer adverse effects. Though this class of the drug is thought to be well tolerated, a detail study about actual use of these agents in nephrology department is still awaited in many parts of India. There had been case reports and case series which were reporting PPIs producing acute interstitial nephritis progressing to acute renal failure. The risk of PPI treatment in haemodialysis patients remains unexplored. The aim of the study was to evaluate a drug utilization of PPI in patient undergoing haemodialysis procedure.Methods: In this study every day visit to the dialysis units of the hospitals was carried out. After taking consent from the patients, the information from the case-report form was noted like; age, sex, diagnosis, laboratory reports and drug prescried. No personally identifiable information about patient or physician was collected. After this an interview of patients was taken.Results: In this study, out of 126 patients 76.6% were male and 23.4% were female. Out of these 126 patients 88.89% patients were on PPI. Nearly 54% were using PPI for more than six months. Nearly 29% patients were using PPI for more than 12 months.Conclusions: As many case-reports and studies are suggesting, there is co-relation of PPI and acute interstitial nephritis from this study we suggest that especially in nephrology unit patients’, more caution must be exercised while using PPI

A study of assessment of knowledge, attitude and practice of antibiotic stewardship among healthcare providers in a tertiary care hospital of Sangli

Background: Antimicrobials are routinely used for variety of clinical conditions but are also misused leading to drug resistance bacteria in clinical practice. Consultants can gain the knowledge about it and can also have the depth of problem faced, their prescribing behavior mainly depends on their attitude and understanding of condition. Our aim of this study is to evaluate the knowledge and beliefs about antibiotics prescribing among health care workers in a tertiary care hospital of Sangli. Methods: Our present study was conducted in the Bharati hospital, BV (DU) medical college and hospital, Sangli. Ethical clearance from the institutional ethics committee was obtained and it was, cross-sectional questionnaire-based study carried out in the form of a survey in which a pretested, semi-structured, validated questionnaire was provided to junior residents, senior residents and faculty of different specialties and responses were recorded. Questionnaire comprises of 9 in knowledge, 10 in attitude and 10 in practice section. Results: Out of all participants 84.5% believed that no need of antibiotics for running and blocked nose. Majority 89.6% were expressed that sample culture should be sent before starting antibiotics. 90.4% participants believed that education of patients will help. Only 76.8% strictly adhere to the antibiotic policy of our hospital. Conclusions: The present study on antibiotic usage gives useful information about the knowledge, attitudes and practices of prescribers and help plan suitable educational modifications that aim at improving the antimicrobial prescribing and minimizing the development of drug resistance in our developing country

Condensation-induced jumping water drops

Water droplets can jump during vapor condensation on solid benzene near its melting point. This phenomenon, which can be viewed as a kind of micro scale steam engine, is studied experimentally and numerically. The latent heat of condensation transferred at the drop three phase contact line melts the substrate during a time proportional to R the drop radius . The wetting conditions change and a spontaneous jump of the drop results in random direction over length 1.5R, a phenomenon that increases the coalescence events and accelerates the growth. Once properly rescaled by the jump length scale, the growth dynamics is, however, similar to that on a solid surface