Evaluation of Drug Utilization Pattern for Patients of Bronchial Asthma in a Government Hospital of Saudi Arabia

Background: Bronchial asthma is a social and economic healthcare burden. Drug utilization studies are important tools to assess current prescription practices against standard guidelines and help in rationalizing the management. Materials and Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study was designed to evaluate the pattern of drug utilization in bronchial asthma patients in a government hospital of Saudi Arabia. Retrospective prescribing information of patients of all ages and both sexes diagnosed with bronchial asthma being treated with at least one of the anti-asthmatic medications was utilized. Demographic details, brand/ generic name, indication, route, dosage, frequency, and date of starting the drug were recorded. Prescriptions were examined for order, number, and therapeutic class of drugs in addition to poly-pharmacy and appropriateness. Patients having other respiratory disorders such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), bronchitis, emphysema, or any comorbidity such as diabetes, hypertension, and peptic ulcer were excluded. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was used for statistical analysis. Results: A total of 380 prescriptions were studied. Patients were aged from 4 months to 79 years, with 55.3% males and 44.7% females. Pediatric prescriptions were 47.4%. Bronchodilators followed by steroids were the most common drug groups. Salbutamol and budesonide were the most common from each group, respectively. 89.5% of the patients were having at least two drugs. Number of drugs per prescription averaged 3.18 ± 1.22, however, no correlation was found between different age groups and number of drugs. 61.3% drugs were administered by inhalational route and 34.8% by oral route. Approximately 77.2% prescriptions were found to be appropriate. Conclusion: Prescription pattern was mainly in accordance with standard guidelines with some knowledge and technical gaps in prescription writing methodology.Keywords: Airway, pharmaco-epidemiology, pharmacy, public health, surve

Effect of Forced Molting on body characteristics and post-molting egg production performance of Layers in Quetta, Pakistan

White leghorn layer (n=2740), with 85weeksof age, were submitted to forced molting by fasting for 13 days and changes in body characteristics and subsequent laying performance during second laying cycle were evaluated. Live body weight (LBW),ovary weight (OW), oviduct weight (OvW) and oviduct length (OvL) were measured before and after fasting. Post-fasting restricted feeding was applied, initially feeding crushed corn with added 2% Ca for 20 days and thereafter layer crumble feed was offered. Layers lost 632.16g (36%) of their LBW and significant reductions of 45.32, 47.53 and 54% were observed in post-fasting/molt OW, OvW and OvL, respectively (p<0.05). Resting period was 49 days and birds consumed 4.79kg feed during resting period. Egg production reached 50% in the 3rd week and peak mean egg production (87%) was recorded between 13 to16th weeks of production. Hence, it is concluded that while molting exhausted layers, the procedure adapted to induce molting and season would be a core factor in the subsequent laying cycle egg production and gain

Investigation of XBT and XCTD biases in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal with implications for climate studies

Long time series of XBT data in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea are valuable datasets for exploring and understanding climate variability. However, such studies of interannual and longer-scale variability of temperature require an understanding, and, if possible, a correction of errors introduced by biases in the XBT and expendable conductivity-temperature-depth (XCTD) data. Two cruises in each basin were undertaken in 2008/09 on which series of tests of XBTs and XCTDs dropped simultaneously with CTD casts were performed. The XBT and XCTD depths were corrected by comparison with CTD data using a modification of an existing algorithm. Significant probe-to-probe fall-rate equation (FRE) velocity and deceleration coefficient variability was found within a cruise, as well as cruise-to-cruise variability. A small (~0.01°C) temperature bias was also identified for XBTs on each cruise. No new FRE can be proposed for either the Bay of Bengal or the Arabian Sea for XBTs. For the more consistent XCTD, basin-specific FREs are possible for the Bay of Bengal, but not for the Arabian Sea. The XCTD FRE velocity coefficients are significantly higher than the XCTD manufacturers' FRE coefficient or those from previous tests, possibly resulting from the influence of temperature on XCTD FRE. Mean temperature anomalies versus a long-term mean climatology for XBT data using the present default FRE have a bias (which is positive for three cruises and negative for one cruise) compared to the mean temperature anomalies for CTD data. Some improvement is found when applying newly calculated cruise-specific FREs. This temperature error must be accounted for in any study of temperature change in the regions