PRESCRIBING PATTERN OF ANTIHYPERTENSIVE DRUGS BASED ON COMPELLING INDICATIONS WITH HYPERTENSION

Objective: The aim of the study is to assess the various prescribing patterns in hypertension with different compelling indications.Methods: It is a prospective observational study and carried out for a period of 1 y from Feb-2014 to Feb-2015. All the required data was collected from patients through personal interview and prescriptions. The data collected from the participants was entered into Microsoft excel spreadsheet and descriptive statistics were used. The mean and standard deviation (SD) were calculated.Results: A total of 394 hypertensive patients with different comorbidities were included in which 251(63.70%) males and 143(36.29%) females were present with a mean (SD) age of 59.21±1.54. The most commonly reported first three co-morbidities along with hypertension were diabetes mellitus 191 (48.47%), stroke accounts for 57 (14.46%) and coronary artery disease in 32 (8.12%). Monotherapy was given in almost 200 (50.76%) patients and dual drug therapy was indicated in 166 (42.13%) patients, triple therapy was used only in 24 (6.09%) patients in the total sample size. Quadruple therapy is the least preferred combination therapy accounts only in 4 (1.01%) patients.Conclusion: We conclude that calcium channel blockers and angiotensin II receptor blockers were the most commonly prescribed class of drugs either alone or in combination with other class of drugs for effective control of blood pressure patients with different compelling indications. Monotherapy was preferred than combination therapy.Â

Varunamula Twak Kwatha in Mootrashmari as ideal Ashmarighna - A Case Study

Urinary disorders have a specific identity both in modern and Ayurvedic system of medicine. The improper purificatory procedure results in residual accumulation of Kapha and Pitta Prakopa in Mootravaha Srotas. Hence all the Doshas collectively result in formation of Ashmari. The information regarding Ashmari is available in almost all Samhitas. The disease is prevalent irrespective of their socio-economic and cultural background. The process of stone formation is called Urolithiasis. Most calculi arise in kidney when urine becomes supersaturated with a salt that is capable of forming solid crystals. There are different treatment lines for the management of Ashmari in modern system. Management of urinary disease occupies an important place in Ayurveda. Varunamula Twak Kwatha administerd in Paneeya form, which is having Vedana Shamaka, Ashmrighna properties which leads to disintegration, dissolution, dislodgement and expulsion of stone. A 36 yrs young male presenting with history of symptoms of Mootrashmari like Teevravedana over Nabhi, Vasti, Sevani and Medra during micturition, aggravation of pain during running, jumping, walking long distance etc. since 3 days has presented here

New Fish meal plant at Karwar to process oil sardine

Karnataka recorded an appreciable catch of 1,00,179 t of oil sardine in 2007. The boom in oil sardine landings has lead to the establishment of a new fish meal plant at Baithkol landing centre of Karwar which became functional in March, 2008 (Fig. 1). The Karnataka Fisheries Development Board has leased out the fish meal plant to a private company, Sai Annapoorna Bio-Protein Private Ltd. The products manufactured by the fish meal plant are fish oil and fish meal powder. They supply fish oil to CP Aquamarine which exports the fish oil to south-east Asian countries such as Vietnam and Thailand. The fish meal powder is used as prawn feed and it is procured and marketed by CP Aquamarine. The company procures fish from Mangalore to Goa from boat owners and agents. The average supply of fish is 200 t/day. The company processes only oil sardine (Sardinella longiceps) for the manufacture of fish meal and fish oil

Establishing an Institution-Wide Graduate Medical Education Research Collaborative to Promote Scholarly Activities among House Officers

Background: House officers’ ability to participate in research and quality improvement projects can be hindered by barriers, including lack of time, mentoring, and resources. Objective: Create a collaborative for house officers that provides readily accessible resources in study design as well as data collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation. Methods: In 2017, we established a collaborative comprised of biostatisticians and an Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Research, providing a trove of experience in research and quality improvement. We worked closely with the Institutional Review Board and Electronic Health Records Core to simplify the process for house officers to utilize these research resources. The collaborative has weekly small group meetings to discuss new projects/updates and monthly large group meetings where house officers can present their ideas for additional feedback from peers and additional faculty. These formats are flexible, which allows us to tailor our assistance to the needs of each individual project. Results: In the first year since establishing the collaborative, we have received 51 project concepts from 44 house officers. Of the projects needing assistance (n=44), 100% were discussed in one of our weekly meetings and received assistance from the collaborative, and 34% presented at our large monthly meeting. A year into the collaborative, 20% of projects are either in the data analysis phase or have already been presented. Conclusion: As evidenced by the number of projects we received in our first year, there is a significant benefit for this type of collaborative resource to support and stimulate successful scholarly activity in house officers

ASSESSMENT OF PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE REGARDING ANTIBIOTIC USE IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Objective: The present study was designed to investigate the public knowledge and attitude toward antibiotic use in a general population visiting thetertiary care hospital.Methods: A prospective cross-sectional survey conducted for a period of 6-month December-2013 to May-2014. Knowledge scoring was given basedon the percentage of correct responses. Data were collected using a self-prepared questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Associationof respondent's knowledge score with sex, age group, educational level, and income was analyzed by Chi-square test.Results: The results of our study showed that the level of knowledge on antibiotics use was poor in 117 (65%) of the study population who had given<50% correct response. The current study showed that there was a significant difference in knowledge between education level groups (p≤0.0001).The other responses regarding knowledge are 27.2% accepted that antibiotics are indicated for relieving pain and inflammation, 45% of participantsthought that antibiotics are the drugs indicated to reduce fever. About 76.6% of respondents had administered antibiotics without a doctor'sprescription, 44% of respondents used antibiotics with their friends and family member's suggestions. 48% of respondents keep antibiotics stockat home for future use and 79.4% of respondents keep leftover antibiotics for personal future use, 31% share their antibiotics with family memberswhen they are sick and 34% of respondents use leftover antibiotics for a respiratory illness.Conclusion: Patients, as well as healthcare professionals, have a major role to play in attaining rational antibiotic use. Antibiotic awareness campaignsand patient counseling should promote specific messages to public members from the high risk†groups, to fill up the knowledge and attitude gaps.Keywords: Antibiotic use, Self-medication, Attitude, Miss-use, Awareness, Microbial resistance

Heavy landing of Charybdis smithii and need for proper utilization

Heavy landings of Charybdis smithii during the January to March, 2020 was documented in Mangalore fisheries harbour. These crabs were the part of trawl discards as geo-coded in situ data collection on trawl discards showed that C. smithii was available along Karnataka coast during August to December and in May as pelagic or semi-pelagic shoals from a depth range of more than 100 m. Landing of this species in Fisheries Harbours was generally rare since there was very limited market demand for these crab

Governance of Benefits from Developmental Programmes to Farmers in Karnataka

There are umpteen number of developmental programmes concentrating on poor. However, at no single place, a list of these programmes offered by Government, NGOs and other agencies are available. This study has the objective of documenting and analysing the developmental programmes/schemes in vogue, benefits rcfeived, difficulties faced in availing the benefits of developmental programmetnd the transaction costs incurred to avail the benefit in the rural and peri-urba areas of Bangalore metropolis surrounding Magadi. For this study, a sample of 0 farmers from peri urban (Magadi town area) and another sample of 50 farmers from rural area (Halasabele village Magadi) have been chosen, to have comparison between the benefits of developmental programmes received by the farmers in peri-urban areas with that of farmers of rural area. Magadi town is well connected with Bangalore metropolis by a new asphalted road. Halasabele village is included in the sample as the rural village located 20 kms away from Magadi town on the way to Kunigal, with relatively low urban or peri-urban influence. A litmus test for the apparent difference between peri-urban and rural area lies in the market value of land of Rs. 2 million per acre in peri urban Magadi and Rs.O.S to 0.6 million per acre in rural area of Halasabele, pointing to a difference of around 300 per cent. The sample farmers were chosen to include 25 farmers with irrigation facility and 25 farmers without irrigation facility with the hypothesis that irrigation confers higher benefits. It is also hypothesised that the governance of developmental programmes is indicated by the magnitude of transaction cost

Intersectoral linkage of village economy by application of social accounting matrix (SAM) in Belladamadagu village of Karnataka

In this study, the key sectors of the village economy are identified by estimating output, income and employment multipliers generated from Social Accounting Matrix (SAM). For this purpose, a 64 X 64 sector SAM is constructed for Belladamadagu village of Tumkur district highlighting transactions for 2012-13. The primary data from 25 households, 21 farmers, 10 leaf plate makers, 4 luggage auto transport operators, 10 households involved in services have been used. In addition, the study has analyzed the role of MGNREGA by obtaining data from 35 participants and 22 non participants of MGNREGA

Impacts and Implications of MGNREGA on Labour Supply and Income Generation for Agriculture in Central Dry Zone of Karnataka

This study has evaluated the impact of MGNREGA on income generation and labour supply in agriculture in one of the districts in central dry zone of Karnataka. Results have shown that the number of days worked in a year with the implementation of MGNREGA programme has significantly increased to 201 days, reflecting 16 per cent increase. Regression analysis has revealed that gender, education and family size of the workers are the significant factors influencing the worker’s employment under the Program. The increase in income is to the tune of 9.04 per cent due to additional employment generated from MGNERGA. In the total income, the contribution of agriculture is the highest (63%), followed by non-agricultural income (29%) and MGNREGA income (8%). Implementation of MGNERGA works has led to labour scarcity to the tune of 53 per cent and 30 per cent for agriculture operations like weeding and sowing, respectively. There has been a decline in area for labour-intensive crops like tomato and ragi to the extent of 30 per cent due to MGNERGA implementatio