Drug utilization pattern evaluation and cost variation analysis of anti-fungal agents in tinea infected patients in dermatology department of a tertiary care teaching hospital

Background: Tinea infections are chronic superficial fungal infections, highly prevalent in tropical countries like India. Therefore, long-term therapy is needed and this can inflict a financial burden on the patients. Aim of the study was to assess drug utilization patterns in patients diagnosed with tinea infection and to evaluate the cost variability of anti-fungal agents. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted in patients for 3 months after taking permission from IEC. All adult patients already diagnosed with tinea infection were enrolled. Evaluation of drug utilization pattern was carried out using WHO core drug prescribing indicators and percentage of cost variability was calculated between different brands of anti-fungal agents. Results: A total of 252 patients were enrolled. Tinea corporis and cruris were the most commonly diagnosed tinea infection. Pruritus was the most common presenting symptom. Past history of similar illness was seen in 74 (29.4%) patients mean of 3.83±0.87 drugs were prescribed per patient. Drugs prescribed from NLEM was only 42.1%. Most commonly prescribed drugs were oral itraconazole and topical miconazole. Percentage of cost variability was seen maximum with capsule itraconazole 200 mg (237.5%) by oral route and luliconazole 30 gm (175.6%) by topical route. Conclusions: Prescribing practices of drugs can be improved by promoting generic drug and prescribing drugs from NLEM. Wide range of cost variation can lead to high economic burden in tinea infected patients

Suspecting the unsuspected in a large adnexal mass in a postmenopausal woman

Adnexal mass in postmenopausal woman is a diagnostic challenge. Due to the age, concern for malignancy is always there. At times however, despite the usual investigations, diagnosis remains elusive till histopathology report is at hand. To add to the enigma, ovarian masses in postmenopausal woman may remain silent till quite large and even among those which are symptomatic a predictable presentation may not be there. A careful clinical examination with a high degree of suspicion of clinical variants is thus recommended while dealing with ovarian tumors in postmenopausal women.

INTELLIGENT ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS BASED ON ZIGBEE TECHNOLOGY

Energy consumption in residential buildings account for 20 to 40 per cent of total energy consumed in a country and therefore represents a significant and potential source of energy savings. An Intelligent Energy Management System can contribute to major reductions of energy use in hundreds of millions of buildings. This paper gives an overview of sensor technology and wireless networks in the development of an intelligent energy management system for residential buildings (IEMSRB). This technology has ample potential to change the way we live and work. In this paper ZigBee is used as a communication medium in building intelligent energy management system. From the prototype setup, it is shown that ZigBee is a suitable technology to be adopted as the communication infrastructure in energy management system for residential buildings .The performance analysis discussed in this paper verifies the effectiveness of using ZigBee in energy management system. The novelty of the present scheme is its ability to save the energy and improve the performance as it learns and gains more experience in real-time operations. Results also demonstrate that the proposed scheme can achieve the minimum electricity cost for residential customers. The proposed system can be installed and maintained in residential environments with ease.</jats:p