A questionnaire based study to assess knowledge, attitude and practice of pharmacovigilance among exam going second year undergraduate medical students in a South Indian teaching hospital

Background: Pharmacovigilance not only helps in the early detection of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) but also facilitates the identification of both, risk factors and the underlying mechanism. To increase the reporting rate, it is essential to improve the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of healthcare professionals regarding ADR reporting and pharmacovigilance, especially during undergraduate and postgraduate education. The objective of this study was to assess the KAP about pharmacovigilance among exam-going second-year undergraduate medical students.Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted among 150 exam-going second-year undergraduate students from Mysore Medical College and Research Institute, Mysore from April 2022 to June 2022. A validated questionnaire consisting of 22 questions divided into 3 sections; knowledge, attitude, and practice was used. Statistical analysis of data was done using an MS excel spreadsheet.Results: Out of the 150 participants 133 had good knowledge about ADR and pharmacovigilance. Majority of the students agreed that reporting of ADRs is necessary (95.3%), mandatory (95.3%), and should be included in pharmacology practicals (94.7%). Only 29.3% of the students had witnessed an ADR and none of the participants had ever reported an ADR indicating poor practice among the undergraduate students.Conclusions: Students had good knowledge and positive attitude towards ADR reporting and pharmacovigilance. Practice regarding pharmacovigilance was found to be poor, indicating the need for training the undergraduate students in ADR reporting by including ADR recognition and reporting as a part of clinical posting curriculum

Metallic sewing needle ingestion presenting as acute abdomen

We reported an unusual case of a 26‑year‑old man presenting to surgical emergency as generalized peritonitis following an ingestion of multiple metallic sewing needles. The X‑ray of his abdomen showed pneumoperitoneum and multiple metallic foreign bodies in the abdominal cavity. An ultrasonogram of his abdomen showed multiple metallic foreign bodies in the abdominal cavity and urinary bladder. Emergency exploratory laparotomy was performed. On laparotomy, gastric and duodenal perforation was found through which metallic sewing needles were protruding out. A peritoneal lavage was done, and all the sewing needles were extracted from the perforation site, paracolic gutter, liver parenchyma, and urinary bladder. The primary repair of the perforation with omental patching was done with the drainage of subhepatic space and pelvic cavity. These multiple ingested sewing needles led to the perforation of the stomach and the duodenum, which resulted in perforation peritonitis.Keywords: Foreign body, gastrointestinal tract, metallic sewing needles, schizophrenia, X‑rayNigerian Journal of Clinical Practice • Oct-Dec 2013 • Vol 16 • Issue

Successful monitoring of the 11 April 2012 tsunami off the coast of Sumatra by Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre

The Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC) in Hyderabad monitored the 11 April 2012 tsunami off the coast of Sumatra, which was generated by a shallow strike-slip earthquake and it largest aftershock of magnitude Mw (mB) 8.5 and 8.2 respectively, that occurred inside the subducting slab of the Indian plate. The earthquake generated a small ocean-wide tsunami that has been recorded by various tide gauges and tsunami buoys located in the Indian Ocean region. ITEWC detected the earthquake within 3 min 52 s and issued six advisories (bulletins) according to its Standard Operating Procedure. The ITEWC performed well during the event, and avoided false alarms and unnecessary public evacuations, especially in the mainland part of India region

Thioridazine: a potential adjuvant in pharmacotherapy of drug resistant tuberculosis Ki

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Despite advances in control strategies, inadequate treatment and failure to comply with drug regimens have resulted in TB to emerge as one of the most common and deadly infectious diseases worldwide. The emergence of drug-resistant TBhas evolved as a formidable obstacle for comprehensive TB control. Drug-resistant TB can be classified as multi-drug-resistant TB, extensively drug-resistant TB and totally drug resistant TB (TDR-TB). There is a paucity in the development of new drugs against drug-resistant mycobacteria. The focus has shifted to the exploration of anti-mycobacterial properties of drugs approved for other indications. Thioridazine, a drug approved for use in schizophrenia is one such potential agent, which has shown anti-mycobacterial activity. There is evidence of anti-mycobacterial action of Thioridazine in in-vitro and mouse models. There is a compelling need for new anti-mycobacterial drugs that are more effective and have less toxicity. Further clinical trials are advocated favoring the use of thioridazine as an adjuvant in the treatment of TB, especially TDR-TB

ANTIMICROBIAL, WOUND HEALING AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES OF ANTHOCEPHALUS CADAMBA

Anthocephalus cadamba (Roxb.) Miq. Syn A. chinensis (Lamk) A. Rich (Rubiaceae) is ethnomedicinally widely used in the form of paste by tribe in western Ghats for treating skin diseases. In this context, antimicrobial potential of A. cadamba against a wide range of microorganisms was studied. To validate the ethnotherapeutic claims of the plant in skin diseases, wound healing activity was studied, besides antioxidant activity to understand the mechanism of wound healing. The alchoholic and aqueous extract of this plant showed significant antibacterial and antifungal activity against almost all the organisms: Micrococcus luteus, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and four fungi Candida albicans, Trichophyton rubrum—dermatophyte fungi, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus nidulans—systemic fungi, with especially good activity against the dermatophyte (Trichophyton rubrum) and some infectious bacteria (Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis and Staphylococcus aureus) with an MIC of 2.5 µg/disc. The results show that A. cadamba extract has potent wound healing capacity as shown from the wound contraction and increased tensile strength. The results also indicated that A. cadamba extract possesses potent antioxidant activity by inhibiting lipid peroxidation and increase in the superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase activity

Selective Glitch Reduction Technique for Minimizing Peak Dynamic IR Drop

Abstract This paper proposes a glitch co mpensation technique which involves reducing glitch power in selected combinational cells to reduce peak current which contributes to dynamic voltage or IR drop. The proposed methodology can be seamlessly integrated to existing physical design flo ws. A glitch is an undesired transition that occurs before intended value in dig ital circuits. A glitch occurs in CMOS circu its when d ifferential delay at the inputs of a gate is greater than inertial delay, which results into increased gate switching and hence notable amount of power consumption. When such large nu mber of logic gates switch close to the same t ime they will contribute to power integrity challenge called pe ak dynamic IR drop. The glitch power is becoming more pro minent in lower technology nodes. Introduction of buffers at the input of the Logic gate may reduce glitches, but it results into large area overhead and dynamic power. In the proposed methodology we are using transmission gate as a compensation circuit to reduce extra leakage and dynamic power. A flo w is proposed for charactering the pass transistor logic to cater different delay values. The proposed methodology has been validated on a plac e and routed Multiply Accumulate (MA C) layout imp lemented using Synopsys SAED 9 0n m Generic library. Experimental results show 12% to 50% reduction in top 10 peak transient IR drop numbers with just 12% g litch power reduction in selected combinational cell instances. When compared to traditional on-chip decoupling capacitor (Decap) cells insertion method the proposed technique could reduce the peak IR drop numbers by the same amount with just 5% increase in total core capacitance

Building operational research capacity in the Pacific

Operational research (OR) in public health aims to investigate strategies, interventions, tools or knowledge that can enhance the quality, coverage, effectiveness or performance of health systems. Attention has recently been drawn to the lack of OR capacity in public health programmes throughout the Pacific Islands, despite considerable investment in implementation. This lack of ongoing and critical reflection may prevent health programme staff from understanding why programme objectives are not being fully achieved, and hinder long-term gains in public health. The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) has been collaborating with Pacific agencies to conduct OR courses based on the training model developed by The Union and Médecins Sans Frontières Brussels-Luxembourg in 2009. The first of these commenced in 2011 in collaboration with the Fiji National University, the Fiji Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization and other partners. The Union and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community organised a second course for participants from other Pacific Island countries and territories in 2012, and an additional course for Fijian participants commenced in 2013. Twelve participants enrolled in each of the three courses. Of the two courses completed by end 2013, 18 of 24 participants completed their OR and submitted papers by the course deadline, and 17 papers have been published to date. This article describes the context, process and outputs of the Pacific courses, as well as innovations, adaptations and challenges

Recent trends in the mobulid fishery in Indian waters

Mobulidae are zooplanktivorous elasmobranchs, found circumglobally in tropical, subtropical and temperate coastal waters. It comprises of two recognized species of manta rays (Manta spp.) and nine recognized species of devil rays (Mobula spp.). Although the reports of mobulid fishery in India were only from 1960s, however it was commercially exploited only after 2007 for their valuable gillrakers. Mobula diabolus, M. tarpacana, M. japonica, M. kuhlii, M. thurstoni, Manta birostris and M. alfredi are the seven species which contributes to mobulid fishery. White gilled Mobula tarpacana is highly targeted for its high priced gill raker which fetches upto Rs. 8,000 kg-1 in dry weight. Few mobulid species has already reached the IUCN Red List status. Thorough monitoring of mobulid fish exploitation level is essential in India. It is necessary to ensure standardized sampling and modelling methodologies to estimate the stock position of these fishes from Indian waters

ARID1A influences HDAC1/BRD4 activity, intrinsic proliferative capacity and breast cancer treatment response.

Using genome-wide clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) screens to understand endocrine drug resistance, we discovered ARID1A and other SWI/SNF complex components as the factors most critically required for response to two classes of estrogen receptor-alpha (ER) antagonists. In this context, SWI/SNF-specific gene deletion resulted in drug resistance. Unexpectedly, ARID1A was also the top candidate in regard to response to the bromodomain and extraterminal domain inhibitor JQ1, but in the opposite direction, with loss of ARID1A sensitizing breast cancer cells to bromodomain and extraterminal domain inhibition. We show that ARID1A is a repressor that binds chromatin at ER cis-regulatory elements. However, ARID1A elicits repressive activity in an enhancer-specific, but forkhead box A1-dependent and active, ER-independent manner. Deletion of ARID1A resulted in loss of histone deacetylase 1 binding, increased histone 4 lysine acetylation and subsequent BRD4-driven transcription and growth. ARID1A mutations are more frequent in treatment-resistant disease, and our findings provide mechanistic insight into this process while revealing rational treatment strategies for these patients