Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) regarding menstruation among girls in Aurangabad, India and their correlation with sociodemographic factors

Background: Menstruation has always been surrounded by different perceptions throughout the world. Nowadays, there is some openness toward menstruation, but differences in attitude still persist between different populations depending upon the education, socioeconomic status and the surroundings. We conducted this study to assess the knowledge regarding menstruation, their attitudes and the practises undertaken by the young girls of India .A prewritten questionnaire was distributed to these girls and the answers were analysed.Methods: A school based cross-sectional study design was employed in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. A multi stage sampling technique was used to select 1000 female high school and junior college and pharmacy college students. Data collection was carried out from May 2018 to August 2018 using a pre- tested structured questionnaire. The data were entered into a computer using Epi-info version 3.5.1 and then exported to SPSS for Windows version 20.0 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was done at 95 % confidence interval.Results: In this study 682and 552 respondents had good knowledge and practice of menstruation respectively. The findings of the study showed a significant positive association between good knowledge of menstruation and educational status of mothers (AOR = 1.51, 95% CI = 1.02-2.22), (AOR = 2.42, 95% CI:1.64-3.56). Educational status of the mother (AOR = 2.03, 95 % CI =1.38-2.97), revealed significant positive association with good practice and attitude of menstrual process.Conclusions: The findings showed that the knowledge and practice of menstruation is low. Hence awareness programmed should be conducted in schools regularly. Participation of mothers can also add to the knowledge and good practice scores of the young girls

Risk Factors of Pre-Eclampsia: A Hospital Based Case Control Study

Introduction: Hypertension, complicating 5 to 7% of all pregnan- cies, is a leading cause of maternal and fetal morbidity, particu- larly due to pre-eclampsia, pre-eclampsia contributes about 8 to 10% of maternal deaths in India. Methodology: Hospital based case control study; cases were women in post-natal period within 2 days of delivery suffering from pre-eclampsia Controls were Women in post-natal period within 2 days of delivery not suffering from pre-eclampsia  of same age (±2 years) as that of cases. Results: Significant independent risk factors of pre-eclampsia. found were first degree relative with HTN (OR = 5.0; 95% CI 3.2 – 8) ;Twin gestation (OR = 4; 95% CI 1.3 - 12.2) ,Family history of pre-eclampsia (OR = 3.7; 95% CI 1.2 - 11.2), Absence of essential obstetric care (OR = 3; 95% CI 1.8 – 5), History of PIH in previous pregnancy (OR = 2.8; 95% CI 1.5 – 5.0), History of abortion in pre- vious pregnancy (OR = 2.8; 95% CI 1.3 - 5.9), Pre pregnancy BMI (OR = 2.7; 95% CI 5.1 –1.4) Conclusion: If greater awareness of the associated risk factors leads to earlier diagnosis and improved management, there  may be scope for reducing a proportion of the morbidity and mortality from preeclampsia

Discovery of a New Class of Highly Potent Inhibitors of Acid Ceramidase: Synthesis and Structure–Activity Relationship (SAR)

Acid ceramidase (AC) is an intracellular cysteine amidase that catalyzes the hydrolysis of the lipid messenger ceramide. By regulating ceramide levels in cells, AC may contribute to the regulation of cancer cell proliferation and senescence and to the response to cancer therapy. We recently identified the antitumoral agent carmofur (4a) as the first nanomolar inhibitor of intracellular AC activity (rat AC, IC50 = 0.029 μM). In the present work, we expanded our initial structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies around 4a by synthesizing and testing a series of 2,4-dioxopyrimidine-1-carboxamides. Our investigations provided a first elucidation of the structural features of uracil derivatives that are critical for AC inhibition and led us to identify the first single-digit nanomolar inhibitors of this enzyme. The present results confirm that substituted 2,4-dioxopyrimidine-1-carboxamides are a novel class of potent inhibitors of AC. Selected compounds of this class may represent useful probes to further characterize the functional roles of AC