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Background: A package insert is a document approved by the administering licensing authority, which is provided with the package of a drug. A good package insert can prove to be of immense help to doctors as they are evidence based and are updated from time to time. The objective to study the awareness about package inserts among postgraduate medical students.Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional observational study carried out on 68 postgraduate medical students of Acharaya Shri Chander College of Medical Sciences and Hospital Sidhra, Jammu (J & K) in the month of February 2017 after taking approval from the institutional ethical committee. Pre-validated self-administered questionnaire was used to elicit responses from the students. The questionnaire consisted of specified questions regarding knowledge and opinion about package inserts.Results: In the present study, 86.7% of the students understand the relevance of Package inserts (PIs). About 72% of the students think that PIs are a necessary add-on to drug information and 70.6% of the students think that information given on package inserts is necessary for the patients. However, only 2.9% of the students had the knowledge of Drug Acts governing the information to be provided on PIs in India. About 86.8% of the students think that PIs should also be in regional language apart from in English language.Conclusions: It was found from the present study that the majority of the postgraduate students were aware about the package inserts available with the medicines but the information provided on package inserts was not optimally used by them. To achieve the target of optimally utilization of information provided in the package inserts, the PIs should be designed by considering the needs and information of two differently educated target groups i.e; patients and doctors.
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Venous anomalies are the most common congenital vascular anomalies. The rarest of these is complete deep venous agenesis. Here, we report a case of a 15-year-old male patient evaluated on color Doppler and computed tomographic venogram with complete right iliofemoral deep venous agenesis with the inferior vena cava continuing as the left common iliac vein and the right popliteal vein draining into superficial anomalous veins of the thigh. These superficial veins were seen to drain through a superficial suprapubic arcuate connector vein into the dilated left common femoral vein. Uniquely in our case, there was no persistent embryonic sciatic vein and no demonstrable reflux into the superficial connector vein, suggesting an uncommon embryological mechanism underlying its pathogenesis. Surgical resection of the dilated superficial veins is absolutely contraindicated in cases of deep venous agenesis and hence accurate diagnosis by the radiologist is absolutely essential in such cases
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Background: Migraine is a common debilitating headache the exact cause of which is not known. Efficient and proper treatment of migraine involves accurate diagnosis, educating the patients and to make them aware of the disorder and finding the best medication for the management of pain. This will also increases the patients� adherence to medication and will help in improving their quality of life. The objective of the study was to assess the awareness of migraine patients towards various aspects of migraine in a tertiary care teaching hospital.Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational questionnaire-based study conducted from January to March 2017 in ASCOMS&H, Sidhra, Jammu. The self-administered pre-validated questionnaires pertaining to various aspects of migraine were distributed among the patients diagnosed of having migraine and attending the Neurology Out patient department (OPD). Patients of either sex with a diagnosis of migraine and age ?18 years were included in the study. The data was analyzed with the help of descriptive statistics.Results: In the present study, majority of the patients suffering from migraine were in the age group of 18-40 years (58.6%) and females were more commonly affected about 60.9% than males. There was no family history of migraine in 78.1% of the patients. About 87.4% of the patients had 2-6 attacks of migraine per month. The most common triggering factor cited by the patients was lack of sleep in 29.9% followed by stress in 27.6% and less water intake in 26.4% of the patients.Conclusions: From the present study, it can be concluded that the patients were aware about the associated signs and symptoms but they had inadequate knowledge about all the aspects of the disease. Therefore, it is important to make patients more aware of the disease to increase their compliance to treatment and to improve their quality of life.
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Background: Antibiotics are one of the commonest prescribing drugs in day to day practice. However indiscriminate and irrational use of antibiotics has given rise to the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Thus, intervention in the form of educating students and making them aware about this important concept should be initiated at the gross root level right from the beginning of medical profession. Objective was to assess the comparative awareness regarding antimicrobial resistance between first and second year MBBS students.Methods: This was a comparative, cross-sectional questionnaire based study. Two forty six undergraduate medical students, 118 students from 1st year and 129 students from 2nd year MBBS were included in the study to assess the extent of knowledge and about the problem of antibiotic resistance. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data from respondents. The questionnaires of both the groups were analyzed for the responses of the students and were compared using student ‘t’ test and chi-square test.Results: Majority of the participants 63.6% and 72.9% had completed the full course of antibiotics as prescribed by the physician. Statistically significant difference (p<0.05) was found between the two groups where in 58.4% of the first year and 16.3% of the second year students were of the view that antibiotics can be used for viral illnesses. Only 44.1% students of first year knew the reasons for antibiotic resistance.Conclusions: It can be concluded from the present study that second year medical students were more aware regarding antimicrobial resistance as compared to first year MBBS students who represented the general public. Thus, it is very important to educate the students in a practical manner about this concept as they are the future health care givers who can promote the rational use of antibiotics in near future.
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Background: In the recent years, large number of human pharmaceuticals have been introduced to the environment by landfill when household medications are thrown to trash and liquid medications gain access to the environment via liquid drainage systems. There is lack of knowledge and awareness in the general public regarding the safe disposal of unused and expired medicines. The objective was to assess the awareness regarding disposal of unused medicines among consumers at a tertiary care teaching hospital of north IndiaMethods: It was a cross-sectional observational questionnaire-based study carried out on 220 consumers in medicine outpatient department (OPD) of a tertiary care teaching hospital in North India for 3 months. All the participants were provided the pre-validated self-administered questionnaire. The final questionnaire consisted of twelve questions to assess participants’ knowledge and attitude towards disposal of the medicines. The data was analyzed with the help of descriptive statistics.Results: It is quite evident from the present study that majority of participants 56.36% stated 1-5 drugs were left-over drugs at their homes. Most of the leftover medicines were analgesics in 59.1% followed by antibiotics in 51.36%. Most common dosage form of these leftover medicines were tablets in 85.9% of respondents. Majority of the respondents (55.9%) were not aware of the adverse outcomes of the pharmaceuticals in the environment. The most common method followed by majority of the participants for disposing of the solid, semi-solid and liquid dosage forms was garbage in 95%, 91.4% and 76.4% of consumers respectively. About 9.31% of the participants were in favour of initiating a program to collect unused medications from home.Conclusions: It can be concluded from the present study that the consumers had poor knowledge regarding the safe drug disposal techniques. Therefore, efforts need to be done by the health care professionals to make people educate regarding the safe drug disposal techniques.
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Background: Fixed-dose combination (FDC) agents could be considered as an effective therapy in chronic illnesses like hypertension, which have multifactorial etiology. At present, many FDCs have come into the market without being assessed for their efficacy, safety and rationality by the drug regulatory authorities. The objective of the present study was to assess the rational use of fixed dose drug combinations in hypertension.Methods: It was a cross-sectional observational study conducted in the cardiology outpatient department of ASCOMS and H, Sidhra, Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir from February 2016 to July 2016. In the study 92 prescriptions of hypertensive patients who were on anti-hypertensive fixed-dose drug combinations (FDCs) were recruited after thoroughly evaluated for inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data obtained includes the demographic profile of the patients, pattern of the prescribed FDCs in hypertension, evaluation of the rationality of the FDCs based upon the comprehensive seven-point criteria developed by Panda et al.Results: In the present study, about sixteen different anti-hypertensive FDCs were observed in the prescriptions of 92 patients during six-month period. It was observed that about 93.75% of FDCs were dual drug combinations. Among the dual drug combinations, most commonly used combination was Olmesartan (ARB; Angiotensin receptor blocker) + Amlodipinine (Calcium channel blocker) in 17.4% of patients. It was also observed that among the 16 different anti-hypertensive fixed dose combinations analysed, 12 FDCs (75%) were found to be rational and 4 FDCs (25%) were found to be irrational.Conclusions: In the present study it was found that 75% of the FDCs prescribed were rational and 25% were irrational. Therefore, before marketing the FDCs proper assessment of their efficacy, safety and rationality should be done.
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Background: The term teratogenicity is defined as any morphological, behavioral or biochemical effect induced during embryonic life or fetal life detected at birth or later. the factors that lead to teratogenicity include both non-genetic and genetic factors. The objective of the present study was to assess the impact of educational interventions on the awareness of undergraduate medical students towards teratogenicityMethods: The present study was a questionnaire-based comparative observational study carried out at Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Government Medical College, Jammu (J&K) for a period of three months from 1st November 2017 to 31st January 2018. The questionnaire was designed and validated by conducting pilot study on a sample of ten students. The questionnaire comprised of two main parts. The first part comprised of questions pertaining to the demographic profile of the students and second part consisted of questions assessing the students’ knowledge and awareness towards teratogenicity. The scoring of the assessment of the performance of the students regarding knowledge of various aspects of teratogenicity was done before and after the educational intervention and was compared using paired t-test.Results: A total of 134 second year MBBS undergraduate students participated in the study. Mean age of students was 19.32±0.82 years. In the present study it was found that before the educational intervention about 98.5% of the students and after the intervention all the students were aware of the term teratogenicity. About 69.4% of students knew about all the causes that lead to teratogenicity but after the intervention about 76.1% of the students knew about it. Also, the percentage of students who knew about the name of two teratogenic drugs and two teratogenic defects associated with drugs were only 31.3% and 22.3% respectively. After the educational intervention it increased to 61.9% and 52.2% respectively.Conclusions: In the present study, it was found that after the educational intervention, there was a significant improvement in the mean knowledge score of the students. This reflects the need of early exposure of students to this important issue of teratogenicity.
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Background: Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer related mortality accounting for 1.61million new cases per year with 1.38 million deaths annually worldwide. In NSCLC, concurrent Chemoradiotherapy is usually employed in stage IIIA and IIIB when performance status of the patients is reasonable and chemotherapy alone in stage IV, if the performance status of the patients is adequate. In SCLC, combination chemotherapy is given in limited stage disease as well as in extensive stage if the performance status of the patients is adequate. The objective is to study the chemotherapeutic treatment modalities in the treatment of lung carcinoma.Methods: The present cross-sectional prospective study was conducted in the Postgraduate Department of Medicine and Department of Pharmacology in collaboration with the Department of Oncology, Government Medical College, Jammu for a period of one year from November 2012 to October 2013. A total of 80 patients having histopathological documentation of lung cancer, registered under regional cancer centre (RCC) and referred from various departments of the institute and from other hospitals of the region were included in the study. The treatment for each patient was then decided on the basis of performance status, stage and clinical condition. The treatment modalities used were in the form of radiation therapy, surgery and chemotherapy. In the chemotherapy, the details regarding the type of chemotherapeutic regimen employed in particular type of lung cancer variant, their doses, number of cycles given and the duration for which these chemotherapeutic drugs were administered was noted down.Results: Out of 80 patients in the present study, 68 (85%) were males and 12 (15%) were females. Majority of the patients fall in the age group of 46 to 75 years (81.25%). Staging of the patients with non-small cell lung cancer showed that majority of the patients were in stage IV (31; 45.59%) of the disease. Eighteen (26.46%) patients were in stage III and 10 (14.71%) in stage II and 9 (13.24%) patients in stage I. In patients with small cell lung cancer, 4 (33.33%) patients were in limited stage and 8 (66.67%) patients. Various treatment modalities were employed with maximum number of patients receiving combined treatment (48.75%), followed by chemotherapy alone (22.25%) and radiotherapy alone (11.25%). Among patients who received combination therapy, various combinations of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy were used but maximum number of patients i.e. 37 out of 39 (94.87%) used combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.Conclusions: Most of the patients presented in an advanced stage III and IV (75.9%) and the main treatment modality used in this study was combination therapy of chemotherapy and radiotherapy in (48.75%) followed by chemotherapy alone (22.25%). In the chemotherapy, cisplatin-based combination regimens were most commonly used regimens. Thus, more of such studies need to be done so as to make patients as well as the health professionals more aware of the risk factors and the effective treatment modalities associated with the disease.
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School children often encounter traumatic injuries like a crown fracture. They create serious functional, esthetic and psychological problems. Achievement of promising restoration that preserves its aesthetics and strength is the greatest desire for both children and their parents and is a challenging task for the dentist. The restorative options in these cases usually include composite resin and porcelain laminate veneers. This article describes treatment of a paediatric patient with porcelain laminate veneers for restoring unaesthetic maxillary anterior teeth.