ABSTRACT
Cardiovascular diseases are considered to be the leading cause of disability and deaths in the whole world. The major cause behind this disease is the formation of lipid plagues in the form of thrombus. The statins [HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors] are used for the treatment and prevention of hyperlipidemia. Myopathy is the major side effect caused by statins. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of statin induced myopathy. A crosssectional study design was adopted using convenient random sampling technique at Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore Pakistan from November 2016 to February 2017. A total of 300 male and female patients were included having age range of 40-80 years. Data was collected directly from the patients and prevalence of myalgia was determined by the symptoms of the patients. Creatine Phospho Kinase levels were obtained of those patients showing symptoms. Data was analyzed by using SPSS version 21. The results showed that 51% patients were myalgic with mean+/-SEM, 1.49+/-0.29. Myalgia was more prevalent in age range 40-50, with females 57% and males 47%. Significant relation was found between myalgia and type of statin [p=0.05], duration of use of statin [p=0.036] and dose of statin [p=0.031]. The study concludes that the prevalence of myalgia was not significant but females were more prone to myalgic symptoms as compared to males. It was further concluded that myalgic symptoms were directly related to dose and duration and type of statin use
ABSTRACT
The present study was aimed to evaluate the effect of educational intervention provided to the patients of hypertension through pharmacist with the goal to improve knowledge about hypertension, adherence to prescribed medicines, blood pressure control and HRQoL [Health Related Quality of Life]. A total of 384 patients were assigned randomly into 2 groups including intervention and control groups each having 192 patients. Urdu versions of knowledge questionnaire regarding hypertension, medication adherence scale [MMAS-U] by Morisky and EuroQol scale [EQ-5D] were utilized. Each patient's blood pressure was measured. After educational intervention, an increase was found in mean knowledge score about hypertension [18.18 +/- 4.00], adherence score [5.89 +/- 1.90], HRQoL score [0.73 +/- 0.12] and Visual Analogue Scale [VAS] score [69.39 +/- 5.90] among the IG. The blood pressure control also improved and lower systolic [131.81 +/- 10.98 mmHg] and diastolic blood pressures [83.75 +/- 6.21 mmHg] were observed among the patients of IG. This study showed that educational programs are useful for patients in increasing patient's levels of knowledge about hypertension, improving adherence to prescribed medication and enhancing blood pressure control. This increase is in turn accountable to improve HRQoL