ABSTRACT
Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic inflammatory disorder, autoimmune in nature that predominatelyaffects synovial joints. Being a crippling disease is a leading cause of disability that often reduces the quality of life and impairspatients ability to work.Aims and Objectives: The aim of the study was to compare the effect of different treatment regimens on patients with activeRA treated at a tertiary care hospital.Materials and Methods: This was a prospective, open labeled, parallel arm, randomized, and single-center study performed ina tertiary care teaching hospital (Chennai Medical College Hospital and Research Centre [SRM Groups], Irungalur, Tiruchirapalli)and was conducted at outpatient clinics. Total duration of the study period was 24 weeks. All the patients were having activeRA and were on oral methotrexate (first-line disease-modifying antirheumatic drug) at the time of recruitment.Statistical Analysis: All the data were initially entered into Microsoft Excel 2010 and later these spreadsheets were used foranalysis. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 20.0.Conclusion: Combination therapy of pitavastatin and methotrexate is better than methotrexate monotherapy and combinationtherapy of rosuvastatin and methotrexate.
ABSTRACT
Objective: The objective of the study was to find out the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency among patients with type II diabetesmellitus (DM) and to assess the effect of Vitamin D in the control of blood sugar and lipid profile among patients with type 2 DM.Material and Methods: Study setting: This study was conducted at diabetic clinic, Chennai Medical College Hospital andResearch Centre, Irungalur, Tiruchirappalli. Study design: The present study was a hospital-based analytical cross-sectionaldesign. Sample size: The sample size was taken as 90 (using the formula 4pq/l2). Analysis: The data collected were entered andanalyzed using the SPSS software package (Version 21). Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation and 95% confidenceinterval) and appropriate tests of significance (ANOVA) were applied to establish the relationship between the study variables.P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.Results: We found that there was a significant reduction in all the glycemic indicators over the progressive weeks among thegroup of participants receiving Vitamin D supplements. We have also reported a uniform reduction in all the lipid profile valuesand glycemic indicators across all the three groups in the progressive weeks, with a significant reduction in the group receivingVitamin D supplements.Conclusions: Vitamin D supplementation improves glycemic control and can reduce or prevent the development of insulinresistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. Considering the multitude of diseases associated with Vitamin D deficiency,increasing the population’s awareness of the beneficial effect of Vitamin D on health will be an important strategy overall.
ABSTRACT
This work deals with multiple response simultaneous optimization using the Derringer's desirability function for the development of a reversed phase HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of lamivudine, tenofovir and efavirenz in commercial pharmaceutical preparations. Twenty experiments, taking the capacity factor of the first peak, resolution between the second and third peaks and the retention time of the third peak as the responses with three important variables as organic phase composition, buffer molarity, and flow rate, were used to design mathematical models. The experimental responses were fitted into a second order polynomial and the three responses were simultaneously optimized to predict the optimum conditions for the effective separation of the studied compounds. The optimum assay conditions were: methanol-triethylamine buffer [pH 3.0; 15.3 mM] [35:65%v/v] as the mobile phase and at a flow rate of 1.19 ml/min. While using this optimum condition, a baseline separation with a minimum resolution of 2.0 and a run time of less than 6 min was achieved. The method showed a good agreement between the experimental data and predictive value throughout the studied parameter space. The optimized assay condition was validated according to the International Conference on Harmonization guidelines to confirm specificity, linearity, accuracy, and precision.