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Objective@#Vascular Dementia (VaD), is associated with metabolic conditions. Diabetes is a major risk factor for the development of VaD. This study investigates the efficacy of ulinastatin (UTI) and sulforaphane (SUL) in streptozotocin (STZ)-diabetes induced vascular endothelium dysfunction and related dementia. @*Methods@#Single dose STZ (50 mg/kg i.p.) was administered to Albino Wistar rats (male, 200−250 g). Morris water maze and attentional set shifting tests were used to assess the spatial learning, memory, reversal learning, and executive functioning in animals. Body weight, serum glucose, serum nitriteitrate, vascular endothelial function, aortic superoxide anion, brains’ oxidative markers (thiobarbituric acid reactive species-TBARS, reduced glutathione-GSH, superoxide dismutase-SOD, and catalase-CAT), inflammatory markers (IL-6, IL-10, TNF-, and myeloperoxidase-MPO), acetylcholinesterase activity-AChE, blood brain barrier (BBB) permeability and histopathological changes were also assessed. UTI (10,000 U/kg) and SUL (25 mg/kg) were used alone as well as in combination, as the treatment drugs. Donepezil (0.5 mg/kg) was used as a positive control. @*Results@#STZ-administered rats showed reduction in body weight, learning, memory, reversal learning, executive functioning, impairment in endothelial function, BBB permeability, increase in serum glucose, brains’ oxidative stress, inflammation, AChE-activity, BBB permeability and histopathological changes. Administration of UTI and SUL alone as well as in combination, significantly and dose dependently attenuated the STZ-diabetes-induced impairments in the behavioral, endothelial, and biochemical parameters. @*Conclusion@#STZ administration caused diabetes and VaD which was attenuated by the administration of UTI and SUL.Therefore, these agents may be studied further for the assessment of their full potential in diabetes induced VaD.
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Objective@#Vascular Dementia (VaD), is associated with metabolic conditions. Diabetes is a major risk factor for the development of VaD. This study investigates the efficacy of ulinastatin (UTI) and sulforaphane (SUL) in streptozotocin (STZ)-diabetes induced vascular endothelium dysfunction and related dementia. @*Methods@#Single dose STZ (50 mg/kg i.p.) was administered to Albino Wistar rats (male, 200−250 g). Morris water maze and attentional set shifting tests were used to assess the spatial learning, memory, reversal learning, and executive functioning in animals. Body weight, serum glucose, serum nitriteitrate, vascular endothelial function, aortic superoxide anion, brains’ oxidative markers (thiobarbituric acid reactive species-TBARS, reduced glutathione-GSH, superoxide dismutase-SOD, and catalase-CAT), inflammatory markers (IL-6, IL-10, TNF-, and myeloperoxidase-MPO), acetylcholinesterase activity-AChE, blood brain barrier (BBB) permeability and histopathological changes were also assessed. UTI (10,000 U/kg) and SUL (25 mg/kg) were used alone as well as in combination, as the treatment drugs. Donepezil (0.5 mg/kg) was used as a positive control. @*Results@#STZ-administered rats showed reduction in body weight, learning, memory, reversal learning, executive functioning, impairment in endothelial function, BBB permeability, increase in serum glucose, brains’ oxidative stress, inflammation, AChE-activity, BBB permeability and histopathological changes. Administration of UTI and SUL alone as well as in combination, significantly and dose dependently attenuated the STZ-diabetes-induced impairments in the behavioral, endothelial, and biochemical parameters. @*Conclusion@#STZ administration caused diabetes and VaD which was attenuated by the administration of UTI and SUL.Therefore, these agents may be studied further for the assessment of their full potential in diabetes induced VaD.
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Background: Several methods have been used to blunt the cardiovascular response associated with laryngoscopyand tracheal intubation in susceptible patients to prevent myocardial ischemia and cerebrovascular events. For almost75 years measures are taken to prevent such responses with more focus on pharmacological methods as compared tonon-pharmacological methods. Our study has focused on non-pharmacological methods in the form of using different kindof laryngoscopes in the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Group I and II patients to compare hemodynamicresponses and electrocardiographic changes in three groups, namely, Macintosh, McCoy, and Video laryngoscope (primaryaim) and also to assess the intubation time, number of attempts and complications (bleeding, laceration, dental injury, andsore throat) if any (secondary aim).Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on 90 patients of the ASA Grade I and II posted for elective opencholecystectomy surgeries under general anesthesia. Patients were allotted into three groups: Group A (Macintosh), GroupB (McCoy), and Group C (Video) and they were intubated with their respective laryngoscopes and hemodynamic parametersat 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10 min after laryngoscopy were recorded along with time of intubation and any complications associatedwith the procedure.Results: The time of intubation was shortest with Group C (Video) when compared with Group A (Macintosh) and Group B(McCoy). Hemodynamic changes of patients were lowest in Group C (Video) than Group B (McCoy) and highest with Group A(Macintosh). Furthermore, number of attempts at intubation was higher with Macintosh and McCoy as compared to with Videolaryngoscope group. Likewise, more complications such as dental injury and injury to oral mucosa were seen with Macintoshlaryngoscope than McCoy and least with Video laryngoscope. The results were compiled and analyzed using software IBMSPSS 26 to draw relevant conclusions.Conclusion: Thus, we can see that with the use of Video laryngoscope, lesser alterations in hemodynamics are produced whichcan reduce the incidences of myocardial ischemia and cerebrovascular accidents in susceptible patients. Furthermore, lessertime taken by Video laryngoscope in intubation again reduces the stress response to laryngoscopy in susceptible patients.Laryngoscopy by Video laryngoscope is comparatively easy when compared with Macintosh and McCoy laryngoscopes asnumber of attempts and complication rate was lesser with Video laryngoscope.
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Epithelioid leiomyoma is a rare variant of leiomyoma.The tumour includes three distinct entities,leiomyoblastoma, clear cell leiomyoma and plexiformleiomyoma. It is histologically characterised byepithelioid cells, clear cells or plexiform pattern invaried proportions. We report a case of a 49-year-oldfemale with complaints of palpable mass per abdomenand spotting per vagina. Radiology revealed a complexcystic mass with obscured right ovary. She underwenttotal abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingooophorectomy. Pathological examination showed aposterior wall lesion with central 9 × 8 cm cyst withmultiple septations and surrounding rim of solid areas.Microscopic examination showed a clear cellepithelioid leiomyoma. No mitosis/tumour cell necrosiswas seen. The clinical course of epithelioid leiomyomais still unclear owing to absence of large studies. Smallsize, clear cell histology, mitosis of < 2/10 High PowerField (HPF) and hyalinization are features of a benigncourse, whereas cellular atypia, mitosis of > 5/10 HPFare definite indicators of a malignant outcome. Anepithelioid leiomyoma with, size >6 cm moderateatypia, necrosis and mitosis of 2-5/10 HPF are termedas smooth muscle tumours of uncertain malignantpotential and should be under close follow up.
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Background: Dengue, a mosquito borne, arboviral disease has become a major cause of health concern in the recent times throughout the world. In India, we have been witnessing annual outbreaks for the past few years and lack of knowledge about prevention and treatment of dengue among majority of the population leads to increased mortality. In spite of this fact, very few studies have been done to know about the knowledge of people regarding dengue fever and whether proper preventive measures are being practiced by the community to limit its spread. The objective of the study is to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) regarding dengue in factory workers in Jammu.Methods: An observational study was conducted in a factory of Jammu to assess knowledge, attitude and practices of factory workers about dengue.Results: Majority of workers had knowledge about dengue (92.56%), source (81.81%), nature of disease, symptoms, but complications were not known. Majority of the workers had no idea that laboratory test for dengue is not available in every laboratory.63.63% of the workers knew that papaya is useful in dengue. 74.38% of the workers knew that low platelet count is found in dengue. There were 82.64% of the workers told that they think dengue is curable and preventable. There were 54.54% of the workers told that dengue can be prevented by avoiding stagnation of water. 57.85% of the workers told that they are aware about the sprays used by govt. to kill mosquito.Conclusions: There is a need to bring awareness about dengue, prevention and treatment as it is a prevalent disease now.
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Background: Prescribing drugs for any disease is not complete until it is rationally done. Irrational prescriptions often lead to treatment failure, toxicity or drug interactions which may prove detrimental to the patient. Antibiotics are very much prescribed in day to day practice but their rational use prevents treatment failure, resistance.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital to see the antibiotic prescribing pattern. Prescriptions were screened one time from different OPDs with prior permission from the doctor attending the respective OPD.Results: A total of 200 prescriptions were assessed out of which 121 had monotherapies prescribed, 79 had FDCs. Antibiotics were the most commonly prescribed drugs. Prescriptions having drug combinations were assessed and pantoprazole domperidone was the most commonly prescribed (32.91%).Conclusions: Drugs should be prescribed rationally for proper therapeutic benefit. It encourages the patient to properly use the medicine and properly comply to it.
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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: 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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Aims: Hepatotoxicity is a serious health risk and treatment options are inadequate. Polygonum minus Huds. (Family: Polygonaceae) is an antioxidant rich, commonly available plant in Malaysia and used in the Malay folk medicine. The leaves are also considered as one of the salad plants and flavouring agent for food delicacies. The present study evaluates the hepatoprotective activity of methanol extract of P. minus leaves on carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) and paracetamol-induced hepatotoxicity in Sprague Dawley rats. Methodology and results: Methanol extract of P. minus (MEPM) was prepared by maceration method. The standard drug and MEPM treated groups of rats were administered with silymarin (50 mg/kg) or MEPM (200 mg/kg or 400 mg/kg), respectively for 14 days in both experimental models. All the animals in the CCl4-induced model were administered CCl4 and paracetamol in the other model except to respective normal control group to induce liver toxicity. Estimation of body weight and liver weight, biochemical parameters including total protein, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase and total bilirubin levels and histopathological studies were conducted. The MEPM was found to have significant hepatoprotective activity in rats with CCl4 and paracetamol-induced liver damage as noted from the analysis of body weight, serum marker enzyme activity and histopathology. Conclusion, significance and impact study: The MEPM possesses significant hepatoprotective activity while the activity is increased with dose in both experimental models. Inclusion of P. minus leaves in the food may be recommended as it may help to counteract different types of chemical-induced liver damage.