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Background: The emergence of COVID?19 and its consequences is causing widespread fears, anxiety, and worries. To overcome the transmission of COVID?19, people resorted to compulsive behaviors. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence of obsessive–compulsive symptoms (OCSs) due to COVID?19 pandemic, the prevalence of level of fear due to COVID?19 pandemic, and to assess the factors associated with OCSs due to COVID?19 pandemic among the undergraduate medical students of in tertiary unit in Southern India. Methods: The cross?sectional study was conducted in 250 undergraduate medical students (both MBBS and BDS, from 1st to 4th year) in the institute. Students who had consented in the study were included as study participants. The Yale–Brown Obsessive–Compulsive Scale and Fear of COVID?19 Scale (FCV?19 S) were used in assessing OCSs and the level of fear due to COVID?19. Chi?square test and multiple logistic regression were used to compute the factors associated with OCS. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 21 ± 1.313 years. The prevalence of OCS in undergraduate medical students was 36 (14.4%), and the level of FCV?19 was 107 (42.8%). Male students (17.8%, 44.2%) had higher OCSs and levels of fear as compared to female students (13.6%, 42.4%). Students with FCV?19 were three (adjusted odds ratio?3.418, 95% confidence interval?1.596, 7.319) times more likely to manifest OCSs while factors such as age, gender, and course were not significantly associated with OCS. Conclusion: Psychological counseling for undergraduate students should be pivotal, especially during pandemics and outbreaks.
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Background: The medical management of hemorrhoids should include an integrated approach. This integrated approach can be achieved by polyherbal formulations containing anti-inflammatory, styptics, analgesics, and laxative effect which reduce inflammation, pain, and bleeding, and increase gastro-intestinal motility and soften stools. One such polyherbal kit is “Arshkeyt™, a 7 day kit,” which consists of oral tablets and powder along with topical cream. Objective: Efficacy and safety of Arshkeyt™, a 7 day kit, a marketed polyherbal formulation was evaluated in comparison with conventional therapy practiced in surgery outpatient departments. Materials and Methods: Patients (n = 90) with hemorrhoids were randomly allocated to receive either Arshkeyt™ or standard therapy (combination of oral Isabgul powder and 2% lidocaine gel) for 14 days. Assessment on the basis of rectal symptoms and proctoscopic examination was done on day 0, 7, and 14 to derive a “composite score” which ranged from 0 to 25 by a blinded evaluator. The primary endpoint was number of patients achieving composite score 0 at the end of therapy (day 14). Inter-group analysis was done using Chi-square test. Results: On day 14, the composite score of 0 was achieved in 15 patients of Arshkeyt™ group versus 6 patients receiving standard therapy. The symptoms and signs which showed significant improvement in Arshkeyt™ group compared to standard treatment group were the tenesmus (visual analog score) score (P = 0.047), anal sphincter spasm (P = 0.0495) and a decrease in the grade of hemorrhoids (P = 0.0205) on day 14. Arshkeyt™ was also more beneficial in case of bleeding hemorrhoids as compared to nonbleeding hemorrhoids (P < 0.05). The incidence of adverse drug reactions in both groups was comparable and no patient required any treatment for the same. Conclusion: “Arshkeyt™, a 7 day kit,” was effective in the treatment of hemorrhoids and had a good safety profile.
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Background: Infants and children constitute a large proportion of the population in developing countries. In Gujarat, studies on drug use patterns in the pediatric age group are lacking in the Saurashtra region hospitals. The objective was to study demographical information and the utilization pattern in the in patients of the pediatric ward. Methods: A cross-sectional, observational drug utilization study was carried out over a period of 6 months in 630 pediatric inpatients of the pediatric department of Guru Gobind Singh Hospital, Jamnagar, a tertiary care teaching hospital. Analyzed data included demographic details and drugs prescribed in respective patients. Results: Most commonly affected age group was 1-5 years, boys in 62.06% and girls in 37.94% and 40.16% were admitted in the pediatric ward. Acute gastroenteritis and pneumonia had the highest admission rate with 31.90% and 22.38%, respectively. The majority of children were prescribed 5-6 drugs. Ceftriaxone (64.92%) was the top most frequently prescribed antibiotic, followed by amoxicillin (49.21%). Prescribing drugs were mainly from essential drug list (64.44%) and by generic names (61.89%). Drugs prescribed orally in 66.10% and by injections in 33.90%. Conclusion: It is quite evident that significantly large number of children were from 1 to 5 year age group. The majority of the children were admitted in inpatients of the pediatric ward for acute gastroenteritis, followed by pneumonia and meningitis. Most frequently prescribed antibiotic group was cephalosporin, followed by penicillin group.
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Background: Haloperidol, an antipsychotic adversely affects acquisition and retention of a learned task. We decided to test the effect of Gabapentin, a new anti-epileptic drug using conditioned avoidance response model with cook’s pole climbing apparatus and haloperidol. Methods: Four groups of six rats were taken for this purpose. All the rats were first given drugs for five days and then trained for a period of 15 days. Gabapentin was given in a dose of 100mg/kg intra peritoneal, while haloperidol was given 0.5mg/kg intra peritoneal. Results: At the end of the training duration rats in the vehicle and gabapentin treated group achieved ≥85% acquisition responses. While the haloperidol and haloperidol + gabapentin group did not achieve the desired percentage of learning. A learning curve was plotted by using the percentage of conditioned responses in each group versus number of days. The mean ± SD percentage of conditioned responses of day 14 and 15 were for haloperidol group 26.19 ±11.90, for vehicle group 86.90 ± 4.29, for the gabapentin treated group 95.24 ± 2.38 and for the gabapentin + haloperidol group 46.42 ± 12.20. These figures and the learning curve suggest that gabapentin treated rats had a better acquisition response and haloperidol depressed learning. Conclusions: At the end of study duration we found that gabapentin significantly improved the acquisition response than the vehicle control group. Also haloperidol depressed the acquisition response. Gabapentin did not lead to reversal of haloperidol induced depression of acquisition process.
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Monoterpenes represent a major class of volatile terpenes produced by plants and play important roles in pollination, defense and seed dispersal (Dudareva et al. 2006). Also, plant-derived terpenoids, including monoterpenes are used as natural fl avour and aroma compounds, and have benefi cial impact on humans as health promoting compounds (Wagner and Elmadfa 2003). All monoterpenes are derived from the common precursor, geranyl diphosphate (GPP, C10), which is synthesized by a head-to-tail condensation of one molecule each of isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP) and its allylic isomer dimethylallyl diphosphate (DMAPP) in a reaction catalyzed by GPP synthase (GPPS, EC 2.5.1.1) (fi gure 1) (Ogura and Koyama 1998). GPPSs have been isolated and functionally characterized in a limited number of plant species and are known to exist as homodimeric and heterodimeric structures. Heterodimeric GPPSs have been described in peppermint (Mentha piperita), snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus), Clarkia (Clarkia breweri) and hop (Humulus lupulus), which produce large amounts of monoterpenes in specifi c organs (Burke et al. 1999; Tholl et al. 2004; Wang and Dixon 2009). Structurally, the heterodimeric GPPS constitutes a small http://www.ias.ac.in/jbiosci J. Biosci. 35(2), June 2010, 167–169, © Indian Academy of Sciences 167 Keywords. Geranyl diphosphate synthase; metabolic engineering; monoterpenes Figure 1. Overall effects of GPPS.SSU over-expression on the levels of monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and GGPP derived products in tobacco plants. DMAPP, dimethylallyl diphosphate; DXP, 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate; DXR, DXP reductoisomerase; FPP, farnesyl diphosphate; FPPS, FPP synthase; GA-3P, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate; GGPP, geranyl geranyl diphosphate; GGPPS, GGPP synthase; GPP, geranyl diphosphate; GPPS, GPP synthase; HMG-CoA, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl- CoA; HMGR, HMG-CoA reductase; IPI, isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase; IPP, isopentenyl diphosphate; MEP, 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate; MVA, mevalonic acid. Names of enzymes are boxed. Bigger and smaller font size of end products indicates increase and decrease in the content, respectively.
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Malaria is one of the most important parasitic diseases in humans affecting 103 countries worldwide. AIMS: The present study aims to determine the diagnostic utility of cell counter data--hemoglobin, total leukocyte count, platelet count and depolarized laser light (DLL)-based purple-coded events (PCEs) in detection of acute malaria. This is a retrospective study of 523 patient data that came for complete blood count for the first time. RESULTS: One hundred thirty-five of the 523 patients showed microscopic evidence of malaria. Platelet count showed the highest sensitivity of 77.77% (105/135). PCEs (> or = 1) showed 43.7% (59/135) sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that a low platelet count (< 150 x 109/L) is a good hematological parameter for presumptive diagnosis of malaria. If we change the cut-off for PCEs from > or = 1 to > or = 2, the sensitivity would be 56.29% (76/135) and the specificity would be 94.58% (367/388), respectively. The sensitivity of DLL was low, particularly with a low parasitic index (PI). The number of PCEs does not correlate with the PI. The cut-off number of PCEs in DLL-based malaria detection should be modified in highly endemic areas.