ABSTRACT
Background: Voice disorders cause undesirable effects on school teachers such as reducing their quality of life, decrease in work performance affecting the quality of education, job absenteeism, and reduced social activities as well. Methodology: Voice disorder among teachers was assessed through the “Voice handicap Index”, which was developed by Jacobson et al in 1997 to self-assess the severity of voice disorder in dysphonia pa-tients Results: The overall prevalence of voice disorder among government school teachers was found to be 46.5% with a 95% confidence interval from 41.5% to 51.5%. Using Backward Wald, the binary logistic regression analysis showed that female teachers (AOR 1.6, p<0.01*), teaching experience less than 10 years (AOR 2.4, p<0.01*), and teaching hours more than 21 hours per week (AOR 6.7, p<0.01*) had a sig-nificant association with voice disorders. Conclusion: The prevalence of voice disorder was found to be high since teachers are professional voice users. The study also recommends that teachers must receive the required health education on the ergo-nomic risk factors that they will come into contact with in their daily lives as part of their jobs.
ABSTRACT
Objective: The study was carried out to generate research on drug utilization pattern in paediatric patients in government headquarters hospital, Tiruppur, Tamilnadu, India using world health organization (WHO) and international network for rational use of drugs (INRUD) core indicator. Methods: The core prescribing indicators of the world health organization was used to assess the appropriate use of drugs. Index of rational drug prescribing (IRDP) developed by Zhang and Zhi was also used to find out the performance of a health care system in terms of drug utilization. Results: Out of 859 drugs in 200 cases the highest prescribed drug class is antibiotics 304(35.39%) and the majority of drugs were administered in injectable form 412(47.94%). It was analysed that a majority of prescriptions 117(58.5%) were discharged in between 4-7 d. 161(80.5%) patients were dismissed after completion of treatment. On analysing world health organization (WHO) prescribing core indicators, the average number of drugs per prescription was 4.29 which is higher than double the average number (i.e., 2). This indicates poly-pharmacy practice. 97.78% of drugs were prescribed were the generic name and percentage of encounters with antibiotic prescribed was 90.5% which is thrice greater than world health organization (WHO) standard<30%. Prescribing of injections is not within the world health organization (WHO) recommended range<20% and it was far higher showing 97.5% which is essential for paediatric inpatients. The prescribing practice in paediatric ward is in complete adherence to national essential drug list (EDL) or formulary. The mean value of the index of rational drug prescribing (IRDP) obtained was 3.09 which is very similar to that of optimal value world health organization (WHO). Conclusion: Prescription by generic name, prescribing drugs from essential drug list (EDL) and free government supply are encouraging findings in this hospital. The result shows poly-pharmacy and overuse of antibiotics are the areas to be concerned. The better clinical outcome shows rational prescribing is practised well.
ABSTRACT
A simple, specific, rapid, precise and robust HPLC method has been developed for the quantitation of valsartan in tablet dosage form on a C18 column (250 x 4.6 mm) using a mobile phase consisting of ammonium dihydrogen phosphate buffer : methanol (33.5:66.5) adjusted to pH 3 with formic acid at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min and detection at 265 nm. The retention time of valsartan was found to be at 11.9 min. The validation of above method was also done. Percentage label claim of the tablet formulations were found to be 100.8%. So the proposed method provides a faster and cost effective quality control tool for routine analysis of valsartan from formulations.
ABSTRACT
A new, simple, accurate, and precise high-performance thin-layer chromatographic (HPTLC) method has been established for quantitative analysis of valsartan in tablet formulations. Standard and sample solutions of valsartan were applied to precoated silica gel G 60 F254 HPTLC plates and the plates were developed with chloroform: acetonitrile: toluene: glacial acetic acid, in the ratio 1:8:1:0.1 (v/v) (v/v), as mobile phase. UV detection was performed at 254 nm. The retention factors of valsartan was 0.65. The calibration plot for Valsartan standard was linear with r =0.9999, slope = 5.328 and intercept=356.9. The limit of detection and limit of quantitation of Valsartan were found to be 5and 16 ng per spot respectively. The percentage recovery was found to be 99.37% for Valsartan. The method showed good repeatability and recovery with relative standard deviation less than 2. Method was validated in accordance with the requirements of ICH guidelines and was shown to be suitable for purpose. The method is selective and specific can be used for determination of the routine analysis of valsartan in tablets. Tablet excipients did not interfere with the chromatography.
ABSTRACT
We report an eighteen year old female, a case of acute intermittent porphyria with syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion, as presenting feature for its rarity. The neurological crisis was successfully treated with haemodialysis.
Subject(s)
Acute Disease , Adolescent , Brain Diseases/etiology , Female , Humans , Inappropriate ADH Syndrome/diagnosis , Porphyria, Acute Intermittent/complications , Renal DialysisABSTRACT
Subcutaneous Insulin Pulse Therapy (SIPT) consists of administration of small doses of regular insulin hourly or two hourly in the subcutaneous tissue of anterior abdominal wall through a scalp vein needle. Fifteen Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM) subjects, 8 males and 7 females with mean ages 58 +/- 8.7 years and mean duration of diabetes 11.7 +/- 9.1 years and mean BMI 25.2 +/- 5.64 were admitted for elective surgery. Glycemic control was attempted preoperatively with multiple pre-meal doses of Actrapid MC with a single injection of Monotard MC at bed time. The mean fasting plasma glucose in the 15 subjects with this insulin regimen was 321.28 +/- 69.32 mgm% and the insulin requirement per day was 106.87 +/- 35.77 units. The subjects were put on SIPT for 48 to 72 hours. During SIPT the mean fasting plasma glucose dropped to 123.2 +/- 74.11 mgm% and this marked decline in fasting plasma glucose value was statistically significant (P < .05). The insulin requirement during SIPT was 96.42 +/- 31.36 units, similar to the previous regimen (NS). The subjects were switched back to conventional insulin therapy after SIPT during which period the mean fasting plasma glucose was 125.82 +/- 34.50 mgm% and this value was again significantly lower than the pre SIPT fasting plasma glucose value (P < .05). Insulin requirement during conventional insulin therapy after SIPT was reduced to 71 +/- 21.89 units/day. This dose was significantly lower than the insulin dose administered during SIPT (P < .05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)