Awareness Regarding Thalassemia in General Population of Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan

Background: Thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder represents a significant burden for many countries across the globe and the knowledge related to this illness is very limited. The preventive practices, among people especially from developing countries. In Pakistan, Thalassemia is a serious health problem bearing 5 to 8% frequency of beta-Thalassemia gene without discrimination of ethnic groups. Objective: To assess the awareness level regarding Thalassemia in general population of Rahim Yar Khan, a district of Southern Punjab, Pakistan. Methodology: Study Design: Cross sectional study. A total of 400 adults of 18 years and above age, were selected randomly, from the households of the Rahim Yar Khan City and one Rural Union council. Out of 400 subjects, only 131, reported that they had heard the name ”Thalassemia”, hence for analysis of awareness, the data of only these 131 was used. A structured questionnaire was designed which included information on; gender, age and 24 questions about awareness of Thalassemia disease. Level of Awareness was ascertained by response of these 24 questions and was categorized as poor, average and good. The persons answering less than 12 questions correctly were considered to have poor knowledge, answers of 13-18 questions were labeled as possessing average knowledge and the persons were included in category of having good knowledge who answered more than 18 questions correctly. Data was analyzed by using SPSS 20. Results: Out of 131 study subjects , who reported to have ever heard of word Thalassemia, level of awareness about Thalassemia was found to be “Good” among 7 (5.4%) persons, 27 (20.6%) persons have an average knowledge about Thalassemia and a large number of people 97 (74%) have poor knowledge about Thalassemia disease. Conclusion: Public knowledge regarding Thalassemia was found to be poor among general population of Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan.

Stability indicating RP-HPLC method for simultaneous determination of gatifloxacin and dexamethasone in binary combination

Abstract In this study, conditions were optimized for development of a simple RP-HPLC method for simultaneous analysis of gatifloxacin and dexamethasone in different matrices like pharmaceuticals, human serum and urine. Good separation of gatifloxacin and dexamethasone from the induced degradation products was accomplished using C8 as stationary phase; 0.02 M phosphate buffer (pH 3.0) and methanol (42:58 v/v) as mobile phase. The concentration was measured with DAD at 270 nm. Linearity was observed in the range of 0.000040-0.000280 mol/L for gatifloxacin (r2≥0.999) and 0.000013-0.000091 mol/L for dexamethasone (r2≥0.999). Both the analyte peaks were completely separated from the peaks of induced degradation products as indicated by the peak purity index (≥0.9999 for both analytes). The optimized method is recommended to be used for concurrent analysis of gatifloxacin and dexamethasone in different matrices.

Simultaneous estimation of rosuvastatin and amlodipine in pharmaceutical formulations using stability indicating HPLC method

A viable cost-effective and isocratic approach employing C-18 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 µm) based HPLC has been utilized to separate and estimate the drugs, rosuvastatin, amlodipine and their stress induced degradation products, simultaneously in pharmaceutical formulations. Focused on ICH guideline parameters, the efficient separation of both drugs and their degradation products was achieved by optimizing a 30:70 (v/v) solvent mixture of acetonitrile and 0.1 M ammonium acetate buffer (pH 5) as mobile phase. The flow rate of the mobile phase was 1.5 mL/min and all the detections were carried out at 240 nm using UV detector. The method was linear in the concentration range of 1-200 µg/mL for rosuvastatin with 0.996 coefficient of determination value. For amlodipine, linearity was in the range of 0.5-100 µg/ml with 0.994 coefficient of determination value. Both the drugs along with their degradation products were separated in less than twenty minutes. The results of within-day and between-day precision were varied from 0.72 to 1.81% for rosuvastatin and 0.83 to 1.88% for amlodipine. The results show that this ICH validated method can be employed successfully for the routine as well as stability quantification of both the active ingredients simultaneously in pharmaceutical formulations.

Utilizou-se abordagem de viabilidade custo-efetividade e isocrática, baseada em CLAE, empregando coluna C-18 (250 mm x 4,6 mm, 5 µm) para separar e avaliar os fármacos, rosuvastatina, anlodipino e seus produtos de degradação induzida por estresse, simultaneamente, em formulações farmacêuticas. Focada nos parâmetros das diretrizes da ICH, a separação eficiente de ambos os fármacos e de seus produtos de degradação foi obtida por meio da otimização da fase móvel com mistura de solventes 30:70 (v/v), respectivamente, acetonitrila e tampão acetato de amônio O,1 M (pH 5). A velocidade de fluxo da fase móvel foi de 1,5 mL/min e todas as detecções foram realizadas em 240 nm, utilizando detector de UV. O método foi linear no intervalo de concentração de 1-200 µg/mL para a rosuvastatina com coeficiente de determinação 0,996. Para o anlodipino, a linearidade ficou na faixa de 0.5-100 µg/mL, com coeficiente de determinação 0,994. Ambos os fármacos, junto com seus produtos de degradação, foram separados em menos de vinte minutos. Os resultados de precisão intra-dia e inter-dia variaram de 0,72 a 1,81% para a rosuvastatina e de 0,83 a 1,88%, para o anlodipino. Os resultados mostram que este método validado pelo ICH pode ser empregado com sucesso tanto para a rotina quanto para a quantificação simultânea da estabilidade de ambos os ingredientes ativos em formulações farmacêuticas.

Study of Aging and Hepatoprotective Activity of Vitis vinifera L. Seeds in Albino Rats

Objective: Present study was conducted to investigate in liver of rats from 8-12 weeks old to 20 weeks old, the age dependent changes, carbon tetrachloride mediated changes, and the hepatoprotective effect shown by the seeds of Vitis vinifera L. Method: The hepatoprotective activity was studied by observing the effect of 100 mg/kg dose of ethanolic extract of grape seeds on carbon tetrachloride induced hepatotoxicity in albino rats and results were compared with those of the aged group results. Results: 100 mg/kg b.w. of ethanolic extract of Vitis vinifera seeds produced highly significant decrease in AST, ALT, ALP, bilirubin, albumin levels and significant decrease in the TSP levels compared to the toxic group levels. The levels of AST, ALT, ALP, bilirubin and albumin in aged control rats were found to be significantly higher than the levels in young control animals. MDA levels were slightly higher while GSH levels were lower in aged control rats as compared to young control rats. MDA levels in the toxic group showed highly significant increase compared to the young control levels. Ethanolic extract of seeds of Vitis vinifera significantly lowered the MDA levels. Histopathology results reveal that 100mg/kg/day dose of ethanolic extract of seeds of Vitis vinifera L. cured the hepatic damage to a great extent which was induced by CCl4. Conclusions: Aging leads to the changes in the hepatic structure which are comparable to the changes induced by low doses of a hepatotoxin and the ethanolic extract of seeds of Vitis vinifera L. was effective in bringing about functional improvement of hepatocytes exposed to free radical attack, which was confirmed by biochemical and histological observations.