Chronopharmacology: Tailoring Therapy to Endogenous Rhythms.

Chronopharmacology aims at the use of biological rhythms in the clinical treatment so as to enhance both effectiveness and tolerance and minimize the side effects of a drug by determining the best biological time for its administration. Chronopharmacology is useful to solve problems of drug optimization. In the human organs, the metabolic fate of a pharmacologic agent as well is not constant as a function of time. Thus, the chronobiological approach of drug administration involves a lesser risk of errors than the conventional homeostatic approach. Chronopharmacology is now used as a routine to treat various disorders like hypertension, angina, cancer and various psychotic disorders. The newer drug delivery systems that are designed with the chronopharmacological approach hold great scope for delivering better patient care in terms of efficacy, tolerance and safety parameters of the drug. This review aims at introducing chronopharmacology, the role of the regulatory system of biological clock in pharmacotherapy and the benefits it has conferred in various clinical conditions.

Prescribing pattern of iron preparations in antenatal women in a tertiary care hospital.

Iron deficiency anemia in pregnant women is a major health problem in India. According to WHO, anemia in pregnant women is described as Hb% < 11g/dl or hematocrit < 33% and all pregnant women are to be given a standard dose of 60mg and 120mg elemental iron for prophylaxis and treatment of anemia respectively. As per ICMR guidelines, the dosage has increased from 60 to 100mg for treatment of anemia. This study was done to study the prescribing pattern of iron preparations in antenatal women and to compare the elemental iron content in the drug. Fifty pregnant women were included in the study. Prescription analysis showed that 94% were given oral iron preparations and 6% were given I.V. injections. The commonly prescribed drugs were Ferrous Ascorbate(42%) and Sodium Feredetate(40%) containing elemental iron 100mg and 33mg respectively. The I.V. preparation used was mainly iron sucrose (6%). Since both the oral iron preparations were prescribed once daily, Ferrous Ascorbate should be preferred over Sodium Feredetate since the total elemental iron in Sodium Feredetate is not sufficient as per WHO and ICMR guidelines.

Immunological studies in children with hearing impairment.

An immunological study was carried out on 58 children below 14 years of age with sensorineural hearing loss of unknown aetiology. The observed elevated levels of IgE in 25.86% (n = 15) children and antinuclear antibodies in 10.34% (n = 6) children indicate that auto-immune activity has a role in the causation of hearing impairment.