RESUMEN
Background : Pregnancy is one of the most important events in the life of Indian women. Maternal care includes care, during pregnancy and should begin from the early stages of pregnancy.Maternal mortality and morbidity remain high even though National Programs exist for improving Maternal and Child Health in India. Among several factors related to it one is less or non-utilization of free maternal healthcare services, especially amongst rural women. Objectives : To measure the utilization of free Maternal Healthcare services & to study the factors determining the utilization of free Maternal Healthcare services by Rural Women during pregnancy. Methods : The study was conducted on the women admitted in postnatal ward after delivery, by using structured proforma containing questionnaire which included socio-demographic variables, details of present pregnancy, delivery & details of utilization and non-utilization of Antenatal Care Services given by their local Government Health Facility. Also, questions were asked about the reasons regarding their preference to the Private Hospital for delivery in spite of free delivery service at Government Hospitals. Results : The early identification of risk factors during pregnancy will be possible by Ultrasonography and other investigations, which is the main reason for a greater number of visits to private hospitals during pregnancy compared to Government Health Facility. Conclusion : Strengthening of Government Health Facility in terms of specialist Manpower and Material like Laboratory/Equipment’s/Drugs to handle the complications effectively during pregnancy or delivery by the specialist is need of the hour.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND As breast epithelium is affected by vitamin D, it may have a direct effect on breast density and the risk of breast cancer. Our aim was to study the serum levels of vitamin D in patients with malignant and benign breast disease, and to study the association, if any, between vitamin D levels, mammographic breast density (MD) and molecular subtypes of breast cancer. METHODS In this cross-sectional, observational study, we enrolled 162 consecutive adult women with benign and malignant breast masses subjected to mammography and core-needle biopsy. Serum levels of vitamin D were estimated and correlated with MD and with immunohistochemical subtyping of breast cancer. RESULTS The mean vitamin D level in these 162 patients was 12.44 (5.88) ng/ml, with vitamin D deficiency seen in 98%. The mean (SD) vitamin D level in MD type 1 was 16.19 (4.62) ng/ml and it decreased to 7.54 (2.58) ng/ml in MD type 4. High MD was associated with significantly lower vitamin D levels. The mean vitamin D level in patients with benign breast disease (n=102) was 13.73 (5.68) ng/ml, while it was significantly lower in patients with breast cancer (n=60) at 10.26 (5.61) ng/ml. Among patients with breast cancer, the good prognosis luminal A molecular subtype had mean vitamin D level of 12.94 (6.16) ng/ml, whereas the poor prognosis triple-negative subtype had a significantly lower value of 7.68 (3.42) ng/ml. CONCLUSION Our study shows that vitamin D deficiency has a significant relationship with breast cancer (v. benign breast disease), high MD (showing increased breast cancer risk) and poor prognosis triple-negative breast cancer. Vitamin D deficiency could be an important, potentially modifiable, risk factor for the prevention of breast cancer in susceptible populations.
RESUMEN
Background: Inflammation can be classified as either acute or chronic. NSAIDs are the most commonly prescribed drugs worldwide, and mostly have adverse effects. Lercanidipine a CCB of (DHPs) blocks the mediators of inflammation and has additional anti-inflammatory potential. Tanacetum parthenium (Feverfew) extracts have also shown its anti-inflammatory effects in experimental studies. It was decided to study anti-inflammatory effects of Lercanidipine and Tanacetum parthenium which was compared with Indomethacin. The present study was aimed to evaluate and compare the anti-inflammatory effect of lercanidipine and Tanacetum parthenium with Indomethacin in rats.Methods: The study was conducted in the department of Pharmacology UPUMS, Saifai after getting approval from IAEC.A total of 24 animals divided into 4 groups of six (n=6) animals each group were used, and the anti-inflammatory effects of both drugs were evaluated by Carrageenan-induced Paw Edema Model by digital Plethysmometer in rats, drug administration was with the same frequency.Results: The result of the present study had shown that lercanidipine produced anti-inflammatory effect compared to Indomethacin, while its efficacy in reducing paw edema was better at 1st hour, 48 and 72 hours while at 2nd hour and 3rd hour Indomethacin had better efficacy. Tanacetum parthenium also decreased paw edema at 2nd, 3rd, 48 and 72 hour while at 1st hour no effect was seen. However, at 72 hours, shown good efficacy compared to lercanidipine and Indomethacin.Conclusions: Lercanidipine could be a promising anti-inflammatory drug in reducing the inflammation and edema. However, herbal drug (Tanacetum parthenium) has shown anti- inflammatory efficacy when compared with Indomethacin. Both drugs were found safe during our study.
RESUMEN
Preparation of folic acid (FA) conjugated (FA-CUR-GNPs) and non-conjugated (CUR-GNPs) gliadin nanoparticles of curcumin were successfully formulated by desolvation method for oral delivery of drug for targeting colon cancer cell. F1, F3, F5 (conjugated) and F2, F4, F6 (Non-conjugated) were formulated using various drug-polymer ratio (1:2). They were further characterized by FTIR, Mass spectroscopy, NMR, solubility studies, entrapment efficiency, TEM, particle size, surface charge, In-vitro release studies, In vivo toxicity studies and simultaneously evaluated. F3 (curcumin 10mg, gliadin 20mg and FA 5mg) and F4 (curcumin 10mg and gliadin 20 mg) were found as the optimized formulation among both the categories. For F3 and F4 formulations; average particle size (168.1 and 195.7nm), zeta potential (-16.5 and -24.4mV), cumulative % drug release (92.92 and 94%) and In vivo toxicity studies were conducted and compared with the control (phosphate-buffer saline, pH 6.8) reveals no toxicity. From the characterization and evaluation studies it was identified that F4 (FA-CUR-GNPs) had better solubility, In vitro release profile and no specified In-vivo toxicity than F3 (CUR-GNPs) formulation with nano-range particle size throughout the experiment. Improved bioavailability and increase targeting capacity toward colon cancer tumor cells were successfully achieved.
RESUMEN
We read with interest the editorial by Aggarwal et al. 1 regarding the revised guidelines of the Medical Council of India (MCI) for publications for academic promotions.2 We agree with the authors that the new guidelines raise several important issues. The primary among them is the restriction of acceptable publications to original research with raw data. We do feel that systematic reviews, meta-analyses (including Cochrane reviews), brief communications (often because the journal will accept an original article in only this format), and case reports in journals with high impact factor should also be acceptable. The various indexing databases suggested do not include Science Citation Index and Indmed that are definitely more acceptable than Index Copernicus, which contains some journals of poor merit. We suggest that authorship in a high impact factor journal should be given more credit than one in a low impact factor journal. Finally, the first, second and last author should be given credit, rather than only the first and second. Issues of lack of adequate credit for the senior author in collaborative projects and ‘gift authorship’ are concerns with both extremes.
RESUMEN
Background: For spinal anesthesia there are drugs which can increase the level and quality of analgesia. Any drug which decreases sensory block level in spinal anesthesia is of great concern as it may need analgesic, sedative, supplement or even conversion to general anesthesia. Ondansetron is one such drug which has been reported to decrease the height of sensory block achieved after subarachnoid administration of bupivacaine. In this prospective observational study, we studied the effect of administration of ondansetron on the level of the sensory block achieved after subarachnoid blockade. Methods: In Group II, 4 mg ondansetron was given and 15 mins before giving spinal anesthesia Group II against control group receiving 2 ml saline intravenous (Group I). 15 mins before giving spinal anesthesia. Both groups received 3.5 ml of bupivacaine heavy was given intrathecally. Sensory and motor block was assessed 5, 15, and 30 mins. We analyzed both highest spinal block level achieved and time to regress to L1 level. Results: We found that in Group II both highest level of sensory block (T6 by median method) duration to regress to L1 level (1.43±0.22 hrs) was lesser as compared to group I and Group III T4 by median method and time to regress from T6 to L1 Group I 2.03±0.06 hrs Group III 1.84±0.27 hrs. Motor block did not differ between groups. Conclusions: We concluded that probably ondansetron was responsible for lower spinal block level and early recovery from spinal anesthesia after intrathecal bupivacaine and should not be given empirically for nausea and vomiting.