Role of bromocriptine and pyridoxine in premenstrual tension syndrome.

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a universal problem of women of reproductive age group. No satisfactory treatment is available to treat this syndrome till date. Sixty female patients with PMS in age group of 20-45 years were interviewed. A detailed history and 20 premenstrual symptoms were included for making the diagnosis of PMS. Premenstrual symptom score of each patient was recorded before treatment. Patients were followed up monthly for 3 months after starting treatment, to ascertain the change in score. The patients were divided into 3 groups of 20 patients each - control group, bromocriptine group and pyridoxine group. In control group, patients were kept on ferrous sulphate tablet 100 mg for 3 months, as placebo. There was no significant change in the premenstrual symptoms score at the end of the study period in control group. Bromocriptrine 2.5 mg twice a day and pyridoxine 100 mg/day showed a significant reduction in the mean premenstrual symptom score after 3 months of treatment. It is concluded that both the drugs are effective for treatment of premenstrual syndrome but, pyridoxine showed significantly higher response rate and lesser incidence of side effects than bromocriptine.

Comparative study of misoprostol vs dinoprostone for induction of labour.

Various methods of induction of labour may be associated with risk and complications. Therefore, this study has been undertaken to compare the safety and efficacy of intra-vaginal misoprostol (PGE1 analogue) with intra-cervical dinoprostone (PGE2) in progress and induction of labour, the maternal side effects and the foetal outcome. 40 pregnant women aged between 16-35 years with indication of induction of labour participated in the study. Twenty patients (control) were administered 0.5 mg dinoprostone intra-cervically, 12 hourly while 20 patients (study group) were given misoprostol 100 microg, 4 hourly, intravaginally. The mean induction of labour initiation interval was 2.08 +/- 1.46 hours in study group and 2.21 +/- 1.20 hours in dinoprostone group. The Induction delivery interval was 6.92 +/- 4.01 hours in misoprostol group and 12.54 +/- 7.73 in dinoprostone group, whereas vaginal route of delivery was 95% in misoprostol group and 85% in dinoprostone group. Average dosages required were 1.55 +/- 1.02 in misoprostol group and 1.30 +/- 0.46 in dinoprostone group. All these result were statistically significant. Very few maternal side effects were reported in study group. There was no significant difference in foetal out come in either group. Therefore, it can be concluded that misoprostol is easy to administer and is cheap, effective, safe and convenient drug for induction of labour.

Survivability of Salmonella paratyphi B var Java on experimentally infected cockroaches.

Cockroaches are inhabitant of sewers and frequent visitors of kitchen and stores in the night to feed on left over. It is liable to disseminate a number of pathogens by contaminating kitchen surface, feeding vessels and food items left open. Salmonella paratyphi B var Java a common pathogen of man and animal was used in the study to evaluate its survival and excretion in cockroaches. The host when fed on semisolid feed containing 1 x 10(7) CFU of S. paratyphi B var Java g-1, it was found that the pathogen was eliminated earlier from the live than euthanized cockroaches.