Awareness about adverse drug reaction monitoring and pharmacovigilance among final year medical students in tertiary care teaching hospital in Andhra Pradesh: a cross sectional study

Background: Adverse drug reaction (ADR) is an unwanted, undesirable effect of a drug that occurs during clinical use. ADRs will occur daily in health care institutions and can unfavourably affect a patient's quality of life, frequently causing considerable morbidity and mortality. Pharmacovigilance is defined as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other drug-related problem.Methods: It was a non-interventional study was done among hundred final year medical students at Kurnool Medical College, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh. The study instrument was a predesigned questionnaire was structured by following the precedence, which was set by parallel studies. The participants were given forty-five minutes to answer the questionnaire; the questionnaires were then analyzed by grading the respondents into three categories: poor, unsatisfactory and satisfactory.Results: This study showed satisfactory results about awareness, knowledge and methods of application of pharmacovigilance among final year medical students 55%, 47%, 54% respectively and positive correlation between awareness, knowledge and methods of application of pharmacovigilance among final year medical students significantly (<0.0001) correlated.Conclusions: The present study revealed that the final year medical students were satisfactory in awareness and knowledge and methods of application of pharmacovigilance. The correlations told that the higher the awareness, the more was the knowledge and better were the methods of application. Likewise, the knowledge and practices were significantly and positively related to a correlation.

Lobster-claw syndrome.

Lobster-Claw syndrome is a rare autosomal dominant, hand-foot malformation with Oro-dental features. This is a rare condition and from the available reports so far, cases being reported are less than 1%. Most reports have focused on the hand-foot deformity of this syndrome. This paper highlights the typical Oro-dental features associated with this syndrome such as retained deciduous teeth, hypodontia and variation in crown size, arch length and arch width.

Number of root canals, their shape, configuration, accessory root canals in radicular pulp morphology. A preliminary study.

Dental Pulp is a soft gelatinous, living cellular tissue of ectomesenchymal origin having various functions, residing within bilayered hard mineralized structures like enamel, dentin and cementum. Hertwigs epithelial root sheath initiates the formation of size, shape and number of radicular pulp. Deciduous pulp cavities differ from permanent teeth present study was conducted to find out number of root canals and their pattern, in deciduous teeth.

A study on relative contributions of the history, physical examination and investigations in making medical diagnosis.

Here we report an attempt to quantitate the relative contributions of the history, physical examination and investigations in making medical diagnosis. In this prospective study of 100 patients, with new or previously undiagnosed conditions, we listed their differential diagnosis with confidence score; after the history, after physical examination and after the investigations. In two patients no definite final diagnoses could be arrived even after extensive investigation--these two cases were excluded from the study. In seventy seven patients (78.58%) patients, the history led to diagnosis. The physical examination led to diagnosis in eight patients (8.17%); and investigations led to diagnosis in 13 patients (13.27%). The confidence in correct diagnosis increased from 6.36 on a scale of one to ten after the history to 7.57 after physical examination and 9.84 after investigations--implying that history, physical examination and investigation have their own limitation at each stage and an integrative approach is needed in making a medical diagnosis with more emphasis on history.

Serum vitamins E, A and lipid peroxidation levels in Kurichias, an Indian tribal population.

Serum vitamins E, A, lipid peroxides, prevalence of dislipidemia, hypertension, obesity and smoking habits were assessed in a volunteer sample of 310 (175 males + 135 females) Kurichias, a tribal population of Kerala, India, who are enjoying longevity relatively free from age associated chronic problems. The mean serum levels of vitamins E and A were higher and lipid peroxides were lower with comparable ages of Indian and Western studies. The prevalence (age standardized to the world population of Segi 95% CI) was obesity 2.87 (1.22-4.53), central obesity 3.71 (2.27-5.15), hypertension 2.70 (1.92-3.48), hypercholesterolemia 0.71 (0.66-0.76), hypertriglyceridemia 2.60 (1.18-4.02) and low high density lipoprotein cholesterol 1.24 (1.07-1.42). Significant negative correlation was observed between vitamins and lipid peroxides. Serum cholesterol and triglycerides showed significant positive correlation with antioxidant vitamins and lipid peroxides. Blood pressure found positive correlation with lipid peroxides and no correlation with vitamins except systolic blood pressure having negative relation with vitamin A. Age showed negative correlation with vitamins and positive correlation with lipid peroxides, whereas lipid peroxides showed positive correlation with obesity only. In multivariate regression analysis serum cholesterol and old age groups were significant predictors of serum antioxidant vitamins and lipid peroxides. The higher levels of antioxidant vitamins, lower levels of lipid peroxides as well as low prevalence of CHD risk factors in Kurichias when compared to other populations suggest that antioxidants or increased intake of foods rich in antioxidants play a key role in their health and longevity.

Effect of exogenous gonadotrophins on restoration of ovarian activities in nicotine treated unilaterally ovariectomized albino rats.

Adult cycling albino rats were hemispayed and administered nicotine for 15 days. FSH/LH or FSH+LH was then administered to these rats. Nicotine inhibited ovarian compensatory hypertrophy significantly and increased cholesterol and lipid levels in the ovary. Administration of FSH alone or in combination with LH restored the ovarian compensatory hypertrophy and decreased the cholesterol and lipid levels significantly, but LH alone was not effective. The results suggest that the inhibition of ovarian growth in nicotine treated rats may be due to lack of availability of pituitary gonadotrophins and these effects can be rectified by the administration of gonadotrophins.