Current Issue : July - September Volume : 2010 Issue Number : 2 Articles : 9 Articles
Therapeutic drug monitoring refers to the measurement of drug concentration in biological fluids with the purpose of optimizing a patient’s drug therapy. For the TDM to be useful, there must be a relationship between dose, plasma or blood drug concentration and pharmacodynamic effects. Many medications and their metabolites are eliminated through the kidney. Thus, adequate renal function is important to avoid toxicity. Patients with renal impairment often have alterations in their pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters. The clearance of drugs eliminated primarily by renal filtration is decreased by renal disease. Therefore, special consideration should be taken when these drugs are prescribed to patients with impaired renal function. Physicians and pharmacists can work together to accomplish safe drug prescribing. This task can be complex and require a stepwise approach to ensure effectiveness, minimize further damage and prevent drug nephrotoxicity. Therapeutic drug monitoring aims to promote optimum drug treatment by maintaining serum drug concentration within a “therapeutic range”. The determination of individual drugs have shown benefit of therapeutic drug monitoring, depending on the specific study, through one or more of the following indices: improved effectiveness, reduced toxicity, decreased length of stay, fewer hospital admissions, more patients with serum levels within the appropriate therapeutic range, and more rational use of serum concentration measurements....
Antimicrobial resistance is an important issue when treating patients with various bacterial, fungal, protozoal, and viral infections. However, organisms causing common community-acquired infections have now developed antimicrobial resistance. This paper provides a brief overview of this emerging global threat and discusses resistance in gram-positive organisms, outpatient and antibiotic use, and strategies to reduce antibiotic overuse. Antibiotic resistance is currently the greatest challenge to the effective treatment of infections globally. Resistance adversely affects both clinical and financial therapeutic outcomes, with effects ranging from the failure of an individual patient to respond to therapy and the need for expensive and/or toxic alternative drugs to the social cost of higher morbidity and mortality rates, longer duration of hospitalization, and the need for changes in empirical therapy. Thus the astonishing effects of antibiotics, the occurrence of resistance and the considerable resources spent on antibiotics globally are convincing reasons for concern about ensuring adequate and proper use of these powerful agents....
Arsenic toxicity is a global health problem affecting many millions of people. The major source of human exposure is contamination of drinking water from natural geological sources, but anthropogenic emissions from mining, smelting, or agricultural sources (pesticides or fertilizers) also contribute to local exposures. Children are at greater risk as to be exposed when they eat small amount of soil that may contain arsenic or play on wooden structures that have been treated with arsenic as a preservative. This article explains on areas of risk of arsenic contamination and effective remedies to reduce the exposure risk in children. Learn how to reduce your child’s risk...
Patenting of microorganisms and their related processes and products deliberates that whether the term microorganism should be defined in a generic manner or not. The technical complexity involved in the patenting of microorganisms confines to not only patent documents and claims but also R&D and trade. Detailing of requirements for the deposition and the rules for accessing microorganisms from depositories are distinct according to the legal practices of the developing and developed countries. The Budapest Treaty identifies the regulatory guidelines to build an internationally recognized depository for facilitating patenting of microorganisms and microbiological inventions. These International Depository Authorities accept patent deposits of bacteria, virus, fungi, protozoa, algae, plant and animal virus etc. and also takes care of the biosafety aspect. The biosafety requirements signify a key aspect in processes patenting in respect of microbiological inventions involving GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). In a developing country like India microorganisms and genes do not have any protection through patents, in spite of its dependence on agriculture. Hence it becomes essential for implementing a criterion of novelty and inventiveness of the microbial wealth substantiated by an integrated approach of scientists, technologists, legal professionals, science managers and policy makers. The present paper endeavors to create awareness among scientists and technologists in the area of biotechnology and the urgent need for training patent examiners and attorneys to entail modern and complex scientific concepts and methodologies which decides our R&D goals and corporate objectives in attaining IPR....
The recent data show that severity, impact and case fatality ratio of H1N1 was not as perilous as feared. As a result, there is a controversy brewing in international community accusing WHO of being influenced by pharmaceutical industry in playing up H1N1 scare and recommending stockpiling of vaccines and drugs. while response strategy i.e., vaccine, tamiflu etc as an interventional tool to control and prevent H1N1 pandemic could be debatable, but the fact that H1N1 is a disease that warranted global pandemic alert should never be questioned....
Modern drug discovery is a complex approach integrating tools provided by bioinformatics, chemoinformatics, neuroinformatics, immunoinformatics, biosystem informatics, metabolomics, chemical reaction informatics, toxicoinformatics, cancer informatics, genome informatics, proteome informatics and biomedical informatics. These significant facts converge to the ideology of basic pharmacoinformatics for drug discovery and modern drug development. Pharmacodynamic interaction mechanisms between the known drug molecule and the respective receptor exhibit inferences from characteristics which can further elucidate molecular mechanisms and there description to explain these interactions for known molecules and can aid in predicting the therapeutic efficacy of unknown molecules. Information Technology, Information Management, software applications, databases and computational resources all provide the bioinformatics’ methods which are helpful in this approach towards the improvisations technically enhancing Computer Aided Drug Discovery (CADD). The usage of this field in areas of Prescribing, Verifying/Dispensing, Education, Monitoring, Administration is also of marked significance which relates its value in the health care system....
In our country a large number of populations especially rural and villagers died because of the poisoning. Poisoning occurs when any substance interferes with normal body functions after it is swallowed, inhaled, injected, or absorbed. A remedy or any agent used to neutralize or counteract the effects of a poison. Successful management of incidents with poison strongly depends on the speed of medical help and the ability antidote to react properly....
Sitagliptin is a potent, competitive, first selective and reversible inhibitor of the DPP-IV enzyme in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Article includes the pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, safety, and efficacy of sitagliptin. Results of a small trial comparing sitagliptin with glipizide indicate that both treatments are comparable. The efficacy of sitagliptin has also been demonstrated when used as adjunctive therapy with metformin. Weight gain and hypoglycemia have not been seen with sitagliptin therapy. Sitagliptin increases post-meal insulin secretion ("incretin effect”) by enhancing the postprandial GLP-1 response ("incretin enhancer"), in a glucose-dependent manner. It improves glycaemic control (HbA1c) in type 2 diabetic patients treated by diet alone, by metformin, by sulfonylurea, by glitazone or by a metformin-sufonylurea combined therapy. The glucose-lowering effect is similar to that of glipizide, but with the advantage of no weight gain and no hypoglycaemic episodes. The tolerance to sitagliptin is excellent. Treatment is simple, with 100 mg once daily, without need of titration or home blood glucose monitoring. Review of the literature to date implies sitagliptin may be effective as monotherapy in type 2 diabetes. In addition, existing evidence supports the use of sitagliptin as adjunct therapy to sulfonylureas and metformin....
Absence seizures are sometimes referred to as petit mal seizures (i.e. \"little illness\"). They are characterized by age of onset between 4-12 yrs. Sodium valproate, ethosuximide; lamotrigine and clonazepam are the presently used antiepileptics. The purpose of medication of absence seizures is to eliminate or reduce the frequency of the absence seizures without causing side-effects more serious than the epilepsy itself. However each of these medications has potential side effects, some of them possibly serious e.g. sodium valproate is well known teratogen, less tolerated by Indians and in children has been reported to cause fulminant hepatitis. Ethosuximide and lamotrigine though rarely cause hypersensitivity reactions are found inferior to sodium valproate in several studies. Clonazepam not recommended for long term due to problem of tolerance hence any new antiepileptic having less side effects and better tolerability will be welcomed in current scenario for treating absence seizures....
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