Current Issue : October - December Volume : 2016 Issue Number : 4 Articles : 7 Articles
Nephrotic Syndrome (NS) is one of the most frequent glomerular diseases seen in children. The common causes for NS include immunological dysfunction, genetical abnormalities or may be idiopathic. The signs and symptoms include edema, albuminuria, hypoalbuminemia, hyperlipidemia, high blood pressure, hematuria, decreased urine out-put volume. A 12 year old girl presented with complaints of painless brown hematuria, azotemia, decreased urine out-put volume and swelling of legs since 10 days. The case was diagnosed as proliferative glomerulonephritis with predominant mesangial proliferation and mild exudative change. The patient was treated with Tab.Deflazacort 30 mg, Tab.Amlodipine 2.5 mg, Tab.Pantoprazole and Calcium gluconate syrup 5 ml. In this case, the etiology was unknown and found to be idiopathic. The patient’s symptoms are found to be reduced and the condition of the patient is good....
Introduction: Moisture permeability and a loose closure system might allow a significant gain of\nmoisture into container and this could lead to significant loss of potency of drug sensitive to moisture\nand as well promoting the growth of microorganisms. Typical examples of the drugs sensitive\nto moisture include Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate (TDF). Product claimed to be a ââ?¬Å?Tight containerââ?¬Â\ndoes not make it a tight container until proved practically. A plastic container is tight if ââ?¬Å?not\nmore than one of the 10 tested containers exceeds 100 mg per day per L in moisture permeability.\nObjectives: The goal of this study was to determine rate of moisture permeability of selected High\nDensity Polyethylene plastic bottles for packaging of moisture sensitive medicines in particular\nLamivudine/Tenofovir Disoproxil fumarate tablets. Methodology: The determination of rate of\nmoisture permeability was achieved by assessing closure systems of plastics as per USP 37 <671>\nmethod, while the difference in absorption pattern was achieved by assessing the spectrum obtained\nthrough transmittance by Fourier Transform-Infrared (FT-IR). The plastic bottles were\nrandomly selected from supplier A, B and C. Results: The plastic bottles from supplier A and B had an average moisture permeability of 12.57 and 51.55 mg/day/L with none of the containers exceeding\nmoisture permeability of 100 mg/day/L whereas containers from supplier C had an average\nof 149.95 mg/day/L with seven of the containers exceeding of 100 mg/day/L. Conclusion: Containers\nfrom supplier A and B met the USP specifications hence could be used as primary packaging\nfor moisture sensitive medicines whereas the containers from supplier C did not meet the USP\nspecifications for them to be regarded as ââ?¬Å?Tight Containersââ?¬Â and hence, unsuitable for packaging\nof moisture sensitive medicines....
Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge and perceptions\nof patients towards generic medicines in some Emirates of the United Arab\nEmirates. Methods: A cross-sectional survey involving patients in three Emirates was\nundertaken. A 23-item questionnaire was designed, pre-validated and administered.\nResults: The questionnaire was fully answered by 96 patients out of 120 producing a\nresponse rate of 80%. The majority of patients were young Arab females with a university\ndegree. Slightly less than 50% of patients were having a monthly income of\nless than ED 10,000. Results of the patient�s survey indicate that they have poor\nknowledge and perception of generic medicines. They did not know the meaning of\ngeneric or brand medicines and this negatively influenced their responses to consequent\nquestions. Conclusion: Patients� knowledge and perception of generic drugs\nwere poor. Efforts are needed to increase public awareness of generic drugs and\npossible brand substitution. Both the prescribing physician and the dispensing\npharmacists have an essential role to play in educating their patients of generic\ndrugs....
As the majority of prescribing in hospital is undertaken by intern doctors, the aims of\nthis systematic review were to compile the evidence of the qualitative literature on the views and\nexperiences of intern doctors and to examine the role of the pharmacist in assisting in prescribing\nby interns. A systematic review of the qualitative literature was done according to the Preferred\nReporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Statement. The findings\nwere synthesized using thematic analysis. Seven publications were included. Factors influencing\nprescribing behaviour were related to the environment; collaboration in medical teams; hierarchical\nstructures; and patient and individual factors. This review confirmed that interns� prescribing\nbehaviour is influenced by multiple factors, and further highlighted the need for an educational\nintervention that supports the intern completing the prescribing task in a complex environment, and\nnot just addresses the presumed knowledge gap(s)....
The objective of the PHAR-QA (Quality assurance in European pharmacy education and\ntraining) project was to investigate how competence-based learning could be applied to a healthcare,\nsectoral profession such as pharmacy. This is the first study on evaluation of competences from the\npharmacistsââ?¬â?¢ perspective using an improved Delphi method with a large number of respondents from\nall over Europe. This paper looks at the way in which hospital pharmacists rank the fundamental\ncompetences for pharmacy practice. European hospital pharmacists (n = 152) ranked 68 competences\nfor pharmacy practice of two types (personal and patient care), arranged into 13 clusters. Results\nwere compared to those obtained from community pharmacists (n = 258). Generally, hospital and\ncommunity pharmacists rank competences in a similar way. Nevertheless, differences can be detected.\nThe higher focus of hospital pharmacists on knowledge of the different areas of science as well as on\nlaboratory tests reflects the idea of a hospital pharmacy specialisation. The difference is also visible in\nthe field of drug production. This is a necessary competence in hospitals with requests for drugs for rare diseases, as well as paediatric and oncologic drugs. Hospital pharmacists give entrepreneurship\na lower score, but cost-effectiveness a higher one than community pharmacists. This reflects the\nreality of pharmacy practice where community pharmacists have to act as entrepreneurs, and hospital\npharmacists are managers staying within drug budgets. The results are discussed in the light of a\nââ?¬Å?hospital pharmacyââ?¬Â specialisation....
Background: The elderly are frequently exposed to drug related problems causing hospitalizations and increased\ncosts of care. Information about Romanian prescribing practices among the elderly and potential medication\nassociated- risks is lacking. The objective of this study was to identify and compare the most frequent potentially\ninappropriate medications (PIM) recommended to ambulatory and institutionalized Romanian elderly, through an\nobservational retrospective design.\nMethods: All reimbursed medications prescribed to a sample of ambulatory elderly accessing two community\npharmacies and all medications recommended to a group of institutionalized elderly (urban facilities, Romania,\nsame month) were analyzed. The STOPP/START criteria and the PRISCUS list were used for PIM identification and for\nclassification as misprescribed, underprescribed or overprescribed -subtypes.\nResults: The analysis involved 345 prescriptions recommended to ambulatory elderly and 91 medical files available\nfor the institutionalized patients. The ambulatory elderly had a mean age of 74.8 years old and were daily exposed\nto a median number of 3 prescribed medications. The institutionalized elderly were older (mean age 80.77)\nreceived 8 medications daily and 69 % of them were functionally dependent. Cardiovascular and neuropsychiatric\nindications were the most frequent: 64.34 % and 18.55 % of the ambulatory prescriptions, 93.40 % and 41.75 % of\nthe institutionalized patients� medical files. 159 PIM were identified on 34.49 % of the ambulatory prescriptions. 82.\n41 % of the institutionalized patients� medical files contained 140 PIM. The potential underprescribing of\ncardiovascular therapies was the most frequent PIM category on the ambulatory prescriptions (55.34 % of all PIM),\nwhile for the institutionalized patients� medical files, the misprescribed and overprescribed PIM were those\npredominantly represented (62.14 % and 27.14 % of all PIM). In both subgroups of data, NSAIDs (56.66 % of\nambulatory prescriptions and 35.63 % of institutionalized patients� data) and benzodiazepines (26.66 % of\nambulatory prescriptions and 24.13 % of institutionalized patient�s data) were predominantly misprescribed.\nAnticholinergics were rarely used (0.62 % of total PIM from ambulatory prescriptions, 2.14 % of total PIM from\ninstitutionalized patients� data).\nConclusions: The PIM identified in both elderly groups suggested potential risks for the occurrence of adverse\nevents specific to the elderly population. Larger studies, both observational and interventional, are needed to\nensure a safer therapeutic approach....
Antibiotics are one of the most widely prescribed drugs among pediatric patients. To prevent antimicrobial resistance, antibiotics must be prescribed rationally. The main objective of our study is to determine trend or prescribing pattern of antibiotics in hospitalized pediatric patients. A total number of 50 patients case sheets were utilized for our study. Patients with history of various infections and undergone antibiotic therapy were included in our study. The most prevalent disease was pneumonia, followed by gastroenteritis. Cephalosporins group of drugs like ceftriaxone and cefotaxime were the most frequently prescribed antibiotics. Combination of ceftriaxone and tazobactum were widely prescribed combinations, however, ceftriaxone and amikacin were most commonly used combination of antibiotics from different categories....
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