Background: Hypertension is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular disease. Though many clinical guidelines published recently for the treatment of hypertension, there is substantial variation in the treatment of hypertension in different countries. Aims and objectives: To evaluate the drug utilization pattern among hypertensive patients and their adverse effects attending medicine OPD in a tertiary care teaching hospital. Materials and Methods: A prospective, observational study was conducted by Department of Pharmacology in a tertiary care teaching hospital over a period of six months. The diagnosis and line of treatment to be given was decided by the physician in charge of the Department of Medicine. All the information of ADR was recorded in CDSCO Suspected ADR reporting form. Results: Out of 600 patients, 43.83% were male and 56.17% were female. Maximum patients belonged to age group of 51-60 years (33.5%). Diabetes mellitus (40.33%) was the most common associated disease with hypertension. About half of the patients had received two antihypertensive drugs (49.50%), followed by one (33.16%) and three (15.5%) antihypertensive drugs. Enalapril was the most commonly prescribed antihypertensive drug (79.66%). 95 patients (15.83%) from the total of 600 patients developed ADR. Most common ADR was cough (18.94%) followed by headache (12.63%) and vomiting (10.52%). Enalapril was responsible for about half of the ADR (50.52%) followed by amlodipine (25.26%) and furosemide (25.26%). Conclusion: Rational utilization pattern of antihypertensive drugs was observed. However diuretics and calcium channel blockers prescribed less commonly. Most of the ADRs were probable (55.79%) and mild (30.53%).

Background: Bacterial sepsis is one of the most common causes of mortality and morbidity in neonates. The spectrum of bacteria that cause neonatal sepsis varies, and antibiotic resistance is an increasing problem of these bacteria. Objective: To determine the bacteriological profile and antibiotic sensitivity pattern of neonatal sepsis in the neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU), so that the empirical antibiotics can be decided to tackle the organisms in the NICU.

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Objective: The objective of this study was to determine antimicrobial drug use in newborns at a tertiary care neonatal intensive care unit, to identify educational/research priorities in neonatal drug therapy. Materials and Methods: This prospective observational study included 713 patients of neonatal sepsis over a period of 18 months. Data like name, age, sex, birth weight, gestational age, antibiotics used were recorded in the previously prepared case record form. Results: Number of patients admitted in early neonatal period was 467(65.5%) and number of patients admitted in late neonatal period was 246(34.5%). The mean age of all patients being admitted in NICU was 6.23 ± 5.86 days. The majority of neonates (92.56%) were prescribed 2 to 5 antibiotics and 29.59% of neonates were prescribed 2 antibiotics. Average number of antibiotics of all patients being admitted was 3.74 ± 1.38. Most frequently used antibiotics in decreasing frequency were: Amikacin (97.19%), ampicillin + sulbactam (60.17%), vancomycin (57.64%), ceftazidime (38.71%), cefotaxime (34.22%), ciprofloxacin (26.23%), piperacillin + tazobactam (19.07%). 73% drugs were given by generic name and 53.33% drugs were prescribed from the essential drug list. Mean length of stay in NICU of all patients being admitted was 7.59 ± 5.66 days. Conclusion: The present study provides valuable insight about the overall pattern of antimicrobial drug use profile in patients of neonatal sepsis of a tertiary care hospital. It is intended to be a step in broader evaluation of safety and efficacy of drug prescription in neonatal sepsis patients.