Background: The Pharmacovigilance Programme of India envisages that "All" health care professionals will play an important role in making the program a success. Nurses and midwives have better population outreach as compared to physicians alone. The objectives were to assess the knowledge of pharmacovigilance among the nurses of a tertiary care hospital. Methods: The study was conducted from the month of March 2015 to July 2015. Nurses were provided pre-structured questionnaire for filling after explaining the aim and objectives of the study. Responses were pooled and analyzed. Results: 100 nurses returned completed forms. 63% respondents had heard about the term pharmacovigilance. 41% of these could correctly define it. All the respondents had heard about adverse drug reaction (ADR), 39% could correctly define it. 35% of the participants were of the opinion that both doctors and nurses should report ADR. 76% were not aware of any National Programme of Pharmacovigilance. 72% of nurses claimed to be aware of common ADRs of the drugs they routinely administered by them. 81% of the nurses were not routinely informed to be on lookout for specific drug reactions by the treating physicians. 91% of nurses were of the opinion that periodic pharmacovigilance training will benefit ADR reporting with 58% favoring yearly workshops.
Conclusion:The present study focused on the major lacunae in efficient ADR reporting. Nurses being a major stakeholder in healthcare delivery, can be mobilized in the field of ADR reporting, which currently is not the norm, albeit with adequate training.
Early treatment can reverse and retard the complications associated with hypertension. The main aim of the ABSTRACT Background: Beta blockers have been used in the treatment of hypertension, since last four decades and are widely accepted as the first-line treatment for hypertension. Nebivolol, a third generation β-blocker has highest β1 selectivity and is devoid of intrinsic sympathomimetic activity. Along with peripheral vasodilatation and nitric oxide (NO)-induced benefits such as antioxidant activity and reversal of endothelial dysfunction, nebivolol promotes better protection from cardiovascular events. The objective of the study was to compare the effects of atenolol and nebivolol on both blood pressure and lipid profile in patients of mild to moderate hypertension. Methods: This was a prospective, randomized, parallel, open labelled study. Patients were recruited from the medicine out-patient department (OPD) and cardiology OPD. A total of 100 patients were enrolled in the study. 50 patients were allocated to atenolol group and 50 patients to nebivolol group. BP and baseline investigations such as lipid profile were performed. Tests to determine lipid profile were performed on the first visit (Week 0) and at 24 weeks. Continuous variables between the two treatment groups were analyzed by unpaired t-test. Efficacy endpoints within the group were analyzed by using paired t-test.
Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in India and worldwide. Hypercholesterolemia plays a pivotal role in atherogenesis which gave rise to universally accepted cholesterol diet-CVD hypothesis. Statins are the most potent and commonly used drugs for treating hypercholesterolemia. With atorvastatin, because of the long lasting active metabolites, half-life of HMG-CoA reductase inhibition reaches 20 to 30 hours. Thus, it is conceivable that alternate-day atorvastatin treatment might be effective in maintaining the lipid-lowering efficacy. Methods: In this prospective, randomized, open labelled, parallel group study, 100 participants with serum low density cholesterol (LDL-C) level 100 mg/dL-190 mg/dL were recruited. Group A received 20 mg atorvastatin on alternate day and group B received 20 mg atorvastatin daily for 12 weeks. Follow up visits were scheduled at 6 and 12 weeks at which fasting serum LDL-C, serum TC, serum TG, serum HDL were estimated. Creatinine phosphokinase (CPK), aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine transaminase (ALT) estimations were also done and participants were examined for occurrence of myalgia, jaundice or any other adverse effect.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.