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Objectives: Legislative and regulatory bodies in Canada have authorized pharmacists to prescribe in different provinces. Albertan pharmacists have the broadest prescribing scope. Our objective was to cluster Albertan pharmacists into different prescriber groups based on their self‐reported prescribing practice and to compare the groups according to practice settings, the proportion of Additional Prescribing Authority (APA) pharmacists and support experiences. Methods: A cross‐sectional survey was administered among a sample of 700 Albertan practicing registered pharmacists in 2013 to identify their involvement in different types of prescribing activities. Cluster analysis was used to group participants based on their reported prescribing practices. Chi‐squared test was used to compare prescriber groups by practice settings and the proportion of APA pharmacists. One‐way analysis of variance was used to compare the groups by their support experiences. Key findings: Three major groups of pharmacist prescriber were identified – 'renewal prescriber' (74%), 'Modifier' (17%) and 'Wide ranged prescriber' (9%). Prevalence of 'renewal prescriber' in the community setting was 85.8% whereas 'Modifier' was predominant (66.7%) in the collaborative setting. Higher support experience facilitated the wide range prescribing. Pharmacists with APA were most likely to be classified into 'Modifier' (17.6%) or 'Wide ranged prescriber' (13.8%) groups than the 'renewal prescriber' group (3.1%). Conclusions: Although legislation allowed Albertan pharmacists to have the broadest scope of prescribing authority, few are practicing with the fullest scope. Prescribing practice varies based on practice setting and support experience. Future research could explore factors influencing the types of adoption and measure the shifting of prescribing type over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ashraful Hoque,1 Anindita Das Barshan,2 Forhad Uddin Hasan Chowdhury,2 Jannatul Fardous,3 Mohammad Jahid Hasan,3 Md Abdullah Saeed Khan,3 Ahmedul Kabir4 1Department of Blood Transfusion, Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, Dhaka, Bangladesh; 2Department of Medicine, Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh; 3Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease Division, Pi Research Consultancy Center, Dhaka, Bangladesh; 4Department of Medicine, Mugda Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, BangladeshCorrespondence: Mohammad Jahid Hasan Email dr.jahid61@gmail.com; jahid@pircc.orgPurpose: The aim of the study was to assess the antibody response to the ChAdOx1-nCoV vaccine in individuals who were not previously infected by COVID-19.Patients and Methods: All people aged 18– 65 years who received their first vaccination with ChAdOx1-nCoV from March to May 2021 were approached for inclusion. Individuals with sufficient antibody titers against SARS-CoV-2 infection before vaccination were considered previously infected and were excluded from the analysis. We observed viral spike protein RBD-S1-specific IgG antibody levels at day 28 of the first dose of vaccination and day 14 of the second dose of vaccination (74 days from index vaccination). An optical density ratio (ODR) of > 1.1 was considered to have a positive antibody response, 0.8 to 1.1 borderline and < 0.8 was denoted as negative. Informed consent was ensured before enrollment, and ethical principles conformed with the current Declaration of Helsinki.Results: This observational study comprised 769 infection-naïve individuals (mean age 40.5 years, 38.9% female). Spike-specific IgG antibody responses elicited after the first and second doses of vaccine were 99.9% and 100%, respectively. The median ODR was 5.43 (interquartile range [IQR]: 4.32– 6.98) and 10.90 (IQR 9.02– 11.90) after the first and second doses. Higher age was associated with lower antibody levels after both dosages. However, no sex-specific variation was seen. People with comorbidity had a lower antibody level after the second dose. Tenderness (51.46%) and fever (19.30%) were the most common local and systemic side effects after vaccination.Conclusion: This study was one of the earlier attempts in the country to assess the antibody response to ChAdOx1-nCoV vaccine recipients. The results imply that general people should be encouraged to take the vaccine at their earliest.Keywords: ChAdOx1-nCoV, vaccine, COVID-19, Bangladesh, antibody response

Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the commonest of all congenital lesions and is the most common type of heart diseases among children. Anthropometric evaluation is very important for early recognition of growth failure in children with cyanotic and acyanotic congenital heart diseases. Methods: This comparative cross sectional study was undertaken with the objective to compare the growth of children with cyanotic and acyanotic congenital heart disease using anthropometric measurement in Department of Paediatrics, Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital from March, 2014 to September, 2014. Sixty children aged 6 months to 60 months with CHD, were included in this study, where 30 children with cyanotic and 30 children with acyanotic CHD, confirmed by Echocardiogram. Results: All the children (100%) with cyanotic congenital heart disease were underweight (Weight for age Z score). Among them, 23.33% had moderate and 76.67% had severe underweight. In children with acyanotic congenital heart disease, 93.33% had underweight. Among them, 20% had moderate and 73.33% had severe underweight. The p-value was 0.35008. In cyanotic congenital heart disease, 96.67% children had stunting. Among them, 13.33% had moderate and 83.33% had severe stunting. In acyanotic congenital heart disease, 43.33% children had stunting. Among them, 33.33% had moderate and 10% had severe stunting. There was significant statistical deference in between the two groups, (pvalue was <0.0001). In cyanotic congenital heart disease, 43.33% children had wasting. Among them, 30% had moderate and 13.33% had severe wasting. In acyanotic congenital heart disease, 76.67% children had wasting. Among them, 30% had moderate and 46.67% had severe wasting. There was significant deference in the groups (p value was 0.0077). Conclusion: Growth failure was common in children with both cyanotic and acyanotic congenital heart disease. There was no significant difference in weight for age Z score (WAZ) of patients with cyanotic and acyanotic CHD but stunting was significantly higher in patients with cyanotic CHD and wasting was significantly higher in patients with acyanotic CHD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Al substituted Co0.4Cu0.2Zn0.4AlxFe2-xO4(x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5) ferrites have been prepared using auto combustion route. X-ray diffraction studies revealed the formation of single phase spinel type cubical structure. The dielectric properties of the samples at room temperature have been studied over the frequency range of 20 Hz to 15 MHz. The dielectric constant and loss tangent is found to decrease with increasing Al content. Dielectric spectra analysis and modulus show the non-Debye type behavior in the material. Complex impedance spectra of the samples have been analyzed and explained using the Cole-Cole expression. The complex impedance data are indicative of the dominance of grain boundary resistance. AC conductivity has a trend to decrease with Al content and a shift of hopping frequency towards lower frequency is also observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Blood transfusion is a life saving intervention in some obstetric and gynecological cases but is associated with risk of transfusion reaction and transmission of infection . Appropriate use of blood and blood products is of utmost importance for the safety of the patients. During the evaluation of an ongoing study on PPH,it appears that rate of blood transfusion is unexpectedly high in this centre, which raised the inquisitiveness in evaluating the rate and rationality of blood transfusion in present practice. Objective : To determine the incidence of blood transfusion in admitted and operated cases and is also to evaluate the indication of transfusion among the study patients. Subject and Method: It was an observational descriptive study, conducted from 1st April 2012 to 30th June 2012 in department of obstetrics and gynecology of Ad-din Women Medical College Hospital , Dhaka . Total 256 cases were included for the study, who received blood and /or blood products during the study period. Results: Transfusion rate in total admitted patients was 9.23% . Most common indication for blood transfusion in obstetric patients was mild preoperative anaemia with or without excessive bleeding during cesarean section (63.92%) and second common cause was antenatal anaemia (24.05%). In gynecological cases abortion (45.91%) was the commonest indication for blood transfusion and next common conditions were total abdominal hysterectomy (20.40%),vaginal hysterectomy (7.14%), ectopic pregnancy and post coital tear (6.12%) and( 6.12%). Conclusion: In this study it was observed that, blood transfusion was not appropriate in all cases, specially in cases where single unit blood was transfused . So creation of awareness among the junior doctors, obstetricians, nurses - midwives is essential by developing regular education and training programme . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]