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In India, end-stage renal disease (ESRD) complications have attained pervasive dimensions, and it is estimated that rates of illness will continue to increase in the future. When both kidneys are failing, it is like being sentenced to death and lifetime hemodialysis (HD) is the only possible solution. Hardly 10% of sufferers from ESRD throughout India are obtaining HD because of the difficulties encountered. The ESRD catastrophe in the young generation of working professionals is a huge socio-economical concern. End-stage renal failure is a result of various non-contagious ailments. As per the worldwide incidence of illness, chronic renal impairment was the ninth greatest standard trigger of the disease in India. Annually in India, encounter about 2.2 lakhs new patients with kidney disorders. The main impediments in obtaining proper therapy inter alia are enormous costs in corporate hospitals, facilities for the treatment in metro cities, a confined number of Nephrologists, etc. Approximately 4950 hemodialysis hubs are located under corporate stakeholders in India. Every single hemodialysis costs approx. INR 2000, which when calculated costs about INR 3-4 LPA. HD is effective medical care for ESRD. The outlay is at all the time important problem for HD sufferers. Moreover, the majority of the hemodialysis patients require an attendant from family amounting to a further increase in the cost. It has been considered that in respect of both, determining these life-significant life-saving techniques as well as for diminishing destitution on the attention of ongoing costs for sufferers, a healthcare scheme is imperative for hemodialysis patients. Renal replacement therapy (RRT) treatment within India is largely a privatize medical assistance enterprise making this a costly therapy option because of huge out-of-pocket outlays. At this stage, the vast majority of HD sufferers in India die without obtaining a suitable prognosis. There are a handful of healthcare schemes provided by the Central Government, State Governments, NGOs, and even hospitals. However, there is a dire need to bring awareness among the public and the benefits that each scheme provides.

Background: Prescription audit aids in evaluating the quality of medical treatment offered to the patients. It helps to discern any effective changes that would support health care professionals to proffer superior quality of care to the patients. Aim of the study is to carry out prescription audit in the outpatient pharmacy department of a tertiary care teaching hospital. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted on 500 prescriptions for a span of four months in the outpatient pharmacy department of a tertiary care teaching hospital in South Karnataka, India. All the prescriptions were analyzed based on WHO prescribing indicators and were evaluated for errors in prescription writing. Data were entered and analyzed using into SPSS. Graphic representation has been used for visual interpretation of the analyzed data. Results: Five hundred scripts comprising of 1,661 drugs were analyzed. The average number of drugs per prescription was three. The study encompassed 52% males and 48% females. Most patients were from the age group of 41-60 years. Only 3.6% (18) of medications were prescribed by generic names. Patients received 9% (145) medications contained in Essential Drug List and prescriptions containing antibiotics were 19% (97). Majority of the prescriptions were from Orthopaedics (18.6%) tailed by General Medicine (15.8%). Consecutively Analgesics (12.7%) were the most commonly prescribed drug class, among which Diclofenac and Paracetamol+Tramadol were usually prescribed, this was tailed by gastrointestinal medicines (11.7%). Conclusion: Prescription audit can be helpful to plan appropriate intervention to ensure the rational drug therapy and to evaluate the existing drug use pattern. It also reflects the perspectives of current prescribing pattern in hospitals. Key words: Prescription audit, WHO prescribing indicator, Essential drugs, Outpatient Pharmacy.

The present study evaluated the effects of protein intake on growth, nutrient utilization efficiency and body conformation traits in broilers. Three-hundred sixty (360) day-old chicks were distributed into 3 groups and offered starter diets containing 18, 19 or 20% protein up to 5th week. From each group, 96 pullets with higher body weight (BW) were selected and divided into high body weight (HB) and low body weight (LB) groups. The pullets of each BW group were distributed in 6 replicates. Three of the replicates were allotted to grower diets with 10 or 14% CP from 6-20 weeks. Pre-breeder and breeder diets were offered during 21-23 weeks and 24-50 weeks, respectively. For all groups, target 20th week BW was 2200g. Feed intake, BW and feed conversion efficiency were recorded. Body conformation traits were measured at 5th and 20th weeks. In conclusion, birds fed starter diet with 19% CP and grower diet with 14% CP had better body conformation, growth and feed efficiency.