Search

Abstract Background Treatment cost and high prevalence of Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is a very challenging issue globally. Due to this reason; current study was conducted to determine pharmaco-economy of conventional and non-conventional treatments for the management of PCOS. Methods Prospective Cross-Sectional study was conducted in the metropolitan city of Karachi from January – December 2019. Primary data of 200 PCOS patients were collected from different hospitals and clinics. An instrument was used to collect data pertaining to the direct and indirect cost associated with the disease management. Collected data was analyzed by the tools for cost analysis and software called Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) – 22. Results In Cost Minimization Analysis (CMA); Allopathic treatment [Mean cost/month: PKR:4479.32 ± 350.95 (USD:27.46 ± 2.15)], Herbal treatment [Mean cost/month: PKR:1527.78 ± 78.15 (USD:9.37 ± 0.48)], Combination treatment [Mean cost/month: PKR:2803.09 ± 654.22 (USD:17.18 ± 4.01)], and Homoeopathic treatment [Mean cost/month: PKR:976.95 ± 46.19 (USD:5.99 ± 0.28)]. Incremental cost/month for Allopathic treatment is 358%, Herbal treatment is 56%, Combination treatment is 187%. In Cost Effectiveness Analysis (CEA); Allopathic treatment (Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio/month: 1334.24), Herbal treatment (Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio/month: 936.41), Combination treatment (Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio/month: 1017.09). Due to lowest cost of Homeopathic treatment, cost of Homeopathic treatment was considered as a threshold value. In-direct cost/month of Allopathic treatment is PKR:593.33 ± 24.00 (USD:3.64 ± 0.15), Herbal treatment is PKR:307.84 ± 26.69 (USD:1.89 ± 0.16), Combination treatment is PKR:409.09 ± 45.63 (USD:2.51 ± 0.28) and Homoeopathic treatment is PKR:300.00 ± 26.39 (USD:1.84 ± 0.16). Conclusion The most cost-effective is treatment is Homeopathic; Herbal treatment is second most cost-effective option for the treatment of PCOS. Lowest direct and indirect costs and short treatment duration collaboratively lessen the %incremental cost per year and incremental cost effectiveness ratio per year.

Abstract We present a novel framework to predict recessions, the depth of recessions (mild or severe) and monetary policy pivots. The first phase introduces three ways to predict recessions. The [...]

This mixed-method study investigates the state of media and information literacy education in Pakistan by underlining the availability of relevant courses and trained teaching and research faculty at both public and private universities. Using United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) framework, this study explores the perception of faculty members across six key areas of general education and teacher development to improve the quality of media and information literacy in the country. These six key areas include (a) policy and vision, (b) curriculum and assessment, (c) pedagogy, (d) media and information, (e) organization and administration, and (f) teachers' professional development.

Poly-herbal therapies for chronic diseases like diabetes mellitus (DM) have been practiced in south Asia for centuries. One of such therapies comprises of Hordeum vulgare, Elettaria cardamomum and Cicer arietinum that have shown encouraging therapeutic potential in the treatment of diabetes and obesity. Therefore, poly-herbal granules (PHGs) of this formula were developed and investigated for their anti-diabetic and anti-obesity potential in obese-diabetic rats. The developed PHGs were chemical characterized and the virtual molecular docking was performed by Discovery studio visualizer (DSV) software. For in-vivo experiment, obesity in rats was induced with high-fat high-sugar diet. After that, diabetes was induced by alloxan monohydrate 150 mg/kg i.p. injection. The diseased rats were treated with PHGs at 250, 500 and 750 mg/kg/day for four weeks. GC-MS analysis of PHGs demonstrated the presence of 1,3-Benzenedicarboxylic acid bis(2-ethylhexyl) ester and 1,2-Benzenedicarboxylic acid di-isooctyl ester and phenol, 2,4-bis(1,1-dimethylethyl). Molecular docking of these compounds demonstrated higher binding energies with receptor than metformin against α-amylase and α-glucosidase. PHGs exhibited a decline in body weight, HbA1c, hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia, and insulin resistance in diseased rats. The histopathological examination revealed that PHGs improved the alloxan-induced damage to the pancreas. Furthermore, PHGs increased the SOD, CAT and GSH while and the decreased the level of MDA in the liver, kidney and pancreas of diseased rats. Additionally, the PHGs had significantly downregulated the TNF-α and NF-κB while upregulated the expression of NrF-2. The current study demonstrated that the PHGs exhibited anti-diabetic and anti-obesity potential through amelioration of oxidative stress, NF-κB, TNF-α, and NrF-2 due to the presence of different phytochemicals.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is the most prevalent endocrine disorder. Numerous individual herbs possess anti-diabetic activity. The seeds of Hordeum vulgare, Elettaria cardamomum and Cicer arietinum are traditionally used to manage DM. The ambition of this work was to formulate the poly-herbal granules (PHGs) comprising of these three functional foods and evaluate their in-vitro antioxidant and antidiabetic potential. The dried seed extracts of Hordeum vulgare, Elettaria cardamomum and Cicer arietinum were used in a ratio of 2.5:1:1 to formulate PHGs by wet granulation method. The ratio of extracts was selected on the basis of traditional phytotherapies popularly used by local Hakeems of Pakistan to achieve glycemic control in diabetic patients resistant to traditional allopathic regime of medicine. The flow properties of developed PHGs were evaluated. The UV–Visible spectroscopic, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and HPLC-DAD of all seed extracts and PHGs were performed. The in-vitro antioxidant DPPH, FRAP, total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and Nitric Oxide (NO) scavenging assays were carried out on PHGs. The in-vitro antidiabetic activity of PHGs was investigated by alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase enzyme inhibition activity. The developed PHGs exhibited excellent flow properties. The UV–Vis spectra of all seed extracts and PHGs demonstrated peak at 278 nm showing the presence of flavonoids and phenols. The FTIR spectra confirmed the existence of flavonoids, and phenols along with amines in seed extracts as well as PHGs. The HPLC-DAD test revealed the existence of gallic acid, ascorbic acid, Quercetin-3-(caffeoyldiglucoside)-7-glucoside, Rosmarinic acid, delphinidin-3,5-diglucosides, Kaempferol-3-feruloylsophoroside-7-glucoside and Phloroglucinol in PHGs. The PHGs exhibited IC50 of 51.23, 58.57, 55.41 and 53.13 μg/mL in DPPH assay, FRAP assay, TAC, Nitric oxide scavenging assays respectively. The PHGs also demonstrated IC50 of 49.97 and 36.16 μg/mL in alpha-amylase and in alpha-glucosidase inhibition assays respectively in dose dependent manner. The developed PHGs exhibited an excellent flow property. These exhibit significant in-vitro antioxidant and antidiabetic profile by virtue of flavonoid and phenolic acid derivatives.

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence and types of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities among patients with cancer in Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from March 2021 to December 2021. Five hundred patients with cancer were invited to participate in the study. Electronic databases, namely, Google scholar, Publons, EMBASE, PubMed, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, and ResearchGate was used for questionnaire designed. The self-administered survey included questions on demographic characteristics, education level, socio-economic conditions and information about CAM therapies, prevalence, effectiveness, and common CAM modalities. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS software version 22. Results: Out of the 500 invited patients, 433 (86.6%) successfully completed and returned the questionnaires. In contrast to patients who were with younger, highly educated, professionally active, higher income, and had advanced cancer, time since diagnosis, type of treatment, cancer types and family history are significantly associated with CAM use. The results showed that 59.8% of the participants were acquainted with complementary and/or alternative medicine and considered safe owing to its natural ingredients. The prevalence of CAM usage among cancer patients was 40.9% and the most widely used CAM modality was herbal medicine (27.7%) and dietary supplements (28.8%). Patients used CAM as a complementary therapy to improve the morphological parameter (28.2%), strengthen the immune system (6.8%), and to decrease the side effects of conventional treatment (18.1%). Most of the respondents get the information regarding CAM therapy from the electronic media (43.2%) and the family members (48%) rather than healthcare personnel. Conclusions: Participants used CAM modalities along with the conventional health care practices. Further multicentre studies should be conducted to provide information regarding the usage of CAM therapies and their eventual benefits in patients with cancer.

The time-fractional cable model is solved using an extended cubic B-spline (ECBS) collocation strategy. The B-spline function was used for space partitioning, while the Caputo-Fabrizio (CF) was used for temporal discretization. The finite difference technique was used to discretize the CF operator. For the first time in cable modeling, the CF operator has been used. In terms of time, the convergence of order τ\tau . An ECBS collocation approach is investigated by numerical example at different values, and comparisons with published work are made. The numerical results show that the scheme performed well, and the graphical representations show that the results are very close to exact values. The Von Neumann technique is applied to investigate the stability of the proposed scheme.