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Body temperature is a crucial indicator in assessing human physiological activity and health, particularly in pediatric and critically ill patients. This study aimed to compare temperature recordings obtained from digital calibrated thermometers with calibrated infrared thermometers and non‑calibrated infrared thermometers against calibrated ones. An observational prospective study was conducted at AIIMS Bhopal, involving volunteers and febrile patients who consented to participate. Approval was obtained from the Institutional Human Ethics Committee, and 200 participants meeting inclusion/exclusion criteria were included. Data were collected and analyzed using Microsoft Excel. Mean and variance values were computed for both volunteer and febrile patient groups. The P values in both groups were less than 0.05, indicating a significant difference between non‑calibrated handheld infrared thermometers (T1), calibrated digital thermometers (T2), and their individual comparison with calibrated infrared thermometers (T3). Variance was higher in non‑calibrated infrared thermometers (T1) compared to calibrated ones (T2) in both healthy volunteers and febrile patients. Pearson’s correlation coefficient analysis within the febrile patient group demonstrated a robust positive correlation among all three thermometers compared to the healthy volunteers group. The study highlights variations in temperature readings when using different thermometers, irrespective of whether the assessment is conducted on healthy volunteers or febrile patients. Notably, the strength of association is lower in healthy volunteers than in febrile patients, suggesting that the interchangeability of thermometers may be more reliable and sufficient when assessing individuals with fever. These findings underscore the importance of careful consideration and validation of thermometer choices, especially in clinical settings where accurate temperature measurement is critical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postgraduate medical students are often not able to select and interpret the findings of statistical tests during their thesis or research projects. To go ahead with selection of tests to be performed, researchers need to determine the objectives of study, types of variables, analysis and the study design, number of groups and data sets, and the types of distribution. In this review, we summarize and explain various statistical tests to help postgraduate medical students to select the most appropriate techniques for their thesis and dissertation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Data from point prevalence surveys (PPSs) in India are scarce. Conducting PPSs is especially challenging in the absence of electronic medical records, a lack of dedicated resources and a high patient load in resource-poor settings. This multicentre survey was conducted to provide background data for planning and strengthening antimicrobial stewardship programmes across the country.Methods: This inpatient PPS was conducted over 2 weeks in May 2019 simultaneously across five study centres in India. Data about patient characteristics, indications for antimicrobials use and details of each antimicrobial prescribed including supportive investigation reports were collected in predesigned forms.Results: A total of 3473 admitted patients in wards and ICUs were covered across five study centres. Of these, 1747 (50.3%) patients were on antimicrobials, with 46.9% patients being on two or more antimicrobials. Out of the total antimicrobials prescribed, 40.2% of the antimicrobials were prescribed for community-acquired infection requiring hospitalization followed by surgical prophylaxis (32.6%). Third-generation cephalosporins and drugs from the 'Watch' category were prescribed most commonly. Only 22.8% of the antimicrobials were based on microbiology reports.Conclusions: The survey demonstrated a high use of antimicrobials in admitted patients with a considerable proportion of drugs from the 'Watch' category. The targets for interventions that emerged from the survey were: improving surgical prophylaxis, decreasing double anaerobic cover, initiating culture of sending cultures and de-escalation with targeted therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hence, strict vigilance of medical devices is required to eliminate the use of such medical devices which do not meet the minimum quality requirements. Materiovigilance is the close monitoring of any undesirable performance or characteristic fluctuations of a medical device by means of a system which is capable of identifying, collecting, reporting and reacting to them, with field safety corrective actions or device recalls, during the post-marketing phase of a medical device.[[1]],[[2]] It entails medical devices and in-vitro diagnostics whereas, pharmacovigilance includes close monitoring and post-marketing surveillance of medicines. In the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, various medical devices are being used for prevention or treatment of the disease. [Extracted from the article]

Background The intensive care unit (ICU) represents an important platform for conducting drug utilization analysis using defined daily dose (DDD)/100 bed-days and the financial burden of treatment as patients are seriously ill and are often suffering from chronic critical illnesses. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the drug utilization patterns and cost of treatment in the ICU. Methods A retrospective observational analysis of the medical records obtained for the medical ICU of an apex tertiary care teaching hospital in central India was conducted for a period of three years from 2017 to 2019. All the patients admitted to the medical ICU during the study tenure were included in the study. Patients hospitalized in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), and surgical ICU were excluded from the study. The socio-demographic and clinical data, utilization of different classes of drugs, WHO-Anatomic Therapeutic Chemical (WHO-ATC) classification, DDD/100 bed days, hospital stay, etc. were analyzed. A partial pharmaco-economic analysis of the average cost of admission to patients was done. Results Data from 280 patients was assessed. The mean age was 47 ± 19.18 years and 58% were males. Antibiotics and injections were prescribed to 96% and 97.5% of the patients, respectively, during their ICU stay (median: seven days). Antimicrobial drugs were most frequently prescribed (n=1096, 68%); the most common were beta-lactams and carbapenems, followed by drugs acting on the central nervous system (5%) and cardiovascular system (4.3%). Cefoperazone/sulbactum, ceftriaxone, and piperacillin/tazobactam were the most utilized antibiotics with 8, 16, and 6 DDD/100 bed-days, respectively, while proton pump inhibitors, analgesics, and anti-epileptics were the most frequently prescribed non-antimicrobial drug class. The median cost of treatment per ICU admission was Indian Rupees (INR) 23,347 (IQR 12,552- 65,524). Conclusion Drug utilization assessment provides crucial information for understanding the usage of drugs in the settings of the ICU, and should be conducted regularly to help in the proper planning and implementation of rational drug use. Treatment costs reflect the high economic burden seen in ICU admissions., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2024, Atal et al.)