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Background: Diabetes is a serious disease which is posing a great risk to the overall health care all around the globe. Major factor in its systemic adverse effects is the enhancement of lipolysis by prolonged hyperglycaemia ultimately leading to dyslipidemia. This dyslipidemia is a big risk feature for all cardiovascular diseases related to most of the diabetic patients. L arginine blessed with antioxidant properties can play a substantial role in the prevention, and management of diabetes and related complications. The study was aimed at finding the novel uses of L-Arginine in diabetes. Subject and method: 15 adult Sprague Dawley rats , only female (to avoid pregnancy) weighing 250+ 50 g were used in this study which were divided equally (five rats each) into three groups randomly after ensuring that their lipid profiles and blood sugar were normal. After keeping one group as Normal Control Group (NC), the remaining two groups were made quasi-analogue Type II diabetic model through administration of Streptozotocin (35 mg/kg) in a single dose intra-peritoneal (IP). After lapse of 48 hours, all the rats of two groups had shown blood sugar levels over 300 mg/dl and therefore were taken as diabetic. One of the two diabetic groups was taken as “Positive Control” with DM rats (DM), while the other was taken as treatment group DM+L-ARG Group”. Results: With regards to fasting blood sugar (BSF), total cholesterol (T-Chol), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL) and high density lipoprotein (HDL), Group III (DM+L-ARG) showed significant improvement with the p-value of less than 0.001. Conclusion: After conducting this experimental animal work, we are able to conclude that in Streptozotocin induced diabetic model, the novel use of antioxidant L-Arginine with good safety profile and minimal adverse effects also has significant anti-hyperglycemic and anti-lipidemic activity.

Objective: To evaluate the chondroprotective effects of hyaluronic acid in a rat model of osteoarthritis. Study Design: Laboratory based experimental study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Pharmacology, Army Medical College, Rawalpindi, in alliance with National Institute of health, Islamabad and Department of Pathology, Army Medical College Rawalpindi, from Apr to Jun 2019. Methodology: Sixteen (16) rats of Sprague Dawley breed were procured in this study. Osteoarthritis was induced in right knee joint of rats by surgical resection of medial meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament. They were allocated into two (02) groups with eight (08) rats in both groups. Group-I was control group that was treated with 0.2 ml intra articular saline once weekly for four weeks. While group-II was treatment group that was intra particularly administered with 0.2ml hyaluronic acid once weekly for four weeks. One week after the last dosage, gait pattern of the animals was scored. Then animals were sacrificed and a part of proximal tibia was obtained for histopathologic analysis. Results: Mean gait score of control group and treatment group was 3.25 ± 0.707 and 1.00 ± 0.756 respectively with a statistically significant p-value of

Background: Overuse of antibiotics is a significant problem in low- and middle-income countries where recommended treatment guidelines are not routinely practiced, resulting in antimicrobial resistance. Acute respiratory tract infections, mostly viral in origin, remain the clinical category for most commonly prescribed antibiotics. Due to the lack of local evidence about antibiotic prescribing trends in such infections, this study was conducted to evaluate the prescribing patterns in general and antibiotic prescribing trends specifically in prescriptions with the diagnosis of acute respiratory infections in district Mirpur of Azad Kashmir. Patients and methods: A prospective cross-sectional study carried out in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Army Medical College, Rawalpindi, and outpatient departments of public health facilities in district Mirpur, Kashmir, from Aug to Oct 2020. Data were collected from 10 different public health facilities in District Mirpur, Kashmir including, three rural health centers (RHC) and five basic health units (BHU). Prescribing pattern analysis by objective observations of the prescriptions after patient-physician encounter against the World Health Organization defined core prescribing indicators. The appropriateness of antibiotic use was analyzed against clinical practice guidelines. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26 was used for data analysis. Descriptive analysis was done to find frequencies and percentages for categorical data and means and standard deviation for continuous data. Results: Total number of prescriptions evaluated was 144. Number of prescriptions containing antibiotics was 118 (82%) (standard, 20 - 26.8%). Inappropriate use of antibiotics was seen in 78% of cases where no antibiotics were indicated. The average number of medicines per prescription was 3.11 (standard, 2.1), whereas 79% of medicines prescribed were from the national essential medicine list (standard, 100%). Only 2.5% (standard, 100%) of the medications were prescribed with generic names. Conclusion: This study shows an inappropriate and overuse of antibiotics for acute respiratory tract infections, indicating a lack of adherence to core prescribing indicators and clinical guidelines by the physicians in outpatient clinics of Mirpur.

Objective: To assess the role of pregabalin as premedication for preoperative sedation & anxiolysis with two different doses in laparoscopic cholecystectomy patients. Study Design: Prospective, randomized control study Place and Duration of Study: Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Army Medical College, Rawalpindi in collaboration with Department of Anesthesiology, CMH, Rawalpindi from February 2019 to July 2019. Patients & Methods: 96 patients of either gender, aged between 18 to 60 years with ASA grade I-II, undergoing elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy were enrolled in this study. They were randomly divided into three groups having 32 patients each. Group 1 received oral placebo drug, Group 2 received oral pregabalin 150 mg, whereas Group 3 received oral pregabalin 300mg with sip of water 90 mins before the induction of general anesthesia. The effects of drugs on the patient’s level of sedation and anxiety were evaluated at baseline and before the induction of anesthesia using Ramsay Sedation Score and Beck Anxiety Inventory respectively. Results: Premedication with pregabalin 150mg and 300mg significantly produced sedation as compared to placebo. Though, pregabalin 300mg exhibited more sedation than pregabalin 150mg but the difference between them was statistically insignificant (p >0.05). Preoperative administration of pregabalin was related with anxiolysis, with the most prominent results shown by pregabalin 300mg (p 0.05). Conclusions: Premedication with pregabalin 300mg, 90 mins before the induction of general anesthesia is an effective regimen to alleviate preoperative anxiety and sedation.

Objective: To assess the gastroprotective effect of montelukast on aspirin induced gastric mucosal ulceration in rabbits. Study Design: Laboratory based quasi experimental study. Place and Duration of Study: National Institute of Health Islamabad and department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in collaboration with Histopathology department at Army Medical College Rawalpindi from March to May 2018. Methodology: Twenty eight New Zealand white rabbits were randomly divided into four groups as follows: Group 1 was normal control group, group 2 received aspirin as a single dose of 300mg/kg orally on day 6 of the study, group 3 and 4 received omeprazole and montelukast respectively on a similar dosing schedule: where a total of 10mg/kg/day of each respective drug was administered orally for 6 consecutive days followed by a single oral dose of 300 mg/kg of aspirin after 1 hour of the last dose. All animals were sacrificed 5 hours after aspirin administration. The abdomens were dissected and the gastric tissues were excised for macroscopic, ulcer index and pH evaluation and were sent for histopathology for microscopic assessment. Results: Moderate to severe gastric mucosal damage (grade II-III) was seen in the aspirin treated toxic group, with considerable increase in ulcer index and decrease in pH (p

Objective: To determine the effect of vitamin D3 supplementation on HbA1c in individuals with pre- diabetes Study Design: Quasi experimental study. Place and Duration of Study: Study was executed in department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Army Medical College, Rawalpindi in collaboration with Chemical Pathology department, Army Medical College and Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Rawalpindi Pakistan, from Jan to Dec 2019. Methodology: One hundred and forty individuals with pre-diabetes and co-existing hypovitaminosis D3 were selected, with serum 25(OH) D (

Introduction Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is prevalent worldwide. H. pylori therapies' adverse effects can contribute to noncompliance among patients. This study aimed to assess the association between compliance to H. pylori eradication therapy and adverse effects using various drug regimens. Method We conducted an observational study from September 2017 to February 2020 in two tertiary care hospitals in patients with dyspeptic symptoms. H. Pylori detection was done by histopathological examination of gastric mucosa during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy or stool for H. pylori antigen. Patients with positive results were randomly assigned one of the nine different regimens consisting of a combination of proton pump inhibitors along with at least two antibiotics. The antibiotics used in different combinations were amoxicillin, clarithromycin, metronidazole, doxycycline, levofloxacin, and bismuth sulfate. The treatment groups received standard triple therapy with and without probiotics, sequential, concomitant, levofloxacin-based triple therapy, or sequential and bismuth-based quadruple treatments. All treatments were given for two weeks. At the end of the treatment period, patients were interviewed about completing treatment and any adverse effects they may have experienced during therapy. Data were analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics for Windows, Version 22.0 (Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.). Results A total of 250 patients were included in the study (62% males, 38% females) with a mean age of 37 years ± 13 years (range 12-84 years). Most patients completed the treatment regimen (80.4%), and 19.6% did not complete treatment because of adverse effects (p

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Osteoarthritis is one of the most common joint diseases afflicting human, characterized by progressive degeneration of articular cartilage in which chondrocytes fails to adequately repair. Objective of this study is to evaluate the chondroprotection offered by triamcinolone in osteoarthritis induced rat model METHODOLOGY: This Laboratory based experimental study was conducted in Department of Pharmacology, Army Medical College, Rawalpindi, in collaboration with National Institute of health, Islamabad from April-June2019. Osteoarthritis was induced by surgical removal of medial meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament resection in right knee joint of Sixteen (16) anesthetized rats of Sprague Dawley breed. They were divided in two (02) groups with eight (08) rats in each group. Group I was disease control in which 0.2 ml Intra articular saline was administered for three weeks. While group II was treatment group that was treated by 70 µl intra articular triamcinolone once weekly for three weeks. After that gait pattern of rats was scored. Animals were euthanized with over dosage of inhaled chloroform and sample of proximal tibia was taken for histopathological analysis.RESULTS: Mean gait score of control group and treatment group was 3.25±.707 and 2.25±.463 with a p value of .028 that is statistically significant. While mean histopathological modified Mankin score of control and treatment group was 11.5±1.195 and 8.5±1.195 respectively with a significant P-value of

Objective: To evaluate the role of oral ondansetron as an effective measure to facilitate oral rehydration in acute gastroenteritis. Study Design: Randomized controlled trail. Place and Duration of Study: Army medical college, Military hospital Rawalpindi, from Mar 2017 to Sep 2017. Material and Methods: One hundred and forty children with clinical diagnosis of acute gastroenteritis with mild to moderate dehydration were randomized into two equal groups. Group 1 was treated according to the WHO criteria with only ORS in a dose of 75ml/kg body weight. Group 2 received ondansetron before ORS as a single oral dose of 0.2mg/kg body weight. Results: The difference between improvement in drinking ability and hydration status between the two groups was highly significant (p