Journal of Advances in Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Background: Child abuse occurs very frequently in Nigeria with approximately 6 out of every 10 children experiencing some form of violence. An estimate of 1 in every 4 girls and 1 in every 10 boys have undergone some form of sexual violence. Unfortunately this human violation often elicits little or no attention particularly where the abuser happens to be a close relative.

Case: A 12 year old female adolescent was admitted into the children emergency room of a Nigerian tertiary institution with high grade fever and bilateral painful leg swelling following physical abuse by her biological father. This was buttressed with the findings made on examination.

Parenteral anti-inflammatory and antibiotics were administered with surgical drainage of the lesions. The mental state of the Patient was evaluated by the Psychological Medicine Experts /Psychiatrist and also had counselling sessions during the course of treatment and shortly before discharge. Patient responded well to treatment and was discharged to the care of the women and children welfare unit of the State Ministry of Women Affairs.

Conclusion: This case report underscores the need for continuous awareness creation on the inherent dangers of child abuse for both the general public and the Health practitioners.

Background: Recently, many drugs have been developed and used for the treatment of hepatic and renal diseases. Nutmeg apart from being utilized as kitchen spices in Nigeria has also been used for healing and medicinal purposes.

Aims: In the present study, nutmeg supplement was evaluated against Acetaminophen (APAP) induced hepato- renal-toxicity.

Study Design: Twenty (20) adult wistar rats weighing185-220 were obtained from animal house of the department of  Pharmacology University of Port Harcourt were divided into four groups having 5 rats each (n=5).

Methodology: The animals were divided into four groups of 5 rats each: Group A (normal control) were administered distilled water, group B (negative control) received a single dose of acetaminophen (1000 mg/kg) for two days. Group C received 500 mg/kg body weight of nutmeg supplement one hour before receiving 1000 mg/kg acetaminophen, while group D received acetaminophen (1000 mg/kg) only on day 1 and 2 and the drug extracts on day 3-7. All dosage was dissolved in distilled water orally. The experiment lasted for seven days. Twenty four hours after drugs administrations the animals in each group were anaesthetized. Blood samples were collected and animals sacrificed, liver and kidney tissues removed for various histopathological, biochemistry, antioxidant and haematological examinations using standard procedures. Statistical analysis was done using ANOVA and Tukey poc-hoc Test.

Results: Administration of nutmeg supplement orally effectively restrained APAP-induced alterations in the activities of hepatic (48.60-38.00) and renal markers and Antioxidant enzymes in liver (0.43-0.53). The hepatic and renal architecture of APAP administered rats showed distorted liver and kidney tissues, hepatic vacuolations, destroyed glomerular and renal tubules. Nutmeg+APAP as well as APAP+ Nutmeg administrations were able to ameliorate the effects of APAP administration.

Conclusion: The result indicated that APAP overdosed is hepato-renal- toxic and Nutmeg supplement possessed hepato-prote-curative properties as well as renal-prote-curative properties against APAP-induced damage in rats.

Background: In the current proposal, we used the intralipid in standard therapy against COVID / 19 as an energy carrier for parenteral nutrition in critically ill patients. In patients receiving intralipid, there was an accelerated recovery of the lungs, a decrease in markers of endogenous intoxication (EI), tissue hypoxia and an improvement in general condition. In the absence of Intralipid in the intensive care unit, there was a slow recovery of the lungs and a more prolonged improvement in the general condition with the preservation of EI markers (cytolytic enzymes, C-reactive protein, platelets) and tissue hypoxia (pCO2 AV> 6 mm Hg). Collectively, Intralipid has been seen in the targeted LPO treatment plan for oxidative and nitro-galogenic stress in SARS-Cov2 / COVID / 19 patients.

Aim: The aim of the study was to determine the levels of some heavy metals, namely Cadmium (Cd), Lead (Pd), and Iron (Fe) in waste scavengers in port-Harcourt, Nigeria

Study Design:  This study is a cross-sectional observational study.

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, between March, 2019 and October, 2019.

Methodology: A total of 170 subjects of ages between 16 to 43 years. Of this, 100 were dumpsite scavengers while 70 were apparently healthy control subjects. The subjects involved in this study gave their informed consent and had no history of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and renal and hepatic disorders, and have been in scavenging activity for at least one year. Three milliliters (3ml) of blood was taken from each subject and put in plain bottles. The serum obtained was put in plain bottles and stored at -20⁰C prior to analysis. The heavy metals were assayed using the Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS) while the hepatic parameters were assayed using Mindray Biochemistry auto analyzer (Model BS120, Shenzhen, China). Serum ferritin was assayed using enzyme immunoassay while serum transferrin was done using colorimetric method. Data obtained were analyzed using Student’s t test and Pearson’s correlation.

Results: The body mass index (BMI) of the scavengers were significantly lower than that of the control subjects (p=.0001). The activities of the liver enzymes AST, ALT and ALP were significantly higher in the scavengers compared to the control subjects (p=.0001). The levels of total proteins, albumin and globulin of the scavengers were significantly lower than those of the control subjects (p=.0001). The levels of serum iron, transferrin and ferritin were similarly lower in the scavengers compared to the control subjects (p=.0001). However, the levels of cadmium and lead were significantly higher in the scavengers compared to the control subjects (p=.0001).

Conclusion: These findings indicate possible biochemical derangements in the scavengers due to their exposure to the hazards associated with the scavenging activity.

Introduction: During the past few decades, health related quality of life has been considered as an important predictor for positive health outcomes. Health-related quality of life assessment helps in determining the impact of disease on the everyday life of patients. Chronic kidney disease severely affects health related quality of life of patient.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess health related quality of life among patients with chronic kidney diseases in Pakistan.

Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. Study respondents included CKD pre-dialysis and dialysis patients with or without comorbidities visiting tertiary care facilities located in twin cities of Pakistan. Sample size was calculated to be 386 pharmacists to achieve 95% confidence level with 5% margin of error. Convenient sampling technique was used to select respondents. A pre- validated questionnaire Kidney Disease Quality of Life questionnaire (KDQoL-36) was used. Data was coded and analyzed using SPSS 21 after collection. Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis (p ≥ 0.05) tests were according to different demographic variables.

Results: The results of the current study showed lowest scores for HRQoL in domain of physical health composite (30.77±11.16) followed by domain of symptoms and problems associated with CKD whereas daily life had the highest scores. The results highlighted that females had better HRQoL in all domains mental health (46.30, ± 8.73), burden of kidney disease (69.47, ± 32.35), symptoms (29.79, ± 31.22) and effect of disease on daily activities (40.96, ± 32.11) while lowest score for physical health (30.90, ± 10.34). Married respondents had better HRQoL among all domains than unmarried patients except for physical health (32.26, ± 10.7). A significant difference (p ≥ 0.05) was observed among different domains of HRQoL of CKD patients with respect to different genders, marital status, age groups and qualification levels. Males had relatively better physical health scores but their daily activities were also affected more by their disease. Married respondents had relatively better HRQoL among all domains than unmarried patients except for physical health. No significant difference (p ≥ 0.05) was observed for different stages of disease.

Conclusion: The present study concluded that patients with CKD had poor HRQoL regardless of novel treatments availability. A negative impact was observed across all domains of health related quality of life among chronic kidney disease patients. Necessary programs focusing on health education for patients with low literacy levels should be initiated to increase health awareness and improve mental health among CKD patients.