The chronic intake of different medications by chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients predisposes them to extremely harmful and clinically nonbeneficial drug-drug interactions (DDIs) which can ultimately lead to increase in morbidity, mortality, healthcare cost, and frequency and length of hospitalization. This produces a negative deteriorating and counter-efficient outcome on the health, quality of life and treatment response of these patients. This was an 18-month prospective descriptive study that reviewed the medical case records of consented adult CKD patients attending the Nephrology medical outpatient clinic of a Nigerian Tertiary Healthcare Centre from January 2015 to June 2016. The Medscape drug reference database was used to evaluate patients' medications for extremely harmful, clinically nonbeneficial DDIs. This study involved 123 consented adult CKD patients comprising of 82 (66.67%) males and 41 (33.33%) females with a mean age of 53.81 + 16.03 years. In this study, the prevalence of extremely harmful, clinically nonbeneficial DDIs (type D or type X interaction categories only) was 24.4%, while the overall prevalence for all the observed DDIs was 95.9%. The most frequent extremely harmful, clinically nonbeneficial DDIs in this study was between-methyldopa and metoclopramide: 16 (0.9%) interactions in eight (6.5%) patients. Furthermore,-methyldopa decreases the antiemetic effects of metoclopramide by pharmacodynamics antagonism at the chemoreceptor trigger zone site D 2-receptors (type X; pharmacodynamics). In addition, metoclopramide decreases the level of-methyldopa by inhibition of gastrointestinal tract (GIT) absorption, as this applies to only oral formulations of both agents (type D; pharmacokinetic). The occurrence and burden of extremely harmful, clinically nonbeneficial DDIs is significantly high among these CKD patients. There is also a critical need to minimize the number of prescribed medications for these patients in order to optimize their care.

Problem considered Research has shown that health care personnel is at higher risk of acquiring the disease than the general population. In spite of this challenge, there has been a low vaccination record among the Health Workers The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between knowledge, attitude, perception, and practice of hepatitis B vaccination among health workers in Akure South Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria Methods An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted with 260 health professionals working at primary health centers (40), private hospitals (60), and tertiary health institutions (160). Data was collected by using self-administered questionnaires distributed at the participant’s work unit and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results The result showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between the knowledge of Health workers about the HBV vaccine and vaccine uptake. While all the non-vaccinated health workers showed interest in taking the vaccine, the majority of them (80.4 %) suggested that the vaccine should be given free to health workers. Conclusion The study revealed that the health workers had a good knowledge of hepatitis infection but not the vaccination which affected vaccine uptake as a significant relationship exists between the two. Also, the greatest hindrance to the uptake of the vaccine is the cost of the vaccine. HBV vaccination should be made compulsory as part of occupational protection measures and made readily available gratis for all health workers.

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Objective To determine the strength of association between fetal kidney measurements and gestational age (GA) in third‐trimester pregnancies. Methods In a cross‐sectional study in Ile‐Ife, Nigeria, women in the third trimester of a singleton pregnancy who were sure of the date of their last menstrual period or had an early pregnancy scan were recruited consecutively in 2012. Standard biometric measurements were taken, along with fetal kidney length (FKL), anteroposterior diameter (FKAPD), and transverse diameter (FKTD). Fetal kidney volume (FKV) was calculated via the ellipsoid formula. Data were analyzed by Pearson correlation and multivariate linear regression. Results In total, 470 women were recruited. Compared with standard biometric parameters, renal parameters showed better correlation with GA. Among the standard parameters, femur length showed the strongest correlation with GA. FKL and FKV showed stronger positive correlation with GA as compared with FKTD and FKAPD. In multivariate linear regression modeling, FKL alone predicted GA with accuracy of ±10.1 days, whereas a combination of standard and kidney parameters predicted GA with better accuracy of ±8.0 days. Conclusions Compared with standard biometric parameters, fetal renal parameters correlated better with GA in the third trimester. Among the renal parameters, FKL correlated most strongly with GA.

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