BackgroundThe prevalence of self -medication with antibiotics is quite high in developing countries as opposed to developed countries. Antibiotics are often taken erroneously for certain ailments, without having the appropriate knowledge of their use. This carries potential risks for the individual as well as the community, in form of several side effects such as antibiotic resistance. Therefore the prevalence of self-medicated antibiotics in developing countries needs to be studied.MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at six different non-medical universities of Karachi. 431 students were included in the study. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS version 19.Results50.1% students reported having self-medicated themselves in the past 6 months and 205 (47.6%) reported self-medication with antibiotics. Amoxicillin was the most self-prescribed antibiotic (41.4%). Awareness of the adverse effects of antibiotics was demonstrated by 77.3% of the students and sleep disturbance was the most commonly known (46.5%) side effect. 63.1% denied having any knowledge about antibiotic resistance and only 19.9% correctly knew that indiscriminate use of antibiotics can lead to increased antibiotic resistance.ConclusionThe prevalence of self-medication with antibiotics among the non-medical university students was high despite the awareness of adverse effects. Antibiotic resistance was a relatively unknown terminology.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2050-6511-15-74) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Two patients are presented with primary low grade pleural B cell lymphomas with no history of a pyothorax.P leural disease in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is well documented and commonly presents with pleural effusions in 20% of patients. 1 However, solid pleural involvement is less common and is usually a secondary event. Primary pleural lymphomas are extremely rare and, in a series reported by Burgener and Hamlin, pleural plaques were seen in less then 4% of cases. 2 Two types of primary pleural lymphomas have been described-the body cavity based lymphoma in patients with HIV and the pyothorax associated pleural lymphoma in those with tuberculosis. Primary pleural non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in an immunocompetent patient without a history of chronic pyothorax is extremely rare. CASE HISTORY 1A 59 year old man presented with a 4 month history of gradually increasing shortness of breath and left sided chest pain. He was a non-smoker with a history of occupational exposure to asbestos (he had worked in power stations for over 30 years). On examination, air entry over the left side of his chest was diminished.Investigations showed a normal full blood count, urea and electrolytes. His chest radiograph revealed a left sided pleural effusion. A chest drain was therefore inserted and approximately 7 litres of serous fluid were drained. A computed tomographic (CT) scan of the thorax showed a left pleural effusion with irregular thickening of the adjacent parietal pleura, extending medially to displace the aorta. Bilateral pleural calcification suggestive of asbestos exposure was also seen. No significant lymphadenopathy was noted. A bone marrow biopsy performed during this admission did not show any evidence of lymphoma. Video assisted thoracoscopy showed diffuse involvement of the parietal pleura from which biopsy samples were taken. Light microscopy showed lymphoid infiltration with a hint of nodularity. Isolated reactive germinal centres were buried within the infiltrate of medium sized lymphoid cells and mononuclear blasts (fig 1). Mitotic figures were easily visible. Immunohistochemical staining confirmed the dominant B cell nature of the infiltrate. The phenotype of the B cells was confirmed as CD43, CD23 and BCl-2 positive, and CD5 and CD10 negative. Follicular dendritic cells in lymphoid nodules were highlighted with CD23 and CD21, confirming follicular colonisation. Ki67 labelling was observed in 30% of the tumour population. These findings supported a diagnosis of low grade marginal zone lymphoma of the pleura. Also present in the sample were hyalinised plaques infiltrated by lymphoma on one surface.DNA was extracted from paraffin embedded material and PCR was performed by standard methods using primers for the FR2 and FR3 regions of immunoglobulin heavy chain.This showed a band, in keeping with the monoclonal nature of the disease. Pleurodesis with 5-fluorouracil was performed and the chest drain was eventually removed. The patient was treated with chlorambucil. Follow up at 18 months showed no evidence of lymphadenopa...

The existing bioinformatics tools, ligand binding attribute prediction, and model building offer a specific method to establish homology of proteins, discover drug targets, and facilitate the investigation of the evolution of several types of cardinal ion channels from unicellular eukaryotes to multicellular species as humans.

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