Background: Irrational prescription being a global problem leading to ineffective, unsafe treatment. Aiming to measure the performance of a health-care provider in key dimension related to appropriate use of drugs, the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed set of core prescribing indicators. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study is to assess the drug use pattern using WHO core prescribing indicators. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective, cross-sectional study conducted at K.S. Hegde Charitable Hospital. Around 900 prescriptions from the outpatients attending the Department of Medicine from January to March 2016 were analyzed for WHO core prescribing indicators and was compared with the standard WHO values. Results: Polypharmacy being the common finding, the concept of generic prescribing was negligible. There was reduced prescription of drugs from the National List of Essential Medicines, but the prescription of antibiotics and injections was within normal limits. Conclusions: There was moderate compliance with WHO prescribing indicators.

Background According to Warburg’s effect, the rate of glycolysis increases in cancerous cells. This will increase overall levels of pyruvic acid. The present on-going study was conducted to estimate the levels of pyruvic acid in saliva and serum in normal, oral PMD subjects. Material and Methods A total of 50 subjects in healthy, PMD of the oral cavity individuals were selected based on clinical and histological criteria. Collected saliva and serum samples were subjected to pyruvic acid level estimation using biochemical analysis. Results Of the 50 participants 25 (13: Males; 12: Females) & 25 (16: Males; 9: Females) were PMD group. Independent samples t test showed statistically significant difference in serum & salivary pyruvic acid level in between 2 groups (p < 0.001 respectively). Conclusions Estimation of pyruvic acid showed sequential increase in the level in PMD group compared to healthy. Hence the study results open new direction in cancer screening. Key words:Pyruvic acid, glycolysis, warburg’s effect.

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A comparative study of knowledge, attitude and practice of self-medication among medical and para medical students in a medical college, Mangaluru, Karnataka, India INTRODUCTIONSelf-medication, an important component of self-care, is the most common practice in developing countries. It is defined as the use of drugs to treat self-diagnosed illnesses or irregular use of a prescribed drug for a chronic disease. Traditionally, self-medication is described as the use of drugs, herbs or home remedies on advice of another individual or one"s own initiative without consulting a doctor.2 WHO defines self-medication as, "use of medication by a patient on his own initiative or on the advice of a pharmacist, or a lay person, instead of consulting a medical practitioner." 3,4 Various factors determining self-medication include: socioeconomic factors like growing empowerment, improved quality of education, health consciousness, advanced technology like internet and other communication systems, modern lifestyle, easy accessibility to the medicines, awareness about treatment of illnesses and rehabilitation, inappropriate nutrition. 5The practice of self-medication has brought the concept of over the counter drugs which are also called as non-ABSTRACT Background: Self-medication is defined as use of medicines without a doctor"s prescription and is frequently practiced among students in professional colleges. The purpose of this study was to compare the knowledge, attitude and practice of self-medication among second year medical and paramedical students in K. S Hegde Medical Academy, Mangaluru, Karnataka, India. Methods: A prospective, observational, questionnaire based study conducted where two groups of students, Medical and Paramedical were interviewed with a prevalidated questionnaire. Demographic data and questions regarding knowledge, attitude and practice of self-medication were included. Details and purpose of the study was explained to the students. The collected data was analysed statistically and the comparison between the two groups was done. Results: Total 247 students were involved in the study, group I consisting of 135 medical students and group II consisting of 112 paramedical students. All the students have practiced self-medication, however only 47.3% students agree with the practice. Accordingly, there are significant differences among the two groups in terms of reasons to choose self-medication and awareness about generic and brand names of drugs. Knowledge and practice about use of a particular drug for a particular condition was not balanced among the two groups. Conclusions: Self-medication is a common form of health care with potential benefits and hazards. Hence, it is very important to increase the awareness about the advantages and disadvantages of self-medication in medical college students to improve their knowledge, attitudes and practices of self-medication and eventually to increase the awareness in the society.