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Background: The efficacy of amlodipine, a calcium channel blocker, in treating systemic hypertension is well established but the most efficacious brand of this drug is still uncertain. The cost of different brands of amlodipine is tremendously different which may affect decision-making in hypertension treatment. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of different brands of amlodipine (Amlodipine, Amlopress, and Norvasc) in the treatment of hypertension in adult patients.
Methods: This was a double-blind, randomized, three-sequence crossover study. Ambulatory patients with hypertension who had the inclusion criteria were enrolled. Patients were randomized and entered into three groups to receive either brand of amlodipine in a crossover method. After every four weeks of treatment completed, the other brand of drug was prescribed. The total period of the study was 12 weeks for all three drugs including four weeks for each brand.
Results: A total of 20 patients entered to the study, 15 completed the 12-week treatment schedule. The absolute reductions in seated and supine systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were similar with all three brands during the 4 weeks of treatment. Headache, malaise and weakness were the most common reported adverse effects (AE) with all three drugs. Generic amlodipine had the most AE as compared with other brands. These AE were mild and did not require withdrawal of the drug.
Conclusion: There is no statistical difference in lowering blood pressure by three different brands of amlodipine thus everyone which has the lowest price can be the first choice.

Background: The blocking of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity may reason vasoconstriction with formation of reactive oxygen species. Propolis has biological and pharmacological properties, such as antioxidant. The aim of this study was to examine the antioxidant effects of propolis which natural product on biochemical parameters in brain and lung tissues of acute nitric oxide synthase inhibited rats by Nω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME).
Methods: Rats have been received L-NAME (40 mg/kg, intraperitoneally), NOS inhibitor for 15 days to produce hypertension and propolis (200mg/kg, by gavage) the lastest 5 of 15 days.
Results: There  were  the  increase  (P<0.001)  in  the  malondialdehyde  levels  in  the  L-NAME treatment groups when compared to control rats, but the decrease (P<0.001) in the catalase activities in both brain and lung tissues. There were statistically changes (P<0.001) in these parameters of L-NAME+propolis treated rats as compared with L-NAME-treated group.
Conclusion: The application of L-NAME to the Wistar rats resulted in well developed oxidative stress. Also, propolis may influence endothelial NO production. Identification of such compounds and characterisation of their cellular actions may increase our knowledge of the regulation of endothelial NO production and could provide valuable clues for the prevention or treatment of hypertensive diseases and oxidative stress.

Background: Increasing antimicrobial resistance is now a critical point of human being in the world. Especially wide spectrum antibiotics resistance germs like vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) should be dealt as soon as possible as an emergency conflict. Our study tries to reveal the amount of irrational use of vancomycin in a teaching hospital in Iran.
Methods: We elected the whole inpatients that received vancomycin between February 2007 and May 2008.
Results: Forty four out of those 45 patients had inappropriate indication and dosing regimen of vancomycin (97.7%). The most use of vancomycin was recorded in hematology – oncology ward and then Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Culture responses were negative despite great clinical evidence of infection.
Conclusion: Vancomycin irrational use was high compared to other countries and it could be concerned as a major health problem by health policy makers and physicians to deal. However more detailed researches are needed to reveal the other aspects of this problem. Implementation of antibiotic protocols and standard treatment guidelines are recommended.

Background: There is an increase in the worldwide prevalence, morbidity and mortality of asthma. Therefore, study of the possible factors related to the burden of this disorder could help the health providers to introduce effective initiatives and reduce adverse consequences due to this condition. This study was designed to investigate any relationship between asthma morbidity with inhaler technique and other probable explanatory factors in asthmatic patients.|
Methods: An observational, cross-sectional study was designed in which asthmatic patients referring to the outpatient respiratory clinic of the Shaheed Labbafinezhad hospital were entered the study using a non-probability sampling method. Their demographic, socio-economic, medical and medication history, inhaler technique (using a 10-step check list), as well as short-term morbidity index (in the past 4 weeks using the Jone’s morbidity questionnaire) were determined and recorded in organized data collection forms. These data were entered the Excel and SPSS (version 17.0) worksheets and analyzed using appropriate statistical tests. A step-by-step analysis method was used in order to find out any relationship between possible explanatory factors and the morbidity index of the patients.
Results: 199 adult asthmatic patients (94 male and 105 female) with mean ± SD age of 54.29 ± 15.52 years enrolled the study. In the first step of data analysis only 5 factors out of 20 explanatory factors were eligible to be included in the multivariate analysis leading to the final predictive model. In the multivariate regression analysis, 2 out of 5 factors could remain in the final model, which were “history of systemic steroid usage” and “age” (p=0.007, r=0.32). So that, patients with a positive history of systemic steroid use and those with a younger age had higher asthma morbidity rate.
Conclusion: The observed positive relationship between history of systemic steroid usage and asthma morbidity remarks the importance of asthma control in the primary care level and highlights its role on patient’s quality of life. Possible reasons leading to a higher morbidity rate in younger asthmatic patients should be evaluated in the future studies.

Background: Uncontrolled and irrational use of antibiotics increases the rate of antimicrobial resistance and treatment failure. Compliance with antibiotics is an important indicator to show how patients use their prescribed drugs and it can explain the relationship between drug administration and treatment outcome that needs to be monitored and promoted. We decided to evaluate compliance to antimicrobial drugs in this study.
Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 100 patients referring to 4 different specialists’ offices were enrolled. The rate and type of non prescribed antibiotic administration were evaluated using predesigned questionnaires. The data were analyzed by SPSS 17.0 software using descriptive statistics and chi-square test for categorical data.
Results: Our results showed that 62.4% of the study population had poor compliance and 37.6 % had good compliance with their prescribed regimen. “Feeling better “and “getting worse” on prescribed regimen were major reasons for drug discontinuation. About 70% of our study population get non prescribed antibiotic from pharmacies at least once a year. Most of the requested antibiotics were not first line options. Level of education was the only factor significantly related to the rate of patient compliance.
Conclusion: This study shows the high rate of non prescribed
antibiotic administration and low rate of compliance among the study population that emerge the need for particular patient education and putting restrictive rules to bound  non-prescribed and unsupervised  antibiotic marketing.

Septic shock continues to be one of the leading causes of death in the Intensive Care Units. When the shock state persists after adequate fluid resuscitation,  vasopressor therapy is required to improve and maintain adequate tissue/organ  perfusion in an attempt to improve survival and prevent the development of multiple organ dysfunction and failure. Various studies have suggested that exogenous administration of arginine vasopressin  may  be  an  effective  adjunctive  therapy  to  traditional  catecholamines for the management of hypotension during septic shock. Vasopressin is both a vasopressor  and  an  antidiuretic  hormone.  It  also  has  hemostatic,  gastrointestinal and thermoregulatory  effects, and is an adrenocorticotropic  hormone secretagogue. Vasopressin  is released from the axonal terminals of magnocellular  neurons in the hypothalamus. Vasopressin mediates vasoconstriction  via V1-receptor activation on vascular smooth muscle and mediates its antidiuretic effect via V2-receptor activation in the renal collecting duct system. Vasopressin  infusion of 0.01 to 0.04 U/min in patients with septic shock increases plasma vasopressin levels. Current guidelines from the Surviving Sepsis Campaign recommend arginine vasopressin 0.03 unit/minute may be added to norepinephrine with the anticipation of an effect equal to higher doses of norepinephrine alone. Clinicians must be knowledgeable about the use of vasopressin in septic shock, including controversial areas where guidelines do not always provide solid recommendations.

To inform healthcare professionals of a rare serious reaction leading to leg amputation following intramuscular injection of iron dextran and report comments for preventing such reactions.A case of leg amputation following intramuscular injection of iron dextran reported to Iranian Pharmacovigilance Center was reviewed. Patient and reaction data was collected by assessing the reported yellow card, patient chart review and interviewing with patient and physicians. World Health Organization definition for serious reactions was used to determine the seriousness of the reaction. Naranjo algorithm was used to determine probability scale. The probability of the reaction was determined based on questionnaire of Schumock et al. The studied case is classified as a rare and serious but preventable reaction induced by intramuscular injection of iron dextran in a 32 year old woman. The probability of the reaction is appeared to be “probable” based on Naranjo algorithm. It seems that Iron dextran could cause serious and life threatening adverse effects. It is necessary for healthcare professionals to be informed of such rare but serious reaction in order to apply preventive actions.

Pharmacists are healthcare professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use. The role of pharmacist has shifted from the classical “lick, stick and pour” dispensary role, to being an integrated member of the health care team directly involved in patient care. But, in our country pharmacists are mainly engaged with manufacturing of drugs, which is secondary responsibility of pharmacist.