International Journal of Biochemistry Research & Review

Aims: The study aimed to evaluate the preanalytical errors in the Indoor patient department in tertiary care Hospital. To calculate the percentage of preanalytical errors in the Indoor patient department in our Hospital and to recommend standard operative interventions to improve quality of results. To test the effectiveness of attention by continuous educational action at reducing preanalytical errors and improving patient care.

Study Design: An observational study.

Place and Duration of Study:   The work was done from July 2014 to July 2015 at a tertiary care Hospital India.

Methodology: We retrospectively reviewed the samples and test request forms received at Biochemistry laboratory for one month. The outcome measures were incomplete laboratory forms, mislabeling samples, inappropriate tests, wrong container, poor quality of samples and transportation problems. Two weeks of interventions in the form of continuous educational training and education regarding standard operative procedures were given to stakeholders to raise awareness towards the preanalytical phase. Two weeks later, data was monitored again for one month.

Results: 2330 and 2130 samples and request forms were monitored before-after intervention respectively from wards for one month each. Of the total chances of preanalytical errors, 22.17% were due to inappropriate tests, 81.5% were related to incomplete patient information, 97% lacking clinical information, 18.8% errors related to specimen information, 3.5% errors were of the deranged quality of the specimen, and in4.5% transportation problems were observed. Subsequently, these were reduced to 10%, 20%, 16.4%, 7.5%, 2.3%, 3.1% respectively. A significant difference in percentage change was observed in all the above errors after the one-month interventions for the reduction in preanalytical errors.

Conclusion: The results of the present study revealed that taking small steps in the form of implementing standard operative procedures for collection, storage and transport facilities and continuous educational training of stakeholders would reduce big errors occurring due to human factors in preanalytical phase. We need good interdepartmental communication and cooperation to achieve good laboratory results and patient well being. This study improved the quality of test results and patient care.

Purpose: Nutritional status and dietary pattern of 120 randomly selected type-2 diabetic patients of both sexes (age range 18 and 65 years) attending medical outpatient clinics within Abuja metropolis were assessed.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey involving pre-tested and semi-structured questionnaires was used. Socio-demographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, nutritional status and dietary pattern of the subjects were computed using standard methods.

Results: The result of socio-demographic characteristics indicates that 52% are males and 48% are females. Subjects with primary education constitute 4.2%, about half of them having either secondary (48.3%) or tertiary (47.5%) education. Most (80.8%) of them are married, 32.5% fell within a monthly income range of N50,000 - N100,000 (US $139.07 - $278.14). Anthropometric indices showed that the height of 75% of the respondents was 159.9 ± 7.0 cm, 100% of the respondents’ weight, hip circumference, waist-hip ratio and waist-height ratio are 72.69 ± 16.88 cm, 104.6 ± 12.4 cm, 0.94 ± 0.1 and 0.61 ± 0.1 respectively. The nutritional status of the subjects revealed that only 25% fell within the normal BMI range, with 1.7% being underweight, 20.8% overweight and half of them (52.5%) obese and out of which 27% are morbid. Their dietary patterns showed that the food mostly consumed include cereals, processed cereals, legumes, vegetables, fruits and meat. More than a quarter of the respondents totally avoid sugar in their diet, while 33.33% rarely eat sugar. Eggs (48.33%) have a moderate frequency of consumption.

Conclusion: This study concludes that the dietary practices of the respondents contribute to their poor nutritional status.

The experiment was carried out in the field of Plant Pathology Department, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh to determine the effect of BARI-biofertilizer and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) biopesticide for controlling foot and root rot diseases of chickpea. It was observed that both BARI-Biofertilizer and IPM biopesticide resulted significantly lower disease incidence of seedlings of the test pulse over the control. Soil treatment with BARI-Biofertilizer resulted the lowest disease incidence of chickpea var. Hyprosola, Binasola-2, Binasola-3 and Binasola-4 at 20 DAS (Days after sowing) that displayed reduction of disease incidence up to 83.77%, 54.48%, 70.76% and 71.45% respectively over control. While at 28 DAS, showedup to 82.82%, 71.92%, 84.72% and 68.39%, respectively, reduction of disease incidence over control. At 35 DAS, exhibited up to 79.91%, 73.18%, 81.32% and 73.44%, respectively, reduction of disease incidence over control. BARI-biofertilizer and IPM biopesticide increased fresh weight of plant, number of nodules per plant and fresh weight of nodules per plant.

Aims: The current study investigates the leaves and bulb extracts of Crinum jagus for antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria between June 2016 and September 2017.

Methodology: The leaves and the bulb of the plant were subjected to successive extraction using hexane, ethylacetate and methanol. The phytoconstituents and total phenol contents were determined. The 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging and ferric reducing antioxidant properties of the extracts (compared to that of the standard drug Ascorbic acid) were also determined. The membrane-stabilizing properties of the extracts, compared to that of indomethacin, were used to measure their anti-inflammatory properties.

Results: Phytochemical screening indicated the presence of flavonoids, alkaloids, tannins, saponins and terpenoids in the extracts. The total phenolic content of the extracts ranged between 33.230 and 98.340 gallic acid equivalence/g sample with the ethylacetate extract of the bulb having the highest phenol content. In the DPPH assay, the IC₅₀ values of the extracts ranged between 0.503 and 1.050 with methanol extract of the leaves possessing the highest DPPH scavenging activity. The ferric reducing activities of the extracts ranged between 3.61 and 40.000 mg ascorbic acid equivalent / g of the sample with the ethylacetate extract of the bulb possessing the highest activity. Among the extracts screened for anti-inflammatory activity, the methanol extract of the leaves had the highest membrane stabilizing activity with value of 99.74 ± 0.68 at 0.5 mg/ml compared to indomethacin with a value of 52.65±1.18 at the same concentration.

Conclusion: The leaves and bulbs of C. jagus could be sources of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds.

Diarrhoea is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in children under the age of 5 years. Due to this problem, the World Health Organization has encouraged studies that will bring about the desired treatment and prevention of diarrhoea. Myrianthus arboreus leaves (MA) is used in some tribes of Nigeria for food. In this study, the antidiarrhoea activities of the aqueous extract of Myrianthus arboreus leaves were investigated with experimental animals via feacal count, measurement gastrointestinal charcoal meal distance and electrolyte composition.  The extract (500, 1000 and 2000) mg/kg in comparison with loperamide hydrochloride, decreased the degree of gastrointestinal motility, production of diarrhoea stool, reduced the frequency of defecation and delayed the onset of diarrhoea in castor oil induced in albino rats. Also the extract inhibited the concentration of intestinal fluid electrolytes.