P K Jain

To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of pioglitazone combination therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes. A retrospective multi-centric study was conducted in adult type 2 diabetic patients on pioglitazone combination therapy across seven centres. Percentage of patients achieving glycemic control (HbA1C level < 7%) with pioglitazone combination therapy was the primary efficacy endpoint. Safety was evaluated by recording adverse events. 602 patients (58.0 % male; 42 % female) with mean age of 56.0 (+10.65) were enrolled in the study. Family history of diabetes was present in 41.5 %patients. Pioglitazone was commonly prescribed in combination with metformin and glimepiride (24.8%).The mean duration of pioglitazone combination therapy was 3.36 (+2.29) years. Comorbid conditions such as hypertension and dyslipidemia were present in 48.7% and 48.5% patients respectively in this study. Proportion of patients with HbA1c ≥7% decreased from 85.2% to 53.5% after pioglitazone therapy. 1.6% reduction in mean HbA1c was observed after pioglitazone therapy (8.8% to 7.2%). Reduction in mean fasting plasma glucose and postprandial plasma glucose was 45.2 mg/dl (169.5 mg/dl to 124.3 mg/dl) and 61.5 mg/dl (246.8 mg/dl to 185.3 mg/dl) respectively, after pioglitazone therapy.. There was no safety events observed with the use of pioglitazone based therapies. Pioglitazone combination therapy is found to be effective and safe in adult type 2 diabetes Indian patients.

Peptic ulcer is a most common ulcer of the gastrointestinal tract that is usually acidic and thus extremely painful. This pathological condition is caused by chronic inflammation due to Helicobacter pylori, excessive use of of NSAIDs like aspirin and smoking. This disorder also results in release of massive amount of toxic free radicals which results in oxidative stress. Ethnobotanically, the whole plant of Calendula officinalis has been reported to be used in the treatment of various disorders including stomach and other diseases. Antiulcer-activity of the 50% ethanolic extracts in order to validate ethnobotanical claims regarding the plant, used in the above disorders. Four groups of six albino rats in each group were used. They were pretreated with (0.25% w/v) carboxymethyl cellulose (negative control, 10 ml/kg), 50 mg/kg ranitidine (positive control), whole plant extract of Calendula officinalis (250 and 450 mg/kg/body weight) and their effect was studied on aspirin induced ulcer, cold-resistant stress-induced ulcers, pylorus ligation and ethanol-induced ulcers. The results of the present study showed that the whole plant extract of Calendula officinalis possessed gastroprotective activity as evidenced by its significant inhibition in the formation of ulcers induced by physical and chemical agents with a maximum of 87.15 % therapeutic efficiency (450 mg/kg b.w.) in cold resistant stress-induced ulcers. The present study was also aimed to investigate the effect of this extract on oxidative stress by measuring the level of various oxidative markers. The result of enzyme assay and lipid peroxidation clearly indicates the whole plant of Calendula officinalis extract have significant antioxidant effect on ulcer pathology. Whole plant extract have decreased LPO (p< 0.001) and SOD (p<0.01) with concomitant increase in catalyse activity in cold resistant stress-induced ulcers.