Medical Library

Adverse drug reactions reporting by physicians in Ibadan, Nigeria.

OBJECTIVE: To assess knowledge, extent of reporting and factors influencing reports of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) by resident doctors. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Study site was the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, an 850-bed tertiary care hospital in western Nigeria. It was a cross-sectional survey. Data were collected with a 46-item self-administered questionnaire from 192 clinical physicians. RESULTS: Older aged doctors, senior cadre and doctors in medical faculty were 1.5 times likely to be aware of ADR reporting guidelines. General knowledge on ADR was good while 58.3% of residents knew the burden of ADRs. Most (89.5%) had observed at least one ADR but only 32% had ever reported it. Residents in medical faculty were twice more likely to report ADRs than the surgeons [OR 2.1; 95%CI 1.1, 4.1]. The commonest factors that militate against ADR reporting were lack of knowledge that reporting forms were available (70.9%) and ignorance of reporting procedure (69%). CONCLUSION: Despite high observation and good knowledge of ADR among doctors, the rate of reporting was low. There is need for publicity of activities of the pharmacovigilance unit of the hospital. Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Okezie EO, I FO.

Department of Internal Medicine, Imo State University Teaching Hospital, Orlu, Imo State, Nigeria.

EIC editorial-27:4.

Chapple C.

Letter to the editor.

Abrams P.

Erratum.

Kulseng-Hanssen S, Husby H, Schiotz H.

Spotlight.

Forde A.

The more the merrier?

Hobson-Webb L, Burns TM.

Department of Neurology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.

Erratum.

Optimizing measurement of the electrical anisotropy of muscle.

Skeletal muscle is electrically anisotropic, with applied high-frequency electrical current flowing more easily along than across muscle fibers. As an early step in harnessing this characteristic for clinical use, we studied approaches for maximizing the measured anisotropy by varying electrode size and applied current frequency in the tibialis anterior of 10 normal subjects. The results were compared to those from two patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Current was applied percutaneously, first parallel and then perpendicular to the major fiber direction of the muscle at frequencies ranging from 20 kHZ to 1 MHZ, using a fixed voltage-electrode length and varying the current-electrode length. The measured anisotropy was most pronounced using the longest length current electrodes and with a 125-kHZ applied frequency for the major outcome parameter phase. In addition, the two ALS patients showed very distinct anisotropic patterns. These results support the belief that, with the appropriate measurement technique, non-invasive assessment of electrical anisotropy of muscle may have useful clinical application. Muscle Nerve, 2008.

Chin AB, Garmirian LP, Nie R, Rutkove SB.

Department of Neurology, Division of Neuromuscular Diseases, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.

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