| 1. |
- Akhtar, Muneeba, et al.
(författare)
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Response Surface Methodology (RSM) approach to formulate and optimize the bilayer combination tablet of Tamsulosin and Finasteride
- 2024
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Ingår i: Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal. - : Elsevier. - 1319-0164 .- 2213-7475. ; 32:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An orally administered bilayer tablet with Tamsulosin (TAM) as the sustained release (SR) and Finasteride (FIN) as immediate release (IR) was manufactured. A response surface methodology was employed to formulate bilayer tablets with individual release layers, i.e., sustained and immediate release (SR and IR). Independent variables selected in both cases comprise hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) as SR polymer, and avicel PH102 in the inner layer while Triacetin and talc in the outer layer, respectively. Tablets were prepared by direct compression, a total of 11 formulations were prepared for inner layer TAM, and 9 formulations for outer layer FIN were designed; these formulations were evaluated for hardness, friability, thickness, %drug content, and %drug release. A central composite design was employed in response surface methodology to design and optimize the formulation. The percentage of drug released was evaluated by in-vitro USP dissolution method of optimized formulation for 0.5, 2, and 6 hrs, and results were 24.63, 52.96, and 97.68 %, respectively. Drug release data was plotted in various kinetic models using a D.D solver, where drug release was first order that is concentration dependent and was best explained by Korsmeyer–Peppa kinetics, as the highest linearity was observed (R2 = 0.9693). However, a very close relationship was also noted with Higuchi kinetics (R2 = 0.9358). The mechanism of drug release was determined through the Korsmeyer model, and exponent "n" was found to be 0.4, indicative of an anomalous diffusion mechanism or diffusion coupled with erosion.
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| 2. |
- Aziz, Anam, et al.
(författare)
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Preparation and Evaluation of a Self-Emulsifying Drug Delivery System for Improving the Solubility and Permeability of Ticagrelor
- 2024
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Ingår i: ACS Omega. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 2470-1343. ; 9:9, s. 10522-10538
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ticagrelor (TCG) is a BCS class IV antiplatelet drug used to prevent platelet aggregation in patients with acute coronary syndrome, having poor solubility and permeability. The goal of this study was to develop a self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (SNEDDS) of TCG to improve its solubility and permeability. The excipients were selected based on the maximum solubility of TCG and observed by UV spectrophotometer. Different combinations of oil, surfactant, and co-surfactant (1:1, 2:1, and 3:1) were used to prepare TCG-SNEDDS formulations, and pseudo-ternary phase diagrams were plotted. The nanoemulsion region was observed. Clove oil (10–20%), Tween-80 (45–70%), and PEG-400 (20–45%) were used as an oil, surfactant, and co-surfactant, respectively. The selected formulations (F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, and F6) were analyzed for ζ potential, polydispersity index (PDI), ζ size, self-emulsification test, cloud point determination, thermodynamic studies, entrapment efficiency, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), in vitro dissolution, ex vivo permeation, and pharmacodynamic study. The TCG-SNEDDS formulations exhibited ζ potential from −9.92 to −6.23 mV, a ζ average of 11.85–260.4 nm, and good PDI. The in vitro drug release in phosphate buffer pH 6.8 from selected TCG-SNEDDS F4 was about 98.45%, and F6 was about 97.86%, displaying improved dissolution of TCG in 0.1 N HCl and phosphate buffer pH 6.8, in comparison to 28.05% of pure TCG suspension after 12 h. While the in vitro drug release in 0.1 N HCl from F4 was about 62.03%, F6 was about 73.57%, which is higher than 10.35% of the pure TCG suspension. In ex vivo permeability studies, F4 also exhibited an improved apparent permeability of 2.7 × 10–6 versus 0.6708 × 10–6 cm2/s of pure drug suspension. The pharmacodynamic study in rabbits demonstrated enhanced antiplatelet activity from TCG-SNEDDS F4 compared to that from pure TCG suspension. These outcomes imply that the TCG-SNEDDS may serve as an effective means of enhancing TCG’s antiplatelet activity by improving the solubility and permeability of TCG.
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| 3. |
- Riaz, Muhammad, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation of clinical and laboratory characteristics of dengue viral infection and risk factors of dengue hemorrhagic fever : a multi-center retrospective analysis
- 2024
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Ingår i: BMC Infectious Diseases. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1471-2334. ; 24:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundDengue Viral Infection (DVI) has become endemic in Pakistan since the first major outbreak in Karachi in 1996. Despite aggressive measures taken by relevant authorities, Pakistan has been dealing with a worsening dengue crisis for the past two decades. DHF is severe form of dengue infection which is linked with significant morbidity and mortality. Early identification of severe dengue infections can reduce the morbidity and mortality. In this context we planned current study in which we find out the different factors related with DHF as well as clinical laboratory features of DHF and compare them to DF so that patients can be best evaluated for DHF and managed accordingly at admission.MethodsRetrospective study conducted over a period of 6 years (2013-2018) in two tertiary care hospitals in Pakistan. Data were collected by using a pre-structured data collection form. Data were statistically analyzed to determine the clinical and laboratory characteristics of DVI and risk factors of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF).ResultsA total 512 dengue cases (34.05 +/- 15.08 years; Male 69.53%) were reviewed. Most common clinical manifestations of DVI were fever (99.60%), headache (89.1%), chills (86.5%), rigors (86.5%), myalgia (72.3%). Less common clinical manifestations were vomiting (52.5%), arthralgia (50.2%) and skin rashes (47.5%). Furthermore, nasal bleeding (44.1%), gum bleeding (32.6%), pleural effusion (13.9%) and hematuria (13.1%) were more profound clinical presentations among DHF patients. Mortality rate was 1.5% in this study. Logistic regression analysis indicated that delayed hospitalization (OR: 2.30) and diabetes mellitus (OR:2.71), shortness of breath (OR:2.21), association with risk groups i.e., living near stagnant water, travelling to endemic areas, living in endemic regions (OR:1.95), and presence of warning signs (OR:2.18) were identified as risk factors of DHF. Statistically we found that there is strong association of diabetes mellitus (DM) with DHF while the patient suffering from DM individually had higher odds (2.71) of developing DHF than patients without disease.ConclusionsThe current study demonstrated that the clinical and laboratory profiles of DF and DHF are significantly distinct. Significant predictors of DHF were advanced age, diabetes mellitus, ascites, pleural effusion, thick gallbladder and delayed hospitalization. The identification of these factors at early stage provides opportunities for the clinicians to identify high risk patients and to reduce dengue-related morbidity and mortality.
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| 4. |
- Ahsan, Ali, et al.
(författare)
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Formulation and evaluation of miconazole lipogel for enhanced drug permeation
- 2024
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Ingår i: Pakistan Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. - : UNIV KARACHI. - 1011-601X. ; 37:1, s. 95-105
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Hydrophilic drugs could be incorporated into the skin surface by manes of Lipogel. This study aimed to prepare miconazole lipogel with natural ingredients to enhance drug permeability using dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO). The miconazole lipogels, A1 (without DMSO) and A2 (with DMSO) were formulated and evaluated for organoleptic evaluation, pH, viscosity, stability studies, freeze -thawing, drug release profile and drug permeation enhancement. Results had stated that prepared lipogel's pH falls within the acceptable range required for topical delivery (4 to 6) while both formulations show good results in organoleptic evaluation. The A2 formulation containing DMSO shows better permeation of miconazole (84.76%) on the artificial skin membrane as compared to A1 lipogel formulation (50.64%). In in -vitro drug release studies, A2 for-mulation showed 87.48% drug release while A1 showed just 60.1% drug release from lipogel. Stability studies were performed on model formulations under environmental conditions and both showed good spreadibility, stable pH, free of grittiness and good consistency in formulation. The results concluded that A2 formulation containing DMSO shows better results as compared to DMSO-free drug lipogel.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Mallhi, Tauqeer Hussain, et al.
(författare)
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Atypical Complications during the Course of COVID-19 : A Comprehensive Review
- 2024
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Ingår i: Medicina. - : MDPI. - 1010-660X .- 1648-9144. ; 60:1
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- COVID-19 is primarily a respiratory disease, but numerous studies have indicated the involvement of various organ systems during the course of illness. We conducted a comprehensive review of atypical complications of COVID-19 with their incidence range (IR) and their impact on hospitalization and mortality rates. We identified 97 studies, including 55 research articles and 42 case studies. We reviewed four major body organ systems for various types of atypical complications: (i) Gastro-intestinal (GI) and hepatobiliary system, e.g., bowel ischemia/infarction (IR: 1.49-83.87%), GI bleeding/hemorrhage (IR: 0.47-10.6%), hepatic ischemia (IR: 1.0-7.4%); (ii) Neurological system, e.g., acute ischemic stroke/cerebral venous sinus thrombosis/cerebral hemorrhage (IR: 0.5-90.9%), anosmia (IR: 4.9-79.6%), dysgeusia (IR: 2.8-83.38%), encephalopathy/encephalitis with or without fever and hypoxia (IR: 0.19-35.2%); (iii) Renal system, e.g., acute kidney injury (AKI)/acute renal failure (IR: 0.5-68.8%); (iv) Cardiovascular system, e.g., acute cardiac injury/non-coronary myocardial injury (IR: 7.2-55.56%), arrhythmia/ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation (IR: 5.9-16.7%), and coagulopathy/venous thromboembolism (IR: 19-34.4%). This review encourages and informs healthcare practitioners to keenly monitor COVID-19 survivors for these atypical complications in all major organ systems and not only treat the respiratory symptoms of patients. Post-COVID effects should be monitored, and follow-up of patients should be performed on a regular basis to check for long-term complications.
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| 7. |
- Alyami, Mana, et al.
(författare)
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Estimating compressive strength of concrete containing rice husk ash using interpretable machine learning-based models
- 2024
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Ingår i: Case Studies in Construction Materials. - : Elsevier. - 2214-5095. ; 20
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The construction sector is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. Using recycled and waste materials in concrete is a practical solution to address environmental challenges. Currently, agricultural waste is widely used as a substitute for cement in the production of eco-friendly concrete. However, traditional methods for assessing the strength of such materials are both expensive and time-consuming. Therefore, this study uses machine learning techniques to develop prediction models for the compressive strength (CS) of rice husk ash (RHA) concrete. The ML techniques used in the present study include random forest (RF), light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM), ridge regression, and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost). A total of 348 values of CS were collected from the experimental studies, and five characteristics of RHA concrete were taken as input variables. For the performance assessment of the models, multiple statistical metrics were used. During the training phase, the correlation coefficients (R) obtained for ridge regression, RF, XGBoost, and LightGBM were 0.943, 0.981, 0.985, and 0.996, respectively. In the testing set, the developed models demonstrated even higher performance, with correlation coefficients of 0.971, 0.993, 0.992, and 0.998 for ridge regression, RF, XGBoost, and LightGBM, respectively. The statistical analysis revealed that the LightGBM model outperformed other models, whereas the ridge regression model exhibited comparatively lower accuracy. SHapley Additive exPlanation (SHAP) method was employed for the interpretability of the developed model. The SHAP analysis revealed that water-to-cement is a controlling parameter in estimating the CS of RHA concrete. In conclusion, this study provides valuable guidance for builders and researchers to estimate the CS of RHA concrete. However, it is suggested that more input variables be incorporated and hybrid models utilized to further enhance the reliability and precision of the models.
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| 8. |
- Alyami, Mana, et al.
(författare)
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Predictive modeling for compressive strength of 3D printed fiber-reinforced concrete using machine learning algorithms
- 2024
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Ingår i: Case Studies in Construction Materials. - : Elsevier. - 2214-5095. ; 20
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Three-dimensional (3D) printing in the construction industry is growing rapidly due to its inherent advantages, including intricate geometries, reduced waste, accelerated construction, cost-effectiveness, eco-friendliness, and improved safety. However, optimizing the mixture composition for 3D-printed concrete remains a formidable task, encompassing multiple variables and requiring a comprehensive trial-and-error experimentation process. Accordingly, this study used seven machine learning (ML) algorithms, including support vector regression (SVR), decision tree (DT), SVR-Bagging, SVR-Boosting, random forest (RF), gradient boosting (GB), and gene expression programming (GEP) for forecasting the compressive strength (CS) of 3D printed fiber-reinforced concrete (3DP-FRC). For model development, 299 data points were collected from experimental studies and split into two portions: 70% for model training and 30% for model validation. Various statistical metrics were employed to examine the accuracy and generalizability of the established models. The DT, RF, GB, and GEP models demonstrated higher accuracy in the validation set, achieving correlation (R) values of 0.987, 0.986, 0.986, and 0.98, respectively. The DT, RF, GB, and GEP models exhibited mean absolute error (MAE) scores of 4.644, 3.989, 3.90, and 5.691, respectively. Furthermore, the combination of SVR with boosting and bagging techniques slightly improved the accuracy compared to the individual SVR model. Additionally, the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) approach unveils the proportional significance of parameters in influencing the CS of 3DP-FRC. The SHAP technique revealed that water, silica fume, superplasticizer, sand content, and loading directions are the dominant parameters in estimating the CS of 3DP-FRC. The SHAP local interpretability unveils the intrinsic relationship between diverse input variables and their impacts on the strength of 3DP-FRC. The SHAP interpretability offers significant insights into the optimum mix proportion of 3DP-FRC.
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| 9. |
- Hammad, Muhammad, et al.
(författare)
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A State‐of‐the‐Art Review on Structural Strengthening Techniques with FRPs: Effectiveness, Shortcomings, and Future Research Directions
- 2024
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Ingår i: Materials. - : MDPI. - 1996-1944. ; 17:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the pursuit of creating more sustainable and resilient structures, the exploration of construction materials and strengthening methodologies is imperative. Traditional methods of relying on steel for strengthening proved to be uneconomical and unsustainable, prompting the investigation of innovative composites. Fiber‐reinforced polymers (FRPs), known for their lightweight and high‐strength properties, gained prominence among structural engineers in the 1980s. This period saw the development of novel approaches, such as near‐surface mounted and externally bonded reinforcement, for strengthening of concrete structures using FRPs. In recent decades, additional methods, including surface curvilinearization and external prestressing, have been discovered, demonstrating significant additional benefits. While these techniques have shown the enhanced performance, their full potential remains untapped. This article presents a comprehensive review of current approaches employed in the fortification of reinforced cement concrete structures using FRPs. It concludes by identifying key areas that warrant in‐depth research to establish a sustainable methodology for structural strengthening, positioning FRPs as an effective replacement for conventional retrofitting materials. This review aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse on modern structural strengthening strategies, highlight the properties of FRPs, and propose avenues for future research in this dynamic field.
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| 10. |
- Safdar, Aqsa, et al.
(författare)
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Comparison of EKFC, Pakistani CKD-EPI and 2021 Race-Free CKD-EPI creatinine equations in South Asian CKD population : A study from Pakistani CKD community cohort
- 2024
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 19:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- IntroductionSouth Asian individuals possess a high risk of chronic kidney disease. There is a need to study, evaluate, and compare the newly suggested glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) equations for accurate CKD diagnosis, staging, and drug dosing. This study aimed to (1) evaluate the European Kidney Function Consortium (EKFC), Pakistani CKD-EPI, and 2021 Race-Free CKD-EPI creatinine equation in the South Asian population with CKD and (2) to examine the expected implications on both CKD classification as well as End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) prevalence across these equations in South Asian population.MethodsWe carried out a cross-sectional investigation on 385 participants, a CKD cohort ≥ 18 years, at Allama Iqbal Medical College, Jinnah Hospital, Lahore. Serum creatinine was measured by Jaffe’s method and rGFR was measured by inulin clearance.ResultsPakistani CKD-EPI has a lower median difference at -1.33 ml/min/1.73m2 elevated precision (IQR) at 2.33 (-2.36, -0.03) and higher P30 value at 89.35% than 2021 CKD-EPI and EKFC equations. The mean difference (ml/min/1.73m2), 95% agreement limits (ml/min/1.73m2) of CKD-EPI PK: -1.18, -6.14, 2021 CKD-EPI: -5.98, -13.24 and EKFC: -5.62, -13.01 (P <0.001). These equations highly correlated to rGFR (P <0.001). An upward re-classification in GFR categories was shown by 2021 CKD-EPI and EKFC compared to the Pakistani CKD-EPI equation. However, there was an exception regarding the G5 category, where an elevated count of 217 (56.36%) was shown for CKD-EPI PK. The prevalence of ESRD was seen in entire age groups and prevailed among females more than in males overall equations.ConclusionsPakistani CKD-EPI exhibited outstanding performance, while 2021 CKD-EPI and EKFC demonstrated poor performances and could not show an adequate advantage for both CKD classification and prevalence of ESRD compared to Pakistani CKD-EPI. Therefore, Pakistani CKD-EPI appears optimal for this region and warrants future validation in other South Asian countries. In contrast, suitable measures must be implemented in Pakistani laboratories.
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