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This descriptive observational study was conducted at the Department of Nephrology, Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur, Pakistan, from January 2012 to April 2018, to study the pattern of biopsy-proven kidney diseases in that region as a part to establish a national renal biopsy registry. All adult patients who underwent renal biopsy at the Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur, Pakistan, from January 2012 to April 2018, were included in the study. All the biopsies were evaluated by light microscopy and immunofluorescence. All the patients underwent urine dipstick, microscopic examination, and quantification of proteinuria. Hepatitis B surface antigen, anti-hepatitis C virus, human immunodeficiency virus, and serology (antinuclear antibody, anti-ds DNA, and C3 and C4) were checked in all the patients. There were a total of 195 patients, with a mean age of 30.5 ± 12.8 years. Females were comparatively younger than males (P = 0.0154). Primary glomerulonephritis (GN) accounted for 77% (155) of all the patients, whereas secondary GN contributed 15.8%. Focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) was the most common diagnosis (28.2%) followed by membranous nephropathy (MN) (18.9%). Lupus nephritis was the third-most common pathology, and it predominated among females (P= 0.0026). Out of the eight diabetic patients, one each had FSGS and crescentic GN. In conclusion, primary glomerular diseases were the predominant biopsy-proven kidney diseases, and FSGS and MN were the most common glomerular diseases. This pattern in South Punjab closely resembles that in southern and northern parts of the country.

Objective: The study evaluated whether a pharmaceutical care intervention can result in better understanding about hypertension, increase medication adherence to antihypertensive therapy and improve overall health-related quality of life., Methods: A non-clinical randomized control trial was conducted whereby participants received an educational intervention through hospital pharmacists. Hypertension knowledge, medication adherence and health-related quality of life were measured by means of self-administered questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the demographic and disease characteristics of the patients. Inferential statistics were used for inter- and intragroup comparisons. SPSS 17 was used for data analysis., Results: Three hundred and eighty-five hypertensive patients were randomly assigned (192 in the control group and 193 in the intervention group) to the study. No significant differences were observed in either group for age, gender, income, locality, education, occupation or duration of disease. There was, however, a significant increase in the participants' levels of knowledge about hypertension and medication adherence among the interventional group after completing the intervention. Significantly lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels were also observed among the interventional group after completion of the intervention. The interventional group, however, reported decreased yet significant health-related quality of life at the end of the interventional programme., Conclusion: Pharmacist intervention can significantly increase disease-related knowledge, blood pressure control and medication adherence in patients with hypertension. However, further research is needed to address the decreased health-related quality of life after completion of the study., (© 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)