Drug abuse screening in body fluids in an integral part of any hospital offering drug dependence treatment service. Laboratory detection provides independent objective criteria for diagnosis of dependence, monitoring patients for illicit drug use and diagnosis of overdose. Substance abuse testing is a two tiered system. Preliminary screening must be done by immunoassays or by thin layer chromatography (TLC) technique and the confirmatory test of the presumptive postives and doubtful results by techniques such as GLC/HPLC/GC-MS. TLC is considered as the minimum essential requirement for mass screening of urine samples in India as it is least expensive. The laboratory there after should be upgraded with confirmatory technique (GLC/HPLC etc) at the earliest opportunity. Laboratories undertaking drug abuse testing should periodically check the specificity, sensitivity and validity of the assays to maintain the Quality control of the laboratory. Other issues like proper collection, proper labelling, transportation, storage of sample and regular interaction with clinicians are also important for drug abuse testing laboratory. This enables the drug screening programme meaningful.

Magnesium has been used therapeutically to treat a large number of disease conditions from the early part of this century. The most clinically successful ones are arrhythmias due to digitalis toxicity and long QTsyndrome. In the recent years trials on acute myocardial infarction has been promising in reducing mortality, arrhythmias and LV dysfunction, especially among non- thrombolysed patients. Magnesium therapy is cheap, easy to administer with no serious side effects. This article reviews the current status of use of magnesium in various clinical conditions, its dose and side effects.

Hyperlipoproteinemias cause atherosclerosis which is a major cause of death in the developed world and is also now becoming a major cause of morbidity and mortality in India, especially with changing lifestyles and increasing stress and food habits shifting towards the "fast food" era. It is extremely important to understand the risk factors, the criteria for starting treatment, the efficacy and safety profile of drugs for hyperlipoproteinemia and the drugs which are available for pharmacotherapy especially in the Indian perspective. The significant contributions of Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow in developing potent lipid lowering drugs like Gugulipid an already marketed product and a new synthetic drug coded as compound 80/574 in the early phase of clinical trials have been specially discussed in this article. At present it is recommended that for mild to moderate hyperlipoproteinemia Gugulipid would be an extremely cost effective indigenous choice and with the further development of the new CDRI compound 80/574 even moderate to severe hyperlipoproteinemia would be manageable. The other alternatives like Gemfibrozil though highly effective for moderate to severe hyperlipoproteinemia are extremely expensive and have other side effects and only very few can afford to take it on long term basis in India.

Pharmacokinetics of oxytetracycline (OTC) @5 mg/kg, i.v. in healthy lactating buffaloes was undertaken to determine the level and distribution of oxytetracycline in plasma, milk and uterine fluid. For this, the samples of plasma, milk and uterine fluid were collected at various time intervals (0.08 to 48 h) post i.v. administration. Estimation of the drug concentration was carried out by cylinder plate diffusion method using Bacillus cereus as the test microorganism. The study showed that OTC maintained its minimum effective therapeutic concentration (minimum ETC) of 0.5 (g/ml from 0.08 - > 12 h, 0.5 - > 24 h and 0.5 - 24 h in plasma, milk and uterine fluid, respectively, which suggests that the drug can be effectively used in the treatment of mammary gland and uterine infections apart from its use in other systemic infections. A shorter distribution half-life (tina) of 0.67+ 0.04 h and a comparatively longer elimination half-life (t1/2() of 9.38( 0.17 h obtained in the present study indicate that OTC is distributed at a faster rate but eliminated at a slower rate. The value of tissue plasma concentration during elimination phase [(K12/(K21-())] of 0.98( 0.06 indicates that OTC is expected to be distributed well in different body tissues and fluids and it is supported by the drug concentration obtained in milk and uterine fluid at different time intervals. A high Vdarea of 2.62( 0.06 L/kg also supports the good distribution of OTC.

Effect of nifedipine on glucose tolerance in normal volunteers and patients with diabetes mellitus was studied. Nifedipine (10 mg) produced no significant change on glucose tolerance in normal individuals, But in diabetic individuals, nifedipine produced a significant reduction in glucose tolerance at half an hour after glucose load. However, no such reduction was observed at one and two hours after glucose load. There is a possibility that nifedipine exerts inhibitory effect on insulin release specially in the initial phase in diabetic individuals but not in healthy volunteers.

Aqueous suspension of total xanthones of Swertia chirata in 5% gum acacia was prepared from the aerial parts of the plant. Its anti-inflammatory effects were investigated in albino rats at a dose level of 50 mg/kg body weight (oral route) against Carrageenin, 5-HT, Dextran, Bradykinin and PGE1 induced hind paw oedema. Schirata exhibited significant antiinflam -matory activity against 5-HT and bradykinin. Mean changes in paw volume revealed the efficacy of the drug against phlogistic agents in the following order: 5-HT>Carrageenin> Bradykinin>Dextran>PGE1. Anti-inflammatory effects of Schirata was found less effective when compared with standard anti-inflammatory drugs like phenylbutazole (50 mg/kg, i.p) and betamethasone (0.5 mg/kg, i.p) in experimental models of acute and subacute inflammation.

Oral administration of H2-receptor blockers, cimetidine and ranitidine, to pregnant female rats daily for l-7 days post coitum exhibited anti-implantation effects. These antagonists did not possess oestrogenic/antioestrogenic activity. It appears that these compounds probably cause an inhibition of the local effect of histamine in the uterus on implantation of the fertilised ovum which may be mediated via the predominant uterine H2- receptors.

The present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of testosterone, 17-( - estradiol and castration on serum alkaline phosphatase isoenzymes in male rats. Daily administration of testosterone (2 mg/kg) for 15, 30 and 60 days increased serum total alkaline phosphatase activity by 9, 26 and 65 percent respectively. Estradiol administration (0.2 mg/kg) in the same periods led to the increase of 69, 67 and 68 percent. Enzyme fractionation on sephacryl S-300 revealed that the increase in alkaline phosphatase activity was due to the absolute elevation of low-molecular weight alkaline phosphatase isoenzyme. Castration or treatment with actinomvcin-D puromvcin of the animal diminished enzyme activity bv 28-37 percent. The estradiol induced increase in enzymeactivity had additive effect with puromycin or actinomycin D in the doses used.