Courses with Gaps

The heart; events of the cardiac cycle. Control of cardiac contractility. Cardiac electrophysiology. Properties of cardiac muscles. Cardiac output - measurement and control. Haemodynamics of circulation. Arterial blood pressure and its regulation. Cardiovascular reflexes. Peripheral resistance and local control of the circulation. Regional blood flow. Cardiovascular changes in exercise, haemorrhage and shock. Respiratory physiology – functions of upper respiratory tract. Mechanics of respiration including compliance. Surfactant. Lung volume and capacities. Pulmonary gas exchange. Blood gas transport. Pulmonary function tests. Nervous and chemical control of respiration. Response to hypoxia, high altitude, exercise and artificial respiration.

Introducing the history and concepts of epidemiology, using principles and methods of both descriptive and analytical epidemiology to address public health problems and issues. Practical application of epidemiology, measures of morbidity and mortality, descriptive epidemiology, causation, source of epidemiological data, epidemiological studies’ design, measure of effect, data interpretations issues, and screening for disease in the community.

Fundamental concepts and techniques of organic chemistry. Functional group chemistry. Strengths of acids and bases. Introduction to stereochemistry of compounds. Molecular symmetry, racemisation and resolution methods.

Pattern of transmission of single gene trait. Hardy-Weinberg Law Conditions for its Validity, application. On concepts of continuous and discontinuous variation. Pharmacogenetics (drug metabolism, tissue metabolism and receptor alterations). Compartment models (one and two) kinetics after intravenous and oral dosing. Bioavailability, Drug distribution, Protein binding. Renal excretion of drugs. Urinary excretion data in Pharmacokinetic analysis.

The course deals with nutrition issues, which affect the nutritional states of the community. Classification of food. Nutritional value of food and its health effect. Obesity and its health implications. The topics presented are developed within the framework of specific age groups. Areas covered include identification of community nutritional problems, needs, and resources available. Also, emphasis will be directed on planning and administration of programs and services. Evaluation of program effects and developments of skills in the areas of nutrition, education, and communication. Attention will also be focused on national nutrition goals. Skills will be directed at community nutrition surveys in children 0 – 5 years and school children up to the age of 18 years. National nutrition policy. Government work plans will be reviewed to assess the dietary patterns in the community. Special diets in health and during illness are discussed. Students are expected to participate actively in community and institutional nutritional surveys using the structured questionnaire prepared by staff and students. 400 Level

Introduction: Drug – receptor interaction; affinity and [intrinsic activity; occupancy theory; Rate Theory; Drug receptor interactions; law of mass action, enzyme-substrate interaction. dose- response relationship – Graphical and Derivation of receptor affinity PD2; Competitive Antagonism. The Gaddum-Schild Equation for Affinity constant of competitive antagonists; Non-competitive antagonism, Partial agonist; Competitive non-competitive antagonism. Pharmacodynamic prediction from pharmacokinetic data (one compartment model). Receptor desensitisation, Mechanisms of Post-receptor transduction. Introduction to Biostatistics, Normal distribution, Mean probit transformation, standard Deviation and standard Error. T-tests paired and unpaired, chi- square Test, Analysis of variance, Poisson Distribution. Physiology and Pharmacology courses are the minor and major courses in a BSc Pharmacology programme worldwide. Students must therefore be well grounded in them upon graduation to be able to pursue a successful career. Physiology provides the theoretical basis of normal body function while pharmacology explains how drugs and chemicals exert correction in situations of altered physiology. These two courses transverse all organs/systems of the human body and span 200 to 400 Levels of the BSc Pharmacology programme.