Contemporary clinical guidelines endorsed that glycemic control is the ultimate goal in the management patients with diabetes. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of glycemic control and to identify predictors of poor glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). A cross-sectional study was conducted among systematically selected 357 diabetic patients. Data were collected through direct patients’ interviews and medical chart review. Binary logistic regression analyses were performed and analyzed using SPSS version 22.0. Participants’ mean age was (± SD) 56.1 ± 11.6 years. Nearly four in five (77.9%) of the participants had comorbidities, mainly of hypertension, and 60.2% had diabetic complications, mainly diabetes neuropathy. Poor glycemic control was found in 68.3% of the participants with a mean (± SD) FBG of 174.1 ± 48.9 mg/dL. Being female gender, having greater body mass index and low medication adherence was significantly associated with poor glycemic control. In conclusion, the overall aspects of glycemic control level of patients were far from the standards. Being female, greater body mass index and poor medication adherence were predictors of poor glycemic control. In response to this finding, an aggressive intervention that targets in improving the glycemic control is required.

Background: Poor adherence to the medical regimen is a major clinical problem in the management of patients with diabetes. This study sought to investigate the level of medication adherence to antidiabetic therapy and to identify possible predictors of poor adherence. Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2018 to June 2019 among randomly selected follow-up T2D patients at a hospital diabetes clinic. Data were collected through patient interviews, followed by medical chart review. Adherence to antidiabetic therapy that we assessed patients’ responses using validated Brief Medication Questionnaire (BMQ). To identify predictors of poor medication adherence, binary logistic regression analyses were performed using SPSS version 25. Statistical significance was set at p value ≤ 0.05. Results: Of the total 357 study participants, 25% were non-adherent to their antidiabetic therapy. Predictors statistically associated with poor adherence were; being female gender (AOR = 1.71, 95% CI 1.01–2.76), and presence of at least one diabetic complication (AOR = 2.02, 95% CI 1.02–3.22). Participants with having at least primary level of education were more likely to adhere to anti-diabetes medication (AOR = 0.42, 95% CI 0.18–0.96). The most common self-reported reasons for non-adherence were forgetfulness, unavailability of medication plus the unaffordability of anti-diabetes medications. Conclusions: The proportion of participants’ adherent to anti-diabetes therapies was suboptimal. Being female, the presence of chronic diabetic complications and having no formal education were the main predictors of poor adherence. Strategies that aimed at improving adherence to antidiabetic medications deemed to be compulsory.

Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) cheeseman which belongs to the family of Musaceae is one of the main sources of starch in Ethiopia. This study aimed at evaluating epichlorohydrin cross‐linked enset starch as a drug release sustaining excipient in microsphere formulations of theophylline. Extracted enset starch was cross‐linked using epichlorohydrin as a cross‐linking agent. The effect of cross‐linker concentration, cross‐linking duration, and cross‐linking temperature on the degree of cross‐linking and release rate of microspheres prepared by emulsion solvent evaporation method was investigated using the two‐level full factorial design. Accordingly, the concentration of epichlorohydrin and duration of cross‐linking were the most significant factors affecting both the degree of cross‐linking and drug release rate. Thus, the effects of these two factors were further studied and optimized using the central composite design. As per the numerical method of central composite design, the optimal points were obtained at epichlorohydrin concentration of 13.70% and cross‐linking time of 3.82 h. Under these optimal conditions, the model predicts the degree of cross‐linking of 74.70% and drug release rate of 28.00 h^1/2. The validity of these optimal points was confirmed experimentally. The microspheres of the optimum formulation also exhibited minimum burst release with sustained release for 12 h. Besides, the optimized formulation followed the Higuchi square root kinetic model with non‐Fickian diffusion release mechanism. The finding of this study suggested that cross‐linked enset starch can be used as an alternative drug‐release‐sustaining pharmaceutical excipient in microsphere formulation.

Background. There are various natural excipients which have been used as suspending agents in pharmaceutical suspensions due to the presence of mucilage in their specialized cells and their capacity to form a colloidal gel in an aqueous medium. Objective. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the suspending capacity of Aloe elegans mucilage in suspension formulations. Materials and Methods. Aloe elegans mucilage (AEM) was evaluated as a suspending agent in comparison with xanthan gum (XG) in paracetamol suspensions at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5% (w/v) concentrations. The resulting suspensions were evaluated for their sedimentation volume, apparent viscosity, flow rate, rate of redispersibility, pH, assay, and dissolution profile. Results. The volume of sedimentation, apparent viscosity, and redispersibility rate of the formulations were significantly increased (p < 0.05), with the concentration of the suspending agents. Meanwhile, the apparent viscosity for all formulations has significantly decreased (p < 0.05) with an increase in shear rates. Volume of sedimentation, apparent viscosity, and redispersibility degree of the formulations prepared with AEM were significantly (p < 0.05) lower than XG‐containing formulations at the same concentration. Nevertheless, the sedimentation volume of all formulations with AEM was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than the suspension without any suspending agent. With regard to drug content and pH values, all formulations showed an acceptable result with the standards. All formulations showed a release of greater than 85% of drug content within 45 min. Conclusion. Aloe elegans mucilage could have a potential to be utilized as an alternative suspending agent in pharmaceutical suspensions.

Background: Currently, many natural gums are extensively utilized as suspending agents in the formulation of pharmaceutical suspensions. They are easily available, nontoxic, biodegradable, and cost‐effective to be used as pharmaceutical excipients.Objective: The present study was aimed at physicochemical characterization and evaluation of the suspending capacity of Boswellia papyrifera gum (BPG) in comparison with sodium carboxy methyl cellulose (SCMC) and tragacanth gum (TG).Methods: The extracted and powdered BPG was subjected to physicochemical properties such as micromeritics, solubility, swelling power, ash value, moisture content, conductivity, pH, and apparent viscosity using standard methods. Metronidazole benzoate suspensions were formulated using various concentrations of BPG, SCMC, and TG (1%–5% w/v). The apparent viscosity, flow rate, sedimentation volume, redispersibility number, pH, and drug content were studied as assessment parameters.Results: The micromeritic studies revealed that BPG exhibited good flow properties. There was also a significant increase in solubility and swelling power of the gum as a function of temperature. The gum had 2.78% ash value and 4.32% moisture content. Conductivity and apparent viscosity of the gum were found to be increased with concentration (p < 0.05). However, the apparent viscosity of BPG was decreased with shear rate (p < 0.05), rendering a pseudoplastic flow property of the gum, which is an ideal characteristic of suspending agents. The suspending capacity of the BPG was found to be comparable to SCMC, but higher than TG. Thus, it can be concluded that BPG could be used as the best alternative to natural and synthetic suspending agents.