Browsing by Author "Dilina, N."

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    Aspirin is associated with low oral pH levels and antacid helps to increase oral pH
    (Biomed Central, 2018) Ediriweera, D.S.; Dilina, N.; Saparamadu, V.; Fernando, I.; Kurukulasuriya, B.; Fernando, D.; Kurera, J.
    OBJECTIVE: Aspirin is a commonly used medicine for primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases. It is an acidic medicine associated with gastric irritation and acid reflux, which in turn can lead to low oral pH levels. Therefore, it is important to understand the association between aspirin and oral pH levels in order to achieve an optimum oral health condition among patients who take aspirin on prescription. RESULTS: Out of 373 patients, 162 (44%) were males and 245 (66%) were on aspirin. 71% of aspirin taking patients and 29% of non-aspirin taking patients had oral pH less than 6.5 (P < 0.01). Aspirin showed a significant association with low oral pH levels (odds ratio = 1.91, 95% CI 1.23-2.99, P < 0.01). 78 patients were given antacids and followed up for 4 weeks, 63 of them (81%) showed an improvement in oral pH and the improvement was marked in the group who had oral pH between 5.5-6.0 compared to the group who had oral pH between 6.0-6.5 (P = 0.03). The results show that aspirin therapy is associated with low oral pH and administration of an antacid with aspirin helps to increase the oral pH level.
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    Risk of low birth weight on adulthood hypertension - evidence from a tertiary care hospital in a South Asian country, Sri Lanka: a retrospective cohort study
    (BioMed Central, 2017) Ediriweera, D.S.; Dilina, N.; Perera, U.; Flores, F.; Samita, S.
    BACKGROUND: Although low birth weight (LBW) is common in South Asian region there are not many studies being done to evaluate LBW and adulthood hypertension association in this region, including in Sri Lanka. Although this association has been studied in other regions, most studies have not evaluated this association in the presence of socioeconomic and lifestyle factors. This study was conducted to investigate whether low birth weight (LBW) is associated with adulthood hypertension after adjusting for other potential risk factors of hypertension. METHODS: Nearly 15,000 individuals born during 1950 to 1965 were selected and invitations were sent to their original addresses. Out of them 217 individuals responded and among them birth weight was recovered for 122 individuals. Separate linear logistic models were fitted to model high systolic blood pressure (SBP: systolic blood pressure > 140 mmHg), high diastolic blood pressure (DBP: diastolic blood pressure > 90 mmHg) and hypertension (either SBP > 140 mmHg or DBP > 90 mmHg). RESULTS: Separate linear logistic model fitting revealed LBW having a significant association with high SBP (OR = 2.89; 95% CI: 1.01 to 8.25; P = 0.04), and hypertension (OR = 3.15; 95% CI: 1.17 to 9.35; P = 0.03), but not with high DBP (OR = 0.75; 95% CI: 0.22 to 2.16; P = 0.62), when effect of LBW was studied after adjusting for all other potential risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: LBW has a tendency to cause high adult blood pressure in South Asian region, and the findings are consistent with previous work on LBW and adulthood hypertension association in other regions of the world.