18 research outputs found
Effect of Aegle marmelos methanolic extracts of leaf and fruit pulp on learning and memory in albino rats
Background: The objective was to study the effect of Aegle marmelos methanolic extracts of leaf (LE) and fruit pulp extract (FE) on learning and memory in albino rats. 40 healthy wistar albino rats of either sex were randomly divided into 10 groups of 4 each (n=4), weighing about 150 to 200 gm were selected for the study. The extracts i.e. 1ml of 1% carboxy methyl cellulose, LE and FE at doses of 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg were administered per oral one hour before the experiment.Methods: Learning and memory was assessed by elevated plus maze and Hebb William maze. Latency time and number of entries were assessed by elevated plus maze whereas only latency was assessed by Hebb William maze.Results: Plant extracts of LE and FE at doses 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg have shown significant percentage reduction in latency time in elevated plus maze and Hebb William maze (p<0.05) and reduction in the number of entries in elevated plus maze.Conclusions: LE and FE at doses 200 mg/kg have shown significant effect on learning and memory
Knowledge of medical students on clinical trials
Background: Basic research can help medical school students improve critical thinking skills required by medical practice. In this era of evidence-based medicine, the combination of medical education with clinical research is the key to ensure scientific discoveries are translated into clinical practice. This study’s objective was to know the awareness about clinical trials among undergraduate medical students.Methods: After obtaining approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee of NRI Academy of Medical Sciences, Guntur, India, this cross sectional study was conducted in second year medical students after taking their consent. A sample of 90was considered for statistical analysis. A structured questionnaire was used to measure the objective of this study, which had general, regulatory and ethical questions related to clinical trials. Qualitative data variables were expressed by using frequency and Percentage (%).Results: Out of 90 students, it was observed that in the general questions category, 70% of students were aware of the purpose of conducting clinical trials, 50% were aware of the pre-requisites for a participant before participating in a clinical trial and 50% were aware of the parameters evaluated in a clinical trial. 95% of students did not know the response for regulatory questions. The students’ awareness regarding ethics related to clinical trials was better than the other two categories.Conclusions: The overall awareness of clinical trials was low among students though they demonstrated good awareness regarding few aspects of clinical trials
Drug utilization pattern of antimicrobials in OPD of ENT in teaching hospital
Background: A drug utilization study may be helpful to identify the problems, suggest the remedial measures and promote rational use. Antimicrobials are commonly used to treat infections caused by bacteria, viruses, protozoa and fungi, evidently require huge prescriptions in India.Methods: A prospective, observational study was carried out for a period of four months from February to May 2019 in the Department of ENT (OPD) at NRI Medical College and General Hospital. Prescriptions were collected randomly from around 300 patients attending the ENT outpatient department after obtaining informed consent. The data were collected in the predesigned proforma for analysis.Results: 300 ENT patients were selected for the study, 62% were male and 38% were female. Out of 300 patients 190 ear disorders, 50 nasal, and 60 throat infections. Antimicrobial therapy were most commonly instituted in ear diseases (67.66%), nose (16.95%) and throat (15.37%) respectively. The most commonly used agents were amoxicillin with clavulanic acid- n=295, cefixime- n=1260, gentamicin- n=200, ciprofloxacin- n=157, azithromycin- n=199, nitroimidazoles (metronidazole- n=111).Conclusions: Cefixime and amoxicillin+clavulanic acid combination was the most commonly prescribed antibiotic in our study. Interventions to rectify the use of brand names are necessary to promote rational drug use. An antibiotic policy has to be developed for the doctors in treating infections so that rationality in using the antibiotics will be developed and the occurrence of antibiotic resistance can be reduced
Medical student’s perception on teaching-learning methods of pharmacology in a medical college
Background: To know the Medical student’s perception on teaching and learning methods of pharmacology in a medical college attached to tertiary care hospital.Methods: This is a questionnaire based study conducted in a medical college. A pre-validated, pre-designed questionnaire containing 22 points was given to 5th semester students to know their perception on teaching and learning methods.Results: Analysis was done on 150 medical students of a tertiary care hospital. Among them, 80 % wanted the faculty members to make more utilization of Audio-Visual aids for effective learning. 78.67 % students wanted to include case based learning in the curriculum and 86.67% wanted more of the clinical pharmacology to be introduced. A 28% wanted MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions) to be included in the assessment of academic performance. A 13.33% felt that the ideal teaching method for learning pharmacology was didactic lectures. A 65% thought ideal teaching/learning media for pharmacology was the combination of LCD (Liquid Crystal display) projector and blackboard.Conclusions: The study revealed the ideal teaching and learning methods in pharmacology for the betterment of students
Study of awareness of diabetes mellitus among diabetics and non-diabetics and drug utilisation pattern in diabetics attending tertiary care general hospital in India
Background: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is one of the most challenging public health problems. It is important to know about the awareness level of a disease condition in a population, which plays a vital role in future development, early detection and prevention of disease.Methods: A total of 200 subjects were interviewed and their details were noted in a specially designed data collection form. The questionnaire contained a series of questions related to demographic characteristics and awareness of DM including general knowledge, risk factors and complications of diabetic and non-diabetic patients.Results: Among 150 subjects were diabetic and 50 were non-diabetic. 60 (40%), 14(28%) of diabetics and non- diabetics were between the age of 41-50. 101 (67.3%) were male, 49 (32.6%) were female. 101 (67.3%) of the study participant had family history of diabetes in diabetic. 45 (44.5%) diabetic, 20 (40.81%) non-diabetic male knows the risk factor for diabetes mellitus and 35 (34.6%), 21 (42.8%) were aware of symptoms, 09(8.9%), 03(6.1%) awareness on complication of diabetes. 21 (20.7%), 06 (12.2%) doesn’t know about Risk factors.Conclusions: The present study conclude a current situation of knowledge and awareness of diabetes mellitus and also emphasizes the need for improvement in knowledge and awareness on diabetes mellitus among the diabetic as well as non-diabetic subjects in order to achieve prevention and better control of diabetes risk factors, complications and its management
Sustained proliferation in cancer: mechanisms and novel therapeutic targets
Proliferation is an important part of cancer development and progression. This is manifest by altered expression and/or activity of cell cycle related proteins. Constitutive activation of many signal transduction pathways also stimulates cell growth. Early steps in tumor development are associated with a fibrogenic response and the development of a hypoxic environment which favors the survival and proliferation of cancer stem cells. Part of the survival strategy of cancer stem cells may manifested by alterations in cell metabolism. Once tumors appear, growth and metastasis may be supported by overproduction of appropriate hormones (in hormonally dependent cancers), by promoting angiogenesis, by undergoing epithelial to mesenchymal transition, by triggering autophagy, and by taking cues from surrounding stromal cells. A number of natural compounds (e.g., curcumin, resveratrol, indole-3-carbinol, brassinin, sulforaphane, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, genistein, ellagitannins, lycopene and quercetin) have been found to inhibit one or more pathways that contribute to proliferation (e.g., hypoxia inducible factor 1, nuclear factor kappa B, phosphoinositide 3 kinase/Akt, insulin-like growth factor receptor 1, Wnt, cell cycle associated proteins, as well as androgen and estrogen receptor signaling). These data, in combination with bioinformatics analyses, will be very important for identifying signaling pathways and molecular targets that may provide early diagnostic markers and/or critical targets for the development of new drugs or drug combinations that block tumor formation and progression
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Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021
BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Medical student’s perception on teaching-learning methods of pharmacology in a medical college
Background: To know the Medical student’s perception on teaching and learning methods of pharmacology in a medical college attached to tertiary care hospital.Methods: This is a questionnaire based study conducted in a medical college. A pre-validated, pre-designed questionnaire containing 22 points was given to 5th semester students to know their perception on teaching and learning methods.Results: Analysis was done on 150 medical students of a tertiary care hospital. Among them, 80 % wanted the faculty members to make more utilization of Audio-Visual aids for effective learning. 78.67 % students wanted to include case based learning in the curriculum and 86.67% wanted more of the clinical pharmacology to be introduced. A 28% wanted MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions) to be included in the assessment of academic performance. A 13.33% felt that the ideal teaching method for learning pharmacology was didactic lectures. A 65% thought ideal teaching/learning media for pharmacology was the combination of LCD (Liquid Crystal display) projector and blackboard.Conclusions: The study revealed the ideal teaching and learning methods in pharmacology for the betterment of students
Study of awareness of diabetes mellitus among diabetics and non-diabetics and drug utilisation pattern in diabetics attending tertiary care general hospital in India
Background: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is one of the most challenging public health problems. It is important to know about the awareness level of a disease condition in a population, which plays a vital role in future development, early detection and prevention of disease.Methods: A total of 200 subjects were interviewed and their details were noted in a specially designed data collection form. The questionnaire contained a series of questions related to demographic characteristics and awareness of DM including general knowledge, risk factors and complications of diabetic and non-diabetic patients.Results: Among 150 subjects were diabetic and 50 were non-diabetic. 60 (40%), 14(28%) of diabetics and non- diabetics were between the age of 41-50. 101 (67.3%) were male, 49 (32.6%) were female. 101 (67.3%) of the study participant had family history of diabetes in diabetic. 45 (44.5%) diabetic, 20 (40.81%) non-diabetic male knows the risk factor for diabetes mellitus and 35 (34.6%), 21 (42.8%) were aware of symptoms, 09(8.9%), 03(6.1%) awareness on complication of diabetes. 21 (20.7%), 06 (12.2%) doesn’t know about Risk factors.Conclusions: The present study conclude a current situation of knowledge and awareness of diabetes mellitus and also emphasizes the need for improvement in knowledge and awareness on diabetes mellitus among the diabetic as well as non-diabetic subjects in order to achieve prevention and better control of diabetes risk factors, complications and its management