A Students’ Perspective on University Education and Well-Being One-Year into the COVID-19 Pandemic

We report university student perspectives on COVID-19 impact on education, general health and well-being, one year into the pandemic.   A ‘low risk’ questionnaire with modified General Health (GHQ-28) and Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) instruments was shared with students via an email link over a 4-week period.   725 students responded from five countries. Half of the students reported significant general health difficulties and more than ten per cent experienced a severe state of generalised anxiety disorder. The virtual learning techniques adopted during the pandemic were welcomed by students but many were frustrated by the poor quality teaching material, poor scheduling of virtual sessions with inadequate spacing and assessments not being truly representative of what was taught. Digital poverty due to inadequacies in hardware, software compatibility and connectivity were major hindrances to virtual learning.   Universities should urgently modify the virtual training methods and enhance mental health and wellbeing support before disaster strikes

A study of association between platelet volume indices and ST elevation myocardial infarction

Introduction and objective: ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is caused by formation of a thrombus at a ruptured atheromatous plaque. Larger platelets are enzymatically and metabolically more active and play a crucial role in thrombus formation. Our objective was to study the association between platelet volume indices (mean platelet volume (MPV) and platelet distribution width (PDW)) and STEMI. Methods: A hospital-based case control study to compare the platelet indices of 52 STEMI patients before commencing antiplatelet therapy and age and gender matched 52 controls who had no history of ischemic heart disease or antiplatelet therapy. Blood samples were collected to EDTA bottles and analyzed using Mindray BC 6800 automated analyzer. Results: STEMI patients had significantly increased mean MPV and PDW compared to the control group ((8.22 ± 0.99 fL vs 7.74 ± 0.69 fL, p = 0.005) and (15.81 ± 0.41 fL vs 15.62 ± 0.33 fL, p = 0.007) respectively). Significant positive correlation existed between MPV and PDW (R = 0.556, p = 0.000) and weak negative correlation in platelet count with MPV (R = −0.323, p = 0.019) and PDW (R = −0.309, p = 0.026) of STEMI patients. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves showed that MPV and PDW with cutoff values of 7.55 fL, 15.55 fL and with Area under the curve (AUC) of 0.640, 0.620 respectively. The sensitivities and specificities were found to be 73.1%, 69.2% and 61.5%, 55.8% for MPV and PDW respectively. Conclusion: Increased MPV and PDW were found to have a significant association with STEMI and this test has the potential to be used as a preliminary test to identify high-risk patient for myocardial infarction. Keywords: Coronary artery disease, Mean platelet volume, Platelet distribution widt

Quantitative analysis of the erythrocyte membrane proteins in polycythemia vera patients treated with hydroxycarbamide

More than 90% of polycythemia vera (PV) patients have a mutation in the protein JAK2, which is closely associated with the erythrocyte membrane. With the comparison of 1-D gels of erythrocyte membranes obtained from PV patients treated with hydroxycarbamide and those of untreated controls we observed significant differences in the region of 40–55 kDa. On the basis of the LC–MS/MS analysis of this region we report up-regulation of four protein disulfide isomerases, which was subsequently confirmed by targeted mass spectrometric analysis. In further studies it will be prudent to compare this in patients both treated and not treated with hydroxycarbamide