BURDEN IMPOSED BY DIABETES MELLITUS ON ELDERLY PATIENTS VISITING A TEACHING HOSPITAL

Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus (DM), a chronic metabolic disorder, has become an alarmingly a major health issue worldwide. Thus, the study aimed to assess the burden imposed by diabetes mellitus on elderly patients visiting Lumbini Medical College and Teaching Hospital (LMCTH). Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 178 diabetic elderlies purposively visiting medicine out-patient department of LMCTH. Elderly Diabetes Burden Scale was used to assess the burden imposed by diabetes. Results: The mean(SD) age of the participants was 67.38(6.92) years, more than half(52.2%) were male, 46.6% were janajati and 77.5% were from Palpa district. Most(84.3%) had diabetes for duration of 1 to 10 years, 45.6% had normal body mass index(BMI), 47.2% had good glycaemic control (HbA1C <7%), and  74.2% were on oral hypo-glycaemic agents. Dietary restrictions (10.32±2.97) and worry about diabetes (10.30±2.85) were perceived as high burden level and burden by tablets/insulin (7.02±2.12) as lower burden amongst the six domains. Age, education and body mass index (BMI) were found to be highly statistically significant with the treatment dissatisfaction domain (p<0.001). Likewise, duration of diabetes (p=<0.001) with burden by tablets/insulin and symptom burden domain. Conclusion: Dietary restrictions and worry about diabetes were found to have dominant burden whereas, burden by tablets or insulin was the least. Duration of diabetes and body mass index (BMI) were found to have association with the overall burden. Likewise, age, education and BMI seems to have high influence on the perception of burden due to treatment dissatisfaction

Unveiling the Significance of FGF8 Overexpression in Orchestrating the Progression of Ovarian Cancer

The asymptomatic nature, high rate of disease recurrence, and resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy highlight the need to identify and characterize novel target molecules for ovarian cancer. Fibroblast growth factor 8 (FGF8) aids in the development and metastasis of ovarian cancer; however, its definite role is not clear. We employed ELISA and IHC to examine the expression of FGF8 in the saliva and tissue samples of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) patients and controls. Furthermore, various cell assays were conducted to determine how FGF8 silencing influences ovarian cancer cell survival, adhesion, migration, and invasion to learn more about the functions of FGF8. In saliva samples, from controls through low-grade to high-grade EOC, a stepped overexpression of FGF8 was observed. Similar expression trends were seen in tissue samples, both at protein and mRNA levels. FGF8 gene silencing in SKOV3 cells adversely affected various cell properties essential for cancer cell survival and metastasis. A substantial reduction was observed in the cell survival, cell adhesion to the extracellular matrix, migration, and adhesion properties of SKOV3 cells, suggesting that FGF8 plays a crucial role in the development of EOC. Conclusively, this study suggests a pro-metastatic function of FGF8 in EOC