Effect of COVID-19 crisis on medical students

COVID-19 pandemic demands and pressures that medical students face mental, physical and spiritual well being can be compromised. Hence this review highlights the beneficial targets to improve mental health in medical students. Collected recent articles from search engines Pub med, Google Scholar, published recently relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic from all over world. Provide routine schedules as much as possible by online services or provide e-services to create new environment, novel consultation and giving time gap in e-assignments, ask them to do the regular exercises may improve the mental health and decrease the stress of the medical students. Hence Avoiding of constant stream of news reports about an outbreak can cause anyone to feel anxious or distressed

Could homocysteine, angiotensin and alamandine be used as potential biomarkers in management of COVID-19?

The corona virus is now known as the severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Risk predictors and novel predictors associated with COVID-19 is required to enable the risk stratification, guide interventional studies to target patients at enhanced risk of developing severe disease risk and optimize the allocation of limited human and technical resources in the ongoing pandemic all over the globe. The present review focused on potential laboratory biomarkers associated with COVID-19. We carried out an electronic search in Medline (PubMed central), Scopus, Web of Science and using the keywords laboratory, biomarkers, novel biomarkers, corona virus 2019 or COVID-19. We observed that limited data were found that related to homocysteine and angiotensin II in COVID-19 patients. Hence original research on these novel biomarkers which associated with the complication of COVID-19 might be given new clues especially that mediate anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic effects leading to cardiovascular, renal-protective actions. The present review proposed by the available literature, these predictors might be the potent biomarkers to improve management of corona virus. Further, large cohort studies will be required to support conclusions of present review

Biosensors in Health Care: The Milestones Achieved in Their Development towards Lab-on-Chip-Analysis

Immense potentiality of biosensors in medical diagnostics has driven scientists in evolution of biosensor technologies and innovating newer tools in time. The cornerstone of the popularity of biosensors in sensing wide range of biomolecules in medical diagnostics is due to their simplicity in operation, higher sensitivity, ability to perform multiplex analysis, and capability to be integrated with different function by the same chip. There remains a huge challenge to meet the demands of performance and yield to its simplicity and affordability. Ultimate goal stands for providing point-of-care testing facility to the remote areas worldwide, particularly the developing countries. It entails continuous development in technology towards multiplexing ability, fabrication, and miniaturization of biosensor devices so that they can provide lab-on-chip-analysis systems to the community

A Common Krait, Bungarus caeruleus (Schneider 1801), preying on a Streaked Kukri Snake, Oligodon taeniolatus (Jerdon 1853)

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From error to uncertainty: A search for variabilities in the laboratory reports

479-484With the advancement of science and technology the diagnostic modality has been gradually getting integrated with the health care, thereby evolving into a new discipline of lab medicine. Therefore, the role of lab is no more limited to analytical phase only but expanded to clinical decision making and management planning. This demanded better quality assurance in lab reporting. The advent of sophisticated technology in clinical biochemistry lab, the error in analytical phase is drastically reduced, However, the preanalytical including biological variations has emerged as the major source of variations in the lab report. Therefore, definite need has been felt to think beyond the total error paradigm of lab quality control, resulting into the concept of uncertainty which can accommodate all possible components of the lab medicine as a probable source of uncertainty in the lab result. The knowledge and implication of the measurement of uncertainty seems to be challenging for the lab professional as well as the clinicians due to apparent complexity of the statistical methods involved and also for the lack of accessibility and orientation regarding the requisite computer applications. The regulatory guidelines are endorsing uncertainty measurement. Hence, it might be imperative to embrace this system in near future

Comparative Evaluation of Serum Lithium Estimation Using Plain Glass Vial and Serum Clot Activator Vacutainer by Reflectance Photometry

Background The collection of blood samples in different vacutainers can affect the result of serum lithium estimation due to the presence of distinct additives in the blood collection vacutainer for enhancing the clot formation process. Due to the low therapeutic index and threat of toxicity of lithium, it is imperative to correctly report the test result. Thus, it has become a challenge for the laboratory physician to estimate lithium in any clinical laboratory setup. Materials and Methods Sample of 100 patients were collected and paired into clot activator vacutainers and plain glass vials. After centrifugation, samples from the paired collection tubes were processed immediately for serum lithium estimation by VITROS 4600 analyzer working on the principle of reflectance photometry. Both the paired tubes were stored at 2 to 8°C and were further analyzed, at 24 and 48 hours, respectively, from the time of their collection. The statistical analysis was done in IBM SPSS software version 23. Results There was a statistically significant differences between the mean of lithium values when processed within 1st hour of collection, obtained from clot activator vacutainers in comparison to glass vials. However, within tube comparison, there was no statistical difference in the lithium values estimated at 1st hour, 24 hours, and 48 hours of collection. Conclusion In this study, lithium values measured by clot-activated vacutainers are found to be lower as compared with values measured through glass vials

Serum triacylglycerol: A putative early biomarker of disease severity of Type 2 diabetes mellitus compared to microalbuminuria

499-504Poorly controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus progresses to several complications including nephropathy. While glycated hemoglobin demarcates severity, urinary microalbumin indicates renal involvement. Considering nephropathy is a late manifestation of the disease, here, we explored whether serum triacylglycerol (TAG) can be used as an early disease severity biomarker. About 100 Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients were recruited and categorized as moderate (n=43) and severe (n=57) based on glycated haemoglobin (8%) level. Duration of the disease, BMI, systolic and diastolic BP, fasting and Post Prandial plasma glucose, glycated haemoglobin, serum lipid profile and urinary microalbumin were measured. Results obtained were compared between the groups and correlated. Taking glycated haemoglobin as reference, receiver operating characteristic curves were constructed for serum triacylglycerol and urinary microalbumin excretion to check their efficacy as classifier of disease severity. Significant differences (P <0.001) were recorded for plasma glucose, glycated haemoglobin, triacylglycerol and microalbuminuria but not for other parameters. Significant association (P <0.001) of glycated haemoglobin was displayed with triacylglycerol (r=0.67), fasting (r=0.0.71) and Post Prandial (r=0.82) plasma glucose and urine microalbumin levels (r=0.54). Serum triacylglycerol and urinary microalbumin levels also showed significant correlation (P <0.001, r=0.44). ROC curve analysis showed better performance of triacylglycerol (AUC=0.97) than microalbuminuria (AUC=0.88) to demarcate severity of diabetes. The results indicate that serum triacylglycerol is a better classifier of Type 2 diabetes mellitus than urinary microalbumin level, and may help in early assessment of the disease progression