Problems associated with menstruation among medical students: a cross sectional study

Background: Medical students are at high risk for developing menstrual irregularities due to their lifestyle, food pattern and exercise habits. Also, majority of the menstrual disorders are preventable by changing better lifestyle, early diagnosis and treatment. Hence this study was conducted with the objective of addressing the menstrual disorders and associated problems among the medical students.Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted by the department of obstetrics and gynaecology, at Sri Muthukumaran Medical College Hospital and Research Institute, among the first, second- and third-year female students who are doing their MBBS course in the same institute, during the month of December 2019. A total of hundred students were included in the study. Data was collected using a proforma and analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.Results: Menstrual cycle periodicity was irregular among 17% of participants. Dysmenorrhoea, mid cycle pain, heavy menstrual bleeding was noted among 27%, 19% and 11% respectively. Also 10% of students reported sickness absenteeism due to menstrual disorders.Conclusions: Adolescent students should be educated on the importance of physical and mental health in terms of healthy food habits and regular physical exercise to overcome the menstrual disorders and to enjoy healthy reproductive period

Connected Vertex-Edge Dominating Sets and Connected Vertex-Edge Domination Polynomials of Friendship F_n

Let  be a simple connected graph of order  Let be the family of connected vertex-edge dominating sets in  with cardinality .The polynomial is called the connected vertex - edge domination polynomial of  G, where  is the number of connected vertex - edge dominating sets of G. In this paper, we study some properties of connected vertex-edge domination polynomials of the Friendship graph . We obtain a recursive formula for   . Using this recursive formula, we construct the connected vertex - edge domination polynomial  of , where  is the number of the connected vertex - edge dominating sets of  of cardinality  and some properties of this polynomial have been studied

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Prevalence of Cervical Spondylosis among Cases with Vertigo in a Tertiary Care Center

Introduction Etiology of vertigo is wide and each etiological factor should be treated accordingly. This study was conducted to assess the prevalence of cervical spondylosis among the cases with vertigo and to assess the clinical factors associated with it. Materials and Methods A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted among cases with vertigo attending the outpatient department of otorhinolaryngology at Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, during the months of November 2020 to March 2021. A total of 180 cases with vertigo and 180 controls without vertigo were included in the study. Primary outcome assessed was the prevalence of cervical spondylosis among cases with vertigo and the secondary outcome was to assess the clinical characteristics of the study participants and factors associated with the presence of cervical spondylosis. Analysis was done using SPSS version 20. Results Majority of participants belong to 51 to 55 years of age with slight female predominance. Impacted cerumen auris, otitis media, and perforated tympanic membrane were noted in 19.4, 10, and 10.6% of cases, respectively. Prevalence of cervical spondylosis was reported as 17.2%, and 12.2% of cases had abnormal pure-tone audiometry findings with significant association between the presences of cervical spondylosis. Conclusion Assessment of hearing using pure-tone audiometry can be done as a routine practice for all the cases with vertigo which occurs due to cervical spondylosis

Comparison of Four Different Scoring Methods for Ki-67 Percentage in Breast Carcinoma: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: In breast cancer, the prognostic role of Ki-67 has been comprehensively studied, and its usefulness has been proven. Ki-67 expression has a prognostic and predictive value in both adjuvant therapy response and neoadjuvant settings. However, the inter and the intraobserver variability in manual counting limits the accuracy of scoring Ki-67 and consequently its application in treatment. Aim: To examine four different methods of Ki-67 estimation to find the most reliable, reproducible and time-efficient scoring methods for Ki-67. Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Pathology, Sree Mookambika Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, India, from May 2023 to August 2023. Ki-67 immunostained slides of 30 trucut biopsies of invasive breast carcinoma were retrieved and analysed by two observers in a blinded manner. The four different methods of analysis of Ki-67 expression carried out were the global method, the hotspot method, the Eye-10 method and the stepwise counting strategy. The parameters included in the present study were the mean age of the study population, the pre/postmenopausal status, the histopathological type of invasive breast carcinoma, Estrogen Receptor (ER), Progesterone Receptor (PR), and Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2 (HER2)/neu status, as well as, the interobserver agreement and the mean time taken by the four methods to analyse the Ki-67 expression. Data entry was performed using Microsoft Office Excel 2013, and statistical analysis was conducted using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20.0. Descriptive statistics for qualitative variables and mean and Standard Deviation (SD) for quantitative variables were used for data analysis. Chi-square tests were used for bivariate analysis with a determined statistical significance of 5% (p-value <0.05). Results: The mean age of the study population was 52.9±9.1 years. The highest interobserver concordance was observed among the observers using the weighted global scoring method, with an Interclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) of 0.967. This method was time consuming, with the first observer taking a mean±SD time of 5.5±0.8 minutes and the second observer taking 4.6±0.9 minutes. The least time was consumed for performing the Eye-10 scoring, with mean±SD time was 1±0.87 minutes. The stepwise counting and hotspot method demonstrated excellent inter-rater agreement, with a kappa of 0.8304 (p-value <0.001) between both observers. Conclusion: Although the Eye-10 method and stepwise counting took the least time, they are limited by a gray/intermediate zone for scoring compared to the global scoring method and the hotspot method. As a result, the global and/or hotspot method after proper training is a robust and reliable method of assessing Ki-67, with the hotspot method being the most reliable, as the global method is limited by the use of an online tool