UKM medical graduates’ perception of their communication skills during housemanship

The art of talking to patients and their relatives does not come naturally to most of us and the ability to put oneself in the patients’ predicament is difficult particularly for the young doctors. To identify the communication abilities of the young doctors, a cross sectional study was carried out on 32 house officers who graduated from UKM in 2004 during their house jobs at different hospitals in Malaysia. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect the data. Fifty nine percent respondents claimed that they had communicated very well with patients while 69% with support staff and 88% with peers. On the other hand 38% and 41% of the respondents claimed they communicated very well with their superiors and families of patients. Only 22% of the graduates’ skills of communication in breaking bad news were very well, while 50% and 81% were very well in counselling patients and taking consent for procedures. Curriculum planners need to emphasize the importance of developing good communication skills in all aspects for the future doctor

Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of Erythroxylum cuneatum alkaloid leaf extract

Erythroxylum cuneatum (E. cuneatum) which belongs to Erythroxylaceae family is a tropical flowering plant from the genus of Erythroxylum. It is used in Malaysia and Thailand's traditional medicines, yet there is limited scientific reports on its medicinal value. This study aimed at exploring the antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties of E. cuneatum alkaloid leaf extract. The alkaloid extract was obtained through Soxhlet heat extraction method, while the antioxidantive properties were assessed via 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and xanthine oxidase inhibition (XOI) assays. Further, anti-inflammatory property of the extract was evaluated on rat's model of carrageenan induced paw model of edema via physical measurements and histology. The extract exhibited antioxidant activity with an EC50 value of 1482 μg/ml in the DPPH radical scavenging assay, an EC1 value of 2191 μg/ml in the FRAP assay and 10.15 ± 6.20% in the XOI assay. Rats pretreated with the extract have shown dose dependent decrease in paw edema when compared to non-treated group of rats. The highest dose (50 mg/kg) of extract exhibited similar effects to aspirin in terms of reducing paw thickness, leucocytes infiltration and disruption of collagen. In conclusion, the E. cuneatum alkaloid leaf extract possesses both antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties suggesting its potentials for future development of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory drugs