A Study on Association between Sleep Habits and Academic Performance among Medical Undergraduates in Maharaja Agrasen Medical College Agroha.

Introduction: Good quality and adequate amount of sleepis necessary for being healthy. Medical students are proneto more stress due to their academic demands. The sleepamong students is characterized by inadequate sleeping hours,delayed sleep onset, and mid day nap. Current research aimedto study sleep habits among medical students and to findrelationship between sleep habits and stress with academicperformance of students.Material and Methods: This cross–sectional study wascarried out among 139 medical students of third semester,seventh semester and interns enrolled at Maharaja AgrasenMedical College, Agroha (Dist. Hisar), Haryana. Primarytool in this study was a predesigned and semi-structuredquestionnaire. Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) was used toassess daytime sleepiness. Collected data was analysed usingfrequencies, percentages and chi square test.Results: Out of 139 students, 38.8% were considered tohave excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS score >10). Femalestudents (43.1%) were found to have more abnormal EDS scoreas compare to male students(35.1%). Out of total, 70 studentssecured marks between 60-70 percent in which maximumnumber of students (61.42%) were stress free during examsand 54% had sleep duration of 7-10 hours. Good health wasfound to be strongly significant with academic performanceof the students. Duration of study hours was found to besignificant with academic performance of students. Delayedsleep onset was found to be more in female students (55%).Mid day nap was found in 76.25% of students.Conclusion: The negative effects of sleep difficulties havebeen well documented. EDS was more in female students.Also, good health had significant association with academicperformance so the knowledge of importance of good qualityand adequate amount of sleep and its impact on health shouldbe emphasized and translated into practice.

The opportunistic screening of refractive errors in school-going children by pediatrician using enhanced Brückner test.

Aim: The aim of this study was to compare the results of enhanced Brückner test (EBT) performed by a pediatrician and an experienced pediatric ophthalmologist. Subjects and Methods: In this prospective double‑masked cohort study, a pediatrician and a pediatric ophthalmologist performed the EBT in a classroom of a school in semi‑dark lighting condition using a direct ophthalmoscope. The results of the test were compared using 2 × 2 Bayesian table and kappa statistics. The findings of the pediatric ophthalmologists were considered gold standard. Results: Two hundred and thirty‑six eyes of 118 subjects, mean age 6.8 ± 0.5 years (range, 5.4–7.8 years), were examined. The time taken to complete this test was <10 s per subject. The ophthalmologist identified 59 eyes as ametropic (12 hyperopic and 47 myopic eyes) and 177 as emmetropic compared to 61 eyes as ametropic and 175 emmetropic by pediatrician. The prevalence of the test positive was 25.9%. The sensitivity of the pediatrician was 90.2%, specificity was 97.7%, predictive value of the positive test was 93.2%, and predictive value of the negative test was 96.6%. The clinical agreement (kappa) between the pediatric ophthalmologist and the pediatrician was 0.9. Conclusion: The results of the EBT performed by pediatrician were comparable to that of an experienced pediatric ophthalmologist. Opportunistic screening of refractive errors using EBT by a pediatrician can be an important approach in the detection of ametropia in children.

Anthelmintic potential of herbal drugs.

The present paper deals with the field observations recorded on the traditional indigenous therapeutic applications of the plants Butea monosperma (Lam.) seeds used by the inhabitants of the Sagar district, M.P. (India). Even today a number of plants of the local flora are used for curing various ailments and diseases. The information is given in a tabular form as scientific names of plants in alphabetic order followed by family, part used, effective against, and target animals. Information on local/vernacular names of plants, uses, parts used names of ailments and modes of usage are given in detail. Information on traditional uses and commercial uses as well as biological activities of the related species is included on the basis of the existing relevant literature so as to present a comprehensive account. In this review we compiled available literatures from libraries, scientific journals and online database query’s on plants and remedies used in traditional medicinal systems for such diseases.

A review on plants of genus polygonatum.

Plants of genus Polygonatum (Ruscaceae) are widely used in traditional medicine to cure many diseases such as ageing, antioxidative action, insecticidal, antiherpetic, antinociception and aphrodisiac. A variety of phytoconstituents has been isolated from the Polygonatum species which include lignans, flavonoids, coumarins, steroids, terpenes, fatty acids and aliphatic long chain compounds. Anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antidiarrhoeal, antimicrobial, antioxidant, antimalarial and insecticidal activities have been reported in the extracts of these plants and their phytoconstituents. An overview of the ethnobotanical, phytochemical and pharmacological investigations on the Polygonatum species is presented in this review.

Disseminated tuberculosis manifesting as chronic pancreatitis.

Pancreatic involvement in tuberculosis is known but uncommon. The clinical manifestation may vary from painless obstructive jaundice due to pancreatic mass (cyst or abscess) to fever of unknown origin. Here we report a case who initially presented as acute pancreatitis relapsing into chronic pancreatitis as an initial manifestation of disseminated tuberculosis.

Comparative evaluation of cefpodoxime versus cefixime in children with lower respiratory tract infections.

OBJECTIVE: The emergence of penicillin and macrolide resistant strains, responsible for Acute Lower Respiratory Tract Infections in children has offered third generation cephalosporins the platform to perform. The aim of the present study was to evaluate two third generation oral cephalosporins for their empirical use in community acquired lower respiratory tract infections in pediatric patients. An assessment of the clinical cure and bacteriological eradication rates and an overall tolerability was made. METHODS: It was a prospective, open, comparative, multicentric study. 776 children (Mean age 10 years) with LRTIs were included and randomly allotted to two groups respectively. A total of 396 children were given cefpodoxime susp 5 mg/kg b.i.d. and 380 patients on cefixime 4 mg/kg b.i.d. for 10-14 days. RESULTS: At the end of therapy, the clinical success with cefpodoxime was 97% as against 86.8% with cefixime. Bacterial eradication was 93.4% with cefpodoxime and 82.9% with cefixime. CONCLUSION: Cefpodoxime has been found to be a well-tolerated and superior alternative to cefixime synergistically documenting the extended spectrum of activity.