Establishment of the Kuwait medical school [1965 - 1976]

This is a study on the establishment of the Kuwait Medical School. It examines the planning needed to establish a medical school, focusing mostly on the work done by the 1973 planning committee of the Kuwait Medical Faculty. It also gives an insight on the process of medical education, since the establishment of the Kuwait Medical School was during a period when the process of medical education was revised. The study concludes that the establishment of the Kuwait Medical School was a great achievement and a fine example of early global collaboration in medical education

Safety of parenteral dexamethasone vs. oral prednisolone in the treatment of pemphigus vulgaris

To observe the safety of parenteral dexamethasone compared with oral prednisolone in the treatment of pemphigus vulgaris. A clinical trial was carried out in the department of Dermatology and Venereology, Bangabandu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Total number of patients was thirty. Among them fifteen patients were treated with injection dexamethasone [group A] and other fifteen were treated with oral prednisolone [group B]. Statistically significant improvement was observed in both groups in all clinical parameters after 6 weeks. But dexamethasone group showed statistically more significant improvement than prednisolone group in all clinical parameters except Nikolsky's sign. Most common adverse effects in both groups were weight gain, increased appetite, puffy face and hyperglycemia. In dexamethasone group other side effect was sleep disturbance. In prednisolone group other side effects were gastritis, sleep disturbance, nausea and vomiting, herpes zoster infection, reactivation of tuberculosis and mood change. Parenteral dexamethasone appears to be safer than oral prednisolone in the management of pemphigus vulgaris with an acceptable efficacy profile

A survey on knowledge of nutrition of physicians in Bangladesh: evidence from Sylhet data.

Knowledge regarding nutrition is an essential part in Medical Education. Several studies indicate that physicians have little knowledge of nutrition. The present study was carried out to determine the knowledge of nutrition of physicians at Sylhet in Bangladesh. For this purpose, the research data was collected by mean of a questionnaire including multiple choice questions. The questionnaire was pretested in a pilot survey. The survey was conducted among randomly selected physicians. The analysis shows that the response rate of the physicians was 60.3% and some of the physicians (26.49%) were experienced below 5 years. Only 15% of the physicians were females. The average correctly answered questions was 55.2%. The analysis also shows that most of the physicians (55%) have ‘poor’ knowledge of nutrition and that of only 10% was good. The physicians were generally aware of nutrition information which has been publicized in the medical press.

Antifungal activity of essential oil and alcoholic extract of carum copticum against fluconazole-resistant and susceptible candida albicans isolated

Ajowan is an annual herbaceous essential oil of Carum copticom. The main components of the oil are Tymol, beta-pinene, gamma- terpinene and Sabinene. The fruit oil of Carum copticum has been reported to have several therapeutic effects including anti fungal, anti bacterial and anti viral, … Candida albicans is an opportunistic fungus and transforms into pathogenic form in favorable conditions, causing fungal diseases. In this study essential oil and alcoholic extract of Carum copticum were gained and Microdilution Broth method were used for detection of minimum inhibition concentration [MIC] and minimum fungicide concentration [MFC] of 11 clinical isolates of Candida albicans and Standard strain [PTCC50-27]. Results show that MIC for essential oil is 0.43 micro g/ml, 0.87 micro g/ml and for alcoholic extract is 3.51 micro g/ml, 7.03 micro g/ml, 1/75 micro g/ml. Thus, it seems that Carum copticum could inhibit Candida albicans growth by a similar mechanism which occurs by Fluconazole [FLZ]. In general, the results obtained in this study indicate that Carum copticum has potential values for growth inhibition of Candida albicans in vitro. In recent years, systemic fungal infections due to Candida species have been received major consideration about inducing mortality in nosocomial patients because of increasing in immunocompromised disorders such as AIDS and hematological disorders as well as long term use of broad spectrum antibiotics and corticosteroids. The present study was done with the aim of evaluating antifungal effects of essential oil and alcoholic extract from Carum copticum against Fluconazole [FLZ] susceptible and Fluconazole resistance Candida albicans strains isolated from different types of Candidiasis. Standard drug susceptibility tests with broth dilution technique were used to measure the in vitro antifungal activity of essential oil and alcoholic extract from Carum copticum. According to our results, it seems that Carum copticum could inhibit Candida albicans growth by a similar mechanism which occurs by FLZ and could be used as a potential antifungal agent especially with FLZ