Regulation blood glucose during fasting

Muslims fast in the holy month of Ramadan, some also fast in Shawal and other months. After intake of sehri, blood glucose increases but as fasting continues, it falls. The main control of transition from feasting to fasting and vice versa is two pancreatic hormones, insulin and glucagon. Insulin is secreted from beta cells of pancreatic islets after sehri [food] intake and energy is stored. When blood glucose falls due to fasting, glucagon is secreted from alpha cells of pancreatic islets to release energy and blood glucose rises. During prolonged fasting, epinephrine released by sympathetic stimulation and cortisol released from adrenal cortex to maintain blood glucose level

Memory and its mechanism

Memory; a higher intellectual function is ability to store experiences and information and to recall these voluntarily and involuntarily. Explicit or declarative memory is associated with consciousness. It is of two types; episodic [memory of events] and semantic [memory of words, rules and language. It involves hippocampus, amygdala and diencephalon. Implicit or skill or habits memory is the memory of skilled behavior and it does not require conscious understanding; for example riding a bicycle and playing basketball. Parts of the brain involved in this memory are parts of sensorimotor cortex, basal nuclei and cerebellum

Memory can be short term, intermediate long term and long term. Short term memory lasts for seconds to a few minutes. Short term memory is consolidated to long term memory by rehearsal or active practice. Minimum consolidation occurs in 5-10 minutes while strong consolidation requires 1 hour or more. Long term memory involves protein synthesis and permanent facilitation of synapses. Those sensory experiences are stored into memory that is accompanied by either reward or punishment

Calcium status of female and male medical students

Objective: to assess the calcium status of healthy female and male medical students

Material and Methods: this cross sectional study was carried out in 30 female and 30 male healthy medical students in Department of Physiology, Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Lahore. Subjects were selected according to the inclusion criteria. Height and weight of each subject was determined and BMI was calculated. Serum calcium was determined by colorimetric method. Serum parathyroid and calcitonin were estimated by the ELISA

Results: the height and weight of female students were significantly less than those of male students. BMI of female students was non-significantly lower than those of male students. In female students, serum calcium and calcitonin levels were significantly lower while serum parathyroid hormone was non significantly lower than in male students. A significant positive correlation between serum calcium and serum calcitonin levels and significant negative correlation between serum calcium and parathyroid hormone levels were found in total study population. Significant correlations of serum calcitonin with weight and height were also present

Conclusion: the female medical students have low calcium status and are more prone to have bone loss

Serum magnesium in patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus

Objective: magnesium has a role in glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity in ·patients of diabetes mellitus. This study was conducted to compare the levels of serum magnesium in type-2 diabetic patients [controlled and uncontrolled] with non-diabetic controls

Material and Methods: this cross-sectional comparative study was carried out in eighty patients with type-2 diabetes and forty healthy, age and sex matched controls. Diabetic patients were selected after taking detailed history from the outpatient Diabetic Clinic of Services Hospital, Lahore. They were analyzed for serum magnesium, fasting blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin [HbA 1 c] levels

Results: mean +/- SD serum magnesium levels of the type 2 diabetic uncontrolled cases were significantly lower [p<0.01] than in the non-diabetic control subjects [0.771 +/- 0.208 mmol/I and 0.901 +/- 0.128 mmol/I]. These levels were non-significantly lower in controlled diabetic patients. There was inverse correlation [r = - 0.084] between the serum magnesium with fasting blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin in the type 2 controlled diabetic patients

Conclusion: hypomagnesemia is present in type 2 diabetic patients

Colour blindness in school children of Multan

Background: This study was carried out to assess colour vision in school children and to detect colour blindness

Material and Method: Colour vision in 1115 school children [595 males and 520 females] of Multan was assessed with the help of Ischihara's charts. Their ages ranged between 6 to 12 years

Results: Colour blindness was present in 5.4% [30] of the male children and 0.02% [1] of the female children studied. Red-green colour deficiency in male children was 2.19% [13] while no school girl was redgreen colour deficient. Total colour blindness was found in 2.86% [17] males and in 0.02% [1] of the female children

Concluslon: It is concluded that an appreciable number of school children has colour blindness and it is much more common in males as compared to female school children

Subclinical peripheral neuropathy in patients of insulin dependent [Type 1] diabetes mellitus

Motor and sensory nevre conduction velocities in the upper and lower limbs were evaluated in 30 patients of type I [insulin-dependent] diabetes mellitus and 15 age matched non-diabetic controls having no symptoms of peripheral neuropathy. Fasting blood glucose and glycosylated haemoglobin [HbA1C] levels were estimated to assess the glycaemic control in diabetic patients. Motor and sensory nerve conduction velocities were very highly significantly [P< 0.001] reduced in diabetic patients as compared to those in non-diabetic controls. A significant inverse correlation [P< 0.05] between duration of the disease and motor nerve conduction velocity of median nerve was demonstrated. There was also a significant inverse correlation [P< 0.05] between motor and sensory conduction velocities and fasting blood glucose level. This suggests a metabolic basis for the pathogenesis of diabetic neuropthy. Subclincal peripheral neuropathy was present in 36.67% of insulin-dependent diabetics

Patients of diabetes mellitus; correlation between glycosylated haemoglobin and fasting blood glucose levels

Glycosylated haemoglobin HbA[1c] and fasting blood glucose levels were estimated in 30 insulin dependent [type 1] and 30 non-insulin dependent [type 2] diabetics to find out correlation between these two glycaemic parameters. A positive correlation was found between HbA[1c] and fasting blood glucose levels. This correlation was, highly significant [P<0.01] in insulin dependent diabetics and very highly significant [P<0.001] in non insulin dependent diabetics

Visual evoked potentials in patients of insulin-dependent [type 1] diabetes melliyus

The latencies and amplitudes of visual evoked potentials [VEPs] were recorded in 30 patients of insulin-dependent [type1] diabetes mellitus and 15 age and sex matched non- diabetic controls to find out subclinical involvement of optic nerve in diabetic patients. The P100 latency of VEPs was highly significantly [P< 0.001] and the N75, N145 latencies were significantly [P<0.01], prolonged in diabetic patients as compared to the non- diabetic controls. Subclinical optic neuropathy was found in 40% of the diabetic patients. There was non- significant [P>0.05] correlation of P100 latency of the VEPs with duration of diabetes mellitus, fasting blood glucose and glycosylated haemoglobin [HBA][1c] level