ABSTRACT
Background: Stress is a personal experience brought on by complex interactions between a person and their environment, so it cannot be avoided. It typically happens when a person’s situational demand exceeds their available resources. Additionally, it has been noted that excessive stress can hurt self-esteem, academic performance, and both personal and professional development. This study sought to determine the stress level, different stressors, and coping mechanisms used by undergraduate medical students. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was done among first to final-year medical undergraduate students between January and June 2022 at a tertiary care institution in South India. 450 students enrolled in the first year to last year were included in the study through the purposeful sampling method. The medical Student Stressor Questionnaire was used to assess the stress levels among the study participants. The coping strategies were considered using a brief coping orientation to problems experienced (COPE) inventory. Cluster analysis used the K-means method. Results: A total of 278 out of the 450 students completed the questionnaire and returned it, yielding an overall response rate of61.78%. Of which 175 (62.95%) women respondents made up the majority of the study participants. The mean age of the participants was 20.15 ± 2.8 years. 45.32% ( n = 126) of the study participants belonged to the first year of their study, whereas 23.02% ( n = 64) belonged to the second year of their research. Academic stress was the primary stressor. The predominant coping strategies used were problem-focused and emotion-focused coping with stress. Conclusion: A variety of stress management techniques should be offered to help the students in better handling of the demanding professional course.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: Many virulence factors are involved in the pathomechanism of infection caused by Helicobacter pylori. Toxins such as vacuolating cytotoxin, encoded by the vacA gene and the immunogenic protein cagA, encoded by the cagA gene (cytotoxin-associated gene) are major factors conferring the property of virulence. The current study is aimed at isolation of H. pylori and separation of its toxin from antral biopsies of patients. Materials and Methods: The following cell lines were used to demonstrate the cytopathic effect (CPE) of the separated toxin: African green monkey kidney (Vero), baby hamster kidney, human lung carcinoma (LLC-MK2), and human epithelial. Results: H. pylori was isolated from 27 out of 45 patients (60%) selected for the study. CPE of H. pylori toxin was highly signifi cant on Vero cells than other cell lines used as it reached a high dilution titer of toxin (1/16) in 13 isolated strains (48.15%). No signifi cant difference in CPE of toxin in different dilutions was detected among other cell lines used in different groups. H. pylori toxin could be detected by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis as a distinct band with a molecular weight ranging between 66 and 97 kDa and closely related to 87 kDa. Conclusion: H. pylori vacuolating cytotoxin plays a vital role in the pathogenesis of gastroduodenal diseases (gastritis, gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer, and gastric cancer). The Vero cell lines were found to be the most suitable form of tissue culture when compared with other cell lines used in our study for demonstrating the activity of H. pylori toxin.