Iron supplementation during pregnancy and its effects on epiphyseal growth plate of newborn rat: a histological study

Objective: To study the effect of iron supplementation during pregnancy on epiphyseal growth plate of Sprague dawley rat pups. Study Design: Laboratory based randomized control trial. Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at Department of Anatomy, Army Medical College Rawalpindi in collaboration with National Institute of Health [NIH] Islamabad, from Mar 2016 to Nov 2016

Material and Methods: Eight female and two male Sprague Dawley rats, 3-4 months old were selected and divided into two groups and kept for breeding. Pregnant rats were divided into two groups. Four pregnant rats in each group. Group A1was control group and group B1 was experimental group. Iron supplementation was given once daily throughout pregnancy till the time of delivery. Iron was given to the experimental group in syrup form [Sytron syrup containing iron as sodium feredetate]. Each 5ml of sytron syrup contains 27.5mg of elemental iron content1. The dose was mixed in water given to the animal. Maternal body weight [wt.] was recorded at the start and the end of experiment. As the rat pups were born, they were weighed and euthanized. Right femur of each rat pup was removed for the epiphyseal plate analysis. It was processed, embedded and stained with Hematoxylin and Eosin, Perl's stain for histological study. Hypertrophy and proliferative zone length were histologically and statistically analyzed

Results: Height of hypertrophy and proliferative zone was measured. Mean values of the heights of two zones were taken. Heights of hypertrophy and proliferative zones were considerably decreased in group B1 as compared to groups A1

Conclusion: Indiscriminate iron supplementation to the rats throughout pregnancy without checking serum iron levels can disturb the longitudinal growth of epiphyseal plate of femur. The height of the hypertrophy zone and proliferative zone was significantly reduced in iron supplementation group as compared to the control group

Role of skill laboratory training in medical education - students' perspective

Objective: To evaluate the perceptions of medical students regarding their training utilizing facilities provided in the skill laboratory of a public sector medical college. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Army Medical College, Rawalpindi, from October to December 2014

Methodology: Students of final year MBBS who had underwent skill laboratory training were recruited through convenience purposive sampling. Students not exposed to skill laboratory training were excluded. Data collection tool was a questionnaire having 23 questions with responses on Likert Scale as strongly disagree, disagree, agree and strongly agree coded as 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Data was analysed on SPSS version 22

Results: There were 78 [57%] male and 59 [43%] female students out of 137, with mean age of 22.59 +/- 0.74 years. The response rate was 68.5%. Cronbach's Alpha test was 0.84 showing high reliability. The mean of sum of all the 23 items was 63.85 +/- 8.71, whereas item means was 2.78 +/- 0.38, reflecting a high inclination of students towards skill laboratory training. Frequency of students responding in favour of skill laboratory training was significantly high [p < 0.05]

Conclusion: Medical students perceived skill laboratory training as a favoured learning strategy as compared to practising on real patients for acquisition of various aspects of clinical skills, knowledge and attitude

Effectiveness of case-based learning during small groups sessions at army medical college

A pragmatic and sequential mixed method study was conducted at Army Medical College, from October to December 2014 to determine medical students' perceptions regarding effectiveness of small groups during the CBL [case-based learning] sessions. Tutorial Group Effectiveness Instrument [TGEI] was used after written and informed consent. Free text comments about CBL were invited from the respondents and common ones, and were tabulated. The mean scores were calculated and compared among different subgroups of respondents using appropriate independent sample t-test. Content analysis of qualitative segment was done. A p-value of less than 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. The analysis of qualitative and quantitative variables was integrated in the final interpretation phase to draw conclusion. The average age of the participants was 19.33 +/- 0.657 years. The difference in scores was statistically insignificant for cognitive [p = 0.537], motivational [p = 0.868], and demotivational [p = 0.125] effectiveness between males and females. Insignificant difference was also observed for qualification of the overall group productivity among male and female students [p = 0.162], and exposed and non-exposed groups [p = 0.272]. The perceptions of overwhelming number of participants were in favour of small group discussion as a component of CBL

Effects of cell phone radiations on the metanephros tubules in a chick embryo model

To determine the histomorphogical effects of radiations from conventional and advanced mobile phones on the developing kidney of chick embryo. Randomized Control Trial. The study was conducted at Army Medical College, [MUST], Rawalpindi, Pakistan from January 30,2012 to January 30,2013. Fifty fertilized, zero day, off white colored eggs of Fayoumi breed were selected according to inclusion criteria. Two groups II and IV were exposed to conventional mobile phone radiations, and two groups III and V were exposed to advanced mobile phone radiations for 15 and 30 minutes per 24 hours respectively. Group I was the control. The data was analyzed by SPSS 17 and, ANOVA test was applied to determine statistical significance. The mean proximal and distal tubular diameters were decreased in the experimental groups. The mean proximal tubular diameter decreased significantly when comparing group I with groups N, III, IV and V and no statistical significance was found when comparing the experimental groups. The mean proximal luminal diameter decreased in experimental groups with statistically significant result between groups I and III and between I and V showing that the effects were more in advanced cell phone groups when compared with the control. Regarding distal tubular diameter the results were statistically significant between I and III, II and III and II and IV. Mean distal luminal diameter decreased in the experimental groups with statistically significant result when comparing II and IV and, IV and V. The distal tubules responded to either the increase in the time of exposure from 15 to 30 minutes or when the chick embryo was exposed to advanced cell phone radiations as the results were more significant between the experimental groups, where p<0.05 was considered significant. From this experimental study we can conclude that prolonged exposure to mobile phone radiations can lead to decrease in tubular as well as luminal diameter in the proximal and distal tubules of the developing kidneys of chick embryo

effects of electromagnetic radiations from conventional and advanced mobile phone on the histomorphology of proximal tubules of mesonephros of chick embryo

The study was conducted to investigate the comparative histomorphogical effects of radiations from conventional and advanced mobile phone, on the developing kidney of the chick embryo. Randomized control trial. Duration of Study: Three months. Fifty fertilized eggs of Fayoumibreed were selected. Two groups II and IV were exposed to conventional mobile phone radiation and two groups III and V was exposed to advanced mobile phone radiation for 15 and 30 minutes respectively, group I, being the control. The results were significant between control and groups III, IV and V regarding tubular diameter. The luminal diameters were statistically insignificant between the respective groups but significant between groups I and all the experimental groups, II and III when comparing proximal tubular cell's height. The proximal tubular and luminal diameters and epithelial height of the cells lining the proximal tubules of mesonephros were affected by not only advancement in the mobile phones but also increase in the exposure time to the radiations