ABSTRACT
Introduction: The concepts taught in pre-clinical sciences serve as a backbone to understand the clinical sciences. The system of teaching basic science subjects through didactic lectures followed in most of the medical colleges is more of a teacher centered. The medical educators are concerned about the learning outcomes of the traditional programs of teaching. Usually feedback on curriculum is obtained by subject experts from other universities. There is an unmet need to obtain the perceptions of graduates as they represent one of the important stakeholders of curriculum. Objective: To collect the interns perception about the content, need and application of biochemistry knowledge during their internship using a pre-designed and pre validated questionnaire. Materials and Methods: It was a cross sectional study done on interns who were asked to give feedback on biochemistry curriculum using the questionnaire. All the opinions were rated using 5- point Likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Results: 72.9% of interns were in favor of integrating basic science subjects with clinical sciences . Around 74.5 % (2/3rd) expressed that adopting interactive teaching strategies and problem based learning helped them in better understanding of the subject. Conclusion: The final goal of teaching in a medical sector includes attainment of knowledge, skills, attitudes and morals required to perform professional tasks safely and competently. In order to achieve this interactive, practical/case oriented and integrated teaching should be promoted.
ABSTRACT
Cadmium is one among the most environmental pollutants that affects many organs like kidney, liver and testis. The present study was aimed to assess the simultaneous effects of black tea extracts (BTE) on cadmium chloride induced alterations in lipid profile and liver histology. Adult rats were divided into four groups (n=6/group), group I (normal saline), group II (CdCl2, 1.0 mg/kg, b.wt; i.p), group III (black tea extract, 2.5 gm tea leaf/dl of water that is 2.5% of aqueous BTE) and group IV (cadmium chloride + BTE). Cadmium chloride intoxicated rats showed significant increase in serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low density lipoprotein-cholesterol and there is a significant decrease in the serum high density lipoproteincholesterol. In the liver, cadmium chloride showed changes in normal architecture, swollen hepatocytes, kupffer cells hyperplasia, dilation and congestion of central vein. Oral administration of black tea extracts with cadmium chloride significantly improves lipid profile and liver architecture as compared to the cadmium chloride group. The results indicate that BTE is beneficial in preventing cadmium-induced lipid alterations and hepatocellular damage.