ABSTRACT
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic forced many institutions to unexpectedly adopt online learning methods to teach their students. As students’ perspectives are vital to be understood to determine whether any teaching learning method is optimum for implementation, we conducted a questionnaire-based study of students of a medical college. Aims and Objectives: The objective of this research study was to gain a better understanding of problems concerned with online learning methods. Materials and Methods: Undergraduate 1st year medical students of four different medical colleges of India were the participants. After ethical committee permission, responses were invited for a Google form’s questionnaire. Students were asked in detail about their choices. Results: Most students preferred the offline mode of study over the online mode. Majority of students preferred to keep their own camera off during online lectures. Biochemistry subject was considered comparatively easier and Anatomy was considered difficult to learn in online mode compared to offline mode. Few students felt comfortable with online learning of more than 5 h daily. Concentration in classes was deemed more difficult for online classes and majority of students felt a lack of motivation in online learning. Conclusions: Institutes using the online mode of learning need to address student’s problems before they mandate certain rules like keeping students’ videos on. Lack of motivation and screen fatigue are common problems among students which needs to be addressed by counseling or mentoring if necessary. Subject specific preferences of students need to be taken care of.
ABSTRACT
Background: Chronic alcohol ingestion is one of the major causes of liver disease. Uncontrolled glucose concentration in chronic alcoholic liver disease will have poor prognosis. Hence, the study is undertaken to see markers of chronic glucose control, that is, serum fructosamine and glycated hemoglobin and their usefulness to show the severity of chronic alcoholic liver disease. Aim and Objectives: The study is conducted to check that between glycated hemoglobin and fructosamine which is better to check glycemic control and severity/prognosis of chronic alcoholic liver disease. Materials and Methods: 60 cases of chronic alcoholic liver disease patients of age group 20–70 years of both sexes with 30 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were taken. Cases were divided into non-complicated and complicated groups. Glycated hemoglobin was estimated by immunoturbidimetry method, serum fructosamine level was estimated by colorimetry using nitro blue tetrazolium, SGOT was estimated by method by IFCC and serum total protein was estimated by biuret method. Results: The mean concentration of HbA1c and serum total protein was decreased in both groups of cases compared to controls. The mean concentrations of serum fructosamine and SGOT were increased in both groups of cases. There was no significant difference in the mean value of serum total protein in non-complicated cases with controls. There was no significant difference in the mean value of HbA1c between non-complicated and complicated cases. SGOT was considered for correlation, it was found out that it had significant negative correlation with serum total protein, significant positive correlation with serum fructosamine, and no correlation with HbA1c. Significant negative correlation was found between serum total protein and serum fructosamine. Conclusion: This study shows that serum fructosamine is a better marker to monitor chronic glucose control and severity of chronic alcoholic liver disease compared to HbA1c.
ABSTRACT
Background: LDL cholesterol is a known atherogenic factor and basis for risk classification of coronary heart disease. Reference method for measurement is beta-quantitation which is laborious and time consuming. The other method for measurement is direct homogenous assay which is costly so most laboratories use Friedwald’s formula for LDL measurement. Aim and Objectives: The aim of the study was to compare between calculated LDL by Friedwald’s formula and direct LDL by homogenous assay in fasting lipid profile samples. Material and Methods: We have taken data of 208 fasting lipid profile from past records after obtaining Institutional Ethics Committee permission. Patients with TG > 400 mg/dl were excluded from the study. Results: In our study, Pearson’s coefficient is 0.97 when TG < 200 mg/dl and Pearson’s coefficient is 0.95 when TG > 200 mg/dl. There is a less difference in patient’s risk classification by calculated LDL and direct LDL when TG < 200 mg/dl. Conclusion: Friedwald’s formula is a cost-effective method for measurement of LDL in comparison to homogenous assays. We can use calculated LDL when TG < 200 mg/dl without any risk of patient’s misclassification.