Comparison of Outcomes of Clinical Teaching Station and Traditional Bedside Teaching among the Final Year Medical Students

Background: Teaching clinical skills is generally done by bedside teaching (BT). Clinical teaching stations (CTSs) are specially designed for the final year medics. Methods: The aim was to evaluate and compare the impact of CTS with BT on the final year medical undergraduates. Evaluation of the effectiveness of CTS among the participants was the primary objective with a % change in academic performance. A teaching program was conducted in two phases with each phase having two sessions, covering respiratory system (RS), gastrointestinal tract (GIT), cardiovascular system (CVS), and central nervous system (CNS). In the first phase, RS and GIT and in the second phase CVS and CNS were taught by TS and BT methods. Each session lasted for 2 weeks. Results: Thirty participants were grouped into two. The total mean ± SD score was 22.57 (±3.86) and 24.4 (±4.32) for BT and TS, respectively. Mean scores were higher in students who were taught by CTS but were statistically not significant (p>0.05) in both phases. There was no significant gender difference in the impact of the two teaching methodologies. The number of students who excelled was more with TS whereas, the scores were moderate with BT. All (100%) participants unanimously agreed that CTS is more effective and interactive and helped in better understanding of the subject. Conclusion: TS as a teaching tool is realistic with repeatable clinical scenarios and objective assessment. BT provides students with the required clinical skills, TS can enhance the knowledge and application. TS can be used as a supplementary tool along with BT.

Comparative evaluation of indigenous ELISAs for detection of anti-cysticercus IgG antibodies in serum from clinically and radiologically suspected cases of neurocysticercosis

Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is an important but neglected tropical infectious disease, which is recently recognized as a global problem due to its potentiality for human-to-human transmission beyond tropics. The laboratory diagnosis of NCC is considered useful to confirm clinical and radiological diagnosis. However there is a lack of indigenous diagnostic method particularly in the tropical developing countries. Present study aimed to develop and evaluate indigenously developed anti-cysticercus IgG-ELISAs for possible diagnosis of NCC among patients presenting with seizures. Three indigenous antibody detection assays were developed employing three different antigenic preparations from T. solium metacestode larvae (viz., TsM-CF, TsM-CW and TsM-PS). The overall test results showed varying levels of IgG titers in response to the three antigenic preparations as compared with the standard commercially procured antibody-ELISA. Total soluble protein extract of protoscoleces or TsM-PS-Ag employed in the indigenously developed IgG ELISA is recommended to be used as a routine screening test for a confirmatory diagnosis of NCC and other forms of cysticercosis in humans.