Medical students' viewpoint regarding the integrated module of basal ganglia

Integration is an important educational strategy in medical education. Considering this idea, the goal of the present study was to design and implementation of longitudinal and vertical integrated education of anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, neurology and neuropsychiatry subjects of brain's basal ganglia by a multidisciplinary team. Kern's approach to curriculum development was used. Participants were 20 medical students at basic science level who contribute in a 10 stations of pre-test exam at Medical School's Skill Lab. After the implementation of the module by a multidisciplinary team, post-test were done. A structured questionnaire was designed to assess student opinions about adequacy, usefulness of the module using a Likert scale with 5 categories ranging from "completely agreement" to "completely disagreement". The result of pre and post-test were also compared. Twenty questionnaires were completed, giving a 77.63% satisfaction rate. Seventy-five percent of students found it useful and appropriate at basic science level. About fifty percent of students suggested the implementation of this module for other medical students. The score of post-test was significantly [14.52 +/- 0.47 vs 6.32 +/- 0.62, P<0.05] higher than pre-test results. The viewpoints of medical students were positive and they value the module highly. Since it is not easy to change the style we teach, these results suggest necessitate of supporting the faculty member's participation in these modules

Reduction of kidney damage by supplementation of vitamins C and E in rats with deoxycorticosterone-salt-induced hypertension

We assessed whether cosupplementation of vitamins C and E has additive beneficial effects on reducing the kidney damage and attenuation of the arterial pressure elevation compared to administration of either vitamin C or vitamin E alone in deoxycorticosterone acetate-salt-induced hypertension. Forty rats were divided into 4 study groups and 1 sham-operated group. Unilateral nephrectomy was carried out in the study groups and hypertension was induced by deoxycorticosterone injection and 1% sodium chloride and 0.2% potassium chloride added to the drinking water. Vitamins C and E [200 mg/kg/day] or combination of them were administered with DOCA-salt for 4 weeks in 3 study groups. The effects of DOCA and salt and treatment with vitamins were compared in terms of blood pressure, urinary protein excretion, antioxidant activity of the kidneys, and renal histological changes. Four weeks of supplementations of vitamins C, vitamin E, and both in the DOCA-salt-treated rats had comparable significant effects in decreasing systolic blood pressure. Urinary protein excretion and histological damage did not significantly change with the combination therapy of vitamins C and E compared to the vitamin C or E alone. The renal levels of glutathione and ferric reducing/antioxidant power in combination therapy group were similar to the two other treatment groups and were significantly higher than non-treated group. Co-administration of vitamin C and E does not have an additive beneficial effect on reducing the kidney damage and hypertension compared to either vitamin C or E alone in DOCA-salt-induced hypertension