Brain Tumours and Their Metabolic Profiles by Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

@#Introduction: Intracranial brain tumour like meningiomas and glioblastomas are most prevalent tumour. The metastasis to the brain is one of the major issues in the tumours of the central nervous system. The diagnosis of metastatic and primary brain tumour is incomprehensible with standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is basically performed in standard clinical setting for diagnosing and tracking the brain tumour. Method: It is a retrospective study containing 53 patients with MRS. The patients with metastatic tumour (n=10), glioblastomas (n=8) and meningiomas (n=20) are included in the study. Single voxel technique is applied in the tumour core to determine the metabolites. The tumour N-acetyl aspartate (NAA), Choline (Cho), Creatine (Cr), Lactate, Alanine and lipids were analysed. The ratios of NAA/Cr, Cho/NAA and Cho/Cr were recorded and compared between the three tumours. The metabolites were detected between short echo time (TE) to long echo time (TE) during MRS. Results: There is a sharp fall of NAA peak in metastatic tumour. The resonance of creatine, lactate and alanine is higher in glioblastomas. A high lipid mean value of 3.13(0.17) is seen in metastatic tumour. The ROC curve shows a low NAA/Cr specificity of 46.7%, high sensitivity of 83.3% in Cho/NAA and Cho/Cr ratio. Conclusion: The metabolic profiles of metastatic brain tumour, glioblastomas and meningioma illustrate a divergence in their description that will assist in planning therapeutic and surgical intervention of these tumours.

Cadaver Dissection: Attitude and Perception of Its Importance Among Medical and Health Science Students in Learning Anatomy

@#Introduction: Anatomy continues to be an important basic subject in medicine and other related health sciences which is delivered by method of either through lectures or demonstration. Thus, having a gross anatomy practical with cadaver is a crucial phase for the students to have a deep understanding about anatomy of human body. The objective of this study is to explore the attitude and perception of medical and health science students in the importance of cadaver dissection in learning anatomy. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted by distributing closed structured questionnaires to 270 respondents consisting of socio-demographic in part one, frequency on practical with dissected cadaver in part two, the attitude of student towards the dissected cadaver in part three, suggestion for improvement during practical with cadaver in part four and the value of cadavers during practical in part five. The collected data were processed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0. Result: Descriptive statistical evaluation shows majority of the students perform practical with cadavers. They find cadaveric dissection exciting with no feeling of stress and anxiety. Many of them never had an emotional shock when exposing themselves to the cadavers for the first time accepting the cadaveric dissection ethically. The students recommended keeping cadaveric dissection in the health science curriculum. Conclusion: The cadaveric dissection helps in grounded understanding of anatomy. It promotes and develops psychomotor skills in students. The findings of the study discovered dissection to be a motivating tool in learning anatomy.