Frequency of retinopathy in newly diagnosed patients of type 2 Diabetes Mellitus [DM]

This study was to determine the frequency of retinopathy in newly diagnosed type-I1 Diabetics. Cross sectional descriptive study. It was conducted at Department of medicine, Military Hospital [MH], Rawalpindi from 1st Jan 2012 to 30 Jun 2012. We included 200 patients of type-I1 DM from both genders diagnosed in last 03 months from both outdoor and indoor departments in the age range of 40 to 70 years by consecutive sampling. All patients having co morbidities affecting retina were excluded. Informed written consent was taken before enrollment. Formal approval of the study was taken from hospital ethical committee. Ocular Fundoscopy was performed with WelchAllyn Ophthalmoscope [REF 11470] as per standard protocols and both eyes were elamined. The grade of DR [diabetic retinopathy] awarded as per highest changes in any of the two eyes. All tests were carried by a single person to avoid inter-observer variations. Findings of ocular fundoscopy were confirmed by ophthalmologist. All data was analyzed by using SPSS version 11. Out of 200 subjects 63.5% were male and 36.5% were female. Age ranged from 40 to 70 years with mean age of 51.05 + 6.910 years. 29 [14.5%] subjects had Diabetic retinopathy. Out of 29 patients, 24 [82.8%] had preproliferative and 5 [17.2%] had proliferative diabetic retinopathy. A significant proportion of diabetic patients have retinopathy at the time of diagnosis of their disease which is more common in males and with increasing age. It is recommended to thoroughly screen the newly diagnosed diabetics for early detection of diabetic retinopathy and its management involving early referral to eye specialist

Restless legs syndrome in end stage renal disease patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis

To study the frequency of restless legs syndrome in patients of end stage renal disease undergoing maintenance hemodialysis.Cross sectional descriptive study. Department of medicine, CMH multan from November 2010 to April 2011. One hundred and ninety four [n=194] patients of end stage renal disease who had been on maintenance hemodialysis for at least 3 months, were included in the study after full informed consent and using consecutive sampling. Patients having dementia, psychiatric illness, pregnancy, hypothyroidism, parkinson's disease and alcoholics were excluded from the study. Patients who fulfilled all four diagnostic criteria for restless legs sydrom as proposed by international restless syndrome study group [IRLSSG], by direct questioning were diagnosed as having restless legs syndrome. The frequency of restless legs syndrome was found to be 12.4% in patients undergoing hemodialysis [10.5% in males verus 16% in females].The mean duration of hemodialysis was higher among RLS positive patients [12.88 +/- 5.543 months] as compared toRLS negative patients[6.94 +/- 4.610 months]. RLS is a frequent, under-diagnosed co-morbidity in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis

Teaching methodologies; What is the students' perspective?

To determine preferences of medical students for modes of teaching, qualities of a good teacher and assessment techniques in medical education. A descriptive cross-sectional study. Lahore Medical and Dental College, Lahore. January 2011. All students of third and fourth year MBBS classes were included in the study [n=127]. A pre-tested questionnaire was used for data collection. A 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1[strongly disagree] to 7[strongly agree] was used to determine student's preferences of teaching styles. The data was recorded using SPSS version 16.0. Descriptive statistics were computed. The preferred teaching methods for basic science subjects were skills laboratory 88[70%], followed by problem based learning 70[55%] and interactive lectures 65[51%]. The same teaching methods i.e. skills laboratory 101[80%], problem based learning 89[70%] and interactive lectures 79[62%] were also popular for the teaching of clinical science subjects. The least preferred teaching method for both basic 51[40%] and clinical 58[46%] sciences was didactic lectures. The desirable quality of a good teacher was reported as teaching skills 111[87%] and the preferred assessment technique was found to be multiple choice questions 90[71%]. Students prefer the student centred teaching styles as opposed to the traditional approach. Good teaching skill is the most desirable quality of a teacher and most students like to be assessed by multiple choice questions