A survey of local preclinical and clinical medical students' attitudes towards radiology

<p><b>INTRODUCTION</b>This study compares the attitudes between preclinical and clinical medical students towards radiology, following the introduction of a new radiology curriculum for 1st year students.</p><p><b>MATERIALS AND METHODS</b>Revision of the 1st year medical school curriculum for the academic year of 2008/9 with the inclusion of 13 one-hour formal radiology lectures integrated with each body system was done in an undergraduate Southeast Asian medical school. In the old curriculum, 1st and 2nd year medical students are not exposed to radiology. They received limited radiology teaching in their 3rd and 5th years with 2 one-hour lectures as part of their medicine and surgery rotations. In the 4th year, they have a one week non-examinable posting in radiology. A survey was administered to preclinical (new curriculum) and clinical (old curriculum) students. Survey responses were tabulated and attitudes between preclinical and clinical students were compared.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>More than half of the preclinical students (155 out of 270 students, 59%) and 90 out of 720 clinical students (12.5%) responded. Students exposed to the new curriculum had attended one or two dedicated radiology lectures and were considering radiology as a clinical elective. Both groups of students did not feel familiar with radiology as with other specialties, were not considering radiology as a career, but felt that radiology was interesting and important to the overall practice of medicine.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Exposure of 1st year students to radiology increases their interest in the subject. Further intervention, fi ne-tuning of the curriculum and follow-up surveys will be carried out to see if this interest persists throughout their clinical years.</p>

Use of D-dimer and lower extremity Doppler ultrasound results to obviate the need for computerised tomographic pulmonary angiography

<p><b>UNLABELLED</b>We hypothesise that correct interpretation of other diagnostic tests could reduce the use of computerised tomographic pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) examinations in patients with suspected pulmonary embolism (PE).</p><p><b>MATERIALS AND METHODS</b>We carried out a retrospective analysis of 158 patients in a 928-bed university hospital. These consecutive patients were investigated for suspected PE from May 2001 to February 2002 using CTPA.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There were 74 men and 84 women with a mean (+/-SD) age of 57 (+/-19) years. Overall, 56% of patients (89/158) showed clinically significant abnormalities on the CTPA examination. The overall prevalence of PE was 15% (24/158). The D-dimers were assayed in 40% (63/158) and lower limbs were scanned with Doppler ultrasound (US) in 22% (35/158) of patients. None of the 19 patients with negative D-dimer assays had PE. Of the patients who were positively tested on Doppler US, 4 were positive and 1 was negative for PE on the CTPA. None of the patients with positive Doppler US had negative D-dimer test. In retrospect, patient management based on negative D-dimer assays and positive lower extremity Doppler US studies could have reduced the need for further investigation with CTPA by 15% (24/158).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>In patients with suspected PE, correct interpretation of D-dimer and leg Doppler US tests may reduce the demand for CTPAs.</p>