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1.
Med J Islam Repub Iran ; 36: 124, 2022.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36447549

ABSTRACT

Background: Clinical reasoning is the basis of all clinical activities in the health team, and diagnostic reasoning is perhaps the most critical of a physician's skills. Despite many advances, medical errors have not been reduced. Studies have shown that most diagnostic errors made in emergency rooms are cognitive errors, and anchoring error was identified as the most common cognitive error in clinical settings. This research intends to determine the frequency and compare the percentage of anchoring bias perceived among faculty members versus residents in the emergency medicine department. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, Emergency Medicine's Faculties and Residents are evaluated in clinical reasoning by nine written clinical cases. The clinical data for each clinical case was presented to the participants over three pages, based on receiving clinical and para-clinical information in real situations. At the end of each page, participants were asked to write up diagnoses. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA test. The SPSS software (Version 16.0) was employed to conduct statistical tests, and a P value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: Seventy-seven participants of the residency program in the Emergency Medical group volunteered to participate in this study. Data showed Faculties were significantly higher in writing correct diagnoses than residents (66% vs. 41%), but the anchoring error ratio was significantly lower in residents (33% vs. 75%). In addition, the number of written diagnoses, time for writing diagnoses, and Clinical experience in faculties and residents were compared. Conclusion: Findings showed that increasing clinical experience increased diagnostic accuracy and changed cognitive medical errors. Faculties were higher than residents in anchoring error ratio. This error could be the result of more exposure and more decision-making in the mode of heuristic or intuitive thinking in faculties.

2.
J Med Ethics Hist Med ; 15: 11, 2022.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37143518

ABSTRACT

The quality of care crisis (QCC) is one of the most crucial crises the modern medicine is confronting, as the existential and psychological needs of patients have not been addressed and satisfied. Several attempts have been made to find solutions for QCC, e.g., the Marcum's recommendation to make physicians virtuous. Most of the existing formulations for the QCC have regarded technology as one of the causes of this crisis and not part of its solution. Although the authors agree with the role of technology in creating the crisis of care to some extent, in this article we try to present the crisis of care so that medical technology is an important part of its solution. For this purpose, we analyzed QCC from the philosophical perspectives of Husserl and Borgmann and put forward a novel proposal to take account of technology in QCC. In the first step, it is discussed that the role of technology in causing the crisis of care is due to the gap between the techno-scientific world and the life- world of the patients. This formulation shows that the crisis-causing role of technology is not inherent. In the second step, it is tried to find a way to integrate technology into the solution to the crisis. In the proposed reframing, designing and applying technologies based on focal things and practices make it possible to develop technologies that are caring and are able to mitigate QCC.

3.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32284933

ABSTRACT

Background: Although theory explains the development of illness script, it does not provide answers how medical students develop scripts in their learning. To fill the knowledge gap of developing illness script in medical students and interns, this study aimed to investigate the impact of educational strategies inspired by theory in the development of illness scripts. Methods: A total of 15 medical students and 12 interns participated in an educational intervention that included theory-driven strategies. To evaluate the impact of this intervention, clinical reasoning problem (CRP) and key features (KF) tests were used for before and after the intervention. In addition to descriptive statistics, the differences in participants' pretest and posttest variables were tested using Wilcoxon. Significance level was set at p≤0.05 for all tests. Results: Interns significantly recognized more KF in the posttest. However, no significant difference was found between the pretest and posttest scores in total diagnostic accuracy (5.41±1.16 vs 4.91±1.44; p=0.111) and total correct discriminating score (0.41±0.66 vs 1.41±2.06; p=0.146). Medical students produced less total key features in the posttest, indicating that they became less elaborate in their case processing. However, no significant difference was observed in common KF score (0.4 [0.25-0.78] vs 0.9 [0.6-1]; p=0.791) and discriminative key features score (0.33 [0.16-0.33] vs 0.22 [0.11-0.44]; p=0.972) in the posttest compared to the pretest. Conclusion: This study showed that theory-driven educational strategies have an impact on illness script development specifically in interns. It is recommended that this intervention would be tested on those in higher levels of expertise (ie, residents).

4.
J Med Ethics Hist Med ; 13: 28, 2020.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34055244

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic based on medical philosophy. A critical examination of the Corona crisis uncovers that in order to understand and explain the unpreparedness of the health systems, we need a new conceptual framework. This helps us to look at this phenomenon in a new way, address new problems, and come up with creative solutions. Our proposal is that "health lag" is a concept that could help frame and explain this unpreparedness and unreadiness. The term "health lag" refers to the failure of health systems to keep up with clinical medicine. In other words, health issues in most situations fall behind clinical medicine, leading to social, cultural, and economic problems. In the first step to define health lag, we have to explain the distinction between clinical medicine and health and address the role of individual health, public health, and epidemic in this dichotomy. Thereafter, the reasons behind health lag will be analyzed in three levels: theoretical, practical, and institutional. In the third step, we will point out the most important consequences of health lag: the medicalization of health, the inconsistency of biopolitics, inadequate ethical frameworks, and public sphere vulnerabilities. Finally, we try to come up with a set of recommendations based on this philosophical-conceptual analysis.

5.
J Clin Diagn Res ; 11(9): LC10-LC13, 2017 Sep.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-29207742

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: To evaluate students critical thinking skills effectively, change in assessment practices is must. The assessment of a student's ability to think critically is a constant challenge, and yet there is considerable debate on the best assessment method. There is evidence that the intrinsic nature of open and closed-ended response questions is to measure separate cognitive abilities. AIM: To assess critical thinking ability of medical students by using multi-response format of assessment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a group of 159 undergraduate third-year medical students. All the participants completed the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) consisting of 34 multiple-choice questions to measure general critical thinking skills and a researcher-developed test that combines open and closed-ended questions. A researcher-developed 48-question exam, consisting of 8 short-answers and 5 essay questions, 19 Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ), and 16 True-False (TF) questions, was used to measure critical thinking skills. Correlation analyses were performed using Pearson's coefficient to explore the association between the total scores of tests and subtests. RESULTS: One hundred and fifty-nine students participated in this study. The sample comprised 81 females (51%) and 78 males (49%) with an age range of 20±2.8 years (mean 21.2 years). The response rate was 64.1%. A significant positive correlation was found between types of questions and critical thinking scores, of which the correlations of MCQ (r=0.82) and essay questions (r=0.77) were strongest. The significant positive correlations between multi-response format test and CCTST's subscales were seen in analysis, evaluation, inference and inductive reasoning. Unlike CCTST subscales, multi-response format test have weak correlation with CCTST total score (r=0.45, p=0.06). CONCLUSION: This study highlights the importance of considering multi-response format test in the assessment of critical thinking abilities of medical students by using both open and closed-ended response questions.

6.
Acta Med Iran ; 55(1): 68-73, 2017 Jan.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28188946

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, improvement of thinking skills of students is one of the universally supported aims in the majority of medical schools. This study aims to design longitudinal theme of reasoning, problem-solving and decision-making into the undergraduate medical curriculum at Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS). A participatory approach was applied to design the curriculum during 2009-2011. The project was conducted by the contribution of representatives of both basic and clinical faculty members, students and graduates at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The first step toward integrating cognitive skills into the curriculum was to assemble a taskforce of different faculty and students, including a wide variety of fields with multidisciplinary expertise using nonprobability sampling and the snowball method. Several meetings with the contribution of experts and some medical students were held to generate the draft of expected outcomes. Subsequently, the taskforce also determined what content would fit best into each phase of the program and what teaching and assessment methods would be more appropriate for each outcome. After a pilot curriculum with a small group of second-year medical students, we implemented this program for all first-year students since 2011 at TUMS. Based on findings, the teaching of four areas, including scientific and critical thinking skills (Basic sciences), problem-solving and reasoning (Pathophysiology), evidence-based medicine (Clerkship), and clinical decision-making (Internship) were considered in the form of a longitudinal theme. The results of this study could be utilized as a useful pattern for integration of psycho-social subjects into the medical curriculum.


Subject(s)
Cognition , Education, Medical, Undergraduate , Students, Medical/psychology , Curriculum , Evidence-Based Medicine , Humans , Iran , Problem Solving , Schools, Medical
7.
Acta Med Iran ; 54(10): 662-666, 2016 Oct.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-27888595

ABSTRACT

The widespread use of internet has caused new psychological, social, and educational problems for the students. The aim of this study was to examine the quality of life in medical students who suffer from internet addiction. This cross-sectional survey was carried out in Tehran University of Medical Sciences, and a total of 174 fourth-to seventh-year undergraduate medical students were enrolled. The quality of life was assessed by WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire which covers four domains of physical health, psychological, social relationships, and the environment. For assessing internet addiction, we used Internet Addiction Test (IAT) of Young. The students with IAT score higher than 50 were considered as addicted. For evaluating academic performance, the students were requested to report their grade point average (GPA). The mean IA score (±SD) was 34.13±12.76. Twenty-eight students (16.90%) had IAT score above 50. The mean quality of life score in internet addicted group was 54.97±11.38 versus 61.65±11.21 in normal group (P=0.005). Furthermore, there was a negative correlation between IA score and physical domain (r=-0.18, P=0.02); psychological domain (r=-0.35, P=0.000); and social relation domain (r=-0.26, P=0.001). Mean GPA was significantly lower in the addicted group. It seems that quality of life is lower in the internet addicted medical students; moreover, such students academically perform poorer in comparison with non-addicts. Since internet addiction is increasing at a rapid pace which may provoke considerable academic, psychological and social implications; as a result, it may require screening programs to the immediate finding of such problem to give consultations to prevent unwanted complications.


Subject(s)
Behavior, Addictive/psychology , Internet , Quality of Life , Students, Medical/psychology , Adult , Cross-Sectional Studies , Education, Medical, Undergraduate , Female , Humans , Iran , Male , Mental Disorders , Surveys and Questionnaires , Young Adult
8.
J Adv Med Educ Prof ; 4(2): 64-71, 2016 Apr.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-27104200

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: In medical education, particularly in residency courses, most of the training occurs in real clinical environments. Workplace-based learning profoundly affects students' knowledge, attitudes, and practice; therefore, it should be properly planned.  Due to the extensiveness   of the clinical   environment   and   its   importance in training residents, investigating how residents learn in these environments and detecting factors that influence effectiveness will help curriculum designers to promote residents' learning by improving their learning environment.  Therefore, our qualitative content analysis study, aimed  to  examine  the experiences and perspectives of internal and surgical residents and their attending physicians about learning in clinical settings. METHODS: This qualitative content analysis study was conducted through purposeful sampling.  Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 internal and surgical residents and 15 of their attending physicians at educational hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. RESULTS: The main categories explored in this study were hidden curriculum, learning resources, and learning conditions. In the context of clinical environment and under its individual culture, residents learn professionalism and learn to improve their communication skills with patients and colleagues. Because of clinical obligations such as priority of treating the patients for education or workload of the attending physicians, residents acquire most of their practical knowledge from colleagues, fellows, or follow-up patients in different learning conditions (such as: educational rounds, morning reports and outpatient clinics). They see some of their attending physicians as role models. CONCLUSION: Changing cultural and contextual factors is of prime importance to promote a learning-oriented environment in a clinical setting. The present findings will help curriculum planners and attending physicians to improve residents' learning by means of appropriate workplace planning and by considering the components involved in clinical learning.

9.
Med J Islam Repub Iran ; 30: 438, 2016.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28210603

ABSTRACT

Most contemporary clinical reasoning tests typically assess non-automatic thinking. Therefore, a test is needed to measure automatic reasoning or pattern recognition, which has been largely neglected in clinical reasoning tests. The Puzzle Test (PT) is dedicated to assess automatic clinical reasoning in routine situations. This test has been introduced first in 2009 by Monajemi et al in the Olympiad for Medical Sciences Students.PT is an item format that has gained acceptance in medical education, but no detailed guidelines exist for this test's format, construction and scoring. In this article, a format is described and the steps to prepare and administer valid and reliable PTs are presented. PT examines a specific clinical reasoning task: Pattern recognition. PT does not replace other clinical reasoning assessment tools. However, it complements them in strategies for assessing comprehensive clinical reasoning.

10.
Med J Islam Repub Iran ; 29: 222, 2015.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-26478880

ABSTRACT

Exploration into the concept of "medical expert" dates back to more than 50 years ago, yet yielding three leading theories in the area of clinical reasoning, namely, knowledge structure, hypotheticdeductive, and dual process. Each theory defines "medical expert" in a dissimilar way. Therefore, the methods of assessment through which the experts are identified have been changed during the time. In this paper, we tried to categorize and introduce some widely used tests for identification of experts within the framework of existing main theories. Implementation of the proposed categorization for providing future assessment tools is discussed.

11.
J Contin Educ Health Prof ; 32(1): 4-9, 2012.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-22447706

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Illness script theory offers explanations for expert-novice differences in clinical reasoning. However, it has mainly focused on diagnostic (Dx) performance, while patient management (Mx) has been largely ignored. The aim of the present study was to show the role of Mx knowledge in illness script development and how it relates to diagnostic knowledge in the course of development toward expertise. METHODS: The participants were 10 fourth-year and 10 sixth-year medical students, and 10 experienced physicians (ie, internists). Participants were asked to study 4 written clinical cases and provide management plans. Based on propositional analysis the management plans were examined for accuracy and elaborateness as well as the number of Mx and Dx items. RESULTS: Providing accurate Mx plans that concurrently pay attention to Dx and Mx was a characteristic of doctors' performance. The Mx plans of sixth-year students were as accurate as fourth-year students, but the format and the size of sixth-year students' plans was more similar to those of doctors. While sixth-year students generated plans with an Mx focus, the plans of fourth-year students were characterized by a Dx focus. DISCUSSION: The experienced physicians' accurate management plans are characterized by a high number of the Mx and Dx items. For sixth-year students the management plans are still incomplete, which leads to generic as well as inaccurate Mx orders. For fourth-year students, the Mx focus is lacking, and hence they seem to treat an Mx task as if it were a Dx task.


Subject(s)
Clinical Competence , Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures/standards , Patient Care Management/standards , Physicians/psychology , Process Assessment, Health Care/methods , Students, Medical/psychology , Decision Making , Delivery of Health Care, Integrated , Education, Medical, Continuing , Humans , Iran , Physicians/statistics & numerical data , Practice Patterns, Physicians' , Students, Medical/statistics & numerical data , Teaching/methods
12.
Educ Health (Abingdon) ; 25(3): 153-9, 2012.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-23823634

ABSTRACT

CONTEXT: Studies in medical expertise have shown that the medical knowledge of physicians is organized in a way that is easily retrievable when they encounter patients. These knowledge structures, called illness scripts, contain various pieces of information, including signs, symptoms, and enabling conditions, concerning a given disease. Illness script research has principally focused on understanding how physicians make diagnoses, while patient management has received much less attention. Although the work on diagnostics has taught us many things about the nature of medical expertise, focusing solely on this aspect provides only a narrow perspective on the subject, resulting in an incomplete depiction of medical experts. The goal of the present study was to experimentally determine how management knowledge plays a role in the development of illness scripts and developing expertise. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Medical students, interns, and residents were instructed to think aloud while reading a case with either a diagnostic or management focus. The recall protocols were examined in terms of illness script components, as well as diagnostic and management accuracy. FINDINGS: Both residents and interns were sensitive to the focus and generated significantly more management-items when thinking about management than when they were asked to diagnose a clinical case. They also provided more management items than medical students in management-focus. The performance of interns was superficially similar to that of residents in terms of management proportion, but with respect to both diagnostic and management accuracy they resembled medical students. Medical students, in contrast, were very persistent and insensitive to the focus. CONCLUSIONS: Medical expertise could be characterized by the emergence of illness scripts that are rich in terms of management knowledge. Illness scripts can generally be applied to any medical encounter that includes diagnosis and management, and expertise research should be extended to cover both domains.


Subject(s)
Clinical Competence , Diagnosis , Clinical Competence/standards , Education, Medical/standards , Humans , Internship and Residency/standards , Students, Medical/psychology
13.
J Res Med Sci ; 17(10): 975-8, 2012 Oct.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-23826000

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Second National Medical Sciences Olympiad was done in Shiraz in August 2010 with aim of indentifying scientifically talented individuals, motivating students and orienting extracurricular activities. This Olympiad was done in 3 areas, basic sciences, clinical sciences and management. In clinical sciences, we used TOSCE (Team Objective Structured Clinical Examination). In this article we report the details of this exam and participants' satisfaction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This Olympiad in Clinical Medical Sciences was held in 2 levels: Individual and team. In the team stage, 9 teams from 9 universities participated. We used TOSCE for measuring clinical competency of teams. Each team consisted of 3 students. We designed 12 stations based on emergency medicine in medical and surgical fields. The time considered for each station was 15 min, after doing this exam the view of students was measured using a valid and reliable questionnaire. RESULTS: Most of the students believed that TOSCE was a useful examination for measuring competency. More than 50% of students reported that success in this exam needs clinical competency, team work and problem solving ability. Nearly, half (48.1%) of students believed that 15 min is not enough for each station and they need more time. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that this kind of exam is useful for measuring clinical competency from students' viewpoint.

14.
J Educ Health Promot ; 1: 10, 2012.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-23555113

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Although some tests for clinical reasoning assessment are now available, the theories of medical expertise have not played a major role in this filed. In this paper, illness script theory was chose as a theoretical framework and contemporary clinical reasoning tests were put together based on this theoretical model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This paper is a qualitative study performed with an action research approach. This style of research is performed in a context where authorities focus on promoting their organizations' performance and is carried out in the form of teamwork called participatory research. RESULTS: Results are presented in four parts as basic concepts, clinical reasoning assessment, test framework, and scoring. CONCLUSION: we concluded that no single test could thoroughly assess clinical reasoning competency, and therefore a battery of clinical reasoning tests is needed. This battery should cover all three parts of clinical reasoning process: script activation, selection and verification. In addition, not only both analytical and non-analytical reasoning, but also both diagnostic and management reasoning should evenly take into consideration in this battery. This paper explains the process of designing and implementing the battery of clinical reasoning in the Olympiad for medical sciences students through an action research.

15.
BMC Res Notes ; 4: 418, 2011 Oct 17.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-22005350

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Clinical reasoning plays a major role in the ability of doctors to make a diagnosis and reach treatment decisions. This paper describes the use of four clinical reasoning tests in the second National Medical Science Olympiad in Iran: key features (KF), script concordance (SCT), clinical reasoning problems (CRP) and comprehensive integrative puzzles (CIP). The purpose of the study was to design a multi instrument for multiple roles approach in clinical reasoning field based on the theoretical framework, KF was used to measure data gathering, CRP was used to measure hypothesis formation, SCT and CIP were used to measure hypothesis evaluation and investigating the combined use of these tests in the Olympiad. A bank of clinical reasoning test items was developed for emergency medicine by a scientific expert committee representing all the medical schools in the country. These items were pretested by a reference group and the results were analyzed to select items that could be omitted. Then 135 top-ranked medical students from 45 medical universities in Iran participated in the clinical domain of the Olympiad. The reliability of each test was calculated by Cronbach's alpha. Item difficulty and the correlation between each item and the total score were measured. The correlation between the students' final grade and each of the clinical reasoning tests was calculated, as was the correlation between final grades and another measure of knowledge, i.e., the students' grade point average. RESULTS: The combined reliability for all four clinical reasoning tests was 0.91. Of the four clinical reasoning tests we compared, reliability was highest for CIP (0.91). The reliability was 0.83 for KF, 0.78 for SCT and 0.71 for CRP. Most of the tests had an acceptable item difficulty level between 0.2 and 0.8. The correlation between the score for each item and the total test score for each of the four tests was positive. The correlations between scores for each test and total score were highest for KF and CIP. The correlation between scores for each test and grade point average was low to intermediate for all four of the tests. CONCLUSION: The combination of these four clinical reasoning tests is a reliable evaluation tool that can be implemented to assess clinical reasoning skills in talented undergraduate medical students, however these data may not generalizable to whole medical students population. The CIP and KF tests showed the greatest potential to measure clinical reasoning skills. Grade point averages did not necessarily predict performance in the clinical domain of the national competitive examination for medical school students.

16.
Int J Cardiol ; 143(2): 213-6, 2010 Aug 20.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-19167766

ABSTRACT

The cardiovascular disease risk factors result in endothelial cells apoptosis and injury. Recently, endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) have been shown to participate in ongoing endothelial repair. Nitric Oxide (NO) is essential for mobilization and functional activity of EPCs. We hypothesized that L-arginine (NO precursor) supplementation may increase EPCs number in hypercholesterolemic rabbits. EPCs, plasma levels of nitrite, von Willebrand Factor (vWF) and Intima-Media thickness ratio were determined in rabbits feeding high-cholesterol diet or high-cholesterol diet with L-arginine(3% in drinking water). L-arginine supplementation had a significant effect on the nitrite levels, and EPC numbers, and inhibited vWF increment and atherosclerosis progression (p<0.05). Our results suggest that the beneficial effect of L-arginine in prevention of atherosclerosis may be due to the modulation of EPC levels.


Subject(s)
Arginine/pharmacology , Atherosclerosis/prevention & control , Endothelial Cells/cytology , Hematopoietic Stem Cells/cytology , Hematopoietic Stem Cells/drug effects , Hypercholesterolemia/drug therapy , Animals , Male , Rabbits
17.
Iran Biomed J ; 12(3): 179-84, 2008 07.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-18762822

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The assessment of altered nitric oxide (NO) availability is of potentially important diagnostic and prognostic significance. The present study is aimed to investigate the effect of L-arginine (as a natural NO donor) supplementation on NO metabolite in a rabbit model of hypercholesterolemia to find a reliable marker for endothelial NO production. METHODS: White male rabbits (n = 30) randomly assigned to 2 groups. Rabbits were fed 1% high-cholesterol diet (HC group, n = 15), or HC diet with oral L-arginine (3% in drinking water) (HC + L-arginine group, n = 15) for 4 weeks. The serum levels of lipids, L-arginine, total NO metabolites (NOx), nitrite and nitrate were measured before and after the study. RESULTS: In this study, L-arginine supplementation led to a significant increased plasma level of L-arginine. The serum level of nitrite was significantly higher in L-arginine treated group while serum level of nitrate and NOx was significantly lower than HC group. CONCLUSION: As the result of our study showed, nitrite is a useful marker of endogenous endothelial NO production and although frequently used, neither nitrate nor NOx are reliable markers of acute changes in endothelial NO synthase activity.


Subject(s)
Arginine/pharmacology , Dietary Supplements , Hypercholesterolemia/blood , Nitrates/blood , Nitrites/blood , Animals , Arginine/administration & dosage , Arginine/blood , Cholesterol/blood , Disease Models, Animal , Male , Rabbits
18.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-18795081

ABSTRACT

AIMS: Endothelial dysfunction is considered a sign of the early vascular changes preceding atherosclerosis. We studied the alteration of von Willebrand Factor (vWF), C - reactive protein (CRP), nitrite and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) in a dietary reversal model of hypercholesterolemia in rabbit. METHODS: This project was designed in two phases. In phase I, male rabbits (n = 11) were fed a 1% high cholesterol diet for 30 days. Then the diet was replaced with normal rabbit chow for other 30 days (cholesterol withdrawal phase, phase II). To compare the fatty streak formation with normal condition, a control group (n = 6) received normal diet during the study. The serum lipid levels, vWF, CRP, nitrite, and VEGF were measured before the experiment and by the end of each phase. Fatty streak formation in the walls of the aortas in both groups (high cholesterol diet and control group) was determined using intima thickness/media thickness (IMT) ratio. RESULTS: The results indicate that the level of cholesterol, Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL), vWF and CRP increased significantly in phase I, and decreased after hypercholesterolemic diet withdrawal (p < 0.05). No statistically significant changes were found in VEGF levels but the serum level of nitrite increased significantly during both phases of the study (p < 0.05). The IMT ratio in the walls of aortas was significantly different between the groups in both phases of studies (p < 0.05). There was a significant correlation between nitrite and cholesterol levels in both phases (r = 0.62 and r = 0.98, p < 0.05). Nitrite concentration also correlated with IMT ratio in both phases of the study (r = 0.75 and r = -0.99, p < 0.05). vWF did not correlate with cholesterol but it correlated with IMT ratio in both phases of the study (r = 0.87 and r = 0.84, p < 0.05). CRP only correlated with cholesterol in the first phase (r = 0.91, p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Among the endothelial biomarkers, vWF was found to be a biological marker for identifying the risk of developing atherosclerosis; however a single biomarker may not provide appropriate information.


Subject(s)
Atherosclerosis/diagnosis , C-Reactive Protein/analysis , Hypercholesterolemia/blood , Nitric Oxide/blood , Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A/blood , von Willebrand Factor/analysis , Animals , Atherosclerosis/blood , Biomarkers/blood , Diet, Atherogenic , Endothelium, Vascular/physiopathology , Hypercholesterolemia/diet therapy , Hypercholesterolemia/physiopathology , Lipids/blood , Male , Rabbits
19.
Med Educ ; 41(12): 1166-72, 2007 Dec.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-18045368

ABSTRACT

CONTEXT: Most studies on medical expertise research have focused on diagnostic performance, whereas patient management has been largely ignored. According to knowledge encapsulation theory, applying encapsulated knowledge is a characteristic of expert doctors' diagnostic reasoning, but it is unclear whether or not encapsulated knowledge also plays a prominent role when processing a clinical case with a management focus. METHODS: The participants were 40 medical students (20 in Year 4 and 20 in Year 6) and 20 expert doctors (internists). Participants were asked to study the cases with either a diagnostic (Dx) or a management (Mx) focus. Subsequently, participants were asked to write down what they remembered from the case. RESULTS: In both conditions, experts recalled fewer propositions and used more high-level inferences than medical students. Furthermore, they processed the cases faster and more accurately than medical students, but no significant difference between Mx and Dx conditions was found. Year 4 students also showed no significant differences in recall and processing speed between conditions. By contrast, Year 6 students recalled more in a Dx than in an Mx condition, but there was no significant difference in processing speed between conditions. CONCLUSIONS: In both conditions, findings indicate that the experts' and Year 4 students' performance was not affected by processing focus. The fact that only Year 6 students were affected by processing focus might be explained by the assumption that their diagnostic knowledge and management knowledge are not fully integrated yet, a process that has already taken place in the expert's knowledge structure.


Subject(s)
Clinical Competence , Diagnosis , Education, Medical, Undergraduate/methods , Internship and Residency/methods , Physicians/psychology , Students, Medical/psychology , Humans , Mental Recall , Patient Care Management , Physicians/standards
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