ABSTRACT
Background and Aims: Depression is a common and debilitant mental health disorder that is very common among young adults of the age group of 18-25 years. There is evidence that autonomic nervous system dysfunction associated with depression may play an important role in cardiovascular disease among patients with depression. HRV that is used to assess ANS function is found to be altered in depression. Since the HRV findings associated with depression remain inconsistent, this study is aimed to find HRV changes associated with depression so that the use of HRV as a diagnostic tool for depression can be validated. Methods: A total of 42 newly diagnosed patients of depression of the age group (18-26) years and 89 non-depressed volunteers matched for age, BMI and sex proportions were included in the study. Heart rate variability was recorded using five-minute stationary RR interval of Lead II by 4-channel Power Lab System (AD Instrument Ltd). HRV findings are summarized into Time-Domain parameters, Frequency-Domain parameters and Non-Linear parameters. Result: All HRV parameters are significantly reduced and the LF/HF ratio is significantly raised (P < 0.05) in the group of depressive patients when compared to the group of healthy controls. The reduction of HRV parameters (SDRR, RMSSD, Total Power, SD1 and SD2) in the group of patients with depression is found to be highly significant (P < 0.0001). Conclusion: The findings of our study suggest that depression may be associated with alterations in ANS activities, which contribute to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Thus, HRV can serve as a potential bio-marker for depression.
ABSTRACT
Background: The new curriculum is competency-based and revised. The student must be imparted and should have learned these competencies. New teaching-learning methods such as "Case-based learning (CBL)" and "Flipped classroom (FCR)" can help medical students to be competent Indian medical graduates. Aims and Objectives: This study was aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of "CBL" over "FCR" for teaching clinical and applied aspects of physiology. Materials and Methods: Faculty and residents of the department of physiology and first-year MBBS students were introduced and oriented to the study and concept of CBL and FCR. Students were divided into two groups; one was taught clinical and applied aspects of cardiovascular physiology by CBL and another group by FCR. Pre- and post-test with a validated questionnaire were conducted for both groups. Feedback from the students was collected on 5-point Likert's scale and the marks obtained by them were analyzed statistically by paired t-test. Results: Both CBL and FCR improved the post-test marks significantly when compared to pre-test marks (P < 0.0001). CBL and FCR methods showed no significant difference, but the mean post-test marks were higher in FCR. As per the students' feedback, 62% of students strongly agreed that CBL is useful for clinical and applied aspects of physiology. Conclusion: CBL and FCR both are equally important and complementary to each other. CBL was found to be slightly more effective for later days of clinical practices, whereas FCR slightly more effective for better performance in university examinations.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Obesity affects the different organ systems of human body and has been recognized as a risk factor for the development of many diseases. Most of the cardiovascular diseases develop due to obesity which reflects alterations in either cardiac morphology or conduction defects. These abnormalities are reflected in ECG as prolongation of various intervals. Prolongation of QT-interval has been found to be associated with ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of obesity on QT-interval to assess the risk of development of cardiovascular diseases in early stage. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 80 cases and 80 controls, which included adults of 18-40 years age groups from both sexes. The cases were obese [body mass index (BMI) >30 kg/m2] and the controls were nonobese (BMI < 25 kg/m2). ECG of the cases and controls was recorded and their QT-intervals were calculated and analyzed with BMI by independent samples test. RESULTS: We found significantly higher QT-intervals in obese group in comparison to that of nonobese group (P = 0.000). CONCLUSION: Obesity was found to be associated with prolongation of QT-interval among young obese adults. This prolongation of QT-interval duration increases the possibility of left ventricular enlargement and ventricular fibrillation. Hence the present study helps in creating awareness among obese people so that they can change their lifestyle in order to prevent the onset of the deleterious effects of obesity on their health.