Prevalence and risk factors of ibs among medical and nonmedical students in the jouf university.

BACKGROUND: Irritable bowel syndrome is common in the community and its prevalence is higher among the medical students. AIM: The current study was carried out to estimate the prevalence and evaluate the risk factors of irritable bowel syndrome among medical and nonmedical students of the Jouf University. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out among medical and nonmedical students of the Jouf University. Study targeted 200 medical and nonmedical students using the convenience sampling technique. A self-administered questionnaire was adopted for the study and consisted of three parts with questions on demographic characteristics, lifestyle, eating habits, academics, and irritable bowel syndrome. Descriptive statistics were carried out to present the demographic characteristics. Chi-square test, odds ratio with 95% CI was calculated for analyzing differences between study variables using SPSS version-16. Multivariate analysis of lifestyle and dietary predictors of IBS was carried out by the enter method. RESULTS: With a response rate of 90.5%, 181 students completed the questionnaire. Around 53 (29.28%) were found to be suffering from IBS with 41 (77.35%) being males. Male gender, married status, and living status of participants were significantly associated with the occurrence of IBS. Prevalence of IBS was found to be more in students who were from the medical college (P = 0.000), students who smoke (P = 0.003), who slept less than 8 h (P = 0.042), and students who often take carbonated drinks (P = 0.003). Smoking, frequency of exercise, coffee intake, and intake of carbonated drinks were strong predictors of IBS on multivariate analysis of lifestyle and dietary factors. CONCLUSION: We conclude that there is an increased prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome among medical students. Male gender, married status, living in hostel, smoking, less than 8 h sleep, and carbonated drinks were predictive factors for IBS in our study. We recommend screening of medical students for irritable bowel syndrome and institution of interventional measures.

Diagnostic accuracy of FNAC and cyto-histopathological correlation in testicular and paratesticular mass lesions.

OBJECTIVE: FNAC has a definitive role and has proved extremely useful in diagnosis of testicular and paratesticular mass lesions. In view of the dearth of literature of studies involving large cohorts of patients, the present study describes at length the detailed cytological evaluation of testicular and paratesticular mass lesions. METHODS: Our study consisted of 85 cases in 5-year retrospective and 1-year prospective analyses carried out in the Department of Pathology, Government Medical College, Jammu. The study depicts cytomorphological findings of testicular and paratesticular mass lesions. We evaluate the concordance rate of cytological diagnosis with the histological diagnosis as a percentage and assess the diagnostic accuracy of FNAC by calculating sensitivity and specificity. RESULTS: Out of 85 cases, inflammatory lesions comprised the largest group comprising 47 cases (55.29%) followed by 20 cases (23.5%) of cystic lesions. In addition, there were 10 cases (11.76%) of malignant tumours and three cases (3.5%) of benign tumours. Overall, acute orchitis was the most common inflammatory lesions (12.94%) followed by tubercular epididymitis (9.4%). The most common cystic lesion was benign epididymal cyst (10.5%) and the most common malignant tumours were seminoma and embryonal carcinoma. Cytohistological correlation was available for 16 (18.82%) cases only and cytological diagnosis was concordant with the histological diagnosis in all these cases. Sensitivity and specificity of FNAC was 100% in our study. CONCLUSION: FNAC is a useful diagnostic modality for testicular and paratesticular mass lesions due to its high sensitivity and specificity in discriminating between different types of lesions and high concordance rates with histopathological diagnosis.

Causes of mortality in diabetes mellitus: data from a tertiary teaching hospital in India.

BACKGROUND: Mortality studies can show the relative contribution of diabetes to mortality in the total population, and they can provide important descriptions of the changes in causes and frequency of diabetes mortality over time. OBJECTIVE: To find the mortality pattern in people with diabetes admitted to a tertiary care hospital in a developing country, using underlying/contributory causes of death. METHODS: In this retrospective study, mortality trends among people with diabetes admitted to Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, Kashmir, India were reviewed by screening the hospital records of all people with diabetes who died over the last 9 years, carrying forward earlier observations from the same centre. RESULTS: Of 234 776 people admitted to the centre during the review period, 16 690 (7.11%) died; 741 (383 men) of these had diabetes mellitus mentioned on the death certificate. The mean (SD) age at death for people with diabetes was 60.07 (13.62) years in men and 57.36 (13.40) years in women. The leading contributory causes of death were infections (40.9%), chronic renal failure (33.6%), coronary artery disease (16.9%), cerebrovascular disease (13.2%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (6.9%), acute renal failure (6.2%), malignancy (4.2%), hypoglycaemia (3.5%) and diabetic ketoacidosis (3.4%). The cause of death could not be ascertained in 2.8% of cases; in 52.9%, 36.3% and 8.0% cases one, two and three or more causes, respectively, were recorded as the cause of death. CONCLUSIONS: The aetiological spectrum of mortality in people with diabetes at this Indian centre continues to be dominated by infections and renal failure, which is different from that in the developed world, where coronary artery disease and cerebrovascular disease are the principal causes of death in people with diabetes.