Alzheimer Disease research and Aß*56: The star that never was.

Alzheimer's Disease is the most common form of dementia which affects 55 million people worldwide. Not surprisingly, it is a key focus of research involving huge funding. Scientific fraud has inevitably surfaced in this research area. This essay discusses a report of alleged fraud and its implications for the credibility of scientific research.

Role play - An effective tool to teach communication skills in pediatrics to medical undergraduates.

PURPOSE: Communication skills are essential for medical practice throughout the life of a doctor. Traditional undergraduate medical teaching in pediatrics focuses on teaching students with theoretical and practical knowledge of diseases, their diagnosis, and treatment modalities. This study was done to use role play as a tool to teach basic communication skills to the final-year undergraduate students in pediatrics and to assess perceptions of students and faculty for using role play to teach counseling and communication skills in pediatrics. METHODS: It was an observational, questionnaire-based study conducted in the Department of Pediatrics on the final-year medical undergraduates. Two modules for role play on common pediatric topics were designed and role play was conducted. At the end of the session, student and faculty feedback were taken by a prevalidated questionnaire with both close (using the 5-point Likert scale) and open-ended questions. In pre- and post-role play sessions, communication skills assessment scoring was done. Statistical evaluation of the collected data was then carried out using SPSS 22. RESULTS: A total of 98 final-year students participated in this study. Role play was found to be the most preferred tool (33%) for teaching communication skills to the students. Majority of the students (88.78%) and faculty (91.67%) felt that role play helped in teaching communicating skills. Comparison of pre- and post-role play scores on communication skills showed statistically significant improvement (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Role play can be used as an effective tool to teach communication skills to undergraduate medical students in pediatrics.

Role of whole-brain computed tomography perfusion in head injury patients to predict outcome.

PURPOSE: To evaluate utility, pattern, and extent of perfusion abnormalities in traumatic brain injury by using whole-brain computed tomography perfusion (CTP) and to assess co-relation of CTP data clinically with Glasgow outcome score (GOS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Prospective analytic evaluation of the traumatic head injury patients who were immediately taken up for CTP was done. Patient's demographic, clinical, and radiological findings were tabulated and analyzed. GOS was measured by a neurosurgeon after 3 months of trauma who was blinded to CTP results. RESULTS: Of the 78 patients included in this study, 28 patients were found to have GOS 5, 19 of them had GOS 4, 27 of them had GOS 3, and 4 of them had a GOS 2. Higher mean cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cerebral blood volume (CBV) values were observed in those who had a better GOS, i.e., 4 or 5, whereas those in the GOS range ≤3 had lower mean CBF and CBV values. CONCLUSION: Statistically significant positive correlation was found between cerebral perfusion parameters with that of GOS. CBF of frontal area shows better correlation with GOS. CBF was the most important predictor among all the perfusion parameters.

Factors associated with survival and lost to follow-up of cervical cancer patients in a tertiary cancer centre in rural Kerala.

Cancer cervix is the second common cause of cancer death in India. It is the most curable form of any human cancer if detected at the precancerous stage. Although several factors determine the survival of the disease, the clinical stage at presentation is the single most important predictor of long-term survival. The present study aimed to describe the performance and follow-up status and 5-year survival experience of the cervical cancer patients registered between 2010 and 2011 by the hospital registry of Malabar Cancer Centre, Kerala, and factors affecting lost to follow-up and survival among them. The case sheets of 227 patients retrospectively scrutinized during May-July 2014. The mean age of patients was 58.8 years (standard deviation = 11.67 years). The majority of the patients completed the initially planned treatment, but a low proportion of patients were likely to be on regular follow-up. This study revealed that most of the patients registered at the hospital only at an advanced stage. Using Kaplan-Meier method, the estimated 5 years survival rate was found to be 66.8%. It was noted that performance status before treatment and Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics staging were significantly associated with lost to follow-up and survival rate majority of the cervical cancer patients are observed to be highly noncomplaint to complete treatment and on follow-up. Thus, these findings stress the importance of counseling family members regarding the importance of follow-up and formulating public health policies aimed at increasing the awareness and implementation of cervical cancer screening programs in North Malabar.

Patterns of care in geriatric cancer patients - An audit from a rural based hospital cancer registry in Kerala.

BACKGROUND: There is deficit of data from India on elderly patients with cancer. Comprehensive geriatric assessment may lead to a better decision making capacity in this population. However, routine implementation of such assessment is resource consuming. AIM: The aim of this study was to determine the patterns of care in elderly patients treated at a tertiary rural cancer center in India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All patients with age 70 or above with solid tumors without any definitive treatment prior to the registration at our center and registered between 01/01/2010 and 31/12/2011 were selected for this study. The baseline demographic pattern and the pattern of care of treatment were analyzed. SPSS version 16 (IBM Inc, Armonk, New York, U.S.) was used for analysis. Descriptive data are provided. RESULTS: A total of 761 patients were evaluable subject to the aforementioned inclusion criteria. The median age of this cohort was 75 years (70-95 years). The most frequent primary sites of malignancies in 451 males were head neck (32.4%), lung (23.3%) and gastrointestinal (23.3%). In 310 females, the most common sites were head neck (31.6%), gynecological (18.4%) and gastrointestinal (24.5%). 228 (30%) of the patients had localized disease, 376 (49.4%) had loco-regionally advanced disease and 145 (19.1%) had distant metastases at presentation. 334 (46.32%) of patients were treated with curative intent. On logistic regression analysis the factors that predicted use of curative intent treatment were age <75 years, performance status 0-1, primary site and clinical extent of disease. CONCLUSION: Routine comprehensive geriatric assessment needs to be implemented in our setting as almost 50% of our geriatric patients undergo curative intent treatment.

Recovery of energy from Taro (Colocasia esculenta) with solid-feed anaerobic digesters (SOFADs).

We present studies on solid-feed anaerobic digesters (SOFADs) in which chopped Colocasia esculenta was fed without any other pretreatment, in an attempt to develop an efficient means of utilizing the semi-aquatic weed that is otherwise an environmental nuisance. Two types of SOFADs were studied. The first type had a single vessel with two compartments. The lower portion of the digester, 25% of the total volume, was separated from the upper by a perforated PVC disk. The weed was charged from the top and inoculated with anaerobically digested cow dung-water slurry. The fermentation of the weed in the digester led to the formation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) plus some biogas. The bioleachate, rich in the VFAs, passed through the perforated PVC disk and was collected in the lower compartment of the digester. The other type of digesters, referred to as anaerobic multi-phase high-solids digesters (AMHDs), had the same type of compartmentalized digester unit as the first type and an additional methaniser unit. Up-flow anaerobic filters (UAFs) were used as methaniser units, which converted the bioleachate into combustible biogas consisting of approximately 60% methane. All SOFADs developed a consistent performance in terms of biogas yield within 20 weeks from the start. Among the two types of digesters studied, the AMHDs were found to perform better with a twofold increase in biogas yield compared to the first type of digesters.