Background: Psoriasis although a disease of the skin has been reported to be associated with metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome in turn is associated with dyslipidemia which is a independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Our study therefore aims to assess lipid profile in patients with psoriasis with an objective to observe and report any significant deviations in the same as compared to healthy controls.Methods: 25 patients with psoriasis and 25 age, sex matched healthy controls were recruited in this study and lipid profile was estimated using commercially available reagent kit which employs the CHOD-PAP method.Results: Significant elevation in levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, VLDL and cholesterol/HDL ratio was observed. Elevated although was observed in case of LDL and HDL levels, but it was statistically insignificant.Conclusions: Dyslipidemia was found to be prevalent in psoriasis patients. Dyslipidemia is an independent risk factor for development of cardiovascular disease. Dyslipidemia in psoriasis therefore clearly suggests an inherent predisposition of psoriasis patients to suffer from cardiovascular diseases. A lipid profile estimation in these patients therefore might serve as an important tool for   risk assessment for cardiovascular disease, thereby aiding a timely intervention.

Introduction:Snoring caused due to relaxation of upper airway tract leading to partial closure of the respiratory passage and characteristic snoring sound with reduced oxygen entry into lungs. Estimates of prevalence of snoring ranges from 5-44% of the general population. As per the gender distribution 24 -50% men &14 -30% women had snoring habits. Methods: It was single Centre cross sectional study done by Department of Physiology, IMS & SUM Hospital in apparently healthy attendants accompanying patients using 'Snore Survey' questionnaire, Berlin Questionnaire. Results: There were 550 participants. Out of which 59.72% of men, 40.20% of women snored, 47.46% from both sexes were unaware of their snoring habit. 25.6% of all snorers confirmed daytime sleepiness. Prevalence of snoring increased in both sexes with increase in age. In males, the highest prevalence rate of snoring was obtained in the age group 50 -59, out of which 19.5% had moderate and 14.6% had habitual snoring. 10.6% of the males in the age group 55-69 years had clinically suspected Obstructive Sleep Apneas. For females, the highest prevalence rate of snoring occurred at age 40-49years with 17.8% having moderate and 7.1% habitual snoring, whereas clinically suspected Obstructive Sleep Apneas among the female was 8%. Conclusion: Snoring a commonly ignored problem in our society, unless treated leads to risk of metabolic syndrome, Diabetes, CVS diseases like Hypertension, Arrhythmias& death.

No abstract

Background: Assessment is an essential part of each and every education, which represents the learning of a student. If the assessments are performed regularly, it inspires active study habits and inevitably enhance learning. Aim and Objectives: Formative assessments, which are performed regularly, increase the effectiveness of the learning. Hence, we aimed to observe the effectiveness of spaced formative assessments on the performance of students in summative assessments. Materials and Methods: We selected 250 first-year medical students from the 22 to 23 batch. The students were categorized into three groups on the basis of formative assessment performance. Group I did not appear in the formative assessment, Group II scored <50% in the formative assessment, and Group III scored more than 50% in the formative assessment. Multiple comparisons of scores of summative assessments between different groups were done using ANOVA. Scores of formative assessment and summative assessments were correlated using Pearson correlation. Results: We got a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05) in mean summative assessment scores in different groups. Again, the analysis showed formative assessments had a significant (P < 0.05) relationship with summative assessment performance. Conclusion: The performance of formative assessments is predictive of summative examination scores. Academically poor medical students will be benefited from formative assessments.