Introduction: Concept mapping is an innovative approach that helps the learner to organize knowledge for a better mental picture. Students should be life-long meaningful learners to adapt to the rapid changing science and apply it in practicing medicine. The concept map may be regarded as an image displaying detailed study of a case or problem through various concepts and by linking them with the key words which enables the learners to do a cognitive analysis. This way of approaching basic science subjects in medical education will definitely improve the meaningful learning (Asubel, 1968). The objective of this study was to introduce concept map as a mode of learning involving various important topics of basic medical sciences subjects and evaluate its usefulness and acceptability among students in improving their understanding of the given topics. Materials and Methods: Participants are first year MBBS students (n=250) from Sri Ramachandra Medical college and Research Institute; they were divided into small groups of 20-22. Students were evaluated with pretest and post-test performance along with a feedback which were collected and evaluated at the end of the project. Result: Students subjected to this newer learning method showed a highly significant positive result (p<0.001). Conclusion:The introduction of concept-mapping in learning methodology resulted in better understanding of a topic and correlation between all basic courses by the students. It also helps in learning through vertical integration between basic and clinical sciences.

The study of biomarkers in Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is highly indispensable to understand mechanisms of pathogenesis, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of disease. The role of traditional biomarkers like Anti-CCP, RF, and inflammatory markers like ESR and CRP is well established. In this study, we aimed to measure nontraditional biomarkers like Hyaluronic acid (HA), Cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), and Osteocalcin in the serum of RA patients and also to establish an association with traditional markers. It was a cross-sectional study involving 152 RA patients based on the 1987 ACR criteria for the diagnosis of RA and 68 age‑ and sex-matched healthy controls. After the clinical examination, traditional markers were assessed to measure the disease activity along with non traditional markers in RA patients. All the values were expressed as median (25th–75th percentile). In our study, there was a significant increase in serum HA levels in RA patients compared to healthy controls (p  < 0.03), whereas no significant difference in serum COMP and osteocalcin levels. The traditional inflammatory markers were significantly increased in RA patients than controls with (p  < 0.001). The serum HA levels were significantly correlated with traditional markers in RA patients. Conclusion: Significant increase in serum HA level in RA patients indicating synovial inflammation, but there were no notable changes in COMP and osteocalcin level in serum presuming the combination of these markers may be useful along with traditional markers in the different stages of RA.

Background: Osteoporosis is a common disease of aging population, causing fractures and raising mortality and morbidity. Standard diagnosis usually depends on measuring bone mineral density using a dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. But it does not provide information regarding bone formation or resorption. Bone turnover markers provide information regarding bone formation or resorption before the structural changes in bone occur. The aim of the study: This study was undertaken to investigate the effectiveness of N-terminal telopeptide-1 in the diagnosis of osteopenia and osteoporosis. Materials and methods: The case-control study was conducted in 170 individuals from the Department of Orthopedic Surgery. They were divided into three groups based on bone mineral density; group I with normal BMD (n=57), group II with osteopenia (n=62) and group III with osteoporosis (n=51). Institutional ethics committee approval was obtained. Written informed consent was obtained from all the study participants. Serum N-terminal telopeptide-1 (NTX-1) was analyzed by ELISA. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS 16.0 version for Windows. The continuous variables were expressed as mean ± SD. ANOVA with Tukey's HSD and ROC curve analysis were performed. Odds ratio was analyzed. Pearson correlation coefficient was obtained between BMD and NTX1. P value <.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: There was a significant increase in serum N-terminal telopeptide-1 across the groups. NTX-1 values showed correlation with BMD. The area under the curve during analysis of NTX-1 in patients with normal BMD and osteopenia and osteoporosis were 0.697 and 0.592 respectively. Conclusion: The participants were in the obese as well as over-weight category. Serum N-terminal telopeptide-1 was significantly increased across the groups indicating that bone turnover markers are associated with progression of osteoporosis.