Understanding the Dynamic Relationship of Diabetes Distress and Glycemic Indicators in Foot Ulcer Patients: A Correlative Study

BACKGROUND

Diabetes-related distress and glycemic indicators are the most common concerns for patients with diabetes mellitus and have a major impact on diabetic patients' lifestyle, mental well-being, and healthcare access. The principal aim of research in this field is to ascertain the correlation between distress associated with diabetes and glycemic indicators. this helps in developing interventions that can enhance the overall physical and mental well-being of individuals with diabetes.

OBJECTIVE

The objective is to assess the diabetes distress and glycemic indicators among patients with foot ulcers and to find the correlation between diabetes distress and glycemic parameters.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A descriptive correlational study was conducted among 159 patients with foot ulcers who were admitted to the hospital by using a non-probability purposive sampling method. The severity of diabetes distress was evaluated utilizing the four-subscale Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS-17). Glycemic indicators are calculated through the assessment of random blood sugar, fasting blood sugar (FBS), and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c).

RESULT

The study revealed that most participants were above 60 years old and were male. Of the samples, 52% had moderate distress. All the subscales of diabetes distress are correlated to the overall DDS score. A negative correlation (r= -0.162, p < 0.041) was found between emotional burden and FBS which was statistically significant, whereas FBS is positively related to HbA1c (r=0.194, p=0.015).

CONCLUSION

 The significant correlation between DDS scores, the subscales of diabetes distress, and glycemic indicators highlights the criticality of incorporating diabetes distress management into comprehensive strategies for managing diabetes. Moreover, the research underscores the necessity of employing multidisciplinary strategies when attending to diabetic patients to prevent complications.

Faculty perspectives of small group teaching experience in medical school in Tamil Nadu

BACKGROUND

The small group teaching (SGT) is gaining popularity in medical education since it improves the student's thinking capacity and aids knowledge retention. Several studies have been conducted to analyze students' attitudes regarding SGT. Faculty, on the other hand, have mixed perception about SGT methodology. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to explore medical faculties' perceptions of SGT effectiveness in the medical curriculum.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A cross-sectional, descriptive survey was conducted among 50 medical college teachers. We have developed set of 12 questionnaires to assess the perception of teachers on SGT methods. Content validation of the survey questionnaire was done by Lawshe method, and Cronbach's alpha was calculated for estimating the internal consistency. Teacher's perception responses were presented as proportion and percentage. We performed principal component analysis, structural equation modelling, Chi-squared test (χ²/df), goodness-of-fit index (GFI), adjusted GFI, comparative fit index, and root mean square error of approximation.

RESULTS

The validation resulted in the 12 items model indicated superior goodness of fit for sample data. All the extracted factors had good internal consistency of >0.9. Majority of the teachers strongly agreed that the SGT method enhances the student intrinsic motivation (n = 42, 84%), self-confidence (n = 40, 80%) self-directed learning (n = 35, 70%), and student teacher interaction (n = 38, 76%).

CONCLUSION

Teaching faculties' perception reflected that SGT is an effective method to impart knowledge to the students and also helps in improving their understanding of their subject. It helps in developing intrinsic motivation to do self-learning in the students. It also helps in developing good peer interaction and improves the communication skills.

Effect of Stress in Muscle Function between Sedentary and Physically Active Adults using Mosso’s Ergograph: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Skeletal muscle is essentially involved in body movement. Structured physical activity refines the physical and mental well-being and it is viewed as one of the important factor which influences the skeletal muscle activity. Stress hormones causes metabolism of muscle proteins thereby reduces the muscle strength. Aim: To demonstrate the effect of stress in muscle function between sedentary and physically active adults. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was done amid of 100 (inactive) sedentary and 100 exercising (physically active) adults in Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, Tamil Nadu for a duration of four months (January – April 2022). Total 200 male subjects (100 sedentary and 100 physically active adults) between age group 25-30 years were included in this study. Muscle function (work done) was studied using Mosso’s ergograph. Perceived stress score was analysed by Cohen’s perceived stress scale questionnaire. Work done by muscle and stress score was correlated. Pearson’s and Chi-square test were used to assess the correlation between work done by muscle and stress score. Result: Work done by physically active adults was more. The effect of stress in reducing the muscle strength was comparatively lesser in physically active adults. There was a negative correlation found between work done by muscle and stress score among sedentary adults (r=0.011, r=-0.432, r=-0.835) and also among physically active adults (r=1.524, r=- 0.012, r=-0.035) with statistically significant (p-value<0.05). Conclusion: Amount of work done in physically active adults was more as compared to sedentary adults. Perceived stress had a negative effect on the muscle strength (work done) of the young adults. Exercise reduces the stress and improves the work done level of muscle.

Assessment of pulmonary functions among traffic police personnel in Chennai city - A comparative cross-sectional study

Background:

Air pollution due to road traffic is a solemn health hazard and vehicular emissions due to huge population in the cities are the main reason for the air quality crisis. The study was conducted to assess the degree of impairment in lung function in traffic police personnel exposed to traffic pollution compared to less-exposed healthy subjects.

Materials and Methods:

This comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among 250 traffic police personnel, aged 20–55 years, working in Chennai city, as compared to a matched control group, consisting of 250 less-exposed subjects. Measurement of pulmonary function testing was done with an RMS Helio 401. Statistical analysis was carried out with R statistical software.

Results:

The traffic police personnel had significantly (P < 0.05) declined FEV1 and FEV1/FVC ratio and FEF 25–75% (L/s) as compared to controls. Traffic personnel with longer duration of exposure showed significantly (P < 0.05) reduced lung functions than those with shorter duration. We have found a significant negative correlation with all pulmonary function parameters such as FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC, PEFR, and FVC 25%–75% among the traffic police personnel.

Conclusion:

The impairment of pulmonary function among the traffic police personnel might be due to the effect of pollution by vehicular exhausts and they should be offered personal protective or preventive measures.

Influence of needle-like morphology on the bioactivity of nanocrystalline wollastonite--an in vitro study

In the past 2 decades, wollastonite has been studied thoroughly for its application as a bone implant material due to its biocompatibility, high mechanical strength, and excellent bioactivity when compared to calcium phosphates bioceramics. Wollastonite was prepared through the low-temperature sol-gel combustion method using urea as the fuel, nitrate ions and nitric acid as the oxidizer. Calcium nitrate and tetraethyl orthosilicate were taken as the source of calcium and silica. The synthesized wollastonite were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for the identification of characteristic functional group and powder X-ray diffraction for the phase identification. Employing urea as a fuel resulted in needle-like morphology of the particles, which was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. It was observed that the needle-like morphology enhances the mechanical properties such as elasticity and compressive strength and also increases the surface area of the material, which could help in a rapid deposition of hydroxyapatite layer. These properties of wollastonite warrant its application as a new artificial bone material in the field of hard tissue engineering.

Undifferentiated connective tissue disease with pulmonary involvement

Pulmonary involvement in collagen vascular diseases is extremely common. It is usually seen in the well described dyscollagenoses and in mixed connective tissue diseases (MCTD). However, there is a lesser known entity called Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease (UCTD) which can also involve the lung. We herein present a case of a young man who was detected to have lung involvement secondary to UCTD.

Bioefficacy of Aristolochia tagala Cham. against Spodoptera litura Fab. (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Bioefficacy of leaf and root extracts of Aristolochia tagala Cham. at different concentrations was evaluated at room temperature against Spodoptera litura Fab. Effects on feeding, larvicidal and pupicidal activities and larval-pupal duration were studied. Higher antifeedant activity (56.06%), lethal concentration for feeding inhibition (3.69%), larvicidal (40.66%), pupicidal (28%), total mortality (68.66%) and prolonged larval-pupal duration (12.04-13.08 days) were observed in ethyl acetate leaf extract at 5.0% concentration. Dose dependant effect of test extracts was observed. This plant could be used to isolate active principles and to develop a new botanical formulation in pest management programmes.

Saturable-absorber-based spatial filtering of high-power laser beams

A saturable-absorber-based technique for spatial filtering of high-average-power laser beams is described. For a focused, radially symmetric beam having its highest intensity at the center, this saturable absorber behaves like a soft aperture with gradually increasing attenuation toward the beam edges, thus selectively transmitting the low divergence components that are confined close to the central axis of the propagating laser beam. This technique has been successfully used to reduce the divergence of a high-power, high-repetition-rate, tunable, narrowband, pulsed dye laser. Our results demonstrate how a judicious choice of operating parameters allows spatial filtering to be achieved with the introduction of a minimum absorption loss of the laser beam in the saturable absorber. Following a time-dependent analysis of a rate equation model describing the propagation and interaction of the laser beam with the saturable absorber, we have also obtained theoretical estimates for the extent of spatial filtering. Our theoretical estimates have been found to be in good agreement with our experimental observations.

Mucinous cystadenoma of the lung presenting as localised bronchiectasis

Mucinous cystadenoma is a very rare pulmonary neoplasm. Here we report the case of a 59 year old woman who presented with clinical features of localized bronchiectasis, who on detailed evaluation was found to have this rare tumour.

A dot-immunobinding assay (dot-Iba) for rapid diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis

IgG antibody to Mycobacterium tuberculosis from the sera of patients with 'definite' pulmonary tuberculosis (PT) was isolated and coupled with Cyanogen bromide-Sepharose 4B. Using an immunoabsorbent affinity chromatography, 14 kDa antigen was recovered from the culture filtrates of M. tuberculosis. With this mycobacterial antigen, a dot immunobinding assay (Dot-Iba) was developed for the detection of specific antibody to M. tuberculosis in the sera of patients with PT and controls. The assay gave positive results in all the 12 sputum-smear positive [acid fast bacilli (AFB)] patients with PT and gave negative results in the 50 sera from control groups. The Dot-Iba as described in this study, is simple, rapid and specific for laboratory diagnosis of PT.