Assessment of undergraduate students in tooth extraction competence- A cohort study.

AIM: The aim of the study was to determine the value of the number of patient encounters and tooth extractions on the competence of final-year Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) students. METHODS: Following ethics approval, the study employed purposive sampling to enrol final-year BDS students and assess their competence longitudinally over a full academic year. Students were assessed periodically on four separate occasions after they had gained experience in performing 15, 40, 70 and 100 patient encounters involving tooth extractions. RESULTS: There were 177 students with complete profiles completing the tooth extraction assessments including 31 males (18%) and 146 females (82%). The age range of participants was 22 to 24 years (mean = 21.92; median = 22). The total number of assessment data points available for the four assessments was 1062. A chi-squared test was carried out to test the hypothesis that competence in tooth extraction increases with increasing exposure to patients. Students in Group 100 were most likely to pass the competency, whilst students in Group 15 were most likely to fail. There was a statistically significant variation in the proportion of "Below Standard," "Meets Standard" and "Exceeds Standard" judgements awarded to students with differing levels of prior experience (p < .001). Therefore, the hypothesis was accepted. Analysis of assessment results for differential performance of students by gender did not show significant differences. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study show a positive relationship between the number of tooth extractions performed and competence of final-year dental students. Over 90% students achieved competence after performing 100 patient encounters. Although competence in tooth extractions showed a linear relationship with experience of the participants in this study, the data were collected from a single cohort of students at one institution. Further multi-institution studies involving several cohorts are required to further explore the value of increased experience.

Salivary Biomarker Interleukin-8 Levels in Naswar Users and Non-users.

Salivary biomarkers can be used as diagnostic and predictive aids in early detection of oral cancer or potentially malignant disorders. A cross-sectional comparative study was conducted over a period of one year from August 2016 to August 2017 in a multicentre setting in Islamabad. A total of 60 patients were recruited and divided into two equal groups of naswar users and non-users. Un-stimulated saliva samples were collected and analysed by using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique. Data was entered in SPSS version 22.0. The results were then analysed by using independent t-test. Statistically significant difference was found regarding the levels of salivary IL-8 between the naswar users and non-users (p <0.001). The levels of salivary IL-8 in non-users were 33.39 ±22.44 pg/ml, while the increased levels of salivary IL-8 in naswar users were found to be 173.48 ±46.52 pg/ml.

Outbreak Of Chikungunya Virus In Karachi, Pakistan.

In this report, aim is to highlight the recent outbreak of Chikungunya virus in Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan. Chikungunya virus is transmitted by infected Aedes mosquitoes. Firstly, described as an outbreak in southern Tanzania in 1952 and later spread in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Pacific and Indian Oceans. In late 2016, the virus has been reported to cause severe morbidity and fatality among patients reporting to the local government hospital in Malir region of Karachi. Patients came to emergency ward with complaints of fever, skin rashes, fatigue and joint pain. To improve the existing knowledge and current epidemic in this area we reported the causes, sign & symptoms, precautions and treatment measures for the control from this virus spreading in mass gatherings. In addition, self-awareness, preventive measures implementation by public health officials in response to reports of Chikungunya virus will help to evaluate the outbreak settings.

Isogenic autosomes to be applied in optimal screening for novel mutants with viable phenotypes in Drosophila melanogaster.

Most insertional mutagenesis screens of Drosophila performed to date have not used target chromosomes that have been checked for their suitability for phenotypic screens for viable phenotypes. To address this, we have generated a selection of stocks carrying either isogenized second chromosomes or isogenized third chromosomes, in a genetic background derived from a Canton-S wild-type strain. We have tested these stocks for a range of behavioral and other viable phenotypes. As expected, most lines are statistically indistinguishable from Canton-S in most phenotypes tested. The lines generated are now being used as target chromosomes in mutagenesis screens, and the characterization reported here will facilitate their use in screens of these lines for behavioral and other viable phenotypes.