Integrating medical biostatistics into postgraduate medical curriculum.

BACKGROUND: Knowledge of biostatistics is important for a health professional to understand research methods, analyse new information presented in scientific journals and to assess its relevance for their clinical practice. METHODS: We discuss the implementation of biostatistics in medical curricula, give perspectives on medical education in India, and narrate our own experience of integration of biostatistics into the medical curriculum. RESULTS: Biostatistics is still not a part of all postgraduate curricula in spite of its growing importance for all medical practitioners in the 21st century. CONCLUSION: The need for a reliable tool in research and evidence-based medicine is recognized in most postgraduate medical curricula in developed countries to improve teaching-learning outcomes.

The role of kinesitherapy and electrotherapeutic procedures in non-operative management of patients with intermittent claudications.

PURPOSE: To examine the effects of physical therapy (kinesitherapy and electrotherapeutic procedures) on the course of peripheral arterial occlusive disease by monitoring the changes in values of claudication distance and ankle-brachial indexes. METHODS: Prospective randomized study included 47 patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease manifested by intermittent claudications associated with ankle-brachial indexes values ranging from 0.5 to 0.9. Patients from the first group (25 pts) were treated with medicamentous therapy, walking exercises beyond the pain threshold, dynamic low-burden kinesi exercises and electrotherapeutic ageneses (interference therapy, diadynamic therapy, and electromagnetic field), while the second group of patients (22 pts) was treated with "conventional" non-operative treatment - medicamentous therapy and walking exercises. The values of newly established absolute claudication distance and ankle-brachial indexes were measured. FINDINGS: Significant increase of absolute claudication distance in both groups of patients was registered, independently of therapeutic protocol applied (p < 0.001), as well as the increase in the claudication distance interval in the physical therapy group. There was no significant increase in ankle-brachial indexes values in both groups of patients. CONCLUSION: Methods of physical therapy presented valuable supplement in non-operative treatment of peripheral arterial occlusive disease patients, improving their functional ability and thus postponing surgical treatment. However, further investigations including larger number of patients are needed.