Short-term, nonsurgical periodontal therapy boosts interleukin-12 levels and reduces oral cancer risk.

BACKGROUND: Cytokines, including interleukin-12 (IL-12), are proteins that regulate cell survival, proliferation, differentiation, and function. IL-12 is a heterodimeric proinflammatory cytokine. It possesses tumoricidal properties and promotes M1 macrophage polarization and IFN-γ production by T helper (Th1) cells, which in turn stimulates the antitumor cytotoxic cluster of eight positive (CD8+) and natural killer cells, therefore activating an effector immune response against tumor cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Herein, the IL-2 levels of 60 patients with generalized chronic periodontitis (GCP) were assessed. Plaque index, gingival index, pocket probing depth, bleeding on probing percentage (BOP %), and clinical attachment loss were the clinical indicators reported. RESULTS: Patients with GCP in the pretreatment group had substantially lower mean IL-12 levels than those in the post-treatment group. Short-term, nonsurgical treatment (NST) considerably improved periodontal indices and increased IL-12 levels, thereby reducing oral cancer risk. CONCLUSION: NST is a cost-effective and accessible cancer prevention procedure for general dentists.

Student Perception and Preferences With Social Media for Enhanced Learning in Health Sciences Following Post-COVID-19 Era: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, universities worldwide pivoted to distance education, primarily online, using various blended learning tools. In the contemporary era, characterized by widespread high-speed internet and the ubiquity of social media (SM), SM has become an essential tool, especially among students. This study aimed to assess the perception, impact, and preferences of various SM platforms for learning among health sciences students in the post-COVID-19 era. Methodology The study was conducted at constituent colleges of Jouf University and Northern Border University between January and June 2022. Responses from 560 students were assessed using a self-administered, pre-validated questionnaire comprising 31 questions. These questions addressed students' perceptions, preferences, and learning modes derived from SM. Descriptive and inferential statistics evaluated the influence of SM on student learning. Results On average, students spent 3.18 hours daily on SM. YouTube (41.1%) and Instagram (37.1%) emerged as the most preferred platforms for learning. A significant 86.4% of students utilized SM for accessing subject-related texts and watching related videos. Moreover, 78.6% believed that SM platforms enhanced their subject knowledge following lectures. Logistic regression analysis indicated maximum learning benefits for students who used SM between two to three hours daily. Conclusion Social media platforms, when used judiciously, can enhance the learning experience for health sciences students in the post-COVID era. While offering opportunities to acquire new knowledge and skills, care must be taken to prevent misuse, abuse, or related health hazards.

Navigating post COVID-19 education: an investigative study on students' attitude and perception of their new normal learning environment.

Background: The incidence and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic brought about a drastic change in health professional education around the world. Traditional classrooms made way for online classrooms in order to ensure that learning continued in a safe and secure environment. However, how well health professional students perceived and accepted these changes have not been fully gauged yet. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the perception of health professional students about their new educational climate. Methods: A modified and validated Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) questionnaire was used to collect data regarding student perception of their educational environment. Results: The mean DREEM scores for three time periods were in the accepted positive range of 101 to 150 indicating that most of the students perceived the changes positively. The results indicated that most students preferred blended learning over online learning or face-to-face learning alone. Areas where students were unsatisfied with their learning environment that need improvement were identified by poor item-wise scores. Conclusion: Strategic remedial measures for these concerns need to be developed to improve the quality of education received by the students. However, the results of our study indicated that most of the students were able to adapt positively to the new education environment due to the change in the circumstances during COVID.

Integrating High-Impact Practices (HIPs) In Medical Curriculum At Northern Border University: Strengths, Challenges, and Examples.

BACKGROUND: High-Impact Practices (HIPs) are educational practices that have been shown to increase rates of student retention, engagement, and persistence to graduation which help them to become high achievers and lifelong learners. Universities strongly encourage faculty members to incorporate one or more of these HIPs in order to improve active learning among students. Students are met with a variety of experiences that are not entirely of their choice, including expectations for academic performance, interactions with faculty, staff, and peers, and extracurricular activities that may or may not match their expectations and skills. Higher retention and high-grade achievement rates are attributed to HIPs. The mechanism by which HIPs improve retention is poorly understood. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: There are numerous analyses of the objectives particular to undergraduate medical education in recent years. There have been proposed three major target categories. Undergraduate medical education has been positioned within a liberal education framework, where the main objective is to equip students with the critical thinking abilities, broad general education, and subject-specific knowledge they will need to be able to effectively problem-solve, adapt to new roles, and apply public health thinking and practices to a variety of situations. We tried to incorporate HIPs in a medical curriculum at the Faculty of Medicine, Northern Border University, by giving them topics that can be used to create public awareness about the selected objectives which may help the community greatly. METHODOLOGY: Students were asked to make posters or videos on the topics and were asked to write reflections about their experience and give feedback to the coordinators for improvements and to make these HIPs better so that they can be included uniformly in the other courses as well. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Based on results from a random sample of undergraduate students, we draw the conclusion that HIPs are correlated with engagement, which is the alignment of the student's critical thinking and ability to work in effective teams, group projects, learning communities, and sequence courses. HIPs have an impact on involvement among students across the world. HIPs are effective to the extent that they engage pupils, encouraging a greater commitment, which is one way to understand their success.

Tuberculous splenic abscess--a case report and review of literature.

Splenic abscess due to tuberculosis is a rare condition and is mostly diagnosed in immuno-compromised hosts. A case of tuberculous splenic abscess detected incidentally after splenectomy without any underlying disease is reported in an immuno-competent patient.

Pure red cell aplasia--report of 11 cases from eastern Nepal.

There were eleven cases of pure red cell aplasia diagnosed over a period of 2 years (January 2000-December 2001). All the patients had anemia with pallor and weakness being the presenting complaints. Hematological profile depicted normocytic normochromic anemia, reticulocytopenia and marked paucity of erythroid precursors on bone marrow aspiration and biopsy studies. In the present study, one case was of congenital pure red cell aplasia, in one other case of pyrexia of unknown origin, no definitive diagnosis could be made. Other associated diseases seen with pure red cell aplasia were thymoma, septicemia, protein energy malnutrition, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, acute myeloid leukemia, tuberculosis and hepatitis C. The association of pure red cell aplasia with haematologic malignancies is rare. There are very few case reports on pure red cell aplasia with hepatitis C.

Incidence of pelvic and extrapelvic endometriosis in Eastern region of Nepal.

Endometriosis is described as the presence of endometrial glands or stroma in abnormal locations outside the uterus. It afflicts 10% women of childbearing age. A 5-year retrospective analysis of histopathologically proven cases of endometriosis was done. Haematoxylin and Eosin stained slides were reviewed for type of lining epithelium, endometrial glands, stroma, fresh and old hemorrhage & inflammatory cells. Clinical details were analyzed. Age of the patient ranged from 22 - 48 years. The most common site of endometriosis was ovaries (69.23%) followed by scars (11.43%), cervix (7.69%), fallopian tube (3.84%), vagina (3.84%) and appendix (3.84%) in descending order of frequency. Most common symptom was pain. On ultrasound and X-ray diagnosis could not be made in any case. Clinically endometriosis was diagnosed in 9 (34.62%) cases. On histopathological examination majority of the cases (42.3%) had endometrial glands, stroma and hemosiderin laden macrophages. 3 cases (11.43%) had endometrial lining epithelium and stroma only, which on laproscopy also were diagnosed to have endometriosis. It was concluded that high rate of surgical excision of organs were done because of misdiagnosis.

Microcystic papillary adenoma of the nose: a case report.

Microcystic papillary adenoma of nose is rarely seen in nose. This case is reported because of its rarity and to best our knowledge is a first case report from Nepal.