Performance in Kahoot! activities as predictive of exam performance.

BACKGROUND: Game-based learning (GBL) is effective for increasing participation, creativity, and student motivation. However, the discriminative value of GBL for knowledge acquisition has not yet been proven. The aim of this study is to assess the value of Kahoot! as a discriminative tool for formative assessment in medical education in two different subjects. METHODS: A prospective experimental study was conducted on a sample of 173 students enrolled in neuroanatomy (2021-2022). One hundred twenty-five students individually completed the Kahoot! prior to the final exam. In addition, students enrolled in human histology during two academic courses were included in the study. The control group course (2018-2019) received a traditional teaching methodology (N = 211), while Kahoot! was implemented during 2020-2021 (N = 200). All students completed similar final exams for neuroanatomy and human histology based on theory tests and image exams. RESULTS: The correlation between the Kahoot score and the final grade was analyzed for all students enrolled in neuroanatomy who completed both exercises. The correlation between the Kahoot exercise and the theory test, image exam and final grade was significantly positive in all cases (r = 0.334 p < 0.001, r = 0.278 p = 0.002 and r = 0.355 p < 0.001, respectively). Moreover, students who completed the Kahoot! exercise obtained significantly higher grades in all parts of the exam. Regarding human histology, the theory tests, image exams and final grades were significantly higher when using Kahoot! versus the "traditional" methodology (p < 0.001, p < 0.001 and p = 0.014, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates for the first time that Kahoot! can be used to improve and predict the final grade in medical education subjects.

Effects of histamine on the metabolism of isolated rat hepatocytes: roles of H1- and H2-histamine receptors.

In isolated rat hepatocytes histamine stimulates in a dose-dependent fashion three of the major metabolic pathways: glycogenolysis (70-80% increase over basal), gluconeogenesis from lactate (50-60%), and ureagenesis (50-60%). It was observed that both H1 and H2 receptors mediate the action of histamine and that, in control hepatocytes, the H1-mediated action predominates over the H2. The H1-mediated effect diminished in the absence of extracellular calcium, whereas the H2-mediated action did not. Interestingly, in hepatocytes from hypothyroid rats, the H2 action increased and the H1-mediated effect decreased as compared to those in the controls, with an inversion in efficacy (i.e., H1 greater than H2 in the controls and H2 greater than H1 in cells from hypothyroid rats). Furthermore, it was observed that pertussis toxin treatment and forskolin both enhance the H2-mediated effects without altering the H1-mediated actions of histamine (i.e., H1 approximately equal to H2). The active phorbol ester, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, did not alter the effect of the autacoid. In summary, the data show that histamine modulates liver metabolism through H1 and H2 receptors. The relative importance of the two receptor types in mediating the actions of histamine varies depending on the specific conditions used.