DEMOGRAPHICS OF COLLABORATORS INVESTIGATING THE NIGERIAN MEDICAL AND DENTAL INTERNS: A MEDICAL INTERNSHIP TRAINING IN NIGERIA (MINTING) STUDY COLLABORATION.

Introduction: The internship period is a peculiar time in a doctor's career, and some have described it as a "nuisance year" during which the junior doctor assumes many roles at the same time. Junior doctors especially house officers are faced with many unique challenges; this is even more pronounced in poor resource settings like Nigeria. This study aimed to unravel and improve understanding of the challenges faced by medical and dental interns in Nigeria. Methodology: A nine-member House officers Research and Statistics Committee (HRSC) was immediately set up to include three senior colleagues - Senior Registrars and Registrar. To carry out her responsibility efficiently the committee created the House Officers Research Collaboration Network (HRCN), a 103- member team comprising medical and dental interns from across Nigeria under a collaborative - Medical INternship Training in Nigeria (MINTING) study. Results: Out of a total of the 103 House Officers Research Collaboration Network, 80 of them participated in this survey giving a 78% response rate. Ten of the intern Collaborators had additional qualification and seven of them had BSc as an initial degree. About 66 % of the Collaborators have never authored any publication. Of the 27 that have published an article; three collaborators are said to have published 15, 13, 16 articles respectively. Male collaborators where more likely to have published at least one article in the past. Thirty one of the 80 Collaborators have never been in a research collaborative group prior to this MINTING collaborative. Conclusion: This commentary is set out to describe in detail Nigerian House Officers initiative in terms of the structure, functions, operational modalities, and to investigate the demographics of the HRCN collaborators which showed that over two third of collaborators have never authored any publication and about a third of them have never been involved in collaborative research. We also believe the findings will serve as policy guide and benchmark in training the critical medical health force.

Does prostate volume correlate with vitamin D deficiency among men undergoing prostate biopsy?

OBJECTIVES: Recent studies demonstrate vitamin D is inversely correlated with BPH and prostate cancer (PCa) incidence. We aim to clarify the associations of vitamin D with prostate volume. METHODS: This is an observational study investigating the associations of serum PSA, PSA density and prostate volume with serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OH D) in PCa patients and men with negative biopsies seen in outpatient urology clinics in Chicago, IL, USA. There were 571 men (40-79 years old) with elevated PSA or abnormal digital rectal examination with available prostate volume recorded from initial biopsy. The primary outcomes were the unadjusted associations of serum 25-OH D deficiency with prostate volume. The secondary outcomes were the adjusted associations using linear and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: On univariate analysis, serum 25-OH D<20 ng ml-1 inversely correlated with prostate volume among all men undergoing transrectal ultrasonography (P=0.02), and this relationship remained significant for men with negative biopsy on stratified analysis. In adjusted models, controlling for age, serum PSA, 5-α reductase inhibitors use, obesity and PCa diagnosis, prostate volume was inversely associated with vitamin D (P<0.05) using serum vitamin D as a continuous and categorical variable. Logistic regression model also demonstrated an inverse association between vitamin D (continuous and categorical) and prostate volume ⩾40 grams. CONCLUSION: Serum 25-OH D levels are inversely associated with overall prostate volume and enlarged prostate gland (⩾40 grams), especially in men with benign prostatic disease. Given the largely non-toxic effect of supplementation, consideration should be given to assessing vitamin D levels in men with benign prostatic disease in addition, to malignant prostatic disease.

Fetal programming of overweight through the microbiome: boys are disproportionately affected.

Maternal and childhood obesity in pregnancy are worrisome public health issues facing our world today. New gene sequencing methods have advanced our knowledge of the disruptive effect of birth interventions and postnatal exposures on the maturation of gut microbiota and immunity during infancy. Yet, little is known about the impact of maternal pregnancy overweight on gut microbes and related processes, and how this may affect overweight risk in offspring. To address this gap in knowledge, we surveyed human studies for evidence in children, infants and pregnant women to piece together the limited literature and generate hypotheses for future investigation. From this literature, we learned that higher Lactobacillus yet lower Bacteroides spp. colonization of gut microbiota within 3 months of birth predicted risk for infant and child overweight. The abundance of bifidobacteria and staphylococci also appeared to play a role in the association with overweight, as did infant fecal immunoglobulin A levels, glycoproteins of the gut immune system that are acquired from breast milk and produced by the infant. We proposed that pregnancy overweight influences the compositional structure of gut microbiota in infants through vertical transfer of microbiota and/or their metabolites during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding. Finally, we brought forward emerging evidence on sex dimorphism, as well as ethnic and geographic variation, in reported associations between maternal overweight-induced gut microbiota dysbiosis and overweight risk.

Analysis of nine NSAIDs in ungulate tissues available to critically endangered vultures in India.

In 2006, India, Pakistan, and Nepal banned the manufacture of veterinary formulations of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac. This action was taken to halt the unprecedented decline of three Gyps vulture species that were being poisoned by diclofenac residues commonly present in carcasses of domestic livestock upon which they scavenged. To assess the affect of this ban and evaluate residue prevelances of other NSAIDs, we present a method to detect diclofenac and eight more NSAIDs by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and apply this to 1488 liver samples from carcasses of livestock taken across seven Indian states. Diclofenac was present in 11.1% of samples taken between April and December 2006, and meloxicam (4%), ibuprofen (0.6%), and ketoprofen (0.5%) were also detected. Although meloxicam is safe for a range of avian scavengers, including Gypsvultures, data regarding the safety of other NSAIDs is currently limited. If wild Gyps on the Indian subcontinent are to survive, diclofenac bans must be completely effective, and NSAIDs that replace it within the veterinary drug market must be of low toxicity toward Gyps and other scavenging birds.