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Background: Hypertension is one of the current emerging community health problems, which is very common affecting one in four individuals. Hyperuricemia is predictive for the development of both hypertension and coronary artery disease. Since there are various etiological factors associated with hypertension so it is very difficult to predict which one is the most common cause of hypertension. Little or no information is present in the population of Rajasthan, on the association between serum uric acid and essential hypertension. Hence this study is carried out to investigate the existence of an association between serum uric acid and essential hypertension. Methods: In this hospital based case control study, a total of 75 newly diagnosed essential hypertensive cases, 75 prehypertensive cases and 50 normotensive healthy controls, aged 20-50 years of both sexes were enrolled after excluding gout, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, renal diseases, metabolic syndrome, secondary hypertension or history of having relevant drugs by taking detailed history and physical examination. Serum uric acid was measured in all study cases as well as control subjects. Results: The results of our study revealed that the mean serum uric acid level and the frequency of subjects with increased serum uric acid level were significantly higher in newly diagnosed cases of essential hypertension as compared to prehypertensive and normotensive controls (p 0.05). These results indicate a definite association between hyperuricaemia and essential hypertension. Conclusions: In the present study, Elevated level of SUA is significantly linked with PreHT and EHT after controlling various confounding factors. The present study showed that the number of hyperuricaemic individuals and mean SUA level were significantly higher in newly diagnosed cases of hypertension as compared to prehypertensive and normotensive control.

Background: Chemicals present in tobacco have been implicated in causing subclinical changes in myelin sheaths of peripheral nerves. This may contribute to nerve dysfunction particularly in the form of decreases in nerve conduction velocity. So, present study aims to measure nerve conduction velocity in the median nerve and ulnar nerve among tobacco users. Methods: This was a cross-sectional case-control study involving 50 normal healthy subjects and 150 tobacco users. The nerve conduction study was performed using fully computerized electromyography (EMG) and nerve conduction velocity (NCV) machine. By this machine Sensory nerve conduction velocity (SNCV) and Motor nerve conduction velocity (MNCV) tests of both the nerves (median and ulnar) was performed on subjects. Data was analyzed by using appropriate statistical methods. Results: In our study statistically significant changes (P < 0.001) were found in the Sensory nerve conduction velocity of both the nerves whereas no such changes were found in Motor nerve conduction velocity of both the nerves in tobacco users as compared to nontobacco users. Conclusions: We conclude that use of tobacco results in reduction of conduction velocities in sensory fibers of the median nerve and ulnar nerve but not in motor fibers.

Background: During the learning process, feedback plays an important role by helping the learner in recognition of the desired goal, evidence about present position, and some understanding of a way to close the gap between the two Objective of the study was to improve learning by using continuous self-assessment as a tool among the medical students, this would inculcate the habit of self-directed and regular learning habits. Methods: The study was conducted on 79 first year undergraduate medical students, where they were taught a topic from physiology and they were exposed to the weekly self-assessment sessions. The tests were corrected by the students themselves and thereafter discussed in the class by the teacher. These response sheets were collected and scrutinized by the teacher and feedback were given to each student. The progress record was maintained by the teacher showing the response of the students in terms of attendance and performance. The average scores of these students (study group) were compared with the scores of the previous batch (control group. The focused group discussion was also carried out among the study group and responses were recorded. Results: A significant (p

Background: The auditory and visual pathways are complex multi-synaptic neuronal circuits prone to alteration in conductivity under the influence of various neuro-hormonal modulators. The female sex steroids have shown significant effect on these circuits during different phases on menstrual cycle and pregnancy.Methods: The present study was designed with an aim to find out the auditory and visual reaction time variations during different trimesters of pregnancy. The healthy non pregnant women, in premenstrual phase were grouped as controls (Group NP; n=30) whereas the cases were further divided into 3 groups depending on the duration of pregnancy as Groups T1,T2and T3 with 30 volunteers in each.Results: The ART and VRT were measured using RTM-608 (Medicaid) in the Obstetrics and Gynaecology department of our hospital. The observations were recorded and analysed using one way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey test. A significant increase (p