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Biomedical subjects

N Huda

Publications and source records attributed to N Huda.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

An integrated curriculum for MBBS.

OBJECTIVE: To report the formulation and implementation of an organ system based integrated curriculum for MBBS students at Ziauddin Medical University (ZMU) Karachi. STEPS OF INTEGRATION: The Basic Medical Science Faculty (Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry) along with representatives from Medicine, Surgery and Community Health Sciences held joint meetings spread over weeks to design a system based integrated curriculum for the first two years of the MBBS class. Objectives of an integrated course were devised and the duties of term coordinator determined. CONCLUSION: Horizontal integration of Basic Science subjects can be achieved, with the subject specialists coordinating the teaching of a system based as opposed to subject based curriculum. The basic sciences can also be integrated with Community Health Sciences to achieve partial vertical integration.

Biological Science Disciplines↗
PubMed2001

Selection procedure as predictor of performance in university examination.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the correlation of SSC, HSC, ZMU achievement test and interview scores with the scores achieved in MBBS 1st, 2nd and 3rd Professional Examinations. METHOD AND PROCEDURE: The SSC, HSC, ZMU admission test and interview scores of 159 MBBS students admitted in 1995, 1996 and 1997 were correlated with the scores of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd professional examinations. Data analysis was done on SPSS Software. RESULTS: No significant relationship was found between the SSC, HSC, ZMU admission test and interview scores and the scores obtained in the professional examinations. SSC scores did not correlate with any variables/matrices, whereas for batches 1 and 2 the HSC school leaving examination scores correlated significantly with ZMU interview score (p < 0.05). No correlation was found between ZMU test and ZMU interviews. Results showed significant relationship (p < 0.01) between all 1st, 2nd and 3rd professionals of all three batches. CONCLUSION: None of the admission criteria (SSC, HSC, ZMU admission test and interview scores) predict the performance of medical students in the professional examinations.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1999

An introductory course on study skills forming a bridge between traditional and problem based learning (PBL).

OBJECTIVE: To introduce entrants in a medical university coming from traditional system of education to student-centered, problem based learning (PBL) and acquaint them with small group dynamics in order to make them life long learners. SETTING: Ziauddin Medical University, Karachi, Pakistan. SUBJECTS: First Year Students of Medical University. DESIGN: The course was of ten hours, divided in six session. In the first session, there were exercises for interaction in small groups, followed by sessions on principles of learning, learning methodologies, PBL, assessment and lastly importance of feedback. RESULT: Evaluation of the course revealed that 63% of the students agreed that the course achieved its objectives, 25% were not sure while 12% disagreed. Seventy one percent agreed that the course promoted student to student interaction, 24% were not sure while 5% disagreed. CONCLUSION: The course made the process of transition from traditional system of learning to more innovative methods of learning, smoother for the students. The general feeling of the faculty members was that these students were able to perform better than the students who had not taken this course. It is too early to determine the success of this course. A follow-up study however is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of this course by determining the performance of students in small group session of Problem-Based Learning.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Evidence that protection against rotavirus diarrhea after natural infection is not dependent on serotype-specific neutralizing antibody.

This case-control study sought to determine whether protection against clinically significant rotavirus diarrhea in children aged 4-35 months correlated with titers of serum neutralizing antibody and, if so, whether this protection was serotype-specific. Titers of acute-phase sera from 156 cases of treated rotavirus diarrhea in rural Bangladesh were contrasted with titers from 312 contemporaneously selected, age-matched controls. Analyses of the culture-adapted rotaviruses from the cases revealed that 24%, 15%, 43%, and 17% belonged to serotypes 1-4, respectively. Titers of both homologous and heterologous neutralizing antibody in acute blood specimens of cases were significantly lower than those of matched controls. However, multivariate logistic regression models demonstrated that only antibody titers to heterotypic rotaviruses were independently associated with protection against rotavirus disease. These data, which indicate that the correlation of protection with neutralizing antibody titers is not serotype-specific, suggest that immunity to rotavirus disease may be mediated by other factors.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1991

Reactivities of serotyping monoclonal antibodies with culture-adapted human rotaviruses.

Rotaviruses collected in Bangladesh during 1985 to 1986 were culture adapted and used in a comparative serotyping study with three groups of monoclonal antibodies, all of which reacted with the major neutralization protein (VP7) of serotype 1, 2, 3, or 4. The goals were to determine which monoclonal antibodies most accurately predicted the serotype and why large variations in serotyping efficiencies have occurred with these monoclonal antibodies in previous studies. The 143 rotavirus isolates used in this study belonged to 69 different electropherotypes; and 44, 23, 21, and 55 isolates were identified as serotype 1 through 4, respectively, by neutralization with serotype-specific hyperimmune antisera. Serotyping specificity by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with monoclonal antibodies was 100% consistent with results found by neutralization with polyclonal antisera, but large differences were observed in the sensitivities of the different monoclonal antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies 5E8 (serotype 1), 1C10 (serotype 2), 159 (serotype 3), RV3:1 (serotype 3), ST-3:1 (serotype 4), and ST-2G7 (serotype 4) reacted with all the isolates of the corresponding serotype for which there were sufficient infectious particles. Monoclonal antibody 2F1 (serotype 2) was much less sensitive and reacted with only five serotype 2 isolates, but these were among those with the highest titers. Monoclonal antibodies RV4:2 (serotype 1), KU6BG (serotype 1), RV5:3 (serotype 2), and S2-2G10 (serotype 2), on the other hand, failed to react with between one and three isolates of the corresponding serotypes which had high titers, apparently because of epitope changes in these isolates. Effects of epitope variation were, however, most apparent with monoclonal antibodies 2C9 (serotype 1) and YO-1E2 (serotype 3), which reacted with one and no isolates of the corresponding serotypes, respectively. Cross-neutralization of escape mutants indicated that the serotype 1 monoclonal antibodies 5E8, 2C9, and RV4:2 reacted with different but probably overlapping epitopes, as did serotype 2 monoclonal antibodies 2F1, 1C10, and RV5:3, finding that were consistent with the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay data. Because of epitope variations between rotavirus strains, serotyping with several monoclonal antibodies directed at different epitopes may increase the sensitivity of the method.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗
PubMed1991

Culture adaptation and characterization of group A rotaviruses causing diarrheal illnesses in Bangladesh from 1985 to 1986.

Group A rotaviruses collected between 1985 and 1986 during comprehensive surveillance of treated diarrheal episodes occurring in a rural Bangladesh population were culture adapted and characterized by electropherotype, serotype, and subgroup. Of 454 episodes of rotavirus-associated diarrhea, rotaviruses were culture adapted from 381 (84%), and 335 contained 11 electrophoretically identical segments in unpassaged and cultured preparations. These 335 comprised 69 different electropherotypes with between 1 (32 isolates) and 79 representatives. The persistence of specific rotavirus strains within the study population, as defined by the detection of viruses with particular electropherotypes, was generally limited to a period of only a few months. All 335 isolates were serotyped by neutralization with hyperimmune antisera to prototype rotavirus strains representative of serotypes 1 to 4, i.e., Wa, DS-1, P, and ST-3. It was found that 80, 48, 119, and 88 isolates belonged to serotypes 1 to 4, respectively. The concentrations of hyperimmune antisera required to neutralize these isolates, however, were at least threefold greater than those needed to neutralize the homologous strains. Therefore, the isolates appeared to have altered neutralization epitopes from their prototype strains. Furthermore, the serotype 4 isolates were consistently shown to be much more closely related to the serotype 4B VA70 strain than the serotype 4A ST-3 strain. All but two isolates identified as serotypes 1, 3, or 4 had long electropherotypes and were subgroup II, and all but one serotype 2 isolate were subgroup I and had short electropherotypes. The three disparate strains appeared to be genetic reassortants. Evidence is presented that dual infections required for reassortant formation were not uncommon. Thus, formation of multiple reassortants may have been a cause for the observed rapid shift in viral strains within the study population.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1991

Formation and selection of intergenogroup reassortants during cell culture adaptation of rotaviruses from dually infected subjects.

A previous study showed that intergenogroup reassortants of human rotaviruses can persist in nature (R.L. Ward, O. Nakagomi, D.R. Knowlton, M.M. McNeal, T. Nakagomi, J.D. Clemens, D.A. Sack, and G.M. Schiff, J. Virol. 64:3219-3225, 1990), but the mechanisms involved in their formation and selection had not been determined. In this study it was shown that, during cell culture adaptation of rotaviruses belonging to different genogroups from stools of dually infected subjects, intergenogroup reassortants were formed and selected, presumably mimicking the processes that occur in nature.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Field trial of oral cholera vaccines in Bangladesh: results from three-year follow-up.

The protective efficacy (PE) of B subunit killed whole-cell (BS-WC) and killed whole-cell-only (WC) oral cholera vaccines was assessed in a randomised double-blind field trial among children aged 2-15 years and women over 15 years in rural Bangladesh. Among the 62 285 subjects who received three doses of BS-WC, WC, or Escherichia coli K12 strain placebo, cumulative PE at 3 years of follow-up was 50% for BS-WC and 52% for WC. PE was similar against severe and non-severe cholera, but was significantly lower in children who were vaccinated at 2-5 years (26% for BS-WC; 23% for WC) than in older persons (63% for BS-WC; 68% for WC). Among persons vaccinated at 2-5 years, protection at 4-6 months of follow-up was similar to that for older persons, but rapidly waned thereafter and was not evident during the third year of follow-up. In contrast, persons vaccinated at older ages were protected even in the third year of follow-up (PE 40% for BS-WC; 62% for WC). PE was substantially higher against classical cholera (58% for BS-WC; 60% for WC) than against El Tor cholera (39% and 40%).

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1988

Field trial of oral cholera vaccines in Bangladesh: results of one year of follow-up.

We assessed the protective efficacy (PE) of three doses of B subunit-killed whole cell (BS-WC) and killed whole cell-only (WC) oral cholera vaccines in a randomized, double-blind trial among 62,285 children and women residing in rural Bangladesh. After one complete year of surveillance, 110 cases of cholera were detected in the placebo group, 52 in the WC group (PE, 53%; P less than .0001), and 41 in the BS-WC group (PE, 62%; P less than .0001). Protection was greater for BS-WC recipients than for WC recipients only during the initial eight months of observation. Both vaccines conferred equivalent protection against cholera associated with life-threatening dehydration and against less severe cholera. High-grade, sustained protection was observed in persons vaccinated when older than five years; in younger persons protection was transient. We conclude that BS-WC and WC vaccines confer significant protection against cholera, particularly in persons vaccinated when older than five years.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1988

Cross-protection by B subunit-whole cell cholera vaccine against diarrhea associated with heat-labile toxin-producing enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli: results of a large-scale field trial.

The B subunit (BS) of cholera toxin and that of the heat-labile enterotoxin (LT) of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) are antigenically similar. We therefore assessed whether a combined cholera toxin BS/whole-cell (BS-WC) oral vaccine against cholera conferred cross-protection against LT-producing ETEC (LT-ETEC) diarrhea in a randomized, double-blind field trial among rural Bangladeshi children and women. The 24,770 persons who ingested two or more doses of BS-WC vaccine were compared with 24,842 controls who took two or more doses of killed whole-cell (WC) oral cholera vaccine. Sixty-seven percent fewer episodes of LT-ETEC diarrhea were noted in the BS-WC group than in the WC group during short-term (three-month) follow-up (P less than .01), but no reduction was evident during the ensuing nine months. Short-term protection was particularly notable against LT-ETEC diarrhea causing life-threatening dehydration (protective efficacy, 86%; P less than .05).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Disease due to enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli in Bangladeshi adults: clinical aspects and a controlled trial of tetracycline.

The clinical characteristics of disease due to enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) were determined in 88 adult males admitted to a hospital in Dacca, Bangladesh, with moderate to severe dehydration. Persons infected with ETEC strains producing both heat-labile toxin (LT) and heat-stable (ST) toxin had more dehydration and acidosis, longer duration of illness, and greater stool volume than persons infected with strains producing only ST. Tetracycline therapy, evaluated in 63 cases, resulted in slightly earlier termination of illness in patients with LT-ST strains but had no effect on illness in the patients with ST strains. In both groups of patients tetracycline shortened the duration of excretion of organisms. Because of its limited effectiveness and the generally excellent response of ETEC diarrhea to rehydration therapy alone, tetracycline is not warranted for use in treatment of ETEC diarrhea in adults in this population.

Adult↗