International Journal of Anatomy and Physiology

International Journal of Anatomy and Physiology ISSN 2326-7275 Vol. 14 (2), pp. 001-006, February, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Evaluating the Influence of Assessment Criteria on Medical Students' Performance in Anatomy Exams

L. A. J SHITTU¹, M. P. ZACHARIAH², O. A. ADESANYA³, M. C. IZEGBU4, and O. A. ASHIRU¹

¹Department Of Anatomy, ²Department Of Psychiatry, and 4Department Of Morbid Anatomy, Lagos State University, College Of Medicine (LASUCOM), PMB 21266 Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. ³Department Of Anatomy, Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Nigeria.

Accepted 29 September, 2024

This study was designed to assess the convergent validity of the professional anatomy (a multifaceted examination) with other markers of success (the various interactive assessment components of the curriculum) in determining the overall performance of third-year medical students. The aim was to isolate area of academic weakness among the students and to readjust the curriculum content to balance the weakness. A total of 66 third year medical students with records of their grades in the various assessments criteria were analyzed. Parameters on the average End-in course assessment, Short Essays Question (SEQ), Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ), and Practical (Steeple-chase) were considered. The Practical significantly correlated with overall performance (r = 0.89, P< 0.01). The Practical, MCQ, SEQ and End incourse showed an overall rank order of relative performance in assessment tasks and therefore indicate that, in general, students performance in the Professional examination was better than in the End-incourse examination.

Key words: Assessment, curriculum, Professional examination.
 

International Journal of Anatomy and Physiology ISSN 2326-7275 Vol. 14 (2), pp. 001-003, February, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Review

Clinical Ultrasound Applications in the Assessment of Blunt Abdominal Injuries

Ugwu, A.C.1* and Erondu O.F.2

1Radiology Department Federal Medical Centre, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria.
2Department of Physics, Rivers state University of Science and Technology, Nkpolu, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

Accepted 23 September, 2024

Advances in gray scale imaging, contrast- enhanced harmonic imaging and Doppler technologies have improved the effectiveness of ultrasonography in the evaluation of blunt abdominal trauma (BAT). The use of ultrasonography in the evaluation of the abdomen benefits from an understanding of the abdominal anatomy and familiarity with the acoustic signatures of lesions encountered in parenchymal injuries and the echogenicity of hemoperitoneun at different stages of transition.

Key words: Ultrasonography, blunt abdominal trauma, contrast agent, free fluid.
 

International Journal of Anatomy and Physiology ISSN 2326-7275 Vol. 14 (1), pp. 001-006, January, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Dermatoglyphic Patterns in Nigerian Sickle-Cell Anaemia Patients: A Study of 90 Cases

Oladipo GS^*1, Olabiyi O^2, Oremosu AA^2, Noronha CC^2, Okanlawon AO² and Paul CU^1.

¹Department of Anatomy, College of Health Sciences, University of Port Harcourt , Rivers State, Nigeria
²Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, University of Lagos Idi-Araba, Lagos - Nigeria.

Accepted 16 November, 2024

Abstract

Dermatoglyphic analysis of 90 Sickle-cell Anaemia cases and 90 normal subjects was carried out in this study. It involved the digital patterns, ATD angle, A – B ridge count, axial triradius, digital triradius and palmar crease on the hands. 58.44% of the digital patterns in sickle-cell cases were ulnar loop as against 60.14% in the normals. The percentage of Whorl, arch and radial loop in Sickle-Cell group were 31.64%, 8.23% and 2.98% respectively as against 27.47%, 10.43% and 1.98% in the normals. The mean ATD values were 41o and 40o for the normal and sickle-cell groups respectively. The mean A – B ridge counts was 33.1 in sickle-cell group and 33.5 in the normals. No axial triradius was found in t iii (along the distal transverse crease) position in both groups. Most of the triradii were found in position ti (along or close to the thenar crease) in both groups. Only 3.6% of normals and 2.9% sickle-cell cases were found in tii (along the proximal transverse crease) position. The mode of the frequency distribution of digital triradii of normals was 13 while they were 11, 14 and 15 for sickle-cell group. The means were 11.89 and 12.32 respectively. No Simean crease was found in both groups; however, 2.2% of the 90 sickle-cell cases had Sidney creases. The above-mentioned values were not statistically different when the two groups were subjected to appropriate statistical tests.

Key words: Dermatoglyphics, sickle-cell anaemia, Nigeria.
 

International Journal of Anatomy and Physiology ISSN 2326-7275 Vol. 14 (1), pp. 001-009, January, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Revolutionizing Schizophrenia Assessment: A Stereological Method Using CT Images to Evaluate Ventricle and Brain Volume Fractions

Gul Guven^1, Bunyamin Sahin^2, Gokay Aksaray^3, Hilmi Ozden^1*, Gonul Baylan^3, Baki Adapinar^4, Eyyup Gulbandilar⁵ and Ertugrul Colak⁶

¹Department of Anatomy, Medical Faculty, Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Eskisehir, Turkey.
²Department of Anatomy, Medical Faculty, Ondokuz Mayis University, Samsun, Turkey.
³Department of Psychiatry, Medical Faculty, Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Eskisehir, Turkey.
⁴Department of Radiology, Medical Faculty, Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Eskisehir, Turkey.
⁵Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Dumlupinar University, Kutahya, Turkey.
⁶Department of Biostatistics, Medical Faculty, Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Eskisehir, Turkey.

Accepted 21 October, 2024

Abstract

There are several studies that have proposed different criteria for evaluating the volumes of the cerebral hemispheres, the lateral and third ventricles in patients with schizophrenia seen on routine computed tomography (CT) images. These approaches use solely the volume of the cerebrum and/or lateral ventricles, length and width measurements of the ventricles, and ventricle to brain ratio (VBR). In the present study, we proposed a new unbiased approach namely ventricle to brain volume fraction (VBF). CT scans of 23 patients with schizophrenia and 23 matched controls were blindly assessed by three independent observers. VBF, total brain volume and ventricle volumes were calculated and compared. The subjects with schizophrenia showed higher VBF than the control subjects (P = 0.000) with mean (±SEM) VBF values of 2.71±0.16 and 1.62±0.10%, respectively. No gender difference was found. Older subjects had a higher VBF than those younger in controls but not patients. Correlation was observed for VBF estimations made by three independent observers (r = 0.979; P = 0.000). The studies measuring VBR on schizophrenia revealed inconsistent findings. Comparing solely the brain volumes or ventricle volumes between two groups, instead of using volume fraction method, will not provide reliable data. VBF described here easily could be used for the analysis of the brain structures of schizophrenia using standard CT scans not requiring any additional expense. In addition; evaluation of the whole section series gives real ventricular and cerebral volumes.

Key words: Cavalieri method, computed tomography (CT), schizophrenia.
 

International Journal of Anatomy and Physiology ISSN 2326-7275 Vol. 13 (5), pp. 001-006, May, 2024. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Evaluation of diagnostic outcomes from bone marrow aspiration procedures at a novel medical facility in Nigeria

Damulak Obadiah Dapus¹* and Damen James G²

¹Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, University of Jos, Nigeria.
²Department of Medical Laboratory Science Technology, University of Jos, Nigeria.

Accepted 27 July, 2023

Abstract

The development of manpower for the tertiary level of health care services in developing countries is inadequate resulting in the establishment of a new centre as soon as the specialist is available. This is usually met by the high health demands from the community in the face of near lack of modern technological diagnostic advancement in the health sector. There is great need to study the morphologic outcome of bone marrow aspiration done in our centre for generation of baseline data and planning. Records of bone marrow Aspiration cytology done in Plateau State Specialist Hospital, Jos, Nigeria between January 2007 and June 2012 were studied. A total of 97 bone marrow aspiration were requested for and done in the Plateau State Specialist Hospital, Jos, within the study period. 55(56.8%) were males while 42(43.2%) were females. Eighty four (87.6%) had pathologic outcome while 13(13.4%) had normal or reactive marrow appearance. Pathologic marrow outcome were 28.6% leukaemias, 33.3% nutrient deficiency anaemias, 11.9% burkitt’s lymphoma, 4.1% multiple myloma, 8.3% bone marrow failure and others 13.I%. Common haematologic disorders in our setting are nutritional anaemias and leukaemias. There is need to expand the scope of laboratory investigations beyond morphology.

Keywords: Bone marrow aspiration, features, outcome.
 

International Journal of Anatomy and Physiology ISSN 2326-7275 Vol. 13 (5), pp. 001-009, May, 2024. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper
    
Exploring the age distribution of cancer cases in Malawi: An in-depth analysis of cancer diagnoses and trends 

Humphrey Misiri^1,2* and  Abdi Edriss³

¹Department of Biostatistics, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
²Department of Community Health, College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi.
³Bunda College, University of  Malawi, Lilongwe, Malawi.

Accepted 18 November, 2023

Abstract

Cancer which is one of the leading causes of death worldwide is emerging as a serious public health problem in Malawi due to the AIDS pandemic. Research has shown that HIV causes the syndrome of premature aging and accelerates carcinogenesis. The objective of this study was to describe age at cancer diagnosis and to fit the age distribution of childhood and adult cancer diagnosis in Malawi. We therefore fitted the normal, gamma, lognormal and inverse Gaussian probability distributions to the data for the 1996–2005 period from the Malawi National Cancer Registry and selected the model of best fit using the Akaike Information Criterion. Additionally, a finite mixture distribution of lognormals was also fitted to the data. According to the analysis for this study, the median ages at diagnosis are at most 42 years for AIDS-defining cancers and at least 46 years for non-AIDS defining cancers. Furthermore, the ages at childhood and adult cancer diagnosis follow lognormal distributions and the distribution of age at cancer diagnosis (all cancers) is a finite mixture distribution of lognormals with estimated mixing proportions equal to 0.071 and 0.929. The estimated means of the mixture distribution are 5.1 and 45.1 years and the corresponding estimated standard deviations are 1.211 and 2.842 years. This analysis suggests that age at cancer diagnosis in Malawi is relatively low and has a bimodal distribution. Therefore, to achieve maximum impact, cancer prevention and control activities should target the 15-50 year age range.

Keywords: Cancer, diagnosis, AIC, finite mixture.