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Sunday, October 29, 2006

Tough Entrance Exams

Entrance Exams are not pass/fail exams. They are rank exams. So whether the paper is tough or easy is not that important.

Advantages of Tough Questions

  • There will be less clustering of ranks and hence you will not miss the bus by one mistake. If it is a easy paper, you will go back by 150 ranks per mistake (for ranks 100 to 3000)

Disadvantage of Tough Questions

  • Your brain has been tuned to get an instant depression when you see a question for which you don't know the answer. (this is due to the faulty school system in india) hence you are likely to make mistakes in other easy questions

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Links for Statisticians

http://clinresearch.blogspot.com/

BMJ

Statistics at Square One
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/collections/statsbk/index.shtml

Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
http://www.jpp.krakow.pl

Applied Clinical Trials
to know click on the link below
http://www.actmagazine.com/appliedclinicaltrials/

Indian Journal of Pharmacology . To go on the journal site click on the link below
http://www.ijp-online.com/

The New England Journal of Medicine. Click on the link below
http://content.nejm.org

Friday, October 27, 2006

Anion Gap HAGMA LAGMA and NAGMA !!!

  • Blood has a lot of Cations
  • Blood has a lot of Anions

Total charge of Anions = Total Charge of Cations

So

Na + K + Unmeasured Cations = HCO3 + Cl + unmeasured Anions
Rearranging
Na + K - (HCO3 + Cl) = Unmeasured Anions - Unmeasured Cations
Anion Gap = Unmeasured Anions - Unmeasured Cations

Anion Gap = (Na + K) - (HCO3 + Cl)

Note that some books ignore the value of Calcium and calculate Anion Gap as Na - (HCO3+Cl)
  • Unmeasured Anions: Means all anions other than HCO3 and Cl ----> lactate, phosphate, ketoacids , Albumin, Ethylene Glycol etc
  • Unmeasured Cations: Means Ca, Lithium, Globulin
So
Anion Gap is Increased in

  • Conditions with Increased Unmeasured Anions
    1. Diabetic Ketoacidosis
    2. Uremia
    3. Lactic Acidosis
  • Conditions with Decreased Unmeasured Cations
    1. Hypocalcemia
Anion Gap is decreased in
  • Conditions with Decreased Unmeasured Anions
    1. Hypoalbuminaemia (theoritically)
  • Conditions with Increased Unmeasured Cations
    1. Increase in Globulin (multiple Myeloma)
    2. Lithium Toxicity

Easy way to solve MCQs

1. Check what is decreased / Increased

If that is Na / K / HCO3 / Cl it is Normal Anion Gap Metabolic Acidosis (also called NAGMA). The matter is settled. No doubt about that. Vomitting, Diarrhoea, Renal Tubular Acidosis etc come here

2. If there is an increase in Unmeasured Anions (lactate etc)
It is High Anion Gap Metabolic Acidosis (HAGMA)

3. If there is a decrease in Unmeasured Cations (Globulin etc)
It is High Anion Gap Metabolic Acidosis (HAGMA)

4. If there is an increase in Unmeasured Cations (lactate etc)
It is Low Anion Gap Metabolic Acidosis (LAGMA)

5. If there is a decrease in Unmeasured Anions
It is Low Anion Gap Metabolic Acidosis (LAGMA)

Any doubts !!!
Post in the comments section

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Epidemiology for the Uninitiated

This is free full text book uploaded on BMJ which can be had from te following site
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/collections/epidem/epid.shtml

35 free full text medical journals

These are available on the follwing site
http://medind.nic.in/

Sunday, September 24, 2006

What do you study during MBBS

Of late a lot of guys are mailing me from abroad asking details about MBBS and how to do residency etc . This post is for them

MBBS

You enter here after your School (School in India is 14 years including 2 Year Kinder Garden. You enter Standard 1 after completion of 5 years and study till 12th. After 12th you enter college - whether it is engineering or arts or law or commerce or medical)

MBBS Course

4 and half years........

I MBBS
Where you read Anatomy , Physiology and Biochemistry for one year. Only when you pass this exam, you are allowed to go to II MBBS

II MBBS
You read Pathology , Pharmacology , Microbiology and Forensic Medicine for one and half years. After clearing all this 4 subjects you go to III MBBS. The lecture classes of these subjects will be in the afternoon. In the morning you will be attending Medicine Surgery and other wards

III MBBS or Final MBBS - Part IOne Year
You read SPM, ENT and Opthal and pass that
The lecture classes of these subjects will be in the afternoon. In the morning you will be attending Medicine Surgery and other wards
ENT and Opthal Wards will also be in the morning

III MBBS or Final MBBS - Part IOne Year
Theory and Wards on Medicine, Surgery, OG and Paediatrics
Only if you pass, you are allowed into internship

Intership 1 year after 4.5 yearsYou work in the hospital attached to the medical college.

When you "pass" all the papers in Final MBBS part II, YOu are allowed to do your internship.

After you complete your internship (0ne full year), you will be given the DEGREE and will be given a registration number by the Medical Council of India.

Then you can practise

If you want to specialise in Surgery, you have to do 3 year post graduation MS General Surgery. For that you have to write an entrance exam and get a good rank there.

If you want to specialise in Paediatrics , you have to do 3 year post graduation MD Paediatrics . For that you have to write an entrance exam and get a good rank there.

An MD guys spents 3 years (studying MD) AFTER Completing 5 and half years as MBBS

An MS guys spents 3 years (studying MS) AFTER Completing 5 and half years as MBBS

So in fact MD Guys spent 8 and half years in total
So in fact MS Guys spent 8 and half years in total

An DM Guy spends 3 years (studying DM ) after MD
An MCh Guy spends 3 years (studying MCh ) after MS

So in fact DM Guys spent 11 and half years in total
So in fact MCh Guys spent 11 and half years in total

is it clear

MD = MBBS + MD
MS = MBBS + MS

DM = MD + DM
or DM = MBBS + MD + DM
MCh = MS + MCh
or MCh = MBBS + MS + MCh

So MD is superior to MBBS and DM is superior to MD

Monday, September 18, 2006

No back-door entry in public employment

From the Hindu
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2006091113260100.htm&date=2006/09/11/&prd=th&
  • Temporary employees have no vested right to be regularised: Supreme Court
  • High Courts could not issue directions to regularise services in the absence of any existing vacancies
  • Adherence to the rule of equality in public employment a basic feature of Constitution
New Delhi: There is no room for back-door entry in public employment and temporary employees have no vested right to be regularised contrary to the scheme of merit and constitutional provisions, the Supreme Court has held.

A Bench consisting of Justices G.P. Mathur and Dalveer Bhandari held that the High Courts could not issue directions to regularise the services of temporary or ad hoc employees in the absence of any existing vacancies.

Cautioning the High Courts, the Bench said: ``It would be improper for the courts to give directions for regularisation of services of the person who is working either as daily-wager, ad hoc employee, probationer, temporary or contractual employee, not appointed following the procedure laid down under Articles 14 (equality before law), 16 (equality of opportunity in matters of public employment) and 309 (recruitment and conditions of service of persons serving the Union or a State) of the Constitution. In our constitutional scheme, there is no room for back door entry in the matter of public employment.''

The Bench said: ``The Union, the States, their departments and instrumentalities have resorted to irregular appointments, especially in the lower rungs of the service, without reference to the duty to ensure a proper appointment procedure and to permit these irregular appointees or those appointed on contract or on daily wages, to continue year after year, thus, keeping out those who are qualified to apply for the post concerned and depriving them of an opportunity to compete for the post.''

``It has also led to persons who get employed, without following a regular procedure or even through the back door or on daily wages, approaching the courts, seeking directions to make them permanent in their posts and to prevent regular recruitment to the posts concerned."

Writing the judgment for the Bench, Justice Bhandari said: ``It is clear that adherence to the rule of equality in public employment is a basic feature of our Constitution and since the rule of law is the core of our Constitution, a court would certainly be disabled from passing an order upholding a violation of Article 14 or in ordering the overlooking of the need to comply with the requirements of Article 14 read with Article 16 of the Constitution. A regular appointment to a post under the State or Union cannot be made without issuing advertisement and inviting applications from eligible candidates.''

Appellant Surendra Prasad Tewari was appointed by Rajya Krishi Utpadan Mandi Parishad, Uttar Pradesh, on a temporary basis and he continued in the job for 14 years based on interim directions of the court. Ultimately, the Allahabad High Court rejected his plea for regularisation. The Bench confirmed the High Court order and rejected his appeal seeking to quash the impugned judgment.

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