Medicine Hack

Sleep is an integral part of our lives. An average adult should sleep around 7-8 hours per day. Sleep is important to maintain metabolic-caloric balance, thermal regulation and even immune competence. Sleep is also essential for learning and memory consolidation as well as increasing one's concentration. An advice to students will be to sleep well after studying. Your learning sessions will not show any improved performance until you have a slow wave or slow wave plus REM sleep. Slow wave sleep refers to a deep sleep while REM sleep refers to the period in sleep whereby there is a characteristic movement of the eyeballs during the sleep. Medical interns and residents are known to burn the midnight oil. But unfortunately for them, working for more than 24 continual hours make them around 40% more prone to make medical errors. Residents are twice more likely to have attentional failure i.e. they forget what they are actually doing. Studies  have shown that 1 in 5 residents believ

It consists of two types of blocks: 1) Mobitz type I block, 2) Mobitz type II block. Mobitz type I It is also called as Wenckebach pattern. In this condition, each stimulus from the atria appears to have more difficult time to pass through the AV junction. Finally one stimulus is not conducted through the defective AV node. A characteristic ECG shows progressive lengthening of the PR interval until a beat is dropped. i.e. the P wave is not followed by a QRS complex. It is also important to note that the PR interval after the dropped beat is always shorter than that before the non conducted P wave. Also the R-R interval encompassing the non conducted P wave is less than twice the preceding R-R interval. This ECG is also shows a Wenckebach pattern and we can clearly see at first glance that the narrow QRS complexes appear to be clustered and separated by a pause. This is called as group beating. If ever you find such a pattern, look out for the progressively increasing P

In this condition, there is a delay in conduction between the atria and the ventricles. There is a prolongation of the PR interval to more than 200 ms. i.e > 5 small squares on a usual 25 mm/s ECG tracing. The normal duration for PR interval is 120 - 200 ms. A QRS complex follows each P wave and the PR interval is relatively constant from beat to beat. The pathology is usually due to a delay within the AV node if we have a normal QRS complex. But if the QRS complex is wide, the problem is more distal.

Ginkgo extracts are derived from the leaf of the ginkgo plant. It is the most commonly purchased herbal remedy in the USA. It is believed to help in non-dementia related memory problems, Alzheimer's disease, vertigo and even peripheral vascular diseases. There is documented evidence that ginkgo inhibits platelet activating factor and hence it is useful to decrease blood viscosity. The dosage to treat claudication is 40-80 mg three times daily. Caution must be taken if patient is taking heparin, warfarin, clopidogrel or aspirin as there may be increased chances of bleeding.

The 6 P's are: 1) Pain, 2) Pallor, 3) Pulselessness, 4) Paralysis, 5) Paraesthesia, 6) Perishingly cold.

a.c - ante cibum i.e. before food. p.c - post cibum (after food). o.m - omni mane (every morning). o.n - omni nocte (every night). o.d - omni die (once daily). b.d - bis die (twice daily). t.i.d - ter in die ( three times daily). t.d.s - ter die sumendum (to be taken three times daily). q.d.s - quater die sumendum (to be taken four times daily). p.r.n - pro re nata (when required). stat - immediately.

The central dogma for molecular biology refers to the flow of information from DNA to RNA to proteins. Nucleic acids are required for the storage and expression of genetic information. There are two chemically distinct types of nucleic acids: 1) deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and 2) ribonucleic acid (RNA). DNA is the store of genetic information and is present not only in chromosomes in the nucleus of eukaryotic organisms, but also in mitochondria and the chloroplasts of plants. Prokaryotic cells, which lack nuclei, have a single chromosome, but may also contain nonchromosomal DNA in the form of plasmids. The genetic information found in DNA is copied and transmitted to daughter cells through DNA replication. The DNA contained in a fertilized egg encodes the information that directs the development of an organism. This development may involve the production of billions of cells. Each cell is specialized, expressing only those functions that are required for it to perform its r