Medical research is defined as "all scholarly activities that deal with any of the areas of studies being conducted in the pre, para, and clinical areas being taught in a medical school". Such a definition is somewhat arbitrary, as medical research covers a much larger field and ultimately affects every individual. The results of research activities are directly translated into social action, such as pollution control, vaccinations, mass fluoridation and nutritional improvements. The eradication of diseases like smallpox, poliomyelitis and plague, the decline in the death rate from infectious and cardiovascular diseases, and the diagnosis of genetic disorders are some examples of how medical research helps to provide improved health care. Thus, the wealth of medical knowledge that grows through the process of discovery and research development becomes part of daily living. The aim of scientific research is always to extend the frontiers of knowledge and to discover rational correlations and principles [1, 2]. Medical research can be divided into biomedical (basic medical), clinical, and health science research. The areas overlap each other and health science research has a component of social research. Experimental research covers areas such as physiology, biochemistry, microbiology, pharmacology and pathology and is relatively easy to conduct. If adequate financial support is obtained, the necessary infrastructure for laboratory research could be built and experimental animals maintained in an animal house. For clinical research, the patients with a particular disease are the direct object of study. This type of research involves dealing with the clinical picture, diagnosis, therapy and prognosis of the disease. Dealing with human beings requires stringent regulations and precautions to be observed. It requires setting up a research team in the hospital to monitor and chart out guidelines involving the ethical dimension of the problem to be studied and maintain a systematic medical recording system. Moreover, it is through a prolonged study of a large number of cases of the same disease that clinical research learns to predict the likely prognosis and judge the efficacy of the treatment. This type of research activity has limitations in the form of having a restricted number of cases of the disease under investigation, a need to update one's knowledge concerning laboratory techniques from which he obtains his 'cues', and the longer time interval required to complete the work. Health science research is a recent development of medical research due to the demands placed on many health services. More often basic medical and clinical research go hand in hand and are inseparable. Furthermore, clinical research workers often conduct studies on experimental animals, due to either the limited number of human cases or for ethical considerations.
Mediterranean Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Background: Formaldehyde is found in different kinds of medicine and industrial products, cigarette smoke, and even numerous vegetables, fruits and seafood that have been illegally preserved with formalin. The water soluble vitamin C is a strong antioxidant that scavenges free radicals and other reactive nitrogen and oxygen species. Even in small amounts, vitamin C can defend nucleic acids, lipids and proteins against oxidative damage. Objectives: the aim of this study is to elucidate the possible changes that take place in the liver of adult male albino rats after intraperitoneal injection of formaldehyde and the possibility of oral vitamin C’s hepatoprotectivity against it. Design: forty-five adult male albino rats were utilized in this work. These animals were allocated randomly into three main groups. Group I (control groups) included 3 subgroups each contained 9 rats : –ve control received no treatment , +ve control which were injected intraperitoneally by 1 ml of distilled water for 10 days and vit.C +ve control group which received a daily dose of ascorbic acid (100mg/kg bw) dissolved in distilled water by gavage for 10 days. Group ΙΙ: contained 9 rats, which were injected intraperitoneally with a daily dose of formaldehyde (10mg/kg BW) for 10 days. Group IΙΙ: contained 9 rats that were injected intraperitoneally with a daily dose of formaldehyde (10mg/kg BW) concomitantly with daily dose of ascorbic acid (100mg/kg BW) by gavage for 10 days. By the end of the experiment, blood samples were collected for biochemical study of ALT (Alanine aminotransferase), AST (Aspartate aminotransferase) and albumin and all animals were anaesthetized by ether inhalation. Liver specimens were dissected out and weighed then subjected to histopathological, immunohistochemistry, and morphometrical examination. Results: Administration of formaldehyde at a dose of 10 mg/kg caused increase in serum activities of ALT and AST ,but regarding albumin ,it remained unaffected .It caused increase in the liver weights and induced several histopathological changes in the liver of adult male albino rats as congested dilated central veins, portal veins and blood sinusoids with increase in the thickness of the wall of the portal vein. Meanwhile, some hepatic lobules showed multiple necrotic foci around central and portal veins. On the other hand, vit.C partially improved the state of oxidative stress as evidenced by iNOS (inducible nitric oxide synthase) immunohistochemistry. It also reduced the degree of hepatic fibrosis as evidenced by Mallory trichrome histochemical staining. Conclusion: Exposure to formaldehyde led to pronounced hepatic damage which is partially limited by vit.C coadministration. Recommendations: Many special precautions should be taken to limit the occupational and environmental exposure and the level of food and water contamination with formaldehyde and use vit.C as a supplement to limit the toxic effects on the liver.
Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a very common gastrointestinal dis-order worldwide, but research regarding this disease is rare in Bangladesh. This studyaimed to assess the prevalence of IBS and its associated risk factors among universitystudents in Bangladesh.Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. A total of 300 randomly selected partici-pants were included in this study. By using a structured questionnaire and anthropo-metric methods, we collected all the required data for our study. The diagnosis of IBSwas based on Rome III criteria.Results: The overall prevalence of IBS was 39.3%, but the majority (77.3%) had nobasic awareness of IBS. In our study, anxiety and depression (χ2 = 6.817; odds ratio[OR] = 1.910; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.172, 3.113; P = 0.011) had a signif-icant relationship with IBS and IBS had a significant (P < 0.001) relationship withfood intolerance (χ2 = 8.737; OR = 2.130; 95% CI = 1.284, 3.531), chest pain(χ2 = 7.482; OR = 2.035; 95% CI = 1.218, 3.401), and insomnia (χ2 = 19.320;OR = 2.907; 95% CI = 1.794, 4.709). In our dietary data, the intake patterns of vege-tables (P = 0.000), fast food (P = 0.000), and tea–coffee (P = 0.003) showed astrong significant association with IBS. On the other hand, monthly household income(P = 0.154) and body mass index (BMI) (P = 0.138) showed no significant associa-tion with IBS. Among our study subjects, IBS-constipation (54.2%) was more com-mon than IBS-diarrhea (27.1%) and IBS-mixed (18.6%). Moreover, among the 118IBS respondents, 67.8% had a headache with increased flatulence (95.8%) as the mostcommon IBS-related complication.Conclusion: IBS is common in university students of Bangladesh and is associatedwith anxiety, depression, and particular dietary patterns.