Papers by Himani Ahluwalia
Cureus, Dec 31, 2023
Background Long COVID is a multisystem condition with prolonged symptoms that develop after recov... more Background Long COVID is a multisystem condition with prolonged symptoms that develop after recovery from the COVID-19 infection, often following a mild infection. Few studies have been conducted on cognitive function among medical students after recovery from mild COVID-19. This study aimed to assess the attention span and working memory (WM) capacity of medical students after six months of recovery. Methods A cross-sectional study was performed on 17 young adult medical students who had suffered a mild COVID-19 infection at least six months prior. Eighteen age-matched healthy medical students served as the controls. Audiovisual WM tasks and attention spans were assessed using computerized software for both the cases and controls. Results The mean ages of the case and control were 19.67±1.6 and 20.0±1.2 years, respectively. The most common symptoms among cases were fatigue (33%), weight loss (26%), and nasal stuffiness (13%). The overall proportion of correct responses across all visual and auditory WM tasks (p=0.085) and reaction times (p=0.609) did not differ between the cases and controls. However, the overall target hit rate of the auditory WM task was significantly lower in cases than in controls (p=0.002). This difference was not observed in the visual WM task (p=0.374). Conclusion In the current study, the overall WM functions (visual and auditory combined) and attention span did not differ between cases and controls. However, auditory WM performance was significantly impaired in patients compared with controls, indicating selective impairment of auditory WM in patients with long COVID.
Applied Neuropsychology: Adult, Nov 6, 2023
Sleep and Vigilance, Dec 22, 2023
Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic and Clinical, Nov 1, 2015
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND DIAGNOSTIC RESEARCH
Introduction: The menstrual cycle is a well known physiological model to study the ovarian steroi... more Introduction: The menstrual cycle is a well known physiological model to study the ovarian steroid hormones, influencing cognitive functions like Working Memory (WM). Hormonal fluctuation during the menstrual cycle also affects menstrual distress-related symptoms, which indecently could the cognitive functions. However, the data were inconclusive regarding the change in WM functions during different phases of the menstrual cycle and the correlation of various WM functions with menstrual distress-related symptoms. Aim: To examine the verbal and visuospatial WM functions during the proliferative (day 10-14) and secretory phase (day 21-25) of the menstrual cycle and to correlate various WM functions with menstrual distress symptoms scores. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional, observational study was carried out in the Department of Physiology at VMMC and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, India, over a period of 18 months, from November 2020 to May 2022. A total of 40 young adult fem...
Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology
The past few decades have witnessed a major leap in knowledge relating to the role of tumor micro... more The past few decades have witnessed a major leap in knowledge relating to the role of tumor microenvironment in carcinogenesis and evolving behaviour of the tumor. Multiple factors within the tumor microenvironment modulate the cancer cells and the associated therapies. Stephen Paget first asserted that the microenvironment plays an important role in the growth of tumor metastasis. The most important player in the tumor microenvironment is cancer-associated fibroblast which significantly participates in the proliferation, invasion and metastasis of tumor cells. Cancer-associated fibroblasts show phenotypic and functional heterogeneity. Mostly cancer-associated fibroblasts originate from quiescent resident fibroblast or mesoderm-derived precursor cells (mesenchymal stem cells), although several alternate sources of origin have been noted, however, due to a lack of specific fibroblast-restricted markers, it is very difficult to trace lineage and identify the biological origin of disti...
Cureus
Flipped classroom (FCR) is one of the emerging active teaching-learning methods in the medical pr... more Flipped classroom (FCR) is one of the emerging active teaching-learning methods in the medical profession. Its potential for achieving learning objectives, especially in the scenario of a large classroom, especially in medical schools, has not been convincingly demonstrated. This study was designed to establish FCR model conduction and its overall utility as a teaching-learning methodology for undergraduate medical students in large classroom settings using a mixed-method approach using quantitative (assessment scores) and qualitative criteria (subjective feedback from students and teachers). FCR was conducted for a batch of 170 first-year medical students for a hematology topic. Pre-and postassessments (based on all the cognitive learning domains) were done to quantify the objective improvement after exposure to the FCR. In addition, subjective feedback from both students and teachers was taken on a validated feedback survey to decipher the qualitative benefits of the FCR. Comparing pre-and post-assessment scores, there was a significant improvement after the FCR session, especially in the low performers. There was optimistic feedback from students and teachers regarding the utility of FCR as a teaching-learning module. FCR as a teaching-learning module was feasible and effective, and the users seemed primarily satisfied. Although there is a higher workload for students and teachers, still FCR is an effective teaching-learning module for a large classroom.
Medeniyet Medical Journal, 2020
Objective: COVID19 outbreak has put a tremendous physical and mental burden on frontline doctors.... more Objective: COVID19 outbreak has put a tremendous physical and mental burden on frontline doctors. A limited amount of literature is available in this area. The present study was done to assess the depressive symptoms and depression levels in doctors working at COVID-19 Hospitals. Method: This study was based on an online survey that was started on May 2020 and ended on 30 th June, 2020. An online questionnaire which included details such as age, gender, and 21 items to assess depressive symptoms was sent through social media to doctors from various countries. Depressive symptoms were measured by Beck's Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Items of a total of 220 questionnaires were responded. Out of these, only 200 responses were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: Out of 200 subjects, 110 (55%) had depressive symptoms and 90 (45%) had no symptoms. Males had more depressive symptoms (42.5%) than females (12.5%). Those who worked at COVID-19 centers 75 (37.5%) had higher depressive symptoms. The number of males working at COVID-19 centers was much higher (36%) than females (12%). Depressive symptoms were significantly higher in males than females (35.35±10.25 vs 16.90±7.76; p<0.0001). Conclusion: Doctors, especially males working at COVID-19 centers have higher depressive symptoms than their female colleagues. Multicentric studies with larger sample sizes are needed to study the impact of COVID-19 on frontline doctors.
Indian journal of physiology and pharmacology, 2015
Declining hearing sensitivity is appreciated as a normal age related change. However, studies rev... more Declining hearing sensitivity is appreciated as a normal age related change. However, studies reveal that health variables other than age play significant role in hearing impairment over time. Hypertension is one such variable. The objective of this study was to assess whether the hypertension has an accelerating effect on age related reduction in hearing function in males in the age group of 40-60 years. Systolic and Diastolic blood. pressure and Pure Tone thresholds in frequency range 250-8000 Hz were measured in 30 known hypertensive (HT) male subjects in the age group of 40-60 years and 30 age and sex-matched normotensive (NT) controls. There was no significant difference in hearing thresholds at various frequencies between HT and NT group and between uncontrolled HT (n = 15) and controlled HT subgroups (n = 15). However, a significantly positive correlation between the systolic blood pressure and Air conduction thresholds at 4000 Hz and 8000 Hz and Bone conduction thresholds at...
Cureus, 2021
Introduction Anemia in pregnancy is a significant health challenge in India and other developing ... more Introduction Anemia in pregnancy is a significant health challenge in India and other developing countries. Various health programs aiming anemia prevention are existing in India for many decades. Despite that, anemia affects more than half of pregnant women. Our objective for performing this study was to evaluate the barriers in the prevention of anemia and to evaluate the perceptions and practices of anemic women towards their condition. Methods A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study, including 210 anemic women, was conducted in a tertiary care center in Delhi, India. In-depth interviews were conducted with 50 participants. Results Our important observations were that anemia was more prevalent in multigravida, and 43.80% of anemic patients were not taking iron supplements at the time of diagnosis. Chronic diseases were associated with 28.2% (n=59) of anemic women. Only 19% (n=40) of women sought antenatal care in the first and second trimester; the rest all booked themselves ...
Italian Journal of Medicine
Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is a form of autonomic imbalance characterized b... more Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is a form of autonomic imbalance characterized by abnormally increased heart rate (HR) and various symptoms of orthostatic intolerance (OI). This study aimed to determine POTS in adolescents using NASA 10-minute Lean Test. This crosssectional study was conducted at Government Medical College, Srinagar, J&K, India, between October 2017 and November 2019. Adolescents with symptoms of OI were enrolled for this study and NASA 10-minute Lean Test was performed. Characteristics of POTS group were the compared with non-POTS group. There was a significant difference in BMI (P< 0.0001) between POTS and non-POTS group. However, the number of females with features of POTS was greater than males. There was a significant difference in resting HR between the two groups (P<0.0001). During upright posture there was a significant difference in maximum upright HR between the two groups (P<0.0001), highest increment in upright HR also differed ...
Background: Hyperglycaemia is an important factor in initiation and progression of metabolic and ... more Background: Hyperglycaemia is an important factor in initiation and progression of metabolic and microvascular complication in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM). Since pulmonary functions and gas exchange depends partly on the integrity of connective tissue and microcirculation within lungs, changes involving these structural components could lead to lung dysfunction and impaired gas exchange. Aim: To assess the pulmonary functions in adolescent with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. Methods: Thirty cases of T1DM of either sex (age range 10-19 year), age and sex matched thirtythree healthy subjects as controls were selected. The pulmonary function tests including diffusion study and ABG (arterial blood gas) analysis were done. Results: All the absolute values of spirometry parameters FVC (Forced Vital Capacity), FEV1(Forced expiratory volume in 1 sec), FEV1/FVC ratio (FEV%), PEF(peak expiratory flow), MEF(Mid Expiratory Flow), MEF25%, MEF50%, MEF 75%, SVC(Slow Vital Capacity) and their values...
Medeniyet Medical Journal
Indian journal of physiology and pharmacology
Declining hearing sensitivity is appreciated as a normal age related change. However, studies rev... more Declining hearing sensitivity is appreciated as a normal age related change. However, studies reveal that health variables other than age play significant role in hearing impairment over time. Hypertension is one such variable. The objective of this study was to assess whether the hypertension has an accelerating effect on age related reduction in hearing function in males in the age group of 40-60 years. Systolic and Diastolic blood. pressure and Pure Tone thresholds in frequency range 250-8000 Hz were measured in 30 known hypertensive (HT) male subjects in the age group of 40-60 years and 30 age and sex-matched normotensive (NT) controls. There was no significant difference in hearing thresholds at various frequencies between HT and NT group and between uncontrolled HT (n = 15) and controlled HT subgroups (n = 15). However, a significantly positive correlation between the systolic blood pressure and Air conduction thresholds at 4000 Hz and 8000 Hz and Bone conduction thresholds at...
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Papers by Himani Ahluwalia