Background: Faculty of Medicine and Health sciences at University of Kassala, Sudan was established 1990. It adopts the traditional curricula, which implemented in preclinical (basic sciences) and clinical phases. This study was held to explore students' perception and attitudes towards the basic sciences. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted during April- August 2017 among 251 medical students. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. It was collected and analyzed using SPSS 16.0. Results: A total of 251 of participants in different phases of education in faculty of medicine and health sciences were included in the study; preclinical 116 (46.2%), 113 clinical (45.0%), and 22 (8.8%) were in internship. 95 (37.8 %) were males and 156 (62.2%) were females. The study revealed that physiology was the most preferable subject. Students' satisfaction to syllabus for anatomy, physiology and biochemistry was 61.4%, 43%, and 28.7% respectively. However, 46.6% of students spent a long time to understand biochemistry and 33.1% considered it as overloaded syllabus. Participants showed poor ability to link between theoretical and practical work in case of biochemistry (26.7%), where as anatomy and physiology were represented by 76.9% and 42.2% respectively. Less than half of students were able to integrate the subjects of basic sciences and basic with clinical sciences. Conclusion: In this study, the students determined the difficulties of recalling of information, poor integration between basic and clinical sciences and even integration within the subject. Development of integrated curriculum is necessary to improve the quality of education.

Background In recent years great attention has been focused on the structural and histological structures of the placenta and the umbilical cord due to their vital roles in fetal development and neonatal survival. While extensive studies have been documented in this area in the developed world, there is very little published information about the morphological variations that occur in human placenta in Sudan. Therefore, this study was designed to evaluate the structural variations in placental indices and its relation to neonatal outcome. Methods A prospective hospital - based study conducted in Wad Madani Maternity Teaching Hospital Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology between July 2014 and March 2018. Results Mean placental indices for weight, diameter and thickness were 515.51 g, 18.80 cm and 2.43 cm respectively. The mean neonatal indices were 2.95 kg, 33.19 cm and 44.42 cm for weight, head circumference and length respectively. Neonatal weight correlated significantly with placental weight, neonatal length and neonatal head circumference (P < 0.000). On the contrary, neonatal weight had no significant correlation with placental thickness and diameter Conclusion In this study, there was a strong relationship between the placenta and the fetus suggesting that the well-being of the fetus is highly dependent on the placenta since it serves as a link between the mother and the fetus.

Background The neonatal morbidity and mortality is very high in the Sudan, the umbilical cord association and contribution to this is planned to be answered. Therefore the present study was designed to provide some information on the morphological variations of human umbilical cord via gross anatomical assessment and their correlation with foetal factors such as foetal weight and length. Methods A prospective hospital - based study conducted in Wad Madani Maternity Teaching Hospital Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology between July 2014 and March 2018 Results The mean diameter of the 371 umbilical cords was 2.1±0.24cm. Length was 53.8±3.8 cm length ranging from 48 – 62 cm and 10 (2.7%) of 371 umbilical cords were uncoiled. of which, 1 (0.3%) cords were with absent Wharton’s Jelly. The mean neonatal indices were 2.95 kg, 33.19 cm and 44.42 cm for weight, head circumference and length respectively. There was just significant strong positive correlation between umbilical cord length and length of neonates. Also Umbilical cord diameter had a positive correlation with length of neonates and negative correlation with weight of neonates and APGAR Score. Conclusion The present study suggests that ‘normal’ cord length should be between 40 cm and 70 cm in length. Umbilical cord diameter had a positive correlation with fetal length and negative correlation with fetal weight and APGAR score. The diameter range of 1-2 cm suggests that a normal cord must not exceed 2 cm in diameter. However the umbilical cord index had negative correlation with length of neonates.