Background: Vitamin D plays important role in normal functioning of multiple organs of the body. Hypovitaminosis D is known to be prevalent worldwide including the tropical countries. The present study was carried out to evaluate the vitamin D status in Bangladeshi patients undergoing laboratory investigation for vitamin D. Methods: This was a laboratory-based study. Data were extracted from the database of a diagnostic centre of Dhaka city and were analysed. Vitamin D status was defined as follows: deficiency 0 to <20 ng/ml, insufficiency 20 to <30 ng/ml, sufficiency 30-100 ng/ml and potential toxicity >100 ng/ml. Results: A total of 793 plasma vitamin D level reports were analysed. Out of 793 subjects, 269 (33.9%) were male and 524 (66.1%) were female. Majority (62.0%) were between 21 and 60 years of age. Mean (+/- standard deviation) vitamin D level of the study subjects was 21.66 (+/- 18.63) ng/ml. Eighty-six percent had hypovitaminosis D; 61.4% had deficiency and 24.1% had insufficiency. Vitamin D level was found sufficient in 13.1% subjects. Among the deficient subjects, 31.6% were male and 68.4% were female; among the insufficient subjects, 35.1% were male and 64.9% were female. Sixty-eight percent of the deficient subjects belonged to the 21 to 60 year age group, whereas 57.1% of the insufficient subjects were between 21 and 60 years. Conclusion: Hypovitaminosis D is common among the real-world clinical subjects undergoing vitamin D estimation in Bangladesh. Middle-aged females are more likely to be affected Birdem Med J 2019; 9(3): 202-206

Introduction: Community orientation in medical education, which prepares medical students to become more effective practitioners, is now a global movement. Many medical schools around the world have adopted the concept as the main curricular framework in order to align learning programs with the needs of the community and the learner. Despite many changes over the past few decades, many improvements are still needed in medical education in Bangladesh. This study investigated medical students' perceptions of the community-based learning experiences incorporated into the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is emerging as one of the most common causes of chronic liver disease world-wide. It has strong association with obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and metabolic syndrome. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in newly detected T2DM patients having NAFLD with high serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level. Methods:In this cross-sectional study, 110 newly detected T2DM patients with high serum ALT level were evaluated. To find out the etiology of high serum ALT level, abdominal ultrasonography was done to detect NAFLD cases along with other relevant investigations. All NAFLD cases then underwent further evaluation for the prevalence of metabolic syndrome.Results: Out of 110 study subjects, NAFLD was detected in 80 (72.7%) individuals. According to International Diabetic Federation (IDF) criteria, metabolic syndrome was detected in 56 (56/80, 70%) of NAFLD cases. Among the 56 patients with NAFLD, male were 24 (42.9%) and female were 32 (57.1%) and 14 (14/56, 25%) cases had all five components of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome was found in all female NAFLD subjects (32, 100%). Mean age of patients with metabolic syndrome was 43.11±10.77 years and mean body mass index (BMI) was 27.87±3.72 kg/m 2 . Hypertension was found in 37.5% cases. High BMI (e"25 kg/m 2 ) was found in 87.5% cases. Mild, moderate and severe fatty liver were found in 28. 6%, 46.4% and 25% cases respectively. Dyslipidemia was found in all (56, 100%) NAFLD subjects with metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome had significant correlation with BMI (p 0.00), abdominal obesity (p 0.00) and serum triglyceride level (p 0.04). Conclusion:Over two-thirds of T2DM patients having NAFLD had metabolic syndrome in this study.Key words: alanine aminotransferase, body mass index, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome. J 2020; 10(1): 21-25) (BIRDEM Med