Introduction:: Pathology learning for medical undergraduate students is a challenging task. Kahoot! is a mobile game-based online digital formative assessment tool that can engage students in its learning. This study is the first to assess the effect of Kahoot! use on Pathology learning outside classroom using a comparative group with assessment done at the end of the course. Methods:: The study was carried out on the first-year Pathology students at Helwan University, Faculty of Medicine, after ending a basic Pathology course. The study is a retrospective quasiexperimental quantitative study. Academic performance of students in Pathology was compared between Kahoot! and non-Kahoot! users (55 students each). In addition, an online survey was introduced to the 55 Kahoot! user students to investigate their perceptions on it. Survey and test score data were analyzed by appropriate tests using IBM-SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). The level of significance was P < 0.05. Results:: Kahoot! enhanced Pathology understanding (83.6%), retaining knowledge (87.3%), made learning fun and motivating (89.1%). Other mentioned advantages of Kahoot! were practicing for exam (40%), simple and easy to use (36.4%), competitive (18.2%), self confidence booster (10.9%), forming a comprehensive image of the lecture (9%), quick (9%), and imagining skills booster (5.5%). Mentioned disadvantages included no explanation for the answers to questions (20%). A quarter of the students stated that the time limit for the questions was short (27.3%). Kahoot! use was significantly associated with better Pathology academic performance (P = 0.001), and it was not related to the general academic performance of the students (P = 0.06). Most users (85.4%) recommended its continuous future use. Conclusions::The study offers an endorsement to the use of Kahoot! for gamifying formative assessment of Pathology and can provide a basis for the design of an online Kahoot! -based continuous formative assessment plans implemented outside-classroom in the Pathology curricula.

Urinary bladder cancer is a common malignancy in Egypt, thus reliable methodologies are required for screening and early detection. In this study, we analyzed the gene expression of a Schistosoma hematobium specific microRNA “Sha-miR-71a” and mitogen-associated protein kinase-3 (MAPK-3) in the urine samples of 50 bladder cancer patients and 50 patients with benign bilharzial cystitis. Fifty control subjects were also tested. Indirect hemagglutination test (IHA) diagnosed 70% of studied cancer cases as bilharzial associated bladder cancer (BBC), while histopathological examination detected only 18%. Urinary Sha-miR-71a & MAPK-3 revealed enhanced expression in BBC (p-value = 0.001) compared to non-bilharzial bladder cancer (NBBC) cases. Patients with chronic bilharzial cystitis exhibited a significant increase in gene expression compared to those with acute infection (p-value = 0.001). Sha-miR-71a and MAPK-3 showed good sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of BBC when analyzed by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. They were also prognostic regarding malignancy grade. Both biomarkers showed a positive correlation. Our results revealed that IHA is a reliable test in the diagnosis of bilharziasis associated with bladder cancer, and that Sha-miR-71a and MAPK-3 provide non-invasive specific biomarkers to diagnose BBC, as well as a potential role in testing bilharzial patients for risk to develop cancer.

Background: Medical education for undergraduate students in preclinical sciences is challenging and often described as boring by students. Educators have to find interesting new methods to deliver information and increase students' engagement and performance. The incorporation of new technological tools can help in this regard. Objectives: This retrospective study investigated two technological tools: Google Classroom learning management platform and Google Quiz Forms for online assessment, as regards students' satisfaction, engagement, and performance. Design and Methodology:The same Parasitology course was taught in a classic face-to-face way during the first year of the study and taught by blended learning technique over the second year. The performance of the students of each year was compared and a questionnaire was introduced at the end of the second year to assess the students' satisfaction. Results: Students who took full advantage of these tools showed improvement of their performance (mean= 79 in the assessment versus 83.6 in their final exam (P=0.01) and achieved significantly better scores than those of year-1 and year-2 in the final exam (mean= 83.6 versus 76.3 and 72.7 respectively, P<0.001). Among 128 questionnaire respondents, 78.9% preferred the e-learning, 94.5% found the Google Classroom easy to use, 76.6% described it as a time saver for submission of assignments and 96.9% expressed their wish to continue to use the blended learning as well as the formative assessments in other courses and would recommend it to others. They all agreed that the formative assessments at the end of each lecture helped them in summarizing the delivered topic and consolidated the received information. Conclusion: Use of these mobile-friendly, freely available technological tools in resource-limited higher education institutions is recommended to improve the students' engagement and performance in the preclinical sciences.

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Screening of toxoplasmosis in cancer patients is mandatory especially before starting treatment to guard against life-threatening disseminated disease. Diagnosis of toxoplasmosis rely mainly on serology. The most widely used method for detection of anti-Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) antibodies is the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), being available and reliable. Immunochromatographic tests (ICT) attracted a lot of attention recently being one of the high quality, rapid and easy to perform tests. Available data comparing the performance of ICT versus ELISA techniques have yielded inconsistent results and none compared their performance among the immunocompromised cancer patients. Therefore, we designed this study to compare the performance of a new ICT (the OnSite Toxo IgG/IgM Combo Rapid test) and ELISA techniques for the detection of anti-T. gondii antibody as a tool for screening for toxoplasmosis among cancer patients in Cairo-Egypt. Among 180 cancer patients, a total of 110 patients (61.1%) were positive for anti-T. gondii antibodies by one or both methods. Agreement between both methods was found in 78.8% of the samples. By using ELISA technique as a gold standard test for the detection of anti-T. gondii antibodies, our results showed 87.5% specificity and 74% sensitivity of ICT technique. Moreover, our results proved that ICT is more sensitive in detecting lower level of antibodies than ELISA, that makes it preferable as a screening test for the immunocompromised patients.