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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.

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 significantly (P<0.0001).POTS group had significantly higher HR than non-POTS group. It may be inferred from this preliminary study that NASA 10-minute Lean Test can be used to diagnose POTS.

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Type I Diabetes Mellitus (T1 DM) ranks third in terms of chronic childhood disorders and has the ability to cause both acute and chronic complications as well as events that can put patient's life at risk 1 . T1 DM at

Background: Hypertension is a risk factor for the development of cardiovascular and cerebro-vascular diseases. Autonomic nervous system plays a crucial role in the development of hypertension. The integrity of autonomic modulation of heart rate is evaluated by analysing heart rate variability (HRV), which refers to oscillations in the intervals between consecutive heartbeats or R-R intervals. The present study was designed to analyse the indices of heart rate variability in the offsprings of hypertensive parents and off springs of normotensive parents to understand if there is any autonomic imbalance between the two groups.  Methods: The study was conducted in the Department of Physiology, Government Medical College, Srinagar. The test group consisted of 30 healthy normotensive subjects studying in 1st year of MBBS with hypertensive parents and the control group consisted of healthy normotensive of 1st year of MBBS with both parents normotensive. In time domain analysis the standard deviation of all normal-to-normal intervals {SDNN(ms)} was taken as index of overall HRV. Frequency domain analysis was done with respect to low frequency (LF) analysis and high frequency (HF) analysis. Low and high frequency power were expressed in normalized units.Results: The SDNN was reduced in cases but was not statistically significant. RMSSD was also reduced in cases though not statistically significant. LFnu was found to be significantly higher in cases. The HFnu was significantly reduced in cases. LF/HF ratio was found to be higher in cases and the difference was statistically significant.  Conclusions: Our study reveals that incidence of prehypertension and the risk of cardiovascular dysfunction in relation to sympathovagal imbalance is more in the off springs of hypertensive parents than in the off springs of normotensive parents. Sympathovagal imbalance in the form of increased sympathetic drive and decreased parasympathetic drive can lead to prehypertension in these genetically predisposed individuals.

Background: Although determined partly by genetics, physical fitness can be affected by a series of factors, such as sedentary behaviors, physical activity, and obesity. In general, medical students have considerable information about healthy lifestyle and dietary habits compared to other professional courses. Unfortunately, knowledge does not always translate into practice in terms of maintaining good health. Aims and Objectives: The study aims to assess the physical fitness and evaluate its association with body mass index (BMI) in medical students. Materials and Methods: This cross sectional was conducted in the Department of Physiology among the 1st-year students of Government Medical College, Srinagar, from December 2022 to February 2023. A total of 116 students in the age group of 18–22 years participated in the study. Descriptive data for age (years), gender height (m), and weight (Kg) were obtained and BMI was calculated. Physical fitness index (PFI) was measured using the modified Harvard step test. Results: The prevalence of overweight/obesity according to BMI was 41.3% (34.4% were overweight and 6.0% were obese). Among the participants, 81.7% of participants had a PFI of average to excellent while as 18.3% of participants had a PFI of low to poor. The study found a weak negative association (r-value=−0.07) between BMI and physical fitness, which was statistically not significant. Conclusion: The present study found a weak association between physical fitness and BMI which was statistically not significant. Although majority of students had good to excellent PFI, the prevalence of overweight and obesity was found to be quite high in them.

Objective: Prediabetes is a state that people have blood glucose levels higher than normal but still not in diabetes range. There is a close relationship between impaired lung function and diabetes mellitus (DM). Reduced lung function can be present before the clinical evidence of diabetes or insulin resistance. Materials and Methods: The total number of subjects in this longitudinal study was 503 and compared with apparently healthy Kashmiri adults. All the subjects, at the time of their first visit, underwent Fasting Plasma Glucose (FPG) estimation, 2- hour oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and spirometry (FVC, FEV1 & FEV1/FVC). Those subjects who had normal glucose tolerance (NGT) were retested for glycemic status and spirometric values after a follow-up period of 2-18 (mean=10) months. Results: Out of total 503 subjects on follow up 483 (96%) had NGT and 20 (4%) had prediabetes. Percent predicted forced vital capacity (FVC) and % predicted forced expiratory volume in 1st second (FEV1) were significantly lower (P-value< 0.001) while as % predicted FEV1/FVC was significantly higher (P-value< 0.001) in prediabetes as compared to NGT group. Conclusion: Results of our study point out a predominantly restrictive pattern of lung dysfunction in the prediabetes group as compared to the NGT group.