Mostafa Langarizadeh, Esmat Khajehpour, Rahele Salari, Hassan Khajehpour,
Volume 10, Issue 5 (1-2017)
Abstract
Background and Aim: Bacterial meningitis detection is a complicated problem because of having several components in order to be diagnosed and distinguished from other types of meningitis. Fuzzy logic and neural network, frequently used in expert systems, are able to distinguish such diseases. The purpose of this paper is to compare Fuzzy logic and artificial neural networks for distinguishing bacterial meningitis from other types of meningitis.
Materials and Methods: In this study to detect and distinguish bacterial meningitis from other types of meningitis, in the first step 6 attributes were selected by infectious disease specialists. In the second step, systems were designed by Matlab software. The systems were evaluated by 26 records of meningitis patients, and results were analyzed by SPSS software.
Results: The evaluation showed that the accuracy, specificity and sensitivity of fuzzy method were 88%, 92% and 100% respectively and those of neural network methods were 92%, 94% and 88% respectively. The Kappa test result in fuzzy and neural network methods were 0.83 (p<0.001) and 0.83 (p<0.001). The areas under the ROC curves were 0.94 and 0.91 respectively.
Conclusion: The sensitivity, the Kappa test results and the areas under the ROC curve of the fuzzy logic method were better than neural network method. However the fuzzy logic method is more reliable to distinguish bacterial meningitis from other type of Meningitis, the evaluation result were obtained from 26 records of meningitis patient which were hospitalized in the same center leads to the study be still open.
Fardin Amiri, Arash Khajehvand, Sedigheh Hannani, Nemamali Azadi,
Volume 16, Issue 5 (Dec 2022)
Abstract
Background and Aim: Surgical site infection (SSI) is one of the most common health-care associated infections. Using proper antiseptic solutions for preoperative surgical site skin preparation (skin prep) is one of the methods to reduce SSIs. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of preoperative surgical site skin preparation with povidone-iodine and chlorhexidine-gluconate on the rate of SSI in laparotomy patients.
Materials and Methods: A total of 70 Laparotomy surgery patients who referred to Firoozgar hospital in Tehran from May to September of 2021 were included in this clinical trial. Patients were randomly allocated into two groups which were treated with povidone-iodine(PVI) or chlorhexidine-gluconate (CHG) for surgical site skin prep. Skin prep was done with standard rotational method in two steps by the researcher for each group by using of PVI and CHG. SSI incidence was assessed by a researcher-made check list and also over post-surgical follow up visits by the surgeon. We used Fischer’s exact test, t-test, Chi-square and Cochrane’s Q-test to analyze the collected data.
Results: SSI was seen in five patients (14.29%) of PVI group and one patient (2.86%) of CHG group. Although the SSI incidence in PVI group was 5.54 times more than CHG group, still the difference wasn’t statistically significant (P=0.198). Comparing the incidence of SSI’s in 24 hours after surgery (0%) and 30 days after surgery (8.57%) in both groups revealed that using these antiseptics for skin prep was effective in preventing SSI (P<0.001). SSI incidence was also associated with two days of patient’s hospital admission time (P=0.001).
Conclusion: The result of this study revealed that the occurrence of SSI in PVI group was 5.54 times more than CHG group. However, the difference was not statistically significant. So both of these antiseptics can be used for surgical site skin prep.
Zahra Khaje, Kamran Yazdani, Ibrahim Abdollahpour, Mohsen Mohammadi, Saharnaz Nedjat,
Volume 17, Issue 5 (12-2023)
Abstract
Background and Aim: Alzheimer’s is a chronic disease that causes cognitive disabilities, thinking, personality changes and disruptions in daily activities. Due to these disorders, patients need long-term care. Most care for Alzheimer’s patients is done at home by family members, which makes home caregivers mentally, physically, emotionally, socially and financially vulnerable. Health personnel have a key role to play in providing information and guidance and helping the family control these conditions. The purpose of this study was to examines the level of knowledge and attitude of health workers and determines the related factors.
Materials and Methods: This research is a cross-sectional study to evaluate the level of knowledge and attitude of health workers about Alzheimer’s disease and its related factors. All 260 health workers of Gorgan and Kordkuy districts were studied by census method to assess their knowledge and attitude about Alzheimer’s disease and its related factors. ANOVA and T-tests were used to determine the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. Variables whose significant level of correlation with response variable was less than 0.2 in bivariate analysis were entered into the regression model and finally multiple linear regression was used to determine the factors related to level of knowledge and attitude.
Results: The mean level of knowledge was 46.73% (95% CI, 45.46 to 48.16) and the mean level of attitude was 55.61% (95% CI, 54.63 to 56.74). The results show that those with a history of previous education, a history of caring for Alzheimer’s patients, a higher level of work experience in the health care system, and having a female gender and be married have higher levels of knowledge and those with a history of previous education and Sistani descent had a higher attitude.
Conclusion: In general, the mean level of knowledge was 46.73(0-100) and the mean level of attitude was 55.61(0-100). Factors such as: gender, work history in the health system, history of participating in educational workshops, history of caring for sick patients, and marital status were related to the level of knowledge and factors such as ethnicity and history of participating in the training workshop were related to the level of attitude of the health care providers.
