Journal of

Background and Aim: APL is a Prevalent leukemia that Approximately included 5-10% of patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia. ATRA and recently arsenic is used for treatment. ATRA leadsto resistance to treatment and arsenic is toxic in high doses.AZT induce cell death in different ways. The purpose of this study was Assessment of effect of AZT, a telomerase inhibitor, on NB4 cell line (APL cell line) to reduce toxic effect of high dose arsenic.

Materials and Methods: In this study, viability and metabolic activityof NB4 cells, treated by different concentrations of AZT(50,100,200 µM), was assessed by trypan blue dye method and MTT assay respectively.

Results: Treated cells with AZT=50,100,200µM showed decreased viability, both in dose-dependent and time-dependent through trypan blue dye method and decreased cell metabolic activity by MTT assay.

Discussion and Conclusion: Considering that AZT is able to induce apoptosis and decrease cell activity, it seems AZT is a suitable drug for inhibiting the growth of tumor cells.

Background and Aim: Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a distinct subtype of acute myeloid leukemia. APL is characterized by a balanced reciprocal translocation between chromosomes 15 and 17, t(517)). Important therapeutic strategies for this disease are ATRA and Arsenic trioxide. To eliminate tumor cells with arsenic, high dose of arsenic is needed. But high dose is toxic for normal tissue. The purpose of this study is Assessment of effect of low dose of arsenic trioxide in combination with AZT on NB4 cell line (APL cell line) to reduce toxic effect of high dose arsenic.

Materials and Methods: In this study after NB4 cell line culture and proliferation, the cells treated with low dose of arsenic trioxide(0.5µM) in combination with different doses of AZT(50, 100, 200 µM) and then viability and metabolic activity was assessed by try pan blue and MTT assay respectively.

Results: Low dose of arsenic (0.5µm) alone and in combination with dose of 50µm of AZT has little effect on viability and metabolic activity but in combination with higher dose of AZT has significant effect on viability and metabolic activity and both viability and metabolic activity significantly reduced.

Conclusion: Different apoptosis- induced mechanisms cause apoptosis by arsenic and AZT. Since some of these mechanisms between AZT and arsenic are similar, so maybe these similar mechanisms cause synergic effect and significant reduction of viability and metabolic activity in combination of these two drugs.

Background and Aim: Decision support systems(DSSs) refer to one of the types of information technology applications that can help clinicians to make right and timely decisions about patients. The aim of this study is to learn more about DSSs and their applications and effects on health care.

Materials and Methods: In this systematic review, articles which were published between 2000 and 2012, which were available as full texts through databases and search engines -- such as PubMED, EBSCO host research, Google scholar and Yahoo -- and which were also of clinical-trial type were examined besides, certain books in this area were used as primary sources.

Conclusion : The findings show that DSSs were applied in five areas in health care, which had a significant effect on improving the process of care and the performance of providers. These areas are as follows: disease progress management(15.15%), care and treatment(27.27%), medication(27.27%), evaluation(27.27%), and preventation(12.12%). In general, improvement can be seen in three areas: quality of care and patient safety, cost effectiveness, and provider’s level of knowledge.