Journal of

Background and Aim: Fatal disease of cancer, ranks second after cardiovascular disease, as the most important causes of mortality in many developing countries, including Iran. Breast cancer is the most common disease among women. TPS is one of the tumor markers which has specially been considered due to its exclusive physiological characteristics like its easy measurement in serum of cancer patients.

Materials and Methods: This study has been set up to evaluate the efficiency of this tumor marker in the prognosis, treatment control and follow up of patients with Breast cancer. TPS has been measured with ELISA in 34 persons including 28 healthy people and 6 patients with breast cancer. Sampling has been done in three times depending on treatment methods.

Results: TPS has been measured  in samples which contend of 2 to 3 ml of serum from patients and the health.

Conclusion: The results has revealed that the serum TPS is not only as a measure of prognosis but also would be helpful in follow up and treatment control of the disease.

Conclusion: Serological analysis can be settled in the diagnosis and trend of cancer with production of polyclonal antibody against TPS gene family and planning appropriate pattern.

Background and Aim: Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic, chronic and inflammatory disease. It is characterized by the symmetric synovitis  of the articules of the extremities. Its major cause is unknown.
Immunological factors including Rheumatoid factor (RF) are considered as more confirming Cause. To date Rheumatoid factor is consisted of many antibodies which are produced against the constant region of IgG. Its causes are not known. This factor is not detected in the healthy people. In the patients with positive rheumatoid factor the probability of a disease would increase seriously. The goal of this study is evaluation of VDRL test in rheumatoid arthritis.

Materials and Methods : Serum Samples were obtained from 70 patients with rheumatoid arthritis from loghman hospital. We selected 70 serum samples from the blood donating healthy people.
The serum samples were kept in the Capped vials in - 20ºc freezer. Within two week, VDRL serologic tests were done on serum samples.

Results : The patients were 49 females and 21 males. In the female group 79.6% had negative response and 20.4% had positive response.
In the male patients 66.7% had negative response and 33.3% had positive response. Positive tests were much more in males. In healthy people only 4 ones has positive VDRL test.(5.7%), versus 17 positive VDRL test in patient group (25.3%). In the normal group, 94.3% had negative test versus 75.7% in the patient group.

Discussion : The difference between two groups was statistically Significant (p<0.01). The result of this study shows that VDRL test would be helpful in the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis.

Background And Aim : Nowadays, many inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Multiple sclerosis (MS) and many other autoimmune inflammatory diseases has involved the people of different communities and cure for them so far has not been provided. Many waste irreparable these diseases caused by overexertion and chronic inflammatory cells and effects of destructive enzymes. Proteolysis like matrix Mtaloproteinazes (MMPs). Hence in this study was discussed effect of drug 4 - amino pyridine (4-AP) to Progress of inflammation in a experimental model of inflammatory response.

Materials and Methods: In this study were used, 48 Out bred rat race, all female Sprague Dawely about 200-150 gr Weight and ages 6 to 8 weeks to induce inflammatory response experiment By bovine Serum albumin (BSA) + adjuvant complete Freund (CFA). Rats were in six groups of 8 each, including: Normal group, patient group, groups of Treatment-1,Treatment-2 , Prevention-1 and Prevention-2. drug 4-AP at different concentrations (400 and 800 micrograms) to groups of Treatment-1, 2 and Prevention-1, 2 rate (0 / 1 microliter) were injected and 48 to 72 hours after injection dosage reminder (only BSA) studied and were compared severity of inflammation.

Results: 48 Rats that were studied, eight rats (66/16%), no inflammatory signs, histopathology and production of antibody anti-BSA did not show and this same group were normal. 8 rats (66/16%) clear signs of severe inflammation showed that were our patient group.32 rats (66/66%), showed less severe signs of inflammation than patients that were the same groups of Treatment-1, 2 and Prevention-1, 2 that they had been received different concentrations of 4-AP.

Discussion and Conclusion: The difference in the severity of inflammation and diffuse infiltration of inflammatory cells in Evaluation clinical, radiology, histopathology and rate of antibody anti- BSA shows that the drug 4-AP reduces the severity of inflammation in the Groups receiving medication than normal and the patient group (p <0.05). Although statistical analysis showed 4-AP Has no effect on production rate of MMPs. The groups of rats had received high concentration the drug (Prevention2 and Treatment2) than groups that low concentration of the drug (Prevention-1 and Treatment-1) showed lower signs of inflammatory.

Background and Aim : Lactoferrin is one of the milk components with the main role in iron absorption and transfer. As a result of this action the pathogens that need iron for their life cannot grow, so the infection will be controled, indirectly. Moreover, because the lactoferrin production is stopped in the women with breast cancer, evaluation of this protein in milk may be the first step in detection of breast cancer tumors, and making decision about the appropriate treatment methods. Therefore, with due attention to the important role of lactoferrin in health and disease, determination of its normal dose in milk is very essential for the differences that may occur comparing with the normal situation. Also since the normal amount of lactoferrin in the milk of Iranian women was not evaluated in this study the amount of protein in more than 100 sample was measured.

Materias and Methods: The lactoferrin amount was measured by SRID method in 104 human milk samples of mothers that were referred to two public health centers in Tehran for vaccination of their children, and also in women that were hospitalized after childbirth in 2 health centers of Qom city. The data such as age, time of childbirth, etc were obtained by asking them and filling pre-designed questionnaire. All laboratory experiments were conducted in the Immunology unit of pathobiology department of School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

Results: The mean concentration of lactoferrin was 4.39 g/L, in the early milk (6-10 days after childbirth) was 3.79 g/L and in the mature milk (11-60 days after childbirth) measured as 2.45 g/L.

Discussion and Conclusion: The mean concentration of Lactoferrin in milk (g/L) has a significant difference with the day after childbirth (P<0.05) and was highest in Colostrums and then in primary milk. After that this amount is reduced extremely. This indicates the important role of lactoferrin in the primary days of infants, because of the protective role that it has against infections. Also the results of this study showed no significant correlation between human milk and factors such as age and childbirth time.

Background and Aim: Tuberculosis is an infectious disease with worldwide distribution. Based on WHO report one third of people are affected with mycobacterium tuberculosis. Today, the traditional bacteriological methods are only available using diagnostic methods for detection of tuberculosis. Innovation of a simple and efficient method for the diagnosis of tuberculosis is one of the most important aims of the world program against tuberculosis. The methods which are based on indicating of specific antibody response against mycobacterial antigens are potentially valuable for substituting traditional methods. These methods have attracted the researchers' attention for some reasons. Firstly the strong antibody response against mycobacterial antigens is detected only during active tuberculosis. Secondly the serologic methods are simple rapid, cheap and noninvasive. Thirdly, these methods in contrast to cutaneous PPD test are able to differentiate between an asymptomatic contamination with mycobacterium and active disease. In this study, a secretary glycoprotein antigen of mycobacteriurn tuberculosis, named 38 kD antigen, was used for a screening test for diagnosis of tuberculosis by immunodot method, since in previous researches, this antigen was considered as a special specific one in serological tests and showed much specificity.

Materials and Methods: In this study the results of immunodot tests on serum of 32 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and positive sputum smear compared with 32 healthy people. Then, the results were compared with similar tests on protein was mixture of culture filtrate.

Results: Assay by using 38 kD antigen, resulted in 29 positive response among 32 patients, whereas by using protein mixture of culture filtrate, the test resulted in positive response in all patients (sensitivities are 90.6%, and 100% respectively). On the other hand, using 38 kD antigen resulted no positive response in assay with serum from healthy ones, but by using protein mixture from culture filtrate resulted in 8 positive response in healthy people (specificities 100% and 75% respectively).

Discussion and Conclusion: Results of this study showed the efficacy of using 38 kD antigen in rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis by immunodot method, because this method has more specificity and does not require sophisticated and expensive equipments. Thus this test may be used in field studies as a simple, precise and efficient test.

Background and Aim: The present study was designed to compare the cell death, circulating levels of tumor necrosis factor-α and tumor necrosis factor type-I receptor in Iranian patients with sepsis and normal controls.

Materials and methods: Twenty-two patients with sepsis were included in this study. After blood collection, the serum circulating levels of TNF- and TNFRI measured with ELISA kits. The PBMCs isolated from blood samples and proportion of apoptotic cells measured by flowcytometry at the time of blood draws (0 time) and after 24-h incubation. PBMCs incubated at 37°C in culture (spontaneous apoptosis) and in the presence of rTNF that is capable of inducing apoptosis in activated T cells expressing the TNF family of receptors.

Results: PBMCs obtained from the patients showed significantly higher (P<0.001) proportion of apoptotic cells than PBMCs of controls at 0 time, indicated that a higher fraction of PBMCs were undergoing apoptosis in vivo in patients but not in controls. After 24-h incubation, spontaneous ex vivo apoptosis of PBMCs was nearly as high as that of TNF-  induced apoptosis, indicating that activated T cells had been preprogrammed in vivo to die.

Discussion and Conclusion: The circulating levels of both TNF- and TNFRI showed significantly higher in patients (P<0.001) than controls and this increase is proportional (r=0.908) in both indicating that TNFRI may have a protective effect in the early stage of sepsis.

Background and Aim: Quality of printed papers in 4 four medical journals affiliated to one of the universities of medical sciences in Iran was assessed based on methodological and statistical methods.

Materials and Methods: In this cross sectional study conducted in 2010, out of all articles published between the years 2002 to 2008 in one of the universities of medical sciences for affiliated journals that were equal to 1568, a sample of 162 articles were selected with Multi-stage stratified sampling method . For data collection, standard questionnaire was used to develop an information form. One sample t-test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to compare scores from different parts of article.

Results: Cross sectional studies with 61.7% (100 papers) formed most of studies. Median of authors and number of references for each article were 3 and 19, respectively and 10% of articles had more than 35 references. Material and methods with 3.53 points from 4 points (88.2%) earned the mighest score which was of high quality and conclusion achieved the lowest score. Also p-value has been reported correctly in 102 articles (81.6%). In 95 articles (58.6%) results were not compare with the similar internal articles whereas only in 21 articles (13%) comparison was not made with similar external researches.

Conclusion: The present study showed that the overall quality of the medical articles is not desirable. Hence, employing experts in research methods and statistics in various medical studies can improve the quality of articles in this branch of science.

Background and Aim: Increase in life expectancy is associated with non-communicable diseases. This study is aimed to survey the effect of chronic diseases on the quality of life among the elderly people in elderly care centers in the East of Tehran in 2011.

Materials and Methods: This is an analytical study in which 424 people were randomly selected. They were members of elderly care centers and were 60 years of age or higher. The data collection instruments were a standard quality-of-life questionnaire(SF36) and a chronic diseases record checklist. The data were collected in an interview. For data analysis purposes, Independent T-Test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient were used.

Results: The mean age of participants was 67.34±7.16. Some 92.2% of patients were suffering from at least one chronic disease, and there was a significant statistical difference between the mean points of all aspects of quality of life of those suffering from chronic diseases and those without a history of chronic diseases(P<0.001). Moreover, there was a significant relationship between the quality of life on the one hand and gender, marital status, economic status, and education on the other(P<0.05).

Conclusion: The findings show that an increase in the number of chronic diseases leads to a decrease in the quality of life, and that the application of appropriate educational and interventional approaches can help take effective steps to enhance the old people's health.

Background and Aim: Hospital internal evaluation is considered as one of the most important steps in strategic planning. Therefore, besides the recognition of the weaknesses and limitations of the organization, especially affecting issues on the performance, the responsibility of the organization will be defined. This study was performed for the assessment of internal environment of the Gachsaran's Shahid Rajai Hospital based on Weisbord Organizational Diagnosis model.

Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 123 hospital staff were selected using random sampling formula. Data was collected using Weisbord Questionnaire which consisted of 35 questions in seven areas. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS statistical software and the t-test.

Results: Among six variables studied, variable communication with 3/15 ± 1/25 mean and standard deviation has the best situation and reward mechanism with the mean and standard deviation of 4/59 ± 1/32 was the worst. There was a meaningful difference among all variables except for the leadership variable.

Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, Gachsaran's Shahid Rajai hospital has strength in the fields of goals, organizational structure, coordination, and internal organizational communication

Background and Aim: Despite the information regarding CAD risk factors, there isn't agreement between the relation of this risk factors and coronary artery diseases. This study was done for determination of related factors with vessels involved in coronary artery angiography.

Materials and Methods: In this descriptive and analytical study, 2390 patients' .were selected via census sampling from Kosar Angiography center in the Golestan province. Data gathering form included data such as age, gender, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, diabetes, smoking and opiates addiction history. Vessels involved were determined by angiography. Data analysis was done with one way ANOVAs and logistic regression using SPSS 16 soft ware.

Results: Mean and standard deviation of patient's age was 57.9±10. 58.2 percent of them were male. There were significant correlations between age, gender and BMI with numbers of vessels involved. Male gender(OR=1.329), hypertension (OR=1.25) and diabetes(OR=1.20) increased the probability of more than one vessels involvement. Regression analysis showed there were no significant correlations between age, BMI, smoking and opiates addiction history with more than one vessels involvement.

Conclusion: Our finding confirmed that male gender, hypertension and diabetes are the main risk factors in involvement of more than one vessel.

Background and Aim: Dermatophytosis is a skin infection without involving of hair, and in fact, Tinea cruris is a form of body Dermatophytosis. For treatment of these two diseases, topical azole or Alylamines are usually used. The aim of this study was to determine the therapeutic effectiveness of Terbinafine 1% and clotrimazole 1%, respectively.

Materials and Methods: 100 patients suspected to Tinea body, and 50 patients direct suspected to Tinea cruris referred to Reference Laboratory of Kashan were selected randomly at one year, prepared smear with 10% KOH, and SCC culture media. 1% cream of Clotrimazole or Terbinafine prescribed 2 and 4 weeks. Then patients recovery was studied for clinical and laboratory results. The data was collected and analyzed by SPSS and Duncan procedure.

Results: After 2 weeks, clotrimazole was more effective than Terbinafine in the treatment of patients infected by Tinea of the body, but equally effective in patients therapy with Tinea cruris By Terbinafine. As a whole, Clotrimazole was more effective than Terbinafine. However, this differences was not significant (P>0/432).

Conclusion: Clotrimazole is our drug choice for therapy of Dermatophytosis and Tinea cruris, in spite of new drugs, for example Terbinafine.