Journal of

Introduction and objectives: Despite the advances in the control of food-borne diseases, still one of the dilemmas in the health of most societies and a matter of concern for health authorities is food poi­soning and food-borne diseases by unsafe foods.

Materials and methods: In total 390 samples, including 195 samples of raw kebabs and hamburgers and 195 samples of the cooked ones were gathered from shops, sampling raw and cooked meat at the same time, and they were sent to the laboratory for testing, over a period of one year. The methods used for the tests were based on the Iranian National Standard procedures, numbers 356 and 2394.

Results: All the cooked specimens had bacterial contamination in acceptable standard levels and there­fore were considered consumable. From the 165 raw kebab samples, 90 samples (54.5%) were con­sumable but 75 samples (45.5%) were not fit for consumption, where from 30 raw hamburger samples, 22 samples (73.3%) were consumable and 8 (26.7%) were inconsumable. In serological evaluations, Thompson serotype had the highest prevalence in kebab and hamburger samples.

Conclusion: The results of present study show that there is no reason for concern in consuming cooked kebabs.

Background and Aim: Foodstuffs additives are a general term for materials that are added to the foodstuffs in order to increase durability and to improve the appearance, composition, taste and food nutritional value. Colors are classified in this group and are added to foodstuffs in order to increase their attraction. The aim of this survey was to analyze status of added colors to the juice of black cherry and juice of barberry which are produced in Tehran City, capital of Iran.

Materials and Methods: Three haundred thirty six samples of dried sweets were randomly collected and analyzed from different areas of Tehran. First, the samples were de-colored by Clorhidric Acid, and then were analyzed after refining by Thin Layer Chromatography (T.L.C) method.

Results: Eighty nine percent from the total samples contained colors. Among chromatic samples, 62 samples (18.5%) out the total samples, contained artificial, non-edible colors and 237 samples (70.5%) from the total samples contained artificial and edible colors (for Industrial Producers) and 37 samples (11%), contained natural colors. Carmoisine color was detected more than added colors in juice of black cherry and juice of barberry.

Conclusion: Low costs, stability, Ph and similarity of artificial dyes with natural dyes motivate the producers for high utilization of these dyes without considering their possible hazards and/or their edible quality aspects.

Background and Aim: Learning basic issues in nursing requires new strategies that can enhance knowledge retention among nurses. This study aimed to determine the effect of lecturing by peer-nurses on critical units nurses’ retaining knowledge of electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation.

Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, two units (as test and control groups) were selected randomly from among critical care units of Semnan University of Medical Sciences hospitals. First, a pretest was performed on nurses in both groups. Then, the nurses of test group were trained by a peer-nurse how to interpret ECGs. A posttest was performed on the two groups both a week and a year later. Finally, the data were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient, t-paired and t-tests.

Results: The mean of nurses’ scores of ECG interpretation in pretest was 9.55±2.73 in the test group and 10.82±3.43 in the control group. In the first posttest, mean scores of nurses’ knowledge in test and control groups were 15.27±2.57 and 11.36±3.29, respectively. In the second posttest, nurses’ mean scores in test and control groups were 10.82±4.07 and 11.33±2.95, respectively. There was a significant difference (p<0.05) between the pretest and the first posttest in the test group, but there was no such difference for the second posttest (p>0.05).

Conclusion: Lecturing by peer-nurses can enhance nurses’ knowledge about ECG interpretation in the short run, but it cannot enhance knowledge retention. So it is suggested that other educational methods be used in nurses' in-service training programs designed for ECG interpretation.

Background and Aim: The postoperative shivering is one of the common complications of anesthesia, which can cause increased systemic blood pressure, oxygen consumption, intra optical pressure and heart rate in patients. It is necessary to   choose an effective intravenous and the inhaled drugs to reduce postoperative shivering, therefore the aim of this study was to compare Isoflurane and Propofol on shivering among patients undergoing Vitrectomy Surgery.

Materials and Methods: In a double-blind clinical trial, 112 patients aged 16 to 75 (ASA class I-III) who underwent the Vitrectomy surgery were randomly classified into two groups of 56 cases. The occurrence of postoperative shivering in recovery were registered in both groups. Findings were analyzed employing the t-test and Chi-square. Statistical significance was accepted for P values of <0.05.

Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of age, sex, Weigh، duration of  surgery and duration of anesthesia. The incidence of shivering in recipients of Isoflurane and in recipients of propofol was 12.5% and 32.1% respectively.

Conclusion: Using Isoflurane is better than Propofol to reduce the postoperative shivering in patients undergoing the vitrectomy surgery.

Background and Aim: Vegetables are one of the major components of food basket and consumption of them is on the rise. On the other hand, diseases and outbreaks caused by this group of foodstuffs have increasing trend. This study was performed to investigate the microbial contamination of vegetables used in south of Tehran.

Materials and Methods: Hundred fresh packaged and non packaged vegetable samples composed of 10 kinds, were examined based on the methods presented in Iran national standards. For each sample, enumeration of enterococcus and total microbial count was carried out by the pour plate technique in KF agar and plate count agar, respectively. Escherichia coli detection was also performed using lauryl sulfate broth, EC broth, peptone water and MacConkey agar mediums. Biochemical tests namely urea hydrolysis, motility, sulfide hydrogen (SH2) production, gas production and sugar fermentation were conducted as conformational tests of Escherichia coli.

Results: All (100%) of mixed leafy vegetables, spinaches, peppers, kuku (Persian food) vegetables, wheat sprouts and mung been sprouts had contamination higher than acceptable limits. In the case of green onions, basils, kuku vegetables, mushrooms and broccolis, respectively 40, 60, 30, 90 and 30 % of the samples were in contravention with acceptable limits, in terms of at least one parameter.

Conclusion: Our results show that consumption of vegetables specially those used as raw, need more attention at washing point and need to use hygienic rules of health department and health care centers, at shopping and consumption steps.