Journal of

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Background and Aim: Staphylococcus aureus(SA) may cause infection in all body organs. Many personnel and patients in hospitals may become carriers of this species. The aim of this study was to investigate relative frequency of SA and its resistance to Methicillin.

Materials and Methods: A couple of swabs were taken from nose and nails of 151 personnels working in operation room of Shahid Sadoughi Hospital in Yazd. Samples were inoculated into Mannitol salt agar medium and S. aureus colonies were antibiogramed to determine the rate of resistance to methicillin. Statistical analyses were performed by chi-square and Fishers' exact test.

Results: Overall prevalence of SA was 35.09%(19.2% and 15.9% in noses and nails, respectively). Prevalence of methicillin-resistant SA(MRSA) was 11.92%(5.3% and 6.6% in noses and nails, respectively). Surgeons had the highest, and workers the lowest prevalence of nasal SA carrier rate. In contrast, the nails of servants had the highest, and surgeons the lowest SA carrier rate. No significant difference was found between carrier rate and age, sex and duration of employment. But a meaningful relation was found between type of job and MRSA in both noses and nails. All of the MRSA isolates were sensitive to vancomycin.

Conclusion: Since employees of operation room are continuously working with patients undergone operation, screening both the personnel and patients to determine the rate of carriage, preventing transfusions of fore mentioned bacterium is necessary and highly recommended.

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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.

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Background and Aim: Randomized controlled clinical trial is the most valid type of epidemiological studies for the treatment of diseases. The aim of the present article is to determine the subject area, type of intervention, and blinding methods used in this type of study design.

Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study in which all the articles based on randomized controlled clinical trial were studied. The articles were all affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences(TUMS) and indexed in PubMed by the end of the year 2010.

Results: Among the subject areas, most randomized controlled clinical trials(44 cases or 14%) were conducted in the field of Obstetrics and Gynecology. In terms of intervention type, the majority of the studied trials(214 cases or 68.2%) used drug intervention. And regarding the type of blinding, double-blinding was employed more than other blinding techniques(152 cases or 48.4%). On the whole, 125 cases(39.8%) of randomized controlled clinical trials were conducted through drug intervention simultaneous with double-blinding technique.

Conclusion: In different subject areas, the application of blinding techniques and type of intervention are somewhat related to research methodology and medical ethics. It seems that intervention type depends on subject area, and blinding technique is determined by the selected type of intervention.

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Background and Aim: Based on theories and researches, two variables effective in the continuous improvement of services are trust in and identification with hospital goals. The present study aims to explore the relationship between such variables among nursing staff members in private hospitals of Shiraz.

Materials and Methods: This research is a cross-sectional correlation study. Some 340 nurses(58 males and 282 females) were selected using the stratified sampling technique.
Three questionnaires for the assessment of identification with hospital goals, measurement of continuous improvement, and determination of trust in hospital were used. The reliability of data collection devices turned out to be 0.70, 0.70 and 0.79, respectively. Besides, the construct validity was confirmed through factor analysis. Data were analyzed inferentially using Pearson's correlation test and hierarchical regression analysis.

Results: The findings show that the relationship between identification with hospital goals and trust and nurses' effort to improve continuously is positive and significant. Moreover, the results of hierarchical regression analysis show that after controlling gender, age, experience and education, first identification with hospital goals and then trust in hospital play a significant role in the effort to improve continuously.

Conclusion: Nurses' effort to improve continuously is mostly influenced by identification with hospital goals rather than trust in hospital.

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 Background and Aim: Today, many families either have pets or work in animal husbandry units. It is very important to investigate the mental outcomes of animal care and also to study their keepers’ personality traits. This study aims to perform a comparative examination of owners’ mental health and character specifications or those of animal husbandry units’ personnel.

 Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study, about 500 people were selected through available sampling technique. They had contact with animals or worked in a husbandry unit in the suburbs of Tehran. After referring to the veterinary clinic of Tehran University, they were studied using a general health questionnaire and an international personality question bank. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software as well as multivariate and follow-up tests.

Results: The results of the present study show that all general mental health sub-scales except for anxiety are different in these groups. However, no difference was observed regarding responsibility and extroversion. Meanwhile, the adaptability of dog owners was lower than that of sheep owners moreover, cattlemen were more irritable than sheep owners.

Conclusion : In sum, the mental health of pet owners of the present study is at a lower level compared to that of those in other countries. It seems that the difference is due to religious and cultural differences existing between the two.

 

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Background and Aim: Female pattern hair loss(female androgenic alopecia) is a common but puzzling condition in women which increases by aging. Female hair loss is strongly linked to hormones and hormonal imbalances. The aim of this study was to determine the serum level of hormones such as T4, TSH, free testosterone, Prolactin(PRL) and Alb, SHBG in women(15-50 years old) with hair loss versus those without hair loss.

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional case-control study, 71 women with hair loss and 70 normal women were selected from skin and hair care day clinics. The level of hormones and SHBG were measured by ELISA, and Alb was measured by spectrophotometery. Data were analyzed by independent t-test.

Results: After analyzing the data and determining the levels of TSH, T4, Prolactin, Alb, SHBG, no significant difference was found between the case and control groups. However, free Testosterone level was significantly different between patients and controls(P= 0.000), with a higher mean level in the case group(patients).

Conclusion : Since androgens have a major role in regulating the biological cycle of hair in women and since there was a significant difference between free testosterone in patient and control groups, we suggest that the serum level of free testosterone should be measured in women with androgenic alopecia .

 

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 Background and Aim: One of the effective factors on staffs’ job satisfaction is their general health and personality types. This study is aimed to study the relationship between general health and personality types with the staffs’ job satisfaction .

 Materials and Methods: Seventy One women and men employee, aged 21 to 56 years working at Yazd health center were examined with full enumeration and by using General Health Questionnaire(GHQ), Job Descriptive Index(JDI) and the five-factor personality inventory(NEO). Research method was descriptive-correlation type and data were analyzed by using statistical tests like Pearson correlation, independent t test, ANOVA and stepwise regression.

 Results: The results showed that the relationship of the staffs’ general health with their neuroticism was direct (r=0/542) and with extraversion and agreeableness was reverse(r=-0/38, -0/34). But, it was not correlated with flexibility and responsibility . General health is inversely related to the three job satisfaction components(nature of work, job promotion, salary & job satisfaction total score) and it was irrelevant with the satisfaction of coworkers and supervisors. Lower general health was associated with neuroticism and good general health was associated with extraversion and agreeableness. Lower general health was also associated with lower job satisfaction and vice versa. Also there was a correlation between nature of work satisfaction and extraversion(p=0/01).

 Conclusion : We conclude that by decreased or increased general health of staffs and effect of their personality traits, job satisfaction would decrease or increase. Many cause decreased or increased of job satisfaction

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Background and Aim: Oxidative interactions such as the formation of oxygen, peroxy radicals and LDL-cholesterol oxidation are involved in the development of atherosclerosis process This study aims to examine the relationship between serum bilirubin levels and the incidence of coronary artery disease.
Materials and Methods: Eighty-five patients and ninety-two healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study. Total and direct bilirubin levels were measured using diazo method. Besides, triglycerides and total cholesterol were determined by enzymatic method, HDL-Cholesterol by polyanionic method, and LDL-Cholesterol by direct method. For statistical analysis of data, SPSS 17 was applied. For qualitative variables, Chi-square and for quantitative variables, t-student tests were used. The significance level was set at P=0.05.
Results: Direct, indirect and total bilirubin levels were 0.213, 0.375, 0.588 mg/dl for control group and 0.228, 0.365, 0.593 mg/dl for patient group, respectively. No significant difference was observed between the mean values for direct, indirect and total bilirubin in the two groups. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between triglycerides and total cholesterol level figures in the two groups. However, there was a significant difference between HDL-Cholesterol levels (P=0.001), smoking (P=0.031), family history (P=0.006), and mean blood pressure (P<0.001) of the two groups.
Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that measurement of bilirubin as a marker for predicting coronary artery disease may be important. In the end, it should be mentioned that the findings of this study are consistent with some previous studies, but incompatible with others in this area.

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Background and Aim: Firms are always looking for a way to increase the profitability of products or services. Therefore, the determination of cost of services to achieve this goal seems necessary. Aiming to clarify such costs in governmental units, the present study was designed to explain the allocation of costs based on each unit’s activities.

Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive study. Using field methods, the data were obtained from the activities carried out in Medical Imaging Center of Imam Khomeini Hospital in 2010-2011. To calculate the expenses of each unit, both direct and indirect costs of that unit were included. Data were analyzed using activity-based calculations. And ultimately, the cost-benefit of services rendered in each unit was calculated based on the difference between revenues and expenses.

Results: With the average revenue of 573,486 rials and a cost of 527,962 rials per service, the benefit per service was computed to be equal to 45,524 rials.

Conclusion: With the full implementation of the accrual accounting system, the cost of all services can be obtained, and services will be priced optimally in each unit. Besides, the management of all costs and elimination of unnecessary ones will lead to the reduction of the total cost of services while maintaining the necessary efficiency. Moreover, it will enable the organization to survive and develop based on its strategic activities.

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Background and Aim: Knowledge management is effective in promoting organizational structure, level of services, and universities competency power. The present study was aimed to assess knowledge management effective factors including information technology, organization culture, human resources, and librarians' skills among university librarians in Urmia.

Materials and Methods: This analytical survey was conducted on 102 university librarians in Urmia. The data were collected using a questionnaire where its validity and reliability was confirmed by specialists’ overviews and Cronbach's Alpha (0.94). In order to analyze the data, first the middle of the effective factors of knowledge management was estimated. Next, synchronic effect of the variables was estimated via multinomial logistic regression. Also Chi-square was used to assess the relationship between majors and sex factor of the librarians considering their perspective on knowledge management.

Results: Organizational culture, information technology and human resources are the most effective factors to knowledge management circulation. Also the median degree of the knowledge management process includes knowledge creation and reservation and knowledge sharing and employing which was 2/7 and 2/2 respectively.

Conclusion: Knowledge management is an important factor in human resources and competency environment of organizations. Libraries can with launching of knowledge management circulation, earn some promotions, for example: saving research and development costs, capacity increasing, employers’ job satisfaction, maintenance of competency environment and etc.

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 Background and Aim: Strategic thinking plays a very important role in guarding organizational survival and increasing development in today's dynamic and changing environment. One of the elements of strategic thinking is systemic thinking, which forms the conceptual framework to solve issues in an organization. This study aims to determine the ability of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) senior managers to stick to systemic thinking based on Friedrik Goldman’s model.

Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive- analytic study conducted on a sample of 100 TUMS senior managers in 2010. The data collection instrument was a standard questionnaire on systemic thinking, the response rate of which turned out to be 97%. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were confirmed prior to its distribution. SPSS software was used for data analysis. To this end, single sample t-test and Friedman statistical methods were also applied.

Results: The findings revealed that the ability of systemic thinking was optimal among most TUMS senior managers.

Conclusion : Enhancing and strengthening systemic thinking among TUMS senior managers are suggested, especially regarding omniscient and multi-end approach.

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 Background and Aim: A goal of modern cancer research is to reach targeted therapies with drugs having fewer side effects. AZD1152 is a highly specific inhibitor of Aurora Kinase B, which leads to the programmed cell death by different mechanisms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of AZD1152 on viability and metabolic activity of NB4 cells (APL derived cell line).

 Materials and Methods: The cells were treated with various concentrations of AZD1152. After 24, 48 and 72h treatments, the metabolic activity and viability of inhibitor-treated NB4 cells were assessed using MTT and trypan blue dye exclusion assays, respectively. Data were analyzed by applying student’s t-test (Microsoft Excel).

 Results: A t 25, 50 and 100 nM, AZD1152 reduced the metabolic activity by 9.2, 15.5 and 56.2% (after 24h), 10.3, 19.5 and 59.9% (after 48h), and 17.1, 28.4 and 64.8% (after 72h), respectively. Meanwhile, the percentage of viability was decreased to about 51, 45 and 40% (after 24h), 39, 36 and 30% (after 48h), and 34, 32 and 28% (after 72h), respectively.

 Conclusion : According to the results, AZD1152 has substantial efficacy on APL cell line and may be applied in some cases, e. g., for patients who have relapse or who become refractory to the conventional chemotherapy. Further studies are needed to show the molecular mechanisms regulating effects of this anti-cancer agent.

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Background and Aim: Development of information and communication technology has led to enormous changes in different areas. Electronic medical records system is valuable to access patient data in hospitals. This study aimed to investigate and compare the educational hospitals of Uemia University of Medical Sciences in case of technical, organizational and legal to establish the system.

Materials and Methods: The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The study population consisted of 98 senior and central managers. In this study population census was used and the entire population were considered as the sample. A questionnaire was used for data collection, which included two sections in order to determine the level of research community awareness and to analyze the standards related requirements for the implementation of the system. Validity and reliability were assessed and the data was analyzed by SPSS.

Results: Sample awareness in 5 hospitals of this study was moderate. In terms of requirements, there was a significant difference between the means of Electronic Medical Records in terms of three variables between hospitals "D" and the rest of the hospitals. And no significant difference was seen among other hospitals.

Conclusion : Three hospitals, "a", "c" and "b", among five studied hospitals are in preparation for the deployment of electronic medical records. Other two hospitals were not prepared. However, the implementation of electronic medical records, increases health care quality, patient safety and patient care and also decreases health costs. So it is suggested that hospitals do necessary efforts to establish EMR.

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Background and Aim: Motivation and satisfaction of manpower are the most important variables in the field of organizational behavior and because of the strong relationship between these two variables with the job and organization productivity, it’s necessary to look job characteristics as increasing factor of employee satisfaction and performance in redesigning jobs. The objective of this study was determining motivating potential score (MPS) of the jobs and survey the relation between MPS and job satisfaction in staff employees of educational and research deputy of TUMS (Tehran University of Medical Science).

Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study. The research context was to staff employee of education and research deputy of TUMS. Sampling frame of the study was simple random sampling. Data collection method was a questionnaire. Reliability of the questionnaire was ascertained with pilot study with and confirm with Cranach's Alpha. T-test and Pearson correlation were the analytical methods.

Results: The results showed the jobs of the study population have skill variety, task identity, task significance and potential motivation but haven't job authority and feedback. The findings showed there was significant relation between motivating potential power and its dimensions with the job satisfaction ( P<0.05 ).

Conclusion : The job characteristic have great impact on the job satisfaction so this model can be used for redesigning the jobs to increase job satisfaction.

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Background and Aim: FRBR is one of the models considered in cataloging and work-to-work relationships are introduced as types of bibliographic relationships present in this model.

This study examines the distribution of dispersion relationships in medical subject areas based on FRBR model in Persian medical sources published from 2006 to 2010.

Materials and Methods: This study is a descriptive survey . Data were obtained from Iranian OPAC ( online public access catalog) . To determine the areas of medical sciences, both LC (Library of Congress) and Dewey Classifications were applied. For data analysis, Excel 2007 was used. Using descriptive statistics, the researcher presented the results in the form of tables and graphs.

Results: According to Dewey Classification, ‘diseases’ was the subject area having the highest number of bibliographic relationships and the lowest frequency belonged to ‘experimental medicine’. The analysis based on LC Classification, however, showed that ‘internal medicine’ had the highest number of bibliographic relationships Botanic, Thomsonian, Eclectic Medicine, Chiropractic and Alternative medicine subject matters had the lowest bibliographic relationships.

Conclusion : Distribution of work-to-work bibliographic relationships in Persian medical sources based on Dewey and LC Classifications is heterogeneous. Despite the obtained apparently heterogeneous results, such a difference cannot be due to differences in the frequency of bibliographic relationships of medical topics because the classification criteria of medical sciences are different in these two systems.

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Background and Aim: Open access to scientific information is a new paradigm in scientific communication that facilitates access to research. This study was carried out to identify Tehran University of medical science faculties members’ familiarities with Open access and to survey their attitude about it.

Materials and Methods: A descriptive survey method was applied. The study population consisted of 163 members of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Data gathering tool was questionnaires that its validity and reliability was confirmed. Data was collected and analyzed by SPSS software and descriptive statistic methods.

Results: Results show that more than 50 percent of population have modest familiarites with Open acces. Furthermore, the faculties’s members familiarites with Open access technique was moderate. More than 70 percent (114 person) of them have positive attitude toward Open access and it’s techniques.

Conclusion : Faculties members’ familiarity with Open access relatively is low but when they received information about the concept, rules and aim of this paradigm, their attitudes positively changed. Therefore, open access should be considered as a perfect method in scientific communication.

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 Background and Aim: Aging is a natural experience which is usually accompanied by a variety of diseases. Hence, this research was conducted to study the elderly people’s disease rate and the number of times they refer to medical centers in Tehran.

 Materials and Methods: This descriptive analytical study was conducted on the old people referring to the Elderly Centers in Tehran in 2012. For data collection purposes, valid and reliable self-report demographic and disease questionnaires were used. The data were analyzed by SPSS software together with T-test and one-way ANOVA.

 Results: Four hundred old people participated in this study. Of the participants, 300 (75%) were female and 100 (25%) male with a mean age of 67.65 (±6.38) years. Besides, 160 (40%) people had heart diseases, 137 (34.3%) muscoskeletal diseases, and 83 (20.8%) endocrine diseases. Moreover, 381 (95.2%) participants had referred to doctors and therapeutic centers at least once during the last year. Furthermore, 177 subjects (44.2%) were hospitalized at least once last year.

 Conclusion: The prevalence of diseases in elderly people is more than expected. Most old people refer to doctors and therapeutic centers, which is indicative of the fact that they suffer from diseases and need varied health services.

 

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 Background and Aim: Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) is the explicit use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. Hospital information system (HIS) can act as a bridge between medical data and medical knowledge through merging of patient's data, individual clinical knowledge and external evidences .The aim of this research was to determine the Capability to establish EBM by HIS.

 Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on HISs of 30 hospitals from March to October 2011. Data were collected using a researcher- constructed checklist including applicant’s background information as well as information based on research objectives. Validity of the checklist were assessed by the qualified specialists and then the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and SPSS software.

 Results: HISs lacked the essential components for providing access to CDSS, Reference databases and internet-based health information in 19, 16 and 20 hospitals were 63.3%, 53.3% and 66.7%, respectively. Twenty-two hospitals (70%) had more than two-thirds of the essential components to access clinical and administrative data repositories 23 hospitals (76.7%) had at least one essential component to access contextual and case specific information.

 Conclusion: The Capability of HIS is better in order to place EBM in having access to the clinical and administrator data repositories while it needs more attention in other areas.

 

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 Background and Aim: Scientific journals are the most major tools in disseminating research findings. With the increasing number and price of scientific journals, libraries need to select journals. Citation analysis is a practical method in identifying the best titles to be subscribed. This study was to identify core journals in the field of dentistry using citation analysis.

 Materials and Methods: Two hundered and seventy six documents including dentistry theses (241 titles) and faculty papers (35 titles) indexed in Science Citation Index (SCIE) were selected and their references were extracted and evaluated using citation analysis methods. The distribution frequency of journals confirmed the Bradford’s Law of Scattering representing core dentistry journals.

 Results: Eleven thousand twenty three references were totally extracted. Average reference per theses and papers was 39/25 and 44/74, respectively. English journals and books were the most frequent referred documents having 95% of total references approximately. The most updated references were in English dated during 2001-2005 and 2006-2010. Using the Bradford’s Law, five journals were introduced as core dentistry journals.

 Conclusion: Selecting and subscribing core journals leads into cost-effectiveness in libraries and plays an important role in meeting user’s needs. While having many challenges in accessing scientific resources, core journals selection and subscription is an intelligent action resulting in effective use of financial resources. 

 

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 Background and Aim: Cream is a rich dairy product with the pH close to neutral and limited preservation capability. Cream is suitable and rich for microbial growth. In the past few decades, there was a great concern in contamination of food products.

 Salmonella and Yersinia species are two important pathogens causing food poisoning and human gastroenteritis. The aim of the present study is to investigate the quality of traditional cream for bacterial contamination.

 Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. In total, 100 unpasteurized cream samples were collected from 5 regions in Tehran. The Salmonella was enriched in Selenite-F broth, and Yersinia in phosphate buffer in two weeks in cold condition according to CDC, and then were inoculated in MacConky and CIN agar for 24 hours. The suspected colonies were examined for phenotype and their identification was confirmed by API-20 E.

 Results:  In general, 29% of tested cream samples were contaminated with at least one kind of bacteria, 3% with Yersinia (1strain Y.enterocolitica, 1 Y.intermedia, 1 frederiksenii), and 2% with Salmonella paratyphi B. The other bacteria like Escheichia coli, Enteobacter, klebsiella, and Citobacter were also isolated. Five samples were contaminated with two kinds of bacteria.

 Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that more quality control should be applied on the cream produced in the city of Tehran by health control office for food products.