Search published articles



Parivash Parvasi, Zahra Fazelinejad, Fatemeh Mahdipour, Shahram Bagheri , Mohammad Momen Gharibvand ,
Volume 80, Issue 7 (10-2022)
Abstract

Background: Shear wave elastography (SWE) estimates the stiffness of a mass based on the velocity of shear wave propagation by sound waves. Due to higher cell density and angiogenesis, malignant masses have higher stiffness than benign ones.
Methods: The present study was a prospective study and was performed on patients who were referred to Ahvaz Golestan Hospital with breast mass during March 2020 to March 2021. Only patients with 4-5 BI-RAD were evaluated. Patients were graded based on ACR BI-RAD. All patients were subjected to ultrasound and selection of BI-RAD 4-5 patients for evaluation with SWE and sampling for pathology testing. In this study, in order to increase the maximum accuracy and take samples from the main location of the lesion, sampling was done by ultrasound-guided biopsy method. Tumor information was recorded by a specialist doctor after ultrasound and SWE. This information included tumor type, tumor size and grade, presence of metastasis, involvement of lymph nodes, average and maximum elasticity. SWE cutoffs were compared for mean and maximum elasticity to distinguish benign from malignant masses.
Results: In this study, 115 patients were evaluated. 63.5% (73) of the patients had benign mass and 36.5% (42) had malignant ones. There was a significant relationship between tumor size and mean and maximum elasticity (P<0.001 The results showed that the diagnostic accuracy of SWE in identifying malignant masses compared to benign ones was 100%, so that the mean (16.61±8.03 kPa) and maximum (21.14±8.88 kPa) elasticity in benign masses were significantly lower than the mean (32.21±7.59 kPa) and maximum (91.62±8.84 kPa) elasticity of malignant masses (P<0.001). There was also a significant difference between the 4 BI-RAD subgroups, so that in BI-RAD 4a, the lowest mean and maximum elasticity were seen (P<0.001).
Conclusion: The results showed that SWE parameters have sufficient diagnostic accuracy in diagnosing malignant breast masses. Therefore, the use of quantitative SWE parameters in conjunction with ultrasound and BI-RADS classification can avoid unnecessary biopsies.

Mansour Babaei, Mehran Shokri, Seyed Ahmad Rasoulinejad ,
Volume 80, Issue 7 (10-2022)
Abstract

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the presence of ocular symptoms was common in COVID-19 patients, which can cause secondary complications in the treatment of ocular diseases. On the other hand, obesity can cause secondary symptoms in infectious diseases by impairing the function of the immune system, which indicates the relationship between involvement of different tissues and dysfunction of the cellular immune system. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between body indexes (i.e., age, height, weight, and BMI) and the presence of ocular symptoms in patients with COVID-19.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study (from March 2021 to May 2021), ocular symptoms (including blurred vision, epiphora, photophobia, discharge and exudate, redness, pain, and itching of the eyes) and body indexes (age, height, weight and BMI) were evaluated in 108 patients with COVID-19, who were referred to Ayatollah Rouhani hospital, Babol, Iran. The independent t-test and Kruskal-Wallis statistical tests were used to examine the data relationship in SPSS software.
Results: The results showed that the mean body weight in COVID-19 patients with blurred vision was significantly higher than COVID-19 patients without blurred vision (P=0.003, t=-3.056). The mean height of COVID-19 patients with epiphora was significantly lower than the mean height of COVID-19 patients without epiphora (P=0.018, t=2.398). Also, the BMI of COVID-19 patients with epiphora was 30.00 ±4.07 kg/m2, while the BMI of COVID-19 patients without epiphora was 27.68±4.42 kg/m2 (P=0.047, t=0.026). In COVID-19 patients with at least one ocular symptom, height was significantly lower than heigh of COVID-19 patients without any ocular symptoms (P=0.001, t=3.397).
Conclusion: Our results indicate the essential role of obesity in the occurrence of eye symptoms in COVID-19 patients. In this study, it was found that blurred vision, epiphora and the presence of at least one eye symptom in COVID-19 patients were significantly associated with the upward trend of BMI (as an index of obesity).

Kouros Divsalar, Sara Hesami, Majid Mahmoodi, Navidreza Giahi, Fatemeh Divsalar , Mohammad Pour-Ranjbar , Amin Honarmand,
Volume 80, Issue 7 (10-2022)
Abstract

Background: Based on the studies, variation in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number in peripheral blood leukocytes is associated with increased susceptibility to diseases including cancer. Opiate abusers are at high risk for diseases. In this study, we measured the mtDNA copy number in peripheral blood leukocytes in a group of opiate abusers compared with those in healthy individuals.
Methods: In a case/control study, three groups were selected consisting of 32 opium abusers, 24 heroin addicts and 25 healthy individuals. The amount of 5 ml of whole blood was collected from each individual who participated in the study and stored at -20 centigrade. The sample collection was performed from November 2018 to February 2020. Case groups were recruited from the Methadone maintenance therapy center. Contro group had no history of drug use and cigarette smoking. DNA was extracted from the whole blood samples using the salting out method. The DNA from a mitochondrial gene, dehydrogenase subunit1 (-ND1 gene) and a nuclear gene, human globulin (HGB gene), were quantified by a real-time PCR-based method to measure the relative mtDNA copy number of each group number.
Results: There was no significant difference in demographic characterization between the three study groups, opium abusers, heroin addicts and healthy individuals. We found that opium users had a higher mean of mtDNA copy number than those in the healthy control group (P=0.11). Heroin addicts had also higher mean of mtDNA copy number than those in healthy group (P=0.21). The mean mtDNA copy number in opium abusers was higher than that in heroin addicts (P=0.22), although the difference was not statistically significant.
Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that mtDNA copy number increased in a group of opiate abusers. Considering that alteration of mtDNA copy number is associated with increased susceptibility to several diseases including cancer, further research on mtDNA copy number with a high number of volunteers of opiate addicts may clear the effect of opiate abuse on the human genome.

Majid Zamani, Masoudeh Babakhanian , Farhad Heydari , Mohammad Nasr-Esfahani , Mohammad Mahdi Zarezadeh ,
Volume 80, Issue 7 (10-2022)
Abstract

Background: In addition to heart disease, ECG also changes in non-heart disease, which due to its similarity, can lead to misdiagnosis of heart disease in patients. ECG changes in brain lesions such as ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes, brain traumas, etc. and have been studied in many articles, but the effects of brain midline shift on ECG changes have not been studied. In this study, we want to examine these changes.
Methods: This is a prospective cross-sectional descriptive study. Patients with brain tumors who were referred to Al-Zahra and Kashani hospitals in Isfahan from April 2019 to March 2021 were selected. Patients with a history of heart disease, patients receiving medications that cause ECG changes, patients with ECG changes due to non-cardiac and cerebral causes, and individuals under 15 years of age were not included in the study. Patients whose ECG changes were due to electrolyte disturbances or acute heart problems were also excluded from the study. After obtaining informed consent from patients, a CT scan or brain MRI was taken and patients were divided into two groups with and without midline shift. Then the ECG was taken and ECG changes (T wave, ST segment, QTc Interval, QRS prolongation) were compared in two groups of brain tumors with and without midline shift.
Results: 136 patients were included in the study. Of these, 69 patients were in the without midline shift group and 67 patients were in the midline shift group. In the midline shift group, 3% of patients had ST segment changes and 23.9% had T wave changes, which were 1.4% and 10.1% in the without midline shift group, respectively. The mean QTc Interval in the two groups without and with midline shift was 338.26 (4 28.438) and 388.66 (37.855), respectively, and the mean QRS in the without midline shift group was 86.09 (88.9.88) ms and in the midline shift group was 94.63 (±12.83) ms.
Conclusion: Brain midline shifts can cause QRS widening, QTc interval prolongation, and T-wave changes in patients' ECGs.

Tara Ghafouri, Negin Manavizadeh,
Volume 80, Issue 7 (10-2022)
Abstract

Background: In the current study, a hybrid feature selection approach involving filter and wrapper methods is applied to some bioscience databases with various records, attributes and classes; hence, this strategy enjoys the advantages of both methods such as fast execution, generality, and accuracy. The purpose is diagnosing of the disease status and estimating of the patient survival.
Methods: Feature selection algorithms have been modeled in Matlab R2021a during April and May 2022 in the framework of statistical pattern recognition. First, the features are ranked based on normalized mutual information, as a metric of relevance and redundancy of features, and accordingly, an optimum feature subset with the highest accuracy of classification is selected. Two feature selection algorithms, i.e., inclusion of features enhancing the classification accuracy and exclusion of irrelevant features are applied to the interest datasets, subsequent to the mini-batch k-means clustering of records.
Results: At the end of the execution of both feature selection methods, evaluation metrics including accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score are measured and compared. Both proposed feature selection approaches for the molecular biology, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and E. coli bacteria datasets result in the precision and recall scores more than 98 percent, meaning that there are few false positives and false negatives in the linear support vector machine (LSVM) classification. Regarding the HCV dataset, selection of nine relevant features among the thirteen present ones using the feature exclusion method yields the classification accuracy and F1 score of 98.92 percent and 99.02 percent, respectively. The feature inclusion approach also results in an accuracy of 98.78 percent with a slight discrepancy.
Conclusion: The results reveal superior strength of the feature selection methods used here for life science datasets with higher-order features such as protein/gene expression database. The potentials to generalize to other classifiers and automatically specify the optimal number of features during the feature selection procedure make these approaches flexible in many data mining applications for the life sciences.

Fariba Zarei , Mohammadreza Sasani, Banafsheh Zeinali-Rafsanjani , Mahdi Saeedi-Moghadam ,
Volume 80, Issue 7 (10-2022)
Abstract

Background: Fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) is usually used to distinguish the malignant and benign nodules. Applying a biopsy needle evokes a sense of fear and pain in the patients. Although some studies refute the usefulness of local anesthesia (LA) prior to fine needle aspiration biopsy, it is still debatable. This prospective cross-sectional study intended to evaluate the effect of LA prior to fine needle aspiration biopsy on pain and anxiety considering nodule size.
Methods: Amongst the patients who were referred to Shiraz Shahid Fagihi Hospital for Thyroid fine needle aspiration biopsy from August 2017 to January 2018, 114 patients participated in this study. LA was performed for 41 patients, and 73 underwent the thyroid nodule fine needle aspiration biopsy without LA. Patients' pain and anxiety were scored using the visual-analog-score and Spielberger anxiety scale. The nodules were categorized into five groups. Pain and anxiety of patients were compared considering their nodule sizes to assess the effects of LA in the reduction of pain and anxiety considering the nodule size.
Results: The patients undergoing LA had a mean age of 44.69 years old and average body mass index (BMI) of 26.7, the patients who performed thyroid nodule fine needle aspiration biopsy without LA had a mean age of 48.17 years old with an average BMI of 26.0. The patients with the maximum nodule size of<10 mm, experienced more pain during the fine needle aspiration biopsy without LA, but there was no significant difference between the S/T-anxiety of these patients. There was no significant difference between the pain and anxiety scores of the patients with larger nodules.
Conclusion: The more pain experienced by the patients with the smallest nodules can be attributed to the need for more needle manipulation due to the small nodule size and less precision while piercing the needle into the nodule. Thus, it can be suggested that in patients with a small nodule size, less than 10mm, usage of LA prior to fine needle aspiration biopsy can reduce the pain significantly.

Mahbod Kaveh, Mohammad Kaji-Yazdi , Mohsen Jafari, Armen Malekiantaghi, Seyed Yousef Mojtehedi , Kambiz Eftekhari,
Volume 80, Issue 7 (10-2022)
Abstract

Background: The neonate's Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is the most important and common emergency condition in the delivery room. Approximately 10% of newborns are unable to initiate effective breathing and require assistance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of CPR levels of the neonates delivered during a year in Moheb Yas Hospital who were resuscitated.
Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study. The sampling method in this study was census. In this study, all the live neonates born during the year (April, 2010 to April, 2011) in Moheb Yas Hospital who were resuscitated, were enrolled in the study. The information of these infants was recorded in separate checklists. This checklist included the following information: mother's age, gestational age, gender of the baby, method of the delivery, multiple births, complications of the placenta and umbilical cord, amount of amniotic fluid, fetal presentation, meconium excretion, fetal heart rate pattern, Apgar of the baby, resuscitation levels, underlying diseases of the mother, maternal diseases during pregnancy, drug use by the mother and premature rupture of the amniotic sac. Finally, the data were analyzed by SPSS software. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
Results: There were 2,176 live births during the study. Of these infants , a total of 322 neonates (15.27%) underwent CPR. 51.8% were male. The mean gestational age was 36.08 weeks. The first minute Apgar was less than 5, between 5-7, and above 8 respectively in 10.5%, 33.4%, and 56% of neonates. About 42% of neonates needed initial resuscitation (warming, drying, and respiratory stimulation). 48% required respiratory ventilation with bag and mask, 5% endotracheal tube, 2.7% cardiac massage, and 1.3% needed medication. In 96.7% of cases, the CPR team was ready for resuscitation before delivery.
Conclusion: If resuscitation is performed in a timely and appropriate manner, very few of these infants will need advanced resuscitation. On the other hand, the high need for resuscitation by bags and masks can be secondary to the educational nature of this hospital.

Zeinab Asakereh, Elham Maraghi, Bijan Keikhaei, Amal Saki Malehi ,
Volume 80, Issue 7 (10-2022)
Abstract

Background: In many studies, Cox regression was used to assess the important factors that affect the survival of cancer patients based on demographic and clinical variables. The aim of this study was to determine the factors affecting the survival of patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma using the random survival forest (RSF) method and compare it with the Cox model.
Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, all patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma who were referred to the Oncology and Hematology Center of Ahvaz Shafa Hospital from March 2000 to February 2010 were included. The survival time was calculated from diagnosis to the first recurrence event date (based on month). To assess the process of the disease, demographic characteristics and disease-related variables (including disease stage, chemotherapy, site of lymph involvement, etc.) were extracted from the records of 387 patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma. To investigate the prognostic factors that affect the recurrence of disease the Cox model and RSF were implemented. Moreover, their performance based on the C-index, IBS, and predictor error rate of the two models were compared Data analysis was implemented by using R4.0.3 software (survival and RandomForestSRC packages).
Results: The results of the Cox model showed that LDH (P=0.001) and classical lymphoma classification (P<0.001) were associated with an increased risk of relapse in patients. However, the results of the RSF model showed that the important variables affecting the recurrence of disease were the stage of disease, chemotherapy, classical lymphoma classification, and hemoglobin, respectively. Also, the RSF model showed a higher (c-index=84.9) than the Cox model (c-index=57.6). Furthermore, the RSF model revealed a lower error rate predictor (0.09) and IBS index (0.175) than the Cox model. So, RSF has performed better than the Cox model in determining prognostic factors based on the suitability indicators of the model.
Conclusion: The RSF has high accuracy than the Cox model when there is a high number of predictors and there is collinearity. It can also identify the important variables that affect the patient's survival.

Shamsi Zare, Payman Rezagholi,
Volume 80, Issue 7 (10-2022)
Abstract

Background: The incidence of adverse perinatal outcomes including increased risk of miscarriage, preeclampsia, preterm birth and stillbirth is higher in pregnant women with coronavirus. Pregnant women who are infected with the coronavirus have placentas that are abnormal compared to the placentas of healthy women. Examples of these adverse effects have been observed before and include reduced fetal growth, pre-eclampsia, premature birth and stillbirth. Scleroderma is an uncommon connective tissue disease and its most obvious manifestation is skin fibrosis. Patients may also have involvement of visceral organs, as a result, their digestive system, kidney and heart are affected. Scleroderma also exacerbates miscarriage, fetal growth retardation, intrauterine fetal death, and preterm delivery. Pregnant women with these problems need special measures, so this study was performed to report a successful cesarean section in a woman with coronavirus and scleroderma.
Case presentation: The patient was a 31-year-old pregnant woman with a gestational age of 29 weeks who presented to Sanandaj Besat Hospital in November 2021 with symptoms of shortness of breath and dyspnea. HRCT-positive, PCR-positive, bilateral pleural effusion, and pulmonary dilatation corona were diagnosed. Due to 3 liters of vaginal bleeding and diagnosis of Décollement 60% and severe preeclampsia underwent emergency cesarean section. The live baby was born weighing 1300 g with Apgar 7. During surgery, he received 3 units of FFB and 3 units of Cryoprecipitate. Microcalcifications and fibrin thrombi were reported in the pathology of intermittent nodules. The diagnosis and treatment of this patient has significant points that are mentioned below.
Conclusion: Complications of pregnancy and childbirth in pregnant women infected with Corona virus include an increase in premature birth and an increase in the rate of cesarean section. Pregnancy in women with scleroderma at the right time and careful delivery monitoring will increase the probability of successful pregnancy outcome and all patients need counseling.

Monireh Rahimkhani,, Zahra Rajabi,
Volume 80, Issue 7 (10-2022)
Abstract

Background: Considering the frequency of MRSA strains in hospitals and medical centers as well as in different communities, it seems necessary and important to observe the use of appropriate drugs in order to reduce antibiotic resistance and reduce the economic costs of treatment. This study aimed to investigate the antibiotic resistance pattern of MRSA isolated from blood and wound samples of patients. The study patients were hospitalized in different departments in a number of Tehran University of Medical Sciences hospitals.
Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study from September 2021 to February 2022, the blood and wound samples of the patients were collected and referred to laboratory. Staphylococcus aureus had identified by phenotypic and biotypic tests. MRSA isolates were screened by showing resistance to Cefoxitin by disc diffusion method and finally confirmed by examining the mecA gene by PCR. The microbial resistance pattern of MRSA was also measured by disk diffusion method and resistance to Vancomycin was confirmed by E.test.
Results: 41 isolates from 87 Staphylococcus aureus samples were confirmed as MRSA by present the mecA gene. The mecA gene was detected in all MRSA by PCR method. The antibiotic resistance pattern showed the highest sensitivity to Vancomycin and Linezolid with 100% sensitivity and the highest resistance to three antibiotics Erythromycin, Ceftriaxone and Cloxacillin with 97.57%by disk diffusion method. The most MRSA strains were isolated from the ICU department with 13 cases and the least MRSA strains were isolated from the two NICU and pediatric departments with one case.The majority of the population infected with MRSA belonged to the age group of 40-65 years.
Conclusion: The prevalence of microbial resistance with high dispersion was obtained among MRSA strains isolated from clinical samples; which indicates a significant increase in resistant strains and requires a quick and timely diagnosis to prescribe the appropriate antibiotic.

Mohammad Moradi-Joo , Alireza Olyaeemanesh ,
Volume 80, Issue 7 (10-2022)
Abstract


Behjat Kalantari Khandani , Fatemeh Irannejad Parizi , Sedigheh Sadat Mousavi, Pouria Salajegheh,
Volume 81, Issue 1 (4-2023)
Abstract

Background: Stem cells play an important role in tissue regeneration and treatment of diseases. This study aimed to investigate the awareness, knowledge and attitudes regarding stem cell donation among different people in the community.
Methods: In this systematic review study, Persian keywords and English keywords such as awareness, knowledge, stem cells, embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells, cord blood stem cells and donation were selected according to MeSH database and then these selected keywords have been searched in the academic databases such as PubMed, Scopus, OVID, Science Direct, Iran Medex and SID. In addition, these selected keywords have been searched in the search engines such as Google Scholar, between January 2010 to December 2021.
Results: The results of this study found a total of twenty-five articles related to the awareness, knowledge and attitudes regarding stem cell donation among different people in the community. They were selected. In this study there were 10 cross-sectional studies, 2 descriptive-cross-sectional studies, 5 descriptive studies, 1 mixed method study, 1 semi-experimental study, 1 intervention study, 1 survey study, 1 review study, and the study type was not mentioned in three studies. Most of the studies were conducted in countries such as India, Saudi Arabia, and then United States (USA) and Turkey. Only one article was found in Iran. The results of studies have shown that the level of awareness and attitude of the majority of different people in the community towards the donation and use of stem cells is medium and low. However, most people have a good and positive attitude towards the donation and use of stem cells and mention the use of stem cells as an effective way to treat diseases.
Conclusion: Considering the importance and application of stem cells, it is suggested that managers and planners provide the necessary conditions to implement educational programs to raise the level of awareness and attitude of different people in the community towards stem cell donation.

Mohammad Reza Sabri, Bahar Dehghan, Mahsa Rafiee Alhossaini ,
Volume 81, Issue 1 (4-2023)
Abstract

Background: Syncope is a temporary loss of consciousness with a loss of postural tone. Medicinal treatment of reflex syncope has shown to have no significant effect in reducing the recurrence of syncope. A 36-month follow-up of our pilot cohort showed that non-pharmacological treatments alone were effective in reducing relapse rates. The purpose of this study is to investigate long-term results and 8-year follow-up of previous patients.
Methods: The current study is a continuation of a prospective pilot cohort which was done between August 2013 and 2014 in two academic hospitals in Isfahan (Dr. Chamran heart center and Imam Hossein children hospitals). This current study examines the 8-year follow-up results of children with reflex syncope who were treated with non-pharmacological treatments alone or with drugs. Therefore, the patients who participated in the pilot study were enrolled (30 patients in the pharmacologic group and 40 patients non-pharmacological group). Finally, on 26 patients in the pharmacologic group and 31 patients in the non-pharmacological group (after applying the exclusion criteria), the incidence of syncope and pre-syncope attacks was compared between these two groups of patients using the Chi-square test.
Results: Our study showed that within 5 years after the last follow-up, the incidence of syncope and pre-syncope in patients with a history of vasovagal syncope who did not continue the diet or tilt exercises was different between the two groups of patients (without medication and drug recipient) was not significantly different, even the incidence of presyncope increased significantly again in both groups. The incidence of syncope in the period of 5 years after the last follow-up from the previous study was slightly increased in the group of patients without medication compared to the previous periods, but in the group of patients receiving medication, this incidence decreased slightly.
Conclusion: In order to prevent recurrence, the use of non-pharmacological methods is effective, but for the stability of this recovery, follow-up and continuation of these methods is necessary.

Sedigheh Safari, Akram Eidi, Mehrnaz Mehrabani, Mohammad Javad Fatemi , Ali Mohammad Sharifi ,
Volume 81, Issue 1 (4-2023)
Abstract

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis characterized by progressive loss of articular cartilage, causing pain and loss of articular function. High glucose is a crucial inflammatory factor playing a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of OA that induces ROS production. Since most of the current therapies for OA are short-term benefits, hence, there is high demand for finding novel therapeutic agents for OA treatment. Recent studies have demonstrated that mesenchymal stem cells secrete important therapeutic factors that protect chondrocytes. In the current study, we investigated the protective potential of Adipose-derived stem cell conditioned medium (CM-ADSC) as an alternative to cell therapy in high glucose-mediated oxidative stress in C28I2 human chondrocytes.
Methods: This experimental study was performed in the Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran from May 2018 to August 2020. Adipose-derived stem cells were cultured until they reached 90% confluence then washed with PBS and cultured in a FBS-free medium for 48 hours. The conditioned medium was collected and centrifuged. The protective effect of the concentration of conditioned medium on high glucose (75mM)-induced oxidative stress in C28I2 cell viability was evaluated by WST-1 assay. Total RNA was isolated from the treated and untreated cells with TRIzol reagent. The mRNA expression of antioxidant enzymes including, glutathione S-transferase-P1 (GSTP1), catalase (CAT), and superoxide dismutase1 (SOD1) was evaluated by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in treatment and non-treatment groups.
Results: Adipose-derived stem cell conditioned medium pretreatment remarkably protected C28I2 cells against high glucose. The expression of mRNA of CAT, GSTP1, and SOD1 significantly increased following treatment with the conditioned medium (50%) for 24 hours in high glucose-exposed cells as compared to the control.
Conclusion: Present study indicates that the Adipose-derived stem cell conditioned medium can reduce oxidative stress. It seems that the conditioned medium may protect cartilage in the progression of osteoarthritis.

Negar Sahba, Alireza Amani, Mohammadreza Rohani, Rahmatallah Moradzadeh , Azim Forouzan, Mojtaba Ahmadlou,
Volume 81, Issue 1 (4-2023)
Abstract

Background: Improving the quality of life of patients is the main goal of therapeutic interventions in chronic diseases. One way to achieve this is to decrease the severity of symptoms. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of curcumin capsule on quality of life and symptoms of patients with irritable bowel.
Methods: This clinical trial study was performed on 60 patients with irritable bowel syndrome referred to Amir al-Momenin Hospital in Arak city from April to September 2018, using convenience sampling and Extra-intestinal symptoms severity scale and WHOQOL_BREF tools. The patients were divided into two groups of intervention and control, curcumin capsules were used in the first one, and in the second one, placebo capsules were used twice a day after lunch and dinner for four weeks. All patients were examined at the beginning of the study, the fourth week and three months later, in terms of quality of life, severity and frequency of symptoms and possible complications. During this period, the patients were followed up on a monthly basis through phone calls, and the contact number of the researcher was provided to the patients to call in case of any problems or questions.
Results: The average age of the curcumin group was 35 years and for the placebo group was 36.43 years. There was no significant difference in the quality of life between the curcumin and placebo groups after the intervention (P>0.05). Significant were found between the curcumin and placebo groups after the intervention (P<0.05).
Conclusion: The results of this study showed that there was a significant difference between curcumin and placebo in improving the clinical symptoms of patients, but the quality of life of patients in both curcumin and placebo groups did not change significantly after the intervention.

Maryam Tajvar, Parisa Pourfarokh, Najmeh Bahmanziari, Ebrahim Jaafaripooyan, Maryam Nazari , Haniye Sadat Sajadi ,
Volume 81, Issue 1 (4-2023)
Abstract

Background: Nowadays, beauty practices have attracted the attention of people following the change in lifestyle and social values. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of examining the opinion of experts regarding the challenges and management solutions of the aforementioned practices in Iran.
Methods: This qualitative study was conducted through interviews with 26 policymakers and cosmetic surgery service providers in Tehran from April to September 2022. Sampling was purposeful and snowball. The interviews were semi-structured and thematic analysis was used to analyze the data obtained from the interviews. The inclusion criteria for the interviewees' entry were knowledge and experience in the subject and willingness to participate.
Results: Challenges under the four categories of service providers (improper education, non-specialist providers, moral hazards, deficiencies in the way laws are written, and the ineffectiveness of the complaint handling process), service receivers (being influenced by deceptive advertisements, low level of public health literacy and lack of mental health), the place of providing services (performing surgeries in non-standard places and non-integrated information system) and medicines, products and medical equipment (insufficient control over supply, distribution and use and price fluctuations) were categorized. Experts considered the major part of the challenges to be related to the service providers. In the category of service recipients, "being influenced by deceptive advertisements" was the main problem mentioned by the experts. Performing surgeries in non-standard places, including limited surgery centers, non-sterile places, and unauthorized places, is among the unsolved problems regarding the place of providing services. In relation to medicines, products, and medical equipment, the main problem was insufficient supply, distribution, and use supervision.
Conclusion: The main effective measure to solve the challenges is to strengthen the supervision of the health system administrator with internal and external coordination and cooperation. In this regard, it is recommended to develop educational, ethical, and legal frameworks, regulate regulatory laws, public awareness, clinical interviews and psychological counseling, especially before cosmetic surgery, and the establishment of an integrated electronic health record system.

Batool Hossein Rashidi, Maryam Bagheri., Ashraf Aleyasin, Ladan Kashani, Fatemeh Davari Tanha , Elham Feizabad , Fedyeh Haghollahi,
Volume 81, Issue 1 (4-2023)
Abstract

Background: Patient satisfaction is considered as one of the most important elements of the evaluation of healthcare centers. In this research, the level of satisfaction of infertile patients was evaluated.
Methods: This study is a cross-sectional descriptive study. The research population is infertile patients who referred to the infertility clinic (at least 4 visits) and hospitalized in four hospitals affiliated with the Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The satisfaction questionnaire was valid researcher-made which included 56 questions in 9 areas, and were collected from May 2021 to September 2022. In order to comply with the ethical principles in research, hospitals were named 1-4.The results were analyzed using the chi-square test or Fisher's exact test for qualitative variables and analysis of variance for quantitative variables in SPSS software, version 24 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, US).
Results Three hundred–four infertile women in four hospitals were studied. The mean age of the participants was 33.8 years, with a standard deviation of 5.8 years. The average satisfaction with admission and discharge services, medical services, nutrition, accounting, and insurance services in the number-1 Hospital had the highest score, and the average satisfaction with nursing or midwifery services, diagnostic and therapeutic services (radiology/laboratory), hospital services, charter patient rights, management services, paid expenses in Hospital 4 received the most points. The mean score of satisfaction was the highest among those who visited the infertility clinic of Hospital 3 (161.54±21.41). Average satisfaction with admission and discharge services, medical services, nutrition, accounting, and insurance services in Hospital No. 1 had the highest score, and average satisfaction with nursing or midwifery services, medical diagnostic services (radiology/laboratory), hospital services, respecting the patient's rights, management services, paid expenses in hospital number 4 got the most points. The average of nursing or midwifery services, respecting the patient's rights, and hotelling in all hospitals received the highest score, respectively, and nutrition services and paid expenses received the lowest points (most dissatisfaction) (P<0.05).
Conclusion: The level of satisfaction of women referring to the infertility clinic in 35.9% of cases was considered to be at an appropriate and exceptional level, in 49.3% of cases it was at a partially appropriate level, and in 14.8% at an inappropriate level.

Sara Hassanzadeh, Mahmonir Haghighi, Hojjat Shafipour, Maryam Faramarzpour,
Volume 81, Issue 1 (4-2023)
Abstract

Background: Some negative psychological factors such as depression, anxiety, and stress have been identified as serious risk factors for the final adverse outcome of ischemic heart disease. Given the high prevalence of psychiatric disorders, in this study, we aimed to determine the relationship between the severity of depression, anxiety, and stress, with nuclear scan results in patients referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Urmia.
Methods: In this cross-sectional-analytical study, 163 patients with the possibility of ischemic heart disease from various clinics and medical centers referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Urmia for nuclear heart scanning from April to July 1400, were assessed by the DASS-21 questionnaire in terms of depression, anxiety, and stress scores. Finally, the data obtained from the DASS-21 questionnaire, nuclear scan, and demographic characteristics were analyzed with SPSS20 software.
Results: According to the results, the mean age of the patients was 54.78±11.54 years, 73% of whom were women. The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress was high (72.4, 80.3, and 59.5%, respectively). Although the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress in patients with a negative report of ischemia was higher and evaluated as 73.2, 78.7, and 58.3% respectively, there was not a significant difference with the subjects whose heart scan results were positive (P>0.05). Moreover, a weak positive correlation was observed between the severity of depression, anxiety, and stress with the severity of cardiac ischemia in study patients.
Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that the depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms in patients before a cardiac nuclear scan are often moderate to mild. Likewise, among the different demographic characteristics of patients, only gender played an important role in these disorders. Regardless of the negative nuclear scan results in most patients (77.9%), the prevalence of these psychological symptoms in the studied patients was high. Therefore, considering the possibility of psychological disorders with clinical manifestations mimicking cardiovascular can prevent additional costs for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in these patients.

Zeinab Khazaeeshir , Kobra Mirzakhani, Golnaz Sadat Ahmadinezhad, Fatemeh Sadat Naderi, Nahid Jahani Shoorab ,
Volume 81, Issue 1 (4-2023)
Abstract

Background: The rate of exclusive breastfeeding in Iran at the ages of 3 and 6 months is estimated to be 44% and 27%, respectively, which is still far from the optimal index of the World Health Organization until 2030 (70% in the first six months). In order to monitor breastfeeding counseling centers, which have been set up with the aim of promoting breastfeeding and supporting mothers who have problems with breastfeeding.
Methods: This is a descriptive-retrospective study and all the mothers who were referred to the Health and Treatment Center No. 2 in Mashhad between April 2019 and March 2019 were examined. This health center has two active counseling clinics and the collection of information is based on documents registered in offices and computers. The inclusion criteria for study were not having breast diseases, having an infant child, being able to read and write and living in Mashhad city. The exclusion criteria were also the unwillingness to participate in the study and the newborn suffering from diseases that are incompatible with breastfeeding. Therefore, census sampling was done. The data were analyzed using SPSS 16 software and the significance level was less than 0.05.
Results: In 42.8% of cases, mothers had started feeding combined formula with breast milk before visiting, and in 28.1% of cases, when referring to counseling milk clinics, it was reported that the baby was fed only with formula. After breastfeeding consultations and follow-ups at the end of six months, the rate of exclusive breastfeeding is 34.1% (12% increase compared to the initial reference) and combined formula feeding with breastmilk is 27.8% (a 22% decrease compared to the first visit). And feeding with powdered milk alone was calculated to be 36.5% (an increase of 8.4% compared to the first visit).
Conclusion: The positive role of breastfeeding counseling center in reducing the cases of artificial feeding is clear, and it is recommended to prepare written instructions based on the challenges in breastfeeding for breastfeeding counseling in the first month after delivery.

Mohammad Hossein Kalami , Zeinab Borjian Boroujeni , Peghah Ardi, Ahmad Abolfathi, Mohsen Babaei, Ali Asadi, Mahdi Zareei,
Volume 81, Issue 1 (4-2023)
Abstract

Background: Medical Laboratories have a great impact on patient safety and 80-90% of medical diagnoses are based on the results of laboratory tests. Medical procedures from the initial diagnostic steps such as a test or a simple injection to specialized treatment steps may be erroneous. The aim of this study was to determine the type and rate of human error, equipment, materials and procedures in all stages including before analysis, during analysis and after analysis to analyze the causes and find logical solutions to reduce of them.
Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was performed in a medical center in Tehran, Iran during the years 1400-1401. Data collection was considered in accordance with the instructions of the Laboratory Affairs Department of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education regarding the type of errors in the field of job description in each of the technical and non-technical sections. Data was analyzed by IBM SPSS software, version 22 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) software.
Results: During the period of study, the number of  referred patients was about 45,000 and the number of tests 594,000. The total number of errors was 837. The ratio of errors to the patients was 1.9% and to the tests 0.15%. The 37 types of errors were identified and reported in this study. Of these, 11 types of errors were in the pre-analysis, 14 types during the analysis and 12 types of errors in the post-analysis stage. The frequency of errors in the three stages was 180(21.5%), 312(37.3%) and 345(41.2%), respectively that the errors rate did not have a normal distribution and a significant difference was observed (P<0.05, df=2).
Conclusion: Due to the variety of reported errors and the importance of their role in other stages of diagnosis and treatment, it is necessary that all human, equipment and process errors in all stages of laboratory analysis be carefully recorded and corrective and preventive measures be taken to minimize them.


Page 1 from 2    
First
Previous
1
 

© 2024 , Tehran University of Medical Sciences, CC BY-NC 4.0

Designed & Developed by : Yektaweb