Tehran University Medical Journal

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Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Background: Giardia lamblia is one of the most prevalent protozoa infections of the human small intestine. Although anyone can be infected by Giardia, women and children are more susceptible. Giardia infection can cause malnutrition, diarrhea and indigestion of fat. In this study, the effect of breast-feeding on the prevalence of Giardia among children is investigated.

Methods: A total of 482 children, aged 6 to 24 months, from the urban areas of Semnan, Damghan and Garmsar in Iran, were enrolled in this survey. Each mother underwent an interview and filled out a questionnaire that included mother's age, family size, birth order of the child, age and sex of the child and type of milk consumed, among other variables. Then, each mother was given a sample container with 30cc of phenol alcohol formaldehyde (PAF) and an applicator for sampling her child's stool. Each mother was trained to consecutively sample her child's stool for three days, to put the stool into the provided container using the applicator and to shake it until the sample and liquid appeared homogenous. The sample was examined using the direct method, using formalin-ether and thionine. Data was analyzed using the c² test and logistic regression using SPSS version 11.5.
Results: The mean age of the children was 13.6(±5.6) months. Of these children, 45.6% were girls. The prevalence of G. lamblia infection was 8.5%. There was a significant relationship between Giardia and the age of the child, education level of the mother and type of milk the child consumed (p<0.05), such that children who had not consumed their mothers' milk were more likely to be infected compared to those who had been breast fed (OR=2.38, 95% CI: 1.13-5.03, P=0.023).
Conclusions: Results show that breast-feeding is a safer method of feeding with regard to Giardia infection. Therefore, mothers should be educated to breast-feed their children and not use other types of milk or milk substitutes. This important issue must be considered by policy makers for education and subsidy programs.

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Background: Because bronchial hyper responsiveness (BHR) has been shown to be a risk factor for asthma and lung function decline, interest has focused on diagnosing BHR. The aim of our study was to measure the association between airway caliber relative to lung size expressed as the ratio between forced expiratory flow, mid expiratory phase, divided by forced vital capacity (FEF25-75/FVC) and BHR measured by methacholine challenge test (MCT) to obtain a cutoff for this ratio and positive MCT.
Methods: We carried out a cross- sectional study on general Iranian population in 376 subjects aged 7-73 years who were referred to Shariati hospital in Tehran, Iran in an outpatient setting. There were 190 male (50.5%) and 186 female (49.5%) subjects. They had chronic respiratory symptoms such as cough and dyspnea. The physical examination was normal. Baseline spirometry was normal or equivocal. MCT was done for all subjects over a two year period (2009- 2010). Positive MCT was defined by PC 20≤4mg/ml.
Results: The methacholine challenge test was positive in 191 (50.8%) and negative in 185 (49.2%) patients. The mean of FEF25-75/FVC in positive MCT was 0.86±0.27 Vs. 0.91±0.28 in the negative ones (p=0.070). The sensitivity and specificity of FEF25-75/FVC for prediction of MCT results were 57.1% and 60.2% based on cutoff point of 0.85 in all patients, and 87.5% and 70.7% based on cut off point of 1 in allergic patients, respectively.
Conclusion: The FEF25-75/FVC appears to be a useful predictive ratio in allergic patients but not in general population.

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Background: To assess patient' reaction towards bedside teaching in the nephrology ward of Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex (Tehran) and to identify the factors that may influence it.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the nephrology ward of Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex from march to September, 2014. All inpatients present on the day of the study were interviewed using a structured questionnaire.

Results: 146 patients were examined in this study that 62 patients (42.5%) were women and 84 cases (57.5%) were men. 112 (76.7%) of patients had a good feeling about the training to physicians. The behavior of students was evaluated respectful by 132 individuals (90.4% of patients). Total number of 106 individuals (72.6% of patients) had trusted to the health care team and 120 people (82.2% of patients) knew that the physicians’ behaviors are associated with the respect to their religious beliefs. Not being same sex of the examiners was important for 47 individuals (32.2% of patients). The number of 123 cases (84.2% of patients) evaluated the physicians' behavior with respect to their privacy. The number of 119 individuals (81.5% of patients) received their responses from the examiners. Statistical tests indicate a significant relationship between the respectful behavior of students with patient and good feeling about training to physicians, so that the 95.5% of people who have seen the respectful behavior of students to oneself had a good feeling about training to physicians (P˂0.001). The relationship between the presence of teacher with students and good feeling on training to physicians was significant (P=0.013). Positive feeling about practicing physicians was associated with patient age. So the age average of people who feel good about practicing physicians was significantly lower than the other people (47.2±17 versus 55.6±18 and P=0.028). Conclusion: The relationship between respectful behavior and presence of teacher with students and age and good feeling on training to physicians was significant.