Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Hospital bed capacity is one of problems in intensive care unit during at the time of crisis, emergencies and disasters. At this regard, it seems reverse triage can resolve this issue by using predictive score systems. This study was purposed to develop a reverse triage system in intensive care unit using APACHE II scoring system for crisis, emergencies and disasters situations.
Methods: This study was performed by a prospective longitudinal design that lasted from March 2016 to February 2017. Research population were 420 internal patients that were admitted in intensive care units of Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad, Iran. Data were collected and documented for each patient by demographic questionnaire and APACHE II scoring system daily until discharging time from intensive care units. The patient’s status after discharge from the intensive care unit was used as a criterion for statistical tests.
Results: APACHE II mean score in first day of admission was 18.9±16.20. Risk ratio of patients’ discharging from intensive care unit was 1.034. The patients were placed in four levels of inverse triage according to mortality rate and risk ratio. The scores of four levels were including: 0-10 (first level and green color), 11-16 (second level and yellow color), 27-71 (third level and black color) and 17-26 (fourth level and red color).
Conclusion: The Apache II system can be used as a tool for reverse triage in intensive care units during at the time of crisis, emergencies and disasters. When using this system for reverse triage, patients at the first to third levels can be discharged from intensive care unit. However, patients on the fourth level should not be discharged from intensive care units under any circumstances.

Pregnancy as a natural event leads to changes in various aspects of physiology, psychology, and social life. The adoption of a health promoting lifestyle is an important strategy for achieving the desired outcomes of pregnancy and is important on the future health of mother and child. The aim of this study was to assess the various aspects of health promotion behaviors during pregnancy. The data was obtained with advanced search in the Iranmedex, Magiran, Scientific Information Database (SID), IranDoc, PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science and Scopus databases. Articles containing full text were collected using the proper keywords for Persian articles and their equivalent in Mesh included “Health promotion" OR "Behavior health "OR “Health Promoting Lifestyle” AND pregnancy for English articles with a time limitation of 2010 to 2017. At first 3247 articles obtained after reviewing and evaluation of the references, 4 Persian and 25 English articles with observational and qualitative design were included. A review of studies showed that finding a way to pass pregnancy safely is the most important concern for mothers. Pregnant women do some actions to reach favorable outcomes and they have a high incentive to adopt health behaviors during pregnancy due to fear of fetal health, but there is some obstacle to adopt health behaviors including individual factors like that lack of time and inadequate information about pregnancy or health-related functions and social factors including health system problems and cultural factors. In addition age, level of education, individual’s beliefs and factors associated with pregnancy such as high-risk pregnancy and environmental factors such as social support and health system performance play an important role in the adoption of health behaviors. In order to increase the potential of pregnant women to adopt healthy behaviors, changing the health system approach and paying attention to social determinants of health, in order to carry out the necessary interventions, it is recommended to conduct qualitative studies and appropriate design for deep study of the subject in the cultural background.

Background: Sesame oil can be used to treat cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis, by reducing the levels of fibrinogen and factor VII. The aim of this study is to prepare a microemulsion containing sesame oil as a drug nanocarrier for improving the aqueous solubility and therapeutic effects of this vegetable oil on the reduction of the fibrinogen and factor VII levels in animal model.
Methods: This experimental study was performed for microemulsion preparation and animal test at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and Cardiovascular Research Center of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran, respectively, from April 2015 to January 2017. To prepare the microemulsion samples, Tween 80 and span 80 were selected as surfactant couple and surfactant ratios of 8:1, 9:1 and 10:1 were determined for construction of pseudo-ternary phase diagrams. The Zealand white rabbits were categorized in three groups: receiver of base diet group, high cholesterol diet and high cholesterol diet plus microemulsion.
Results: The average particle size of the samples was in the range of 16.64±0.1 to 21.16±0.2 nm with a uniform particle size distribution. Zeta potential was in the range of -10.7 to 18.4 mV, refraction index was approximately 1.39. Electrical conductivity coefficient was in the range of 297 to 311 μz and pH of all the samples were approximately 6.42 for all samples. All of the microemulsion samples were physically stable and the prepared sample with 9:1 surfactant ratio was selected to investigate the animal test due to the higher oil percentage in comparison with the other samples that be stable over 6 months. Significant decrease in the levels of fibrinogen and factor VII in the third group of rabbits was observed compared to the other groups.
Conclusion: The results of this study showed the effective performance of nanostructured drug delivery systems in the form of microemulsion to improve the aqueous solubility and therapeutic effects of hydrophobic compounds such as vegetable oils.

Background: Herpes simplex virus (HSV) encephalitis is the most common cause of sporadic encephalitis, with significant morbidity and mortality that are effectively reduced by antiviral treatment. Herpes simplex infection in pregnant women rarely results in encephalitis. The most common symptoms of a pregnant woman with herpes simplex infection are colds and skin vesicles. Herpetic encephalitis occurs during pregnancy in the third trimester in 60% of cases and with less prevalence in the second trimester. Among HSVs most, HSV-1 causes encephalitis. Early diagnosis and timely treatment are important as mortality decreases from 70% to 20-30%. This case report, reviews a pregnant woman with a diagnosis of herpes encephalitis due to seizure and consciousness disorder, which was negative in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay and diagnostic studies.
Case Presentation: The patient was a 23-year-old woman with a gestational age of 29 weeks who presented with fever, headache, delirium, and cognitive impairment three days prior to admission following seizure. Early magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed an increase in the cortical signal in the temporal lobe and PCR assay for the detection of herpes virus was negative. Magnetic resonance venography also showed an increase in the left maxillary sinus with differential diagnosis of herpetic encephalitis. Considering the symptoms of the patient with a strong suspicion of herpes simplex encephalitis, the patient was treated with acyclovir, which was associated with improvement of clinical symptoms. Finally, normal delivery was performed after 36 weeks of gestation.
Conclusion: Given that herpes simplex virus encephalitis is a rare and potentially dangerous and complicated disease, it is imperative for a pregnant patient with atypical symptoms to be identified with an appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic measures.

Background: Uremic pruritus is one of the important problems in patients undergoing hemodialysis. Causing the mechanism of uremic pruritus in hemodialysis patients is complex and multifactorial. Almost 60 percent of hemodialysis patients suffer from uremic pruritus. Oral hydroxyzine is a common treatment for uremic pruritus of this patients. This study aimed to survey effect of hydroxyzine on uremic pruritus of hemodialysis patients.
Methods: This quasi-experimental study (pre and post design) performed on 40 patients with eligible criteria. All of the hemodialysis patients who suffer from pruritus received a tablet of hydroxyzine 25 mg daily for 6 weeks. In this time, drugs and the plan of hemodialysis were constant. Pruritus score of patients, evaluated with 5-D pruritus scale that had 8 items with 5-score Likert scale and evaluate duration, direction, disability, and distribution of pruritus. Severity scores of pruritus before and after treatment with tablet of hydroxyzine were compared. This study was conducted on hemodialysis patients in the Soodeh Center of Hemodialysis in the south of Tehran, Iran, from September 2016 to February 2017.
Results: The findings of this study showed that most of the patients in this study were male (55%) with mean age of 55.97±11.59 years. The most cause of chronic renal failure in these patients was diabetes (37.5%). This study showed that 32.5% of the hemodialysis patients had moderate to severe uremic pruritus. The mean score of pruritus before the treatment with hydroxyzine was 16.73±3.4 and the most effect of this drug was in the social activity item (2.47±0.6). After treatment with hydroxyzine, the mean score of pruritus in the patients was 9.65±2.15 that was decreased significantly (P<0.001). The findings showed that there was no significant relationship between decrease of pruritus and characteristics of patients.    
Conclusion: This study showed that uremic pruritus is still a challenge in hemodialysis patients. According to this study use of hydroxyzine, regardless of uremic pruritus mechanism, could be decreased uremic pruritus of hemodialysis patients.

Background: Cervical cavernous hemangioma is an extremely rare, benign lesions, and only a few cases are reported. Cervical cavernous Hemangiomas are characterized by an increase in the number of normal and abnormal veins. The majority of these lesions are superficial, often found in the head and neck area, but may also occur in the inner parts of the body. The occurrence of these lesions in the female reproductive tract, especially the the cervix is extremely rare. This disease should be considered as a differential diagnosis of abnormal uterine bleeding because of the low prevalence and importance of the diagnosis of this uncommon disease. The majority of cervical cavernous hemangiomas have been reported in women of childbearing age. Besides, although most lesions are symptomatic (mostly bleeding), diagnosis is often unlikely. They may cause abnormal vaginal bleeding in the form of menometrorrhagia and postcoital spotting. To date, fewer than 55 cases have been reported. This study aimed to report a rare case of cervical cavernous hemangioma.
Case Report: The patient was a 24-year-old woman who had referred to the outpatient clinic of Ghaem Hospital in September 2016 due to prolonged post coital bleeding after intercourse. At the time of the pelvic examination, posterior lip of cervix was very vascular and there was black color that had extend to the vagina. The patient underwent colposcopy. Following colposcopy, due to severe cervical bleeding, the vagina packed. The patient's bleeding was controlled with the pack after 24 hours. Cervical pathology revealed a cavernous hemangioma.

Background: At present, in nuclear medicine to calculate the cumulative activity of various organs, different techniques are being used to correct the background radiations in the conjugate view method. Each of these techniques considers the effect and weight of background radiations to a different extent. These background radiations can cause errors in cumulative activity calculations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare different techniques of correcting background radiations to each other in calculating kidney cumulative activity during the nuclear scan of the bladder in children.
Methods: This study was Cross-sectional and performed for patients who were referred to Isfahan Shahid Chamran Hospital between December 2019 and June 2020. In this study using Foley, 1 mCi of TC-DTPA radio-pharmaceutical that was diluted with normal saline was injected into the patient's bladder, then images recorded by gamma cameras were extracted at 2, 5, 10, and 20 minutes, Finally with ROI drawing around kidney with having vesicoureteral reflux, Cumulative renal activity was calculated with four correcting background radiations techniques such as without correction of background radiation, conventional method, Buijs method, and Kojima method Eventually, the data was Eventually, the data was compared to each other to determine how much weight each of these techniques consider for background radiations.

Conclusion: Results of this study showcased the importance of TNF-α in disease progression and treatment failure. Further future studies regarding this relationship can provide vital information in AIDS treatment research.

Background: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways. Various tests and questionnaires are designed to monitor the severity of asthma and help the therapist and the health system prescribe the best treatment to control it. This study was designed to compare two methods Asthma Control Questionnaires (ACQ) and Asthma Control test-child (ACT-CHILD) in children with asthma.
Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 92 children with asthma referred to the Taleghani hospital, Gorgan, in 2022-2023. Patients were in a range of age 4-16 years. Asthma control was evaluated and compared by two methods ACT-CHILD and ACQ. ACT-CHILD included one version for 4-11-year patients completed by their parents and another one for 12-16 –year patients completed by the patients. The clinical symptoms, age, gender and the parents' records related to asthma were completed during the clinical interview. Data was analyzed using Chi-square and Spearman correlation tests. The degree of agreement between two questionnaires was determined using the Kappa coefficient.

Results: 84 children aged 4-11 years (91.3%) and 8 children aged 12-16 years (8.7%) were included in the study. According to the ACT-CHILD, 40.2% of children (n=37) had controlled asthma, 44.6% (n=41) had partially controlled asthma, and 15.2% (n=14) had uncontrolled asthma. Based on the ACQ, controlled asthma was observed in 18.5% (n=17), partially controlled asthma in 35.8% (n=33), and uncontrolled asthma in 45.7% (n=42) of children. Asthma control results based on two questionnaires were significantly different from each other (P<0.001). The agreement between the ACT-CHILD and ACQ methods in evaluating children's asthma was at a weak level (P=0.014, κ=0.157), however, a significant negative correlation was observed between the scores of the ACT-CHILD and ACQ questionnaires (r=-0.588, P>0.001) which after categorizing based on age group, this correlation was confirmed only in children aged 4-11 years (r=-0.627, P>0.001). Conclusion: Our findings showed that there is a poor agreement between ACT-CHILD and ACQ results in the assessment of asthma control. Further studies are recommended.

Results: Among the 975 articles in the initial search, 525 articles are due to the repetition of the title and 442 articles due to other reasons such as not assigning humor therapy in breast cancer, not implementing the joke and laughter intervention program, the language of the article not being related to English or Farsi, and not Conducting clinical trials were excluded, and finally eight articles that scored higher than 3 were included in the systematic review. The results of the studies showed that laughter therapy had an effective role in improving the quality of life, improving various aspects of mental health, reducing negative emotions such as anxiety, stress, depression, pain intensity, fatigue and strengthening positive emotions such as self-esteem, mood. while There has been a non-significant decrease in the dermatitis caused by radiotherapy and the activity of immune cells and the serum level of cortisol. Conclusion: Considering the positive effect of laughter therapy in reducing the negative emotions of patients, it is recommended that nursing managers and psychologists use this easy, fun, uncomplicated and accessible intervention to improve the physical, mental and emotional health of women with breast cancer.

Background: Although the respiratory system is the main element involved in the disease of COVID-19, nevertheless, there are reports of the involvement of other organs and their lesser symptoms. This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the frequency of gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with COVID-19.
Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on all patients diagnosed with COVID-19 hospitalized in Imam Khomeini Hospital from April to September 2021 by census method. The data was collected using a checklist that included demographic information. After the data was collected, it was entered into SPSS software, version 18 (IBM SPSS, Armonk, NY, USA) and analyzed with the help of descriptive statistics.

Results: In this study, the results showed that out of 2580 hospitalized patients, 54% were women and 46% were men. And the average age of the patients was 58.67±17.68. The highest frequency of people was in the age range of 40-59 years (925 people). 64% of patients had at least one gastrointestinal symptom, Each of the symptoms had a different prevalence, Anorexia 40% with a preference for men (57%) and the highest frequency in the age range of 40-59 years (430 people), gastrointestinal bleeding 10% with a preference for men (80%), And the highest frequency in the age range of 60-79 years (112 people), abdominal pain 8% with preference for women (65%) with preference for frequency in the age range of 40-59 years (65 people), vomiting 3% with preference for women (51%) with abundance in the age range of 80-99 years (58 people), diarrhea 1.5% with preference in men (51%) with abundance in the age range of 60-79 years (18 people) and constipation in 0.2% with preference Women (67%), all of whom were over 60 years old. Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that the COVID-19 disease can not only involve the respiratory system but also the digestive system in the course or beginning of the disease.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic, relapsing gastrointestinal disorder characterized by persistent inflammation of the intestinal mucosa, disruption of epithelial barrier function, and dysregulation of the immune system. Its pathogenesis involves complex interactions among genetic predisposition, environmental factors, gut microbiota, and host immune responses. Dysregulated cytokine signaling plays a central role, with elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), IL-6, IL-12, and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), contributing to tissue damage, epithelial barrier dysfunction, and clinical manifestations such as diarrhea, bleeding, and weight loss. Conversely, anti-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-10 (IL-10), IL-35, and IL-37, counteract these inflammatory responses, inhibit excessive immune activation, and maintain mucosal homeostasis. Probiotics, particularly Lactobacillus strains, have emerged as promising adjunctive therapies for IBD due to their capacity to restore microbial balance, modulate immune responses, and enhance gut barrier integrity. Among them, Lactobacillus brevis has demonstrated significant immunoregulatory and anti-inflammatory effects. Various strains, including AL0035, SBC8803, Bmb6, HY7401, and KU15152, reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines, upregulate tight junction proteins such as ZO-1, regulate Th1/Th2/Th17 responses, and inhibit NF-κB and MAPK signaling pathways. L. brevis-derived metabolites, notably long-chain polyphosphates, attenuate fibrosis, reduce TGF-β1 and collagen expression, and protect epithelial cells from oxidative stress. Heat-killed L. brevis strains also retain immunomodulatory activity, allowing therapeutic use even when live bacteria cannot effectively colonize the gut. Preclinical studies demonstrate that oral administration of L. brevis improves disease activity indices in experimental colitis models, reduces mucosal immune cell infiltration, restores epithelial integrity, and prevents ulceration, bleeding, and goblet cell depletion. Clinical evidence, although limited, suggests that L. brevis supplementation can enhance gut microbiota diversity, increase beneficial bacterial populations, and modulate serum cytokines, further supporting intestinal homeostasis. Furthermore, L. brevis influences metabolite profiles, such as serotonin and polyamines, which are linked to gut motility, epithelial repair, and immune regulation, highlighting its multifaceted role in gut health. In this review article, for the first time, we discussed the beneficial effects of L. brevis in inflammatory bowel disease, highlighting its clinical effects and therapeutic prospects.