Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Aberrant pre-mRNA alternative splicing is a common event in cancer cells. Many abnormally spliced RNA variants have been observed in tumor cells and they can be used as biomarkers or therapeutic targets in new drug design. Increasing our knowledge in understanding the mechanisms of alternative pre-mRNA splicing for cancer-related genes and determination of cancer specific isoforms are important for the development of new strategies in cancer therapy. The aim of this study was isoforms identification and expression of PIK3CA, FGFR3 and FGFR1 genes in bladder cancer by RNA Sequencing and Real-Time PCR.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Urology Research Center of Sina Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, from September 2014 to October 2016. Paired tumor and adjacent normal tissues samples were obtained from 30 bladder cancer subjects. Total RNAs were extracted from bladder tumor and normal tissues. Quantitative and qualitative examinations have been done. After quality control, fragmentation of RNAs and cDNA library construction, next-generation RNA sequencing was performed. Resulting raw data were analyzed with different bioinformatics software. Differential expression was confirmed by Real-Time PCR.

Conclusion: RNA sequencing make possible to do the accurate assessment of transcript abundance and identification of different isoforms resulted from aberrant pre-mRNA alternative splicing, which is a crucial process for the maturation of transcripts of multi-exon genes. Regarding the differences in isoforms expression in tumor and normal tissues of bladder cancer, they have potential to be used as biomarkers and sensitive targets for cancer therapy.

Background: Brucellosis is a systemic infection caused by gram-negative coccobacilli and facultative intracellular bacteria of the genus brucella. Brucellosis is a bacterial disease common to humans and livestock. Infection with Brucella spp. continues to pose a human health risk globally despite strides in eradicating the disease from domestic animals. The humoral and cellular immunity plays an important role in brucellosis. The effect of phagocytosis and cellular immunity has been demonstrated in brucellosis. The effect of cupping as a therapeutic method on bacterial diseases has been demonstrated. By considering this fact that cupping is an effective method on host immune system functions and has potential effect to regulate the inflammatory reactions.
Methods: This experimental study was carried out on 48 rats in 6 groups (48 rats were divided into 6 groups) during the first 6 months from January 2015 to July 2016 in the laboratory of microbiology and animal of Hamedan University of Medical Sciences. The rats were infected through the injection of Brucella melitensis with plenty 5×10⁵ (cfu/ml) of bacteria. After a week, in order to approve the accuracy of the infection in the studied rats inoculated with coombos Brucella melitensis, Wright test, 2-Mercaptoethanol test and Coombs' Wright test were used. The rats were then treated with cupping method in their sacral area. IFN-γ was measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. And the study of tissues using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) Staining.
Results: The results of this study showed that cupping leads to an increase in the mean serum level of interferon-gamma. The histopathological study of liver tissue showed that the radial arrangement was not observed in the infected group with brucellosis and the cells were acidophilus. While, the radial arrangement was observed in treated rats with cupping, but it was not complete. The number of enlarged sinusoids were reduced. But, cell infiltration was observed.
Conclusion: This study showed that cupping can increase serum level of IFN-γ, and thus help to the clearance of disease and improvement of injury in the brucellosis animals lab.

Background: Sonography is used for measuring the muscle morphology including length, depth, cross-sectional area, bulk and pennation angle. The supraspinatus is the most common affected muscle among the rotator cuff muscles. There is no study about the reliability of sonographic measurement of supraspinatus thickness in the positions of empty can (EC), full can (FC) and hug up (HU) tests. The present study aims to investigate the intra-rater reliability of the measurement of sonographic thickness of supraspinatus muscle in the rest and positions of the EC, FC and HU tests.
Methods: The present study was a descriptive-analytic study which was carried out in a cross-sectional method on ten healthy women aged: 22.10±2.76 years without any tendon pathology. The study was carried out during four weeks (January to March in 2017). The supraspinatus thickness was scanned during rest and contracted states. The positions of measuring ultrasonic thickness of supraspinatus were as follow: position of EC test: the arm in 90-degree elevation in the scaption plane with the thumb-down, position of FC test: the arm in 90-degree elevation in the scaption plane with the thumb-up, position of HU test: the palm of hand was placed on the opposite shoulder with the elbow flexed using a 0.5-kg weight cuff. Intra-rater reliability of ultrasonic muscle thickness measurements were examined in one day.
Results: All intra-rater reliability values were equal or more than 0.90: the value was 0.90 (95%CI: 0.65-0.97) in the rest position, while for the measurement of ultrasonic thickness of the supraspinatus was 0.96 (95%CI: 0.87-0.99) in the position of EC test, 0.97 (95%CI: 0.90-0.99) and 0.96 (95%CI: 0.86-0.99) in the positions of FC and HU tests, respectively.
Conclusion: Measurement of ultrasonic thickness of supraspinatus muscle is a reliable method in the rest and positions of EC, FC and HU tests. This method can be used to compare the muscle thickness changes in the positions of the above tests.
 

Background: Cardiovascular diseases alone have become the leading cause of death worldwide. One of the treatment methods cardiovascular disease is angioplasty. This study aimed to investigate the clinical results after coronary artery angioplasty, based on the incidence of major cardiovascular events with emphasis on stent types.
Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, the prevalence of risk factors (age, history of previous illness and previous surgery) was assessed by using a case file for patients undergoing coronary angioplasty and stent placement during the years 2006 to 2016 and found during the follow-up. The place of the study was the Imam Ali Hospital's educational center affiliated to Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Iran, from July to September 2017.
Results: In this study, 1188 patients undergone to stent containing 909 non-drug stents, 504 sirolimus-eluting stents and 316 paclitaxel-eluting stents. Patients were followed-up one to five years. During follow-up, 98 patients involved major cardiovascular events, 6 cases involved with death and 91 patients involved with myocardial infarction. 1729 of patients undergone angioplasty and during follow-up, 91 patients had stent restenosis. In this study stent restenosis showed the highest correlation with the incidence of major cardiovascular events. With a view to stent type in lesions with stent restenosis, 61.7% was in non-drug stent, 23.5% was in paclitaxel-eluting stent and 14.8% was in sirolimus-eluting stent. This study also showed that despite the superiority of sirolimus-stained stents, there was no difference between paclitaxel-stained stents and non-drug stents in clinical outcomes and restenosis.
Conclusion: The results showed that the syringes impregnated with sirolimus have better quality. Also, stents that have a smaller diameter or need dilatation in the procedure have a worse prognosis and cause more complications in the patient.

Background: Hepatitis A is one of the most common viral infections in the world. In children, the manifestations of infection are usually milder but in adults they are more severe. The risk of acute hepatic failure increases when the infection occurred in the older ages. The aim of the study was to evaluate of serum hepatitis A antibodies in children.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on two hundred children (two groups of hundred individuals each) aged 6 months to 10 years old hospitalized in the emergency department of Taleghani Hospital (Gorgan city) from May to July 2016. The first group aged 6 months to 3 years and the second group 3 to 10 years old. After obtaining the parental consent, 3 ml of blood sample were taken to determine immunoglobulin M (IgM) against HAV using commercial ELISA kits (Dia.Pro Diagnostic, Milano, Italy) and the children’s’ demographic data were recorded.
Results: The study was conducted on two hundred children. Of these patients 127 (63.5 percent) were boys and 73 (36.5 percent) girls. Overall, 11 percent [twenty-two patients including eight (8 percent) in the first group and Thirteen (13 percent) in the second group] were serologically positive for hepatitis A. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of age and sex. (P= 0.239) and (P= 0.535). Only 11 percent of children under 10 years old were infected by hepatitis A and 89 percent of children had no history of contact or infection.
Conclusion: Based on this study, the incidence of hepatitis A infection was about 11% in children under 10 years old, which indicates a reduction in exposure with this virus. It may seem reasonable based on health policy but the adverse effect of this trend is later probability of contacts with Hepatitis A patients and occurrence of HAV in older ages. Therefore, we can conclude that HAV infection has been shifted to older ages.

Background: The benefits of aspirin have been proven by repeated examinations, especially in secondary prevention in cardiac infarction, stroke, and after interventional angiography and stent insertion.
Methods: This is a retrospective study on all patients who underwent non-cardiac surgeries between June 2005 and March 2013 in Ghaem hospital in Mashhad and aspirin continued due to many reasons. Most frequent surgeries included laparoscopic appendectomy and cholecystectomy. Information such as bleeding and its amount both during surgery and post-operative, hematoma after surgery, requiring re-operation due to bleeding and cardiovascular events in hospital were recorded and analyzed. Moreover, all patients were followed within one month after discharge from hospital to check whether any cardiovascular events had been happened. Furthermore, bruising in the skin, and bleeding after discharge were evaluated. Data were analyzed using SPSS Version 16 (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA).
Results: One hundred seventy patients enrolled in the study and all of them underwent general anesthesia. Of all patients 37.06% were male and 62.94% were female. The mean age was 52.78±5.01 years. Majority of operations included laparoscopic cholecystectomy (41.62%). Also in most of the patients (58.38%) surgery were emergency and discontinuation of aspirin were impossible. 91.37% of patients were taking less than 80 mg aspirin per day. Mean bleeding amount during surgery was 100 ml. 13 patients (6.59%) who undergo laparoscopic cholecystectomy and one patients in appendectomy group had bleeding more than 110 ml due to inadequate artery ligation and they underwent conversion to open surgery and bleeding were controlled successfully. Other eight patients (4.06%) treated conservatively without need to conversion to open surgery. In 7.61% of patients, ecchymosis happened which were healed within one month. No patient underwent reoperation due to post-operative hemorrhage. No vascular event and hematoma had been reported during one month follow up after surgery.
Conclusion: Continuing aspirin in perioperative period of non-cardiac surgeries were without additional risk of bleeding and it also helped to reduce risk of vascular evets post-operatively.

Background: The previous studies showed that the odor can improve balance in the elderly. The purpose of the current study was to determine the effect of olfactory stimulus and its gender specific effect on the balance of young healthy people.
Methods: This is a pretest-posttest semi experimental study comprised 40 healthy volunteers (age range 18-73 years) from February 2016 through May 2017. The static balance test with one-leg standing time (OLST) and dynamic balance test using Biodex balance system to measure overall stability index (OSI), anterior/posterior stability index (APSI), medial/lateral stability index (MLSI) and overall limit of stability index (OLOSI) randomly were performed before and after application of lavender scant as the olfactory stimuli. A two-way repeated measurement ANOVA was used to assess the effect of olfactory stimulus conditions and gender on dynamic balance indexes (OSI, APSI, MLSI, and OLOSI). Since the distribution of the OLST was not normal, the generalized estimating equations (GEE) method was used. Significance level of P<0.05 was adopted for all comparisons. Means are reported±SD unless otherwise stated. SPSS software, version 21 (IBM SPSS, Armonk, NY, USA) was used to carry out all statistical analyses.
Results: The results showed that in comparison of the two different conditions (no odor/with odor), there was no significant difference in any of static and dynamic balance indexes (P>0.05). There were significant differences in relation to the interaction of the gender and odor in OSI (P=0.026), APSI (P=0.019). For gender, there were statistically significant differences in OSI (P=0.002, F (1,38) =11.649), APSI (P=0.001, F (1,38) =12.057), and MLSI (P=0.007, F (1,38) =8.228) for females.
Conclusion: Although there was no effect of odor on balance control of young healthy people, we found that the odor has gender specific effect. This is probably due to the more sensitivity of females to the odor.

Background: Tenderness, pain, muscle weakness, and limited range of motion (ROM) are symptoms of myofascial pain syndrome, which leads to restrictions on physical, occupational and social activities and ultimately reduction of productivity and quality of life. Different methods of rehabilitation are used to improve the symptoms of these patients. One of the new methods is the use of kinesio tape. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of kinesio tape on neck pain and disability and also muscle strength in myofascial pain syndrome.
Methods: In this single-blind randomized clinical trial, from June to November 2017 in Imam Hossein Hospital of Mashhad, Iran, thirty individuals (male and female) with Myofascial pain syndrome were divided into two groups (treatment and control), randomly by lottery. In treatment group, the kinesio tape with appropriate tension was applied directly over pain place and on upper trapezius muscle; and control group received placebo kinesio tape (kinesio taping without tension). In this study, before and three days after application of kinesio taping, numerical pain rating scale (NPRS), neck disability index (NDI) and manual muscle testing (MMT) were used to assess pain, disability and strength, respectively.
Results: To compare the effect of treatment, the mean of variables were compared with independent sample t-test before and after treatment. Pain and strength of upper trapezius were significantly different in both groups (P< 0.05), but in neck disability there was not significantly difference (P< 0.05). Then, for a closer examination, the paired t-test were used to compare the mean of disability before and after the treatment and result showed a significantly different in the treatment group and was not significantly different in the control group.
Conclusion: According to the results of this study, kinesio tape can reduce neck pain, increase the strength of upper trapezius, and ultimately reduce the disability of neck in myofascial pain syndrome. Therefore, this method can be used in rehabilitation clinics to improve the symptoms of patients with myofascial pain syndrome.

Background: Tariff setting in healthcare is an important control knob affecting the quality, access and cost of services. As part of Iran Health Transformation Plan (HTP) in 2014, the relative value of health care and services was increased to motivate healthcare providers to deliver high quality services. This study aimed to examine the impact of HTP on health services tariffs.
Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study used the data from California Tariff Book (2013 edition) and the new relative value book (2016 edition). The weighted average of the relative value of the anesthetic and surgical services in both books was calculated and compared.
Results: The California book and the new relative value book had 5281 and 3448 service codes respectively in 13 major medical specialties (34.7 percent reduction of service codes in the new tariff book). Overall, 64985.9 K and 125133.6 K were considered in the California book and the new relative value book (92.6% growth). The California book and the new relative value book considered 25,976 K and 22,307 K for anesthesia services, respectively in those 13 medical specialties (14.1% reduction). The HTP has increased the relative value of healthcare services tariff by 1.9 times in average.
Conclusion: The HTP has doubled the tariff of healthcare services. A rise in the relative value of healthcare services has incurred financial burden on Iranian public health insurance companies and made it difficult to finance health system of the country. A sustainable health financing system should be developed as well a change should be applied in provider payment system to control the cost and increase the health system efficiency.

Background: Various prediction models have been developed aiming to estimate risk-adjusted mortality, morbidity and length of intensive care unit stay following cardiac surgeries. The European system for cardiac operative risk evaluation II (EuroSCORE II) is a prediction model which maps 18 predictors to a 30-day post-operative risk of death. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of the EuroSCORE II risk-analysis predictions among patients who underwent heart surgeries.
Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted to collect required variables for all consecutive patients underwent heart surgeries in Emam Reza hospital, Mashhad, Iran, from March 2014 to March 2015. Once the patient was hospitalized a cardiologist or a general physician evaluated pre- peri- and post-operative state to fill out the pre-designed structural paper form. Comparing the observed and expected mortality, the sensitivity, specificity, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and finally the discrimination power of the model for our patients were calculated and reported. The model value was calculated using the online tool.
Results: A total of 1337 patients (60% males) were included, the observed mortality rate was 3.2%. Although the overall performance was acceptable, the model showed poor discriminatory power (AUC=0.667, CI 95%: 0.648-0.685) and accuracy with sensitivity=61.88% and specificity=66.23%.
Conclusion: Our single-center study, based on consecutive patients who underwent cardiac surgery showed that EuroSCORE II demonstrated a moderate statistical overall performance with poor discrimination and calibration measures remain as concerning issues regarding 30-day post-operative mortality prediction after adult cardiac surgery. Poor performance measures for this system show the need for reformulating this risk stratification tool aiming to improve post cardiac surgery outcome predictions in Iran.

Background:  Some studies show that frozen shoulder is due to the pathologic changes in the muscles around the shoulder. Measurement of the ultrasonic thickness of a muscle is a method for measuring the muscle changes. There is no study about the reliability of measurement of the muscle’s ultrasonic thickness around the shoulder in patients with frozen shoulder. The present study aims to investigate the intra-rater reliability of the ultrasonic thickness measurement of the supraspinatus, deltoid and upper trapezius muscles in women with frozen shoulder and healthy women.
Methods: This study was carried out during 4 months (June to October 2017). Twenty women consisted of 10 patients with frozen shoulder (mean age: 51.6±9.41 years) and 10 healthy subjects (mean age: 35.5±8.22 years) participated in this study. The patients from some clinics and hospitals in Tehran, and healthy subjects consisted of some personals and students in the School of Rehabilitation of Shahid Beheshti university of Medical Sciences participated in the present study. Measurements of ultrasonic thickness of the upper trapezius, supraspinatus and deltoid muscles in rest position carried out by the same rater two times in 48 hours. Ultrasonography instrument with linear probe (frequency: 7.5 MHz) were used for measurement of muscle thickness in millimeter.
Results: Reliability of the ultrasonic measurements of the muscle thickness in patients and healthy subjects was respectively as follow: The upper trapezius muscle (0.81, 0.81), the supraspinatus muscle (0.90, 0.92) and the middle deltoid muscle (0.93, 0.96). The reliability of the ultrasonic measurements of the muscle thickness for the upper trapezius muscle and the supraspinatus muscle was higher in healthy subjects compared to the patients with frozen shoulder. The reliability of the ultrasonic measurements of the middle deltoid thickness for the patients and healthy subjects was similar.
Conclusion: It seems that ultrasonography is a reliable method for measuring the thickness of the muscles around the shoulder in patients with frozen shoulder and healthy subjects.

Background: The transverse abdominis (TrA) muscle is one of the most important muscles that contribute to the stability of the lumbar spine. Strengthening of trunk muscles that have a significant role in trunk stability is very important in the field of professional sport, sport medicine and rehabilitation of patient with low back pain (LBP). Identifying the exercises that can improve the strength and endurance of these muscles in the efficient way is an important challenge in rehabilitation of LBP patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of maximum voluntary isometric contraction of upper and lower limb muscles on ultrasonic thickness of the TrA muscle.
Methods: This is a pre-test post-test study. Thirty healthy young male subjects with mean age of 23 years were recruited from the university staff and student population (non probability sample). Ultrasonic thickness of the right and left TrA muscle (as an indirect measure of muscle activity) was taken at rest and during maximum isometric contraction of six muscle groups: shoulder and hip flexor, extensor and abductor muscles. Mixed-model ANOVA with repeated measures design were used to analyze data. To further analyses post hoc comparisons were performed with paired t-tests adjusted with the Bonferroni method. The significance level was set at P<0.05.
Results: The result showed that mean TrA thickness on right and left sides during maximum isometric contraction of the upper and lower limb muscles was significantly thicker than in resting position (P<0.001). The type of isometric contraction had a significant effect on the thickness of the TrA muscle on dominant side (P<0.05). As a result, the greatest change in the thickness of TrA muscle on dominant side was observed in hip isometric extension (P<0.05). There was a significant difference between the thickness of TrA during upper limb isometric contraction of dominant and non-dominant side (P<0.001).
Conclusion: Isometric contraction of upper and lower limb muscles especially in hip extension can increase the ultrasonic thickness of the transversus abdominis muscle.

Background: The Multi state Markov models have extensively application with categorization of laboratory marker of CD4 cells for evaluation of HIV disease progression. These models with different states result in different effects of covariates and prediction of HIV disease trend. The main purpose of this study was comparison of four and five states models with the three- state in order to select the model with better prediction ability of occurrence of HIV and finally death in HIV positive people.
Methods: A total of 305 HIV positive people were included in this cohort study in the Iran AIDS center in Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran that entered during March 1995 to January 2005 and then fallowed up to October 2014. The three continuous- time Markov models of three-, four- and five- state models were fitted to data to describe the evolution of a HIV disease Trend over different states.
For comparison of models, two criteria of modification of Akaike’s criterion (DRAIC) and likelihood cross-validation criterion (DRLCV) along with their 95% tracking interval was used. For fitting of these models and estimation of transition matrix and the hazard ratio of gender and treatment independent variables, the msm package of R project for statistical computing, version R 3.2.4 (www.r-project.org) was used.
Results: The results showed that the four- state model has more prediction ability than five-state model for evaluation of HIV disease Trend. In the four-state model, the progression hazard ratio to death for people who received highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) was 0.64 lower than who didn’t get this therapy. Moreover, the progression hazard ratio for men was 2.33 fold in comparison to women. The disease progression hazard ratio to death was 4.9 fold for men in comparison to women.
Conclusion: The (DRAIC) and (DRLCV) criterions showed that the four-state model has more predictive ability of the progression trend of HIV disease in comparison of five-state model.

Background: Iron deficiency in the body is the main cause of anemia, and iron supplementation is probably the best option for iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia in women and young children. This study aimed to explain the challenges of national iron supplementation in female school’s base on the perspective of the stakeholders.
Methods: This study was a qualitative study of content analysis. The data of this study were conducted by focus group discussion, semi-deep interviews with the participation of the target community of students, parents of students, school principals and school health instructors, general manager of the Office of Community Nutrition (Department of Education) includes manager, deputy and school health officer, from October 2016 to January 2017 in city of Gonabad, Iran. Participants were selected through targeted sampling and data collection continued to saturation. Data were analyzed using contractual content analysis method based on five steps of Graneheim and Lundman. Data management was done with NVivo software, version 11 (QSR International, Victoria, Australia), but data analysis and interpretation were done manually.
Results: The findings from group discussions and semi-deep interviews with stakeholders were categorized into twelve themes. The main strength, perceived in "Perceived Individual Benefits" and "Perceived Executive or Management Benefits". The main perceived weakness was "Physical Disadvantages", "Tablets Disadvantages", "Disadvantages of Programming" and "Disadvantages of the Program". The main perceived barriers was "Educational and Information Barriers", "Barriers of Pill Consumption" and "Management and Administrative Barriers". "Modifying the Executive Program", "Individual Perception Modification" and "Reform the Shape of Pills" were suggested as a corrective mechanism from participants’ view point.
Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the most important challenges of the "Schools Iron Aid National Plan" were "Educational and Information Barriers", "Administrative barriers", and "Barriers to Pill Consumption". Therefore, in order to do better, the Iron Supplementation Program requires intervention at individual, interpersonal, inter-organizational, and intra-organizational levels to provide comprehensive support for the program and, ultimately, increase program productivity.

Background: Coronary artery disease today is a major contributor to mortality and morbidity from cardiovascular disease. The drug, interventional and surgical methods are used to treat coronary artery stenosis. Statins are the most commonly used drugs for stenosis and coronary artery disease. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of atorvastatin on LDL and C-reactive protein (CRP) reduction in patients.
Methods: This study was a systematic review and meta-analysis. Articles were selected using the keywords of atorvastatin, LDL, C-reactive protein (CRP) and reduction, and searches in Scopus, Google Scholar and PubMed databases from March 2003 to February 2018. For this purpose, all analytical, clinical trials, cross-sectional, and case-control studies were searched and collected in association with the efficacy of atorvastatin on low density lipoprotein and CRP.
Results: In the initial search, 90 papers were found and evaluated. Finally, 20 papers were analyzed. The studies were published. The total sample size was 21609 persons with an average sample size of 1080 in each study. Twenty studies were entered into the final analysis. The LDL-lowering rate was 51 mg/dl with atorvastatin (I2=98.48, P<0.001). Also, CRP reduction before and after administration of atorvastatin was   1.99 (0.96-3.03) and 0.76 (0.08-1.43), respectively. The results of meta-regression of age-related studies showed that LDL levels were low in studies with lower age, and LDL levels were low in studies with higher age. The results of a meta-regression study of atorvastatin in terms of body mass and the association of low-density lipoprotein with atorvastatin showed that in those with a higher body mass, low-density lipoprotein decreased.
Conclusion: According to the results, the use of atorvastatin reduces the amount of C-reactive protein (CRP). The rate of low density lipoprotein (LDL) reduction was better and faster in young and obese people. It is recommended that people have a proper diet and regular exercise in their daily schedule.

Background: Rotator cuff injuries are the most common causes of shoulder pain and supraspinatus muscle is usually involved. Clinical tests are available and inexpensive tools for assessment of shoulder dysfunctions. The empty can (EC) and full can (FC) tests are considered as shoulder gold standard tests. Recently, hug up (HU) test has been developed to assess the supraspinatus. So far, no ultrasonographic study has compared supraspinatus muscle thickness in these testing positions. The present study aimed to compare the supraspinatus muscle thickness in the hug up testing position with the full can and empty can testing positions in young and healthy women.
Methods: Forty healthy women (mean age 21.62±2.4 years) participated in this cross-sectional-comparative study from April to June 2018 in the Biomechanic Laboratory of Rehabilitation School, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran. The supraspinatus muscle thickness was scanned during rest and contracted states with a 0.5 Kg weight cuff. For contracted states, (A) EC testing position: the arm was at 90º abduction in the scaption plane with the thumb-down, (B) FC testing position: the arm was maintained at 90º abduction in the scaption plane with the thumb-up, (C) HU testing position: the palm of hand was placed on the opposite shoulder with the elbow flexed.
Results: The Bonferroni test showed significant differences (P<0.001) between the muscle thickness in the rest and the testing positions. The muscle thickness in the empty can testing position was significantly less than the full can testing position (P=0.001), no significant difference was found between the muscle thickness in the hug up testing position compared to the full can and empty can testing positions.
Conclusion: All of the empty can, full can and hug up testing positions demonstrated increased mean muscle thickness when compared to the rest position and the greatest muscle thickness was in the full can testing position. It seems that supraspinatus muscle thickness in hug up testing position is similar with empty can and full can testing positions.

Background: Metabolic syndromes have been identified as a major risk factor for people with cardiovascular disease. Metabolic syndromes are defined as a range of conditions including waist-fat, abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, high triglycerides, and HDL. Considering the importance of controlling metabolic syndrome, the research study subject with the mentioned aim is so important in the world and Iran. One of the affecting factors that have reported contradictory results in the previous study are shift work. Therefore, this prospective cohort study was conducted to investigate the relationship between metabolic shift syndromes on labor men.
Methods: This five-year prospective cohort study has been conducted in randomly selected workers (using random cluster sampling) who work in Esfahan’s Mobarakeh Steel Company (the largest steel company in Iran country that located in Mobarkeh city in Isfahan province, Iran) from April 2011 March 2015. In this study shiftwork and metabolic syndromes considered as an independent and dependent variable respectively. In addition, age, education and work experience considered as a controlling variable. In this study, routinely rotating (ROR) and weekly rotating (WRO) shifts were scheduled with a clockwise rotation plan (two mornings, two evenings, two night and two days off for ROR and three morning shifts, three evening shifts, and one day off every two weeks, Fridays always off for WRO shifts). The morning, evening, and night shifts began at 7 AM, 3 PM, and 11 PM, respectively. Day workers (DW) worked from 7 AM to 3 PM on weekdays and had Thursdays and Fridays off.
Results: The study sample included 1321 male workers (mean age=43). Among these subjects, 528 (40%), 155 (12%) and 638 (48%) were day workers, WRO shift workers, and ROR. The 5-year odds ratio (OR) of metabolic syndrome in the ROR shift worker compared to the DW was OR=1.93, P-value=0.044 and for a WRO shift with OR=1.26, P=0.64.
Conclusion: Considering the result of this study increased risk of metabolic syndrome in ROR shift worker rather than DW has been approved but such increase in WRO shift rather day worker had not to be approved.

Background: Emergence from general anesthesia and removing of tracheal tube can be associated with coughing, agitation, and hemodynamic disturbances. Dexmedetomidine is an alpha two adrenoceptor agonist that has effective sedation with less cardiovascular unstability and respiratory depression and may be useful for extubation and prevention of hemodynamic response during tracheal tube removing. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of dexmedetomidine on hemodynamic responses during endotracheal extubation and sedation level in recovery room.
Methods: In an analytical study, fifty women aged 20-50 years old candidate to cholecystectomy under general anesthesia and tracheal intubation were entered randomly to this study in two groups (no. 25) at Imam Khomeini Hospital, Urmia, Iran, and under support of Urmia University of Medical Sciences Urmia, Iran, from May 2017 to May 2018. Ten minutes before end of surgery, 0.8 µg/kg dexmedetomidine in the study group and for the other patients in control group normal saline as placebo were infused over ten minutes. During the emergence phase, blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen saturation were recorded at 0,1,2,3 and 5 minutes after extubation. Also, sedation index was evaluated via the Ramsay sedation score and recorded at recovery room.
Results: Heart rate, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure in patient with infusion of dexmedetomidine were lower significantly at 1,2,3 and 5 minutes after extubation than control group. Data for heart rate, systolic and diastolic pressure, at min 1 after extubation were 81±6 vs. 88±9, 120.64±13.21 vs. 137.52±11.06, 72.84±8.32 vs. 81.36±9.26 in dexmedetomidine and control groups respectively. Data for heart rate, systolic and diastolic pressure, at min 5 after extubation were 73±6 vs. 80±8, 110.64±10.68 vs. 119.88±10.01, 69.84±8.32 vs. 73.48±5.13 in study and control groups, respectively. As well as 80% of the patients in dexmedetomidine group had satisfactory sedation and cooperation in compare to the 28% in control group (P=0.001).
Conclusion: Intravenous infusion of 0.8 µg/kg dexmedetomidine 10 minutes before extubation of endotracheal tube and during emergence, facilitate extubation and lead to hemodynamic stability and satisfactory sedation.

Background: Nowadays, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are among the most common causes of mortalities worldwide. Parathyroid hormone (PTH) has an important role in the pathogenesis of CVDs. The aim of the current study was to compare serum PTH levels between patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI), unstable angina, and normal coronary function.
Methods: This descriptive and analytic study was performed on patients with acute MI, unstable angina, and normal coronary function visiting Imam Ali Hospital of Kermanshah city in Iran, during years 2016 to 2017. Data collection was done from December 2017 to March 2018. Of the patients who met inclusion criteria, 120 were selected by accessible sampling and were allocated into three groups. Serum level of PTH was determined in the three groups.
Results: Among the studied subjects, females and males comprised 43 (35.8%) and 77 (64.2%) respectively. Among those with normal coronary function, 22 (55%) and 18 (45%) were females and males respectively. In acute MI group, women and men comprised 8 (20%), and 32 (80%) respectively. Finally, males and females constituted 13 (32.5%) and 27 (67.5%) in unstable angina group. Based on this study, the overall mean serum PTH level was obtained 18.32 pg/ml. The highest PTH level was observed in individuals with normal coronary function, while the lowest level was recorded in patients with unstable angina. There was a significant difference in mean serum parathyroid hormone levels between the study groups in those with no history of smoking.
Conclusion: Our results indicated that parathyroid hormone serum level can be associated with cardiovascular diseases including unstable angina. There were significant differences in the means of parathyroid hormone level between the studied groups depending on the presence or absence of hyperlipidemia. In vitro evaluation of parathyroid hormone level in suspected subjects should be performed in the case of myocardial infarction, unstable angina and normal coronary, prevented from these diseases by testing.