Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Nausea and vomiting is one of the most common complications after the strabismus surgery. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of atropine versus ondansetron administration on the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting and duration of recovery stay in patients undergoing this procedure.
Methods: In this case-control study, 90 patients between 3 to 30 years old who were candidates for elective strabismus surgery in Farabi Eye Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, from February to April 2019, were randomly divided into three groups (placebo, ondansetron and atropine group). Patients who had taken hypnotic drugs while entering the operating room were excluded. In all patients, after arriving into the operating room and installation of standard monitoring equipment and peripheral vein implantation, anesthesia was induced by receiving 0.05 mg/kg midazolam, fentanyl 1 μg/kg and propofol 2.5 mg/kg. After induction of anesthesia, placebo group was compared with ondansetron group and atropine group that received 0.1 mg/kg ondansetron and 30 µg/kg atropine, respectively. The rate of postoperative nausea and vomiting, duration of recovery stay and satisfaction of recovery nurses were recorded and compared between groups.
Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the three groups in terms of mean age, weight, and gender. It seems that group matching is appropriate and there are no confounding factors for demographic variables. Administration of atropine and ondansetron significantly reduces the incidence of nausea and vomiting postoperatively and in recovery. There was no significant difference in the incidence of nausea and vomiting between the atropine and ondansetron groups. Duration of recovery stay was decreased after ondansetron and atropine administration versus control group. Postoperative laryngospasm and bronchospasm were not observed in any of the three groups after surgery and at the time of recovery. The satisfaction of recovery nurses in both atropine and ondansetron groups were higher than control group.
Conclusion: It seems that the administration of atropine as much as ondansetron can be effective in reducing the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting and the length of recovery stay in patients who undergoing strabismus surgery.

Background: Botulism is mostly caused by Clostridium botulinum neurotoxin which has been described as a bilateral symmetric descending flaccid paralysis. Preventing and responding to botulism outbreaks is a public health emergency. In this study, the disease is reported in a family.
Methods: In a case series study, during an outbreak, four members of a family with symptoms including paralysis, ptosis, blurred vision, diplopia, weakness, dysphagia, dry mouth, respiratory problems, vertigo, and lethargy, referred to Loghman Hospital of Tehran. Among the patients was an elderly woman and a pregnant woman. All clinical signs and symptoms of the patients were recorded daily in a researcher-made questionnaire from 27 August to 3 September 2018. At the time of admission, vital signs (pulse rate, respiration rate, and body temperature) of patients were stable and within normal limits. Following clinical suspicion of food-borne botulism in these patients, samples of the first two patients, including serum, stool, gastric secretions, and homemade whey were sent to the Botulism Laboratory of Microbiology Department of Pasteur Institute of Iran for the mouse bioassay.
Results: Type A neurotoxin was detected in homemade whey after the mouse bioassay. Therefore, foodborne botulism was confirmed in patients with laboratory results. Patients included two men and two women with a mean age of 52.7 years old. The length of hospitalized days was between 2 and 6 days. Two of the patients were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Patients under study were fully recovered with timely diagnosis of the disease, treatment with antitoxin, and supportive care.
Conclusion: When conscious patients referred to the hospital with symptoms of paralysis, foodborne botulism is an important differential diagnosis. On-time diagnosis and antitoxin treatment can prevent serious complications.

Background: Arterial pressure is one of the most important physiological variables and often needs to be monitored repeatedly or continuously in perioperative period. Arterial pressure monitoring is one of the standard monitoring in operating room. During general anesthesia, blood pressure can be measured by using a noninvasive arterial pressure method or continuous invasive arterial pressure by an invasive arterial line. Comparison of invasive measurements in the patient’s candidate to esophagectomy has not been assessed. The aim of this study was to compare invasive and noninvasive blood pressure in these patients.
Methods: In a prospective, cross-sectional, observational study, 42 hemodynamically stable patients candidate for esophagectomy under general anesthesia in supine position were evaluated at Urmia Imam Khomeini Hospital operating room from June 2017 to April 2018. The patients had American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status II or III and the patients who had complete heart block and marked arterial blood pressure differences greater than 10  mmHg in the two arms were excluded. After induction of anesthesia and patients monitoring, the radial artery was cannulated for invasive blood pressure monitoring and noninvasive blood pressure was measured via the arm cuff on the other hand at the four-time intervals: after radial artery cannulation (T1), during release of esophagus (T2), during anastomosis (T3) and at the end of operation (T4).
Results: The mean difference between indirect and direct systolic blood pressure was 0.85±2.93, -8.42±2.9, 6.50±3.60 and 2.67±2.6 mmHg and for diastolic blood pressure was 3.53±2.67, 4.57±2.22, 2.10±2.58 and 1.03±1.53 mmHg respectively, at the T1 to T4. At the all-time intervals, there were no statistically differences between systolic and diastolic blood pressure measurement regarding invasive and noninvasive blood pressure (P=0.77)
Conclusion: Noninvasive arterial blood pressure showed acceptable agreement with invasive measurements for systolic, diastolic and mean pressure. According to fhe finding of this study, there were no statistical differences between systolic and diastolic blood pressure measurement regarding invasive and noninvasive blood pressure and these two methods can be used in selected patients.

Background: It is difficult to treat infections caused by Acinetobacter baumannii due to multiple drug resistance. The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of combination therapy with two broad-spectrum antibiotics colistin and rifampin on clinical and para clinical indexes of the patients with ventilator-dependent pneumonia due to imipenem-resistant to A. baumannii in intensive care units of a tertiary hospital.

Methods: In a descriptive cross-sectional study, fifty patients admitted to the intensive care units in Vali-Asr Hospital, Arak, Iran, from October 2014 to May 2015, with established ventilator-associated pneumonia were subjected to this study and were treated with standard dosage of colistin and rifampin daily. Once the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the A. baumannii isolates were susceptible to colistin (MIC˂2 µg/ml) and rifampin (MIC˂2 µg/ml) they were treated with three million international units of colistin in 100 ml of normal saline three times a day and 600 mg of rifampin daily. Side effects of combination therapy and variables of patients like fever, blood pressure, white blood cell count, differential count and, mortality were documented and statistically analyzed.
Results: 31(62%) patients were improved after combined treatment with colistin and rifampin, 4(8%) patients were died due to bloodstream infection with A. baumannii and 15(30%) passed away in effect of other reasons. The mean of BUN (P=0.07) and creatinine significantly increased (P=0.02). Clinical variables such as fever, white blood cell count, white blood cell percentage and red blood cell sedimentation rate significantly decreased (P≤0.05).
Conclusion: Colistin and rifampicin appear to be an effective and safe combination therapy for treatment of ventilator-dependent pneumonia due to imipenem-resistant to A. baumannii 

Background: The ineffectiveness of hemodialysis fistulas causes high costs and increases mortality and morbidity rates. The efficacy of drug-coated balloon and nondrug-coated balloon in dysfunctional arteriovenous Fistula was evaluated over six month period.
Methods: In this randomized clinical trial, a total of a total of 50 hemodialysis patients who referred to Imam Reza Hospital in Kermanshah for failing of arteriovenous fistula in 2018 year, were randomly divided into two separate groups of drug-coated balloon angioplasty and non-drug coated balloon angioplasty. All of these procedures were done with the same surgeon. Patients were followed-up for 6 months. Variables and data of patients like age, gender, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and location of arteriovenous fistula were documented and analyzed by SPSS software, version 21 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) using statistical tests. T-test and chi-square test were used for data analysis and the significance level was considered less than 0.05.

Background: The Electronic Health Record contains personalized health care information. Several factors affect the quality of SEPAS (Iranian electronic health record) data, disregarding the types of hospital information system set-up in hospitals. The purpose of this study was to investigate users' views on the factors affecting the data quality of Iranian Electronic Health Record (SEPAS) in hospitals affiliated to Mashhad University of Medical Sciences.
Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018. In this study, the views of supervisors of the SEPAS system, HIS chief officers, and head of health information technology departments of hospitals were evaluated through a valid and reliable researcher-made questionnaire. Content validity ratio and content validity index of the questionnaire were validated as 0.82 and 0.94, respectively. Furthermore, the internal questionnaire reliability was affirmed by Cronbach's alpha of 0.96. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics in the SPSS v.16 software.

Background: Lung cancer is a disease with high mortality rate that conventional drug treatments have not been successful in controlling it. The activity of iron chelators in various studies has been considered by scientists as a new treatment strategy. The primary objective of this study was to synthesize a novel Fe3O4 thiosemicarbazone complex and investigate its anti-proliferative activity against A549 cells of lung cancer.
Methods: This experimental study was carried out in Islamic Azad University of Rasht Branch, from September of 2018 to September 2019. First thiosemicarbazone (PTSC) was synthesized by the method of the condensation reaction of amine and aldehyde groups. Also, the Fe3O4 nanoparticulates were synthesized using the co-precipitation method in the presence of glutamic acid. Then, Fe3O4@Glu complex functionalized with bio-reactive PTSC moiety. Besides, morphological characteristics of Fe3O4@Glu/PTSC complex were determined by scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. The cell viability was detected in 62.5, 125, 250, 500, and 1000 µg/ml for treated cells with Fe3O4@Glu/PTSC complex via MTT assay. Changes of NDRG1 gene expression the level in treated cells were investigated via qRT-PCR analysis. Therefore, total RNA was extracted after culturing the cells and cDNA of NDRG1 and GAPDH genes as the study and control gene was obtained, respectively. Ultimately, the level of NDRG1 gene expression was compared with level of GAPDH mRNA expression via the 2^{– ΔΔCt} method.

Background: Obesity is associated with chronic inflammation in obese subjects, which leads to an increase of inflammatory cytokines. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of different intensity circuit resistance training on levels of interleukin 1 beta and interleukin-10 in obese men.
Methods: In a semi-experimental trial during May to August 2020, 44 obese men from Tehran city were selected and randomly divided into 4 groups including 1) control (n=11), 2) low-intensity circuit resistance training (n=11), 3) Moderate intensity circuit resistance training (n=11) and 4) High-intensity circuit resistance training (n=11). Resistance training was performed in different intensities including1) High-intensity circuit resistance training: three sets of 10 repetitions with 80% 1RM 2) Moderate intensity circuit resistance: three sets of 13 repetitions with 60% 1RM and 3) low-intensity circuit resistance training: three sets of 20 repetitions with 40% 1RM, three sessions per week for 12 weeks. Also, the control group had their daily life during the 12-week research period and were prohibited from participating in regular exercise. Serum interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) levels were measured using an ELISA kit. Data were analyzed with covariance analysis at P<0.05.
Results: Twelve weeks of low, Moderate and high intensity circuit resistance training significantly decreased IL-1β levels (P=0.001) and increased IL-10 levels in obese men (P=0.001). The decrease of IL-1β was significant in the high-intensity training group compared to low intensity (P=0.009) and moderate-intensity training groups (P=0.046). Also, the increase in IL-10 levels was significant in the high-intensity training group compared to the low-intensity (P=0.002) and the moderate intensity training group compared to the low intensity training group (P=0.004).

Conclusion: According to our findings, resistance training has a positive effect on inflammatory and anti-inflammatory factors in obese men, and high-intensity circular resistance training had more benefits.

Background: There is some demand for nasogastric tube insertion in unconscious or ICU patients. Nasogastric tubes are generally made of flexible plastic materials, prone to twisting and deviation by the tracheal tube, when passing through the pharynx and esophageal opening, making it difficult to insert the NG-tube properly. We hypothesized that NG-tube insertion with help of guidewire can significantly increase a successful first-try insertion rate in contrast with the conventional "neck flexing" technique in unconscious intubated patients.
Methods: One hundred adult intubated patients, in the emergency ward at Sina Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences were enrolled in this prospective clinical trial study from February 2020 to July 2020. These patients were randomly divided into two groups, with and without use of the guidewire insertion technique. Parameters such as successful NG tube insertion average time, first and second try failure, total failure and occurrence of complications such as kinking, twisting, sticking, moderate hemorrhage and traumatic injuries to the nasopharynx pathway were studied.

Background: Statistical models are used to investigate the relationship between variables in statistical studies. Considering the variety of statistical models, finding the most suitable model is a complex work. This study aimed to compare different models in the treatment of infants' colic and the misspecification of specificity.
Methods: This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 100 infants with colic in the pediatric clinic of Amir Kabir Hospital in Arak, the intervention and control groups were randomly divided into two groups. The collection and analysis of the data was performed in 2016. After teaching massage to mothers of the intervention group, they were asked to perform massage on infants three times a day during the week. In the control group, mothers can relieve the symptoms of colic by shaking the infant. Parents recorded the number and severity of crying daily in the checklist. Finally, by using different models, R software, SAS, and goodness of fit, the best model was introduced.

Background: Posturography is a method in which the postural stability of adults is evaluated by measuring the center of pressure sway. This study aims to evaluate the reproducibility of measuring the center of pressure oscillation in standing position with internal perturbation in healthy young women with and without hyperkyphosis.
Methods: Ten women with dorsal hyperkyphosis with the mean age of 23.5±2.65 years and 10 healthy women with the mean age of 21.9±1.3 years (October 2018 to February 2019) were recruited for the study. Subjects were asked to perform rapid bilateral arm elevation while standing on a force plate. Standard deviation of the amplitude and The standard deviation of the velocity of the center of pressure sway in anterior-posterior, Medio-lateral directions and the area of sway were used for statistical analysis. Measurements were carried out by one examiner with a 1-day interval in The Biomechanics laboratory of The School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. The relative reproducibility of the measurements was calculated by Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC), standard error of measurement (SEM) and minimal detectable changes (MDC).

Background: Medical malpractice is a serious problem in the health care system. This study aimed to review the medical negligence in Iran.
Methods: Based on the PRISMA checklist, a search for scientific records was done separately by two researchers. All the articles that had selection criteria were evaluated in terms of methodological quality. Medical malpractice was assessed in four main divisions including negligence, Lack of skill, Carelessness and non-compliance with government regulations). The bias test was performed using the Egger’s test. Revman software was used to analyze the data.
Results: In the present study, 25 studies that examined the country's medical malpractice from April 1994 to March 2018 were included in the meta-analysis. Negligence has been implicated in 1,105 cases of the 2,068 claims. Lack of skill in 255 out of 2068 cases, 432 cases of carelessness and 244 cases of non-compliance with government regulations Were recorded the results of the meta-analysis showed that OR negligence was 0.76 (CI 95%: 0.66-0.87), lack of skill was 0.61 (CI 95%: 0.49-0.76), carelessness was 0.62 (CI 95%: 0.50-0.76) and non-compliance with government regulations was 0.66 (95% CI: 0.60-0.73). In the review of the confirmed negligence ratio of the registered complaint files, only 19 studies mentioned this ratio. The results of the meta-analysis of these 19 studies showed that the OR ratio of the confirmed negligence of complaints was 0.6 (95% CI: 0.41-0.86). From all claims, General surgeons had OR of confirmed medical malpractices, equal to 0.47 (CI 95%: 0.37-0.60), gynecologists with OR equal to 0.49 (CI 95%: 0.36-0.66), general practitioners with OR equal to 0.43 (CI 95%: 0.30-0.63) and orthopedic specialists with an OR of 0.44 (CI 95%: 0.32-0.61).

Background: The risk of anesthesia increases with age, so it is necessary to choose a safe and effective method. In this study, we compared the effectiveness of intranasal fentanyl with intravenous fentanyl in patients undergoing cataract surgery.
Methods: This study was a triple-blind prospective randomized clinical trial (The patient, physician, and data analyzer were unaware of the patient grouping). The study was performed from April 2017 to March 2019 in Feyz Hospital, Isfahan, Iran. 90 patients over 18 years of age who were candidates for cataract surgery were included in the study and were divided in two groups receiving intravenous fentanyl (IVF) or intranasal fentanyl (INF). The dose of fentanyl in both groups was 1.5 μg/kg with a maximum of 100 μg. In the IVF group, 1 ml of normal saline was dripped into each nasal passage 10 minutes before surgery and intravenously fentanyl was injected 2 minutes before surgery. In the INF group, 1 ml of fentanyl was administered into each nostril 10 minutes before surgery and 2 ml of saline was administered intravenously two minutes before surgery.

Background: Asthma is the most prevalent chronic disease in childhood and has been growing globally over the last three decades. Studies in this regard indicate different and irrelevant results in Iran. Different prevalence of asthma has been reported in industrialized countries, prevalence of 25.9% in the United Kingdom, 12.8% in Spain and 31% in Australia. This study aimed to evaluate asthma in Iranian children through systematic review and meta-analysis.
Methods: This study was performed as a systematic review and meta-analysis from January 2001 to December 2018. Related articles to the reviewed subject were obtained through searches of Scopus, ScienceDirect, Magiran, SID, Medline (PubMed), and Google Scholar databases. Cross-sectional studies were selected for inclusion in the study and observational studies as well as review studies were excluded from the study. Searches on Google search engine and the inspection of sites related to the topic were also incorporated to examine the grays literature. Duplicate articles and articles that were similar and obtained from the same source were removed through the EndNote software. The total number of articles was 896. Subsequently, the number of articles and studies that met the requirements of the first stage was 274. Ultimately after the elimination of 236 irrelevant articles and the elimination of 5 articles in the secondary examination, eventually 33 articles were added to the final stage. By the I² index, the heterogeneity of the studies was investigated and reported.

Background: Early outcome prediction of hospitalized patients is critical because the intensivists are constantly striving to improve patients' survival by taking effective medical decisions about ill patients in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). Despite rapid progress in medical treatments and intensive care technology, the analysis of outcomes, including mortality prediction, has been a challenge in ICUs. Hence, this study aims to predict the mortality of patients admitted to ICUs using data mining techniques.
Methods: In this study, among the cases of patients who were admitted to ICUs of the Rasoul Akram and Firoozgar hospitals of Tehran City, Iran, from December 2017 to March 2018, the first 24 hours of the ICUs admission data of 874 cases were gathered. A new model based on the standard methodology CRISP was developed. In the modeling section, two well-known data mining techniques called artificial neural network (ANN), K nearest neighbor (KNN) and decision tree (DT) were used. WEKA 3.9.2 open-source software was implemented for data analysis. Finally, according to the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity criteria and AUC-ROC Curve, the superior model was introduced.
Results: Based on the WEKA results, 19 variables had the most impact on the mortality prediction of patients admitted to ICUs including Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), mechanical ventilation, surgical service at ICUs admission, gender, temperature, serum creatinine, diabetes, Blood urea nitrogen (BUN), age, addiction, International Normalized Ratio (INR), PH, Partial Thromboplastin Time (PTT), albumin, hemoglobin, glucose, pulse rate, hematocrit (HCT), PO2.  Based on the created models, some rules have been extracted which can be used as a pattern to predict the probability of mortality. Although the AUC of the three models was acceptable (KNN 81.5%, ANN 77.5% and DT 74.3%), but the accuracy of decision tree J48 (74.2%) was higher.

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells are non-hematopoietic stromal cells that are used in the treatment of many chronic and autoimmune diseases by modulating the immune system. Due to the limitations of using autologous mesenchymal stem cells, the use of allogeneic stem cells is a promising therapeutic approach in the treatment of immunological disorders. This study aimed to investigate the ability of allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells to induce Programmed death-ligand 1(PD-L1) expression on the surface of splenic lymphocytes and the role of this molecule in the mesenchymal stem cell-treated cells tolerogenicity. 
Methods: This study was conducted from February 2019 to December 2020 in the department of Immunology of Mazandaran University of medical sciences. Mesenchymal stromal cells were isolated from the femur and tibia of C57 mice. C57 bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells were co-cultured with allogeneic BALB/c splenic cells. After 72 hours, the expression of PD-L1 on the surface of splenic lymphocytes was evaluated by flow cytometry. Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) and Interleukin-10 (IL-10) cytokine assay were done in the cell culture supernatant. Mesenchymal stem cell-treated BALB/c lymphocytes were then exposed to allogeneic C57 splenocyte as stimuli in the mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) and the rate of proliferation was assessed by CFSE.

Background: Cholecystectomy is one of the most common abdominal surgeries and its preferred method is laparoscopy. The difficulty of laparoscopic cholecystectomy in diabetic patients is not clear and the preferred method of cholecystectomy in these patients is still under controversy. Therefore, this study was performed to evaluate the difficulty of laparoscopic cholecystectomy in diabetic and non-diabetic patients.
Methods: This retrospective analytical study was performed in Shahid Beheshti Hospital and Forghani Educational and Medical Center from April 2019 to April 2020. Samples were easily selected and 86 people in two groups of diabetic and non-diabetic patients were included in the study. All patient records were reviewed based on inclusion and exclusion criteria for factors such as age, sex, diet, duration of surgery, bleeding, adhesions, and open surgery, and finally, diabetes as a risk factor. It was compared between the two groups. Data were analyzed in SPSS software version 22, an independent t-test was used to analyze quantitative data and the chi-square test was used to analyze qualitative data. In this study, a significance level of less than 0.05 was considered.
Results: Abdominal scar, palpable gallbladder and gallstone were not significantly different between the two groups (P=0.33). But the history of cholecystectomy attacks was significantly different between the two groups (P<0.05). Laboratory values were not significant (P>0.05) . Hard operations in diabetic patients were more than nondiabetic
patients and even two cases of open surgery were seen in the group of diabetic
patients, but there was no significant relationship (P=0.09). Intraoperative bleeding was
statistically significant between the two groups (P=0.02), But adhesion during the
operation was not related (P=0.38).
Conclusion: Finally, our study showed that diabetes can be a predictive risk factor for the difficulty of cholecystectomy.