MEDICAL SCIENCES JOURNAL OF ISLAMIC AZAD UNIVERSITY
Year:2005 | Volume:14 | Issue:2|Papers Count:12

Background: Ozone (O3) is an unstable gas used commonly for oxidation and disinfection. It is approximately 20 times more soluble than oxygen in water. Ozone is a protoplasmic oxidant affecting the bacterial proteins and inactivates cellular enzymes. It can destroy molds, bacteria and viruses. The present study was conducted to assess the disinfecting ability of ozone on the surface microorganisms.Materials and methods: Eight species of pathogenic bacteria in different concentrations (102, 105, 107 and over than 107 cells per milli liter) were treated with ozone gas. An aluminum chamber with a total capacity of 300L was set within a safety cabinet, where the ozone generator was installed. Different concentrations of 8 species of bacteria were treated with ozone gas at different times (30, 60, 90, 120, 180 minutes). Before and after ozone treatment, the number of bacteria was determined by breed counter method.Results: Among different bacteria treated with ozone, Bacillus cereus revealed the highest resistance to the germicidal effects of ozone. Indeed, concentration of >107 cells/ml of this microorganism was inactivated by the highest ozone concentration (30 ppm). Staphylococcus aureus and Micrococcus spp. with concentration of 107 cells/ml were inactivated with lower ozone concentration (10 ppm), however, Escherichia coli and other gram-negative bacterial pathogens (107 cells/ml) were inactivated in higher concentration of (15 ppm) ozonation. Conclusion: In order to achieve surface sterilization, ozone should be employed with a concentration of 30 ppm, however, if inactivation of nonsporulative bacteria is desired lower ozone concentration of 15 ppm will be adequate

Background: Men violence is a problem threatening the family and the society as well. This worldwide problem was the main subject of the Human beings Rights Conference in Vien in 1997, during which different aspects of men violence including verbal-psychological, sexual, economical and physical and practical approaches to eliminate their complications were discussed.Materials and methods: This study is the first step of a field trial. In an area covered by Isfahan Family Planning Society, 875 married females in reproductive age (15-44 years) were interviewed. Data were analyzed by chi square test using SPSS package. Results: Results have revealed that verbal-psychological violence was by far the most common reported violence (34-62%) followed by sexual, economical and physical violence (5-53%). Conclusion: We concluded that distribution of different violence was influenced by socio-culture transitional period. It means that physical violence is gradually changed to other types of violence.Strengthening family bases may be achieved by promoting humanistic values of women and informing men of their role in the family and the society.

Background: Recently infertility becomes more common. In half of the infertile couples, men are completely or relatively responsible. Therapeutic approaches to infertile males impose great expenses on the family. Present study deals with sensitive clinical or paraclinical methods, other than testis biopsy, that could provide informative data regarding the absence or presence of sperms.Materials and methods: Medical files of 177 infertile men were reviewed. Then findings of physical examination, hormonal studies, past medical history and testis aspiration were compared with hystopathological findings of testis biopsies. All these patients underwent testis biopsy following the initial studies. Spermatid count per tubule was considered to be the major criteria of fertility in patients" biopsies.Results: Of 177 patients, 95 (53.5%) had no chance of fertility due to the absence of mature spermatid or spermatozoa in their biopsies. Testis aspiration has a sensitivity of 86%, specificity of 85% and positive predictive value of 93% to detect sperm.Conclusion: Our results revealed that physical examination, serum hormone assay and testis needle aspiration can not substitute hystopathological studies of the testis biopsy to prove infertility.

Background: Therapeutic effects of lithium in manic-depressive disorders have been clarified. During the present study, the effects of lithium carbonate have been assessed on apomorphine-induced sniffing in rats.Materials and methods: Male albino rats were housed in a glass cylinder and food and water were freely available till 60 minutes before the experiment. Immediately after apomorphine injection the sniffing behaviour was observed directly for 60 minutes. Sniffing was scored every 15 seconds.According to the following scale: 0=absent, 1=sniffing.Results: Intraperitoneal (IP) administration of different doses of apomorphine (0.25,0.5 and 1mg/kg) induced a dose-dependent sniffing response. Chronic lithium carbonate exposure (0.1% in drinking water for 30-35 days) but not acute administration of the drug (320 mg/kg, IP) decreased the response of apomorphine. Administartion of D1 dopamine receptor antagonist, SCH-23390 (0.01mg/kg, IP) or the D2 dopamine receptor antagonist, sulpiride (25mg/kg, IP) did not accompany alteration in apomorphine response in rats treated with acute lithium carbonate. In animals treated chronically with lithium carbonate the blockade of apomorphine response by sulpiride but not SCH23390 was potentiated.Conclusion: It is concluded that chronic treatment of animals with lithium carbonate is able to alter D2 dopamine receptors response

Background: Apoptosis or cell suicide or programmed cell death (PCD) is an important mechanism in both development and homeostasis in adult tissues for the removal of either superfluous, infected, transformed or damaged cell by activation of an intrinsic suicide program. Signals may either suppress or promote apoptosis. Glucocorticoids are well-known signals promoting apoptosis in rat thymocytes.Dexamethasone, as a prototype of corticosteroids, may induce indigenous endonuclease-mediated cell apoptosis. Therefore we apply dexamethasone as a synthetic glucocorticoid in rats. The aim of the present study were to evaluate the effects of dexamethasone on rat cells, study light and electron microscopic changes and of course, demonstrate the relationship between doses of drug and extent of apoptosis.Materials and methods: We organized treatment group consisting of four sub-groups (each including 5 rats), naming T-a, T-b, T-c and T-d, each received dexamethasone intraperitoneally at the dosage of 0.5, 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 mg/kg, respectively.Similarly, four control sub groups were assigned. Six hours after administration, the thymus gland of all treatment and control group rats were ectomized and investigated by light and electronic microscopes.Results: Apoptotic bodies appeared as round or oval cytoplasmic masses with or without contained basophilic nuclear material and well defined cresentric clamps of chromatin in light microscope, weheras, electronic microscope studies demonstrated the peripheral nuclear chromatin form aggregate of osmiophilic granules, which separated from the fibrillar core and irregular cell outline nuclear fragments and whirling endoplasmic reticulum. There was a positive association between drug dosage and severity of apoptosis.Conclusion: Results have revealed that corticosteroids in therapeutic and over-dose excite and stimulate DNA fragmentation in thymocytes. Corticosteroid-induced death of thymocytes is recognized as a calcium dependent process.

Background: Adequate serum level of zinc and selenium is required for normal metabolic performance and successful fertility. The present study was conducted to evaluate the association of serum zinc and selenium in early stage of gestation with the incidence of miscarriage in Iranian women.Materials and methods: One hundred two females were studied in three matched groups. Group 1 consisted of 34 females with miscarriage, healthy parturients (n=34) and non-pregnant females were included in the second and third groups, respectively. Serum zinc and selenium were analyzed by atomic absorption spectroscopy.Result: TSlight increment in zinc level of healthy parturients was observed in comparison with females with miscarriage; however, this difference did not reach the statistical significance. Meanwhile, zinc level of non-pregnant females did not show a significant difference with other groups. There was no significant difference between the selenium level between groups.Conclusion: Serum zinc and selenium level of all three groups of Iranian females were within normal ranges, even higher value for selenium was obtained indicating regional variation in consumption of selenium in diet in different regions of the world. Miscarriage is not related to diet alone in Iranian females.

Background: Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is a group of neoplastic disorder of hematopoietic stem cells characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis. This study was performed to evaluate the clinical course of MDS and determine factors influencing survival in agroup of Iranian patients.Material and methods: During this descriptive-analytical study, clinical manifestations, pathologic and cytogenetic findings of 80 patients with MDS referring during a 16-year period to Modarres and Mehrdad hospitals in Tehran were reviewed.Results: The mean age (± standard deviation) was 57.6±17.6 years (13-85 years). The M/F ratio was 1.6/1. The frequency of the FAB subtypes were: refractory anemia (RA) and refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts (RARS) 54%, refractory anemia with excess blasts (RAEB) 19%, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) 15/5%, refractory anemia with excess blasts in transformation (RAEBT) 11/5%. Anemia was by far the most common symptom (78%). Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed a median survival of 14.6 months and a mean of 21 months. Leukemia occurred in 64% of females and 35.8% of males. The major variables predictive of survival were age, sex, WBC count, LDH, subtype, and the percentage of blasts in peripheral blood smear and bone marrow, however, COX regression revealed the percentage of blasts in the bone marrow as the only independent variable for determining survival (P=0.002).Conclusion: Comparing our data with several other studies one could note that the age of our patients with MDS is lower than western population. Leukemia is more frequent among females and the major prognostic features lie in the percentage of blasts in the bone marrow.

Background: Cancer is a worldwide disease affecting people regardless of their gender, ethnicity, socioeconomical status and culture. Prior investigators believed that cancer-related drugs" side effects have even more deleterious outcomes inducing physical and psychological problems for the patients. They also believed that nurses should instruct the clients and their family and attentive about chemotherapy, prevention and control of its complications. The present study was carried out to evaluate the effect of instructing patient care on knowledge, attitude and performance of the attentives of cancer patients under chemotherapy referring to the university hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences.Materials and methods: It was a quasi-experimental study, during which 42 attentives of the cancer patients were sequentially elected. Data were collected by a questionnaire, using pre and post training and included three parts; 25 questions for knowledge, 9 for attitude, and 11 questions for performance assessment. Results: Results have revealed that most of the attentives (71.4%) had a moderate knowledge level prior to the study, however, all of them (100%) showed a good knowledge level after the training. The same story happened for their attitude (52.4% vs. 90.5%). 64.3% of the attentives showed a poor performance before the training, whereas 85.7% have moved to a satisfactory level of performance after the training. All these differences reached a statistically significant level (p<0.0001).Conclusion: Based on the results the necessity of an educational planning for nurses dealing with chemotherapic patients is really felt