Pars Journal of Medical Sciences
Year:2011 | Volume:9 | Issue:2|Papers Count:10

Introduction: Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) is one of the best typing methods which is highly effective in molecular epidemiological studies in different areas. All bacterial isolates are typeable by PFGE and the results are highly reproducible. As this technique is very sensitive and the least variation in the parameter leads to lack of result or false positive, in this study we tried to optimize this method and eliminate the technical problems to obtain accurate results for comparison of different strains in epidemiological studies.Material and Methods: To assess the genotype pattern of Escherichia coli strains by PFGE method, we studied different parameters such as concentration of DNA molecules of the sample and their relationship with the enzymes concentration.Results: After different examinations, the best optical density for bacterial suspension in the wavelength of 610 was found to be within 0.6-0.7 nm and the best concentration of XbaI enzyme was 150 units. The appropriate time for proteinase K effect was 7 hours.Conclusion: It seems that the parameters used in this study are the most essential factors in the establishment of an effective PFGE method. With due attention to this experiment, researchers can use this method more efficiently than before for epidemiologic studies and comparison of different strains.

Introduction: Brain death leads to increased activity of cytokine, which can lead to renal graft dysfunction in the recipient. This study aims at reviewing the cytokine levels in brain death donors and living ones and their relationship to early renal graft function in recipients.Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 104 patients who had received kidney transplant, from brain death and living doners. Serum levels of cytokines IL2 (Interleukine2), IL6 (Interleukine 6), TNFa (Tumor necrotizing factor a) in the donors before transplantation and serum creatinine levels and urine output after operation in the recipients were measured.Results: Of all the patients, 63 cases (60.6%) received kidney from brain death donors (group 1) and the rest from the living donors (group 2). The urine output and creatinine changes in the two groups were similar over time, no significant differences were found. There were high levels of IL2, IL6, and TNFa in brain death donors before transplantation and a statistically significant difference was observed between brain death and living donors. IL6 levels before transplantation was higher in those who donated kidney to the group suffering from acute rejection and there was a significant difference between the groups not undergoing rejection.Conclusion: Based on the results, there are high levels of cytokines in brain death donors before transplantation. Among them, the serum level of IL6 is associated with an increase in acute rejection in kidney transplantation.

Introduction: Breastfeeding and the complementary feeding have a prominent role in the growth and development of children. This survey was designed to assess the nutritional status of children under two years in urban and rural areas of Jahrom.Material and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study on 435 children aged 18-24 months and living in rural and urban areas. Data were collected through a questionnaire and descriptive and analytic statistics were employed.Results: In this survey, the mean (±SD) age of the children was 20.86±3.305 years. Exclusive breast feeding was 55.4 percent and the mean (±SD) age of exclusive breastfeeding was 5.49±1.64 years. Moreover, 26.9 percent of the children were fed with artificial milk. The mean (±SD) age to start supplementary feeding was 6.040.956 and that of continuation of breast feeding until 2 years of age was18.58±5.321.Conclusion: Considering the considerable lack of exclusive breast feeding and its resulting complications and consumption of about two times as much artificial milk in the urban as compared to rural areas, it seems that there should be an attempt to educate mothers on the disadvantages of lack of exclusive breast feeding and advantages of breastfeeding specially in rural health care centers.

Introduction: Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) or Kala-azar is an important parasitic diseases caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania including L. donovani, L. infantum. Epidemiological evidences show that VL is frequently common in some areas of Jahrom district in Fars Province. This study aimed to characterize the causative agent of VL in this region.Materials and Methods: Bone marrow sample was obtained from 16 VL patients from Pediatric hospital in Jahrom town. DNA was extracted from the microscopic slides and checked by specific PCR to find out the species of the parasite. To do it, a segment of minicirclekinetoplast DNA was amplified, using LINR4 and LIN17 primers. Products of PCR were evaluated by electrophoresis, using 1.5% agarose.Results: Anti-leishmania antibody was detected in all patients by IFAT. Examination of bone marrow smears demonstrated numerous amastigotes of Leishmania (Leishman bodies) in the samples. All the samples produced a 720 bp band in PCR assay. The isolates were compared with reference strains and revealed that all the isolates are L. infantum.Conclusion: Our findings showed that species characterization with one-step PCR by LIN17 and LINR4 is simple and fast; it was also confirmed that the causative agent of VL in Jahrom is L. infantum.

Introduction: The major cytokine involved in the beginning of the acute phase response is IL-6 which causes synthesis of some proteins in the liver like CRP. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of acute physical exercise on some inflammatory predicting factors of cardiovascular diseases in healthy non-athlete adolescents.Material and Methods: We selected 15 non-athlete boys through systematic random sampling among volunteers aged 15.4 ± 0.9 years. First fasting blood samples were collected in the testing session and each subject cycled with 65 to 70% VO2max for 30 minutes. Blood samples were collected to measure HS-CRP and IL-6 immediately after and one hour after completing exercise, respectively. We used analysis of variance with repeated measurements to analyse the data and LSD test to determine the difference among phases.Results: There was a significant increase in interlukine-6 serum values immediately and 60 min after exercise and in reactive protein 60 min after exercise.Conclusion: It was concluded that doing acute physical exercise can lead to an increase in serum IL-6 and CRP in healthy adolescents and with regard to the effect of intensity, duration, exercise type and fitness level on the amount of immune response, there is a need to pay more attention to offering physical exercise leading to fatigue for healthy non-athlete adolescents.

Introduction: Febrile convulsion is the most common neurological disorder in children below the age of six. Considering the important role of mothers in controling the disease, the present study was carried out to assess the mothers' behavior based on the Health Belief Model about prevention of febrile seizure in children in Arak city.Material and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted on one hundred women with children under 2 years of age. Data were collected through a questionnaire based on HBM (perceived susceptibility, severity, barrier and benefit and cues to action and performance checklist about prevention of febrile convulsion. The data were collected through organized interviews and finally analysed.Results: The findings showed that the amount of perceived barriers in mothers with weak performance was more than that in other mothers, and the two groups revealed a significant difference. Poor functioning was more commonly seen in illiterate mothers or those with primary education, and the two groups showed a significant difference. Percived susceptibility in mothers with low literacy and poor performance was also lower than the others (P<0.05).Conclusion: Considering the fact that most mothers in this study performed poorly in preventing seizures caused by fever, increased awareness, severity, intensity and perceived benefits and reduced perceived barriers performance in preventing further seizure-induced fever were increased. Therefore, a strict educational program based on Health Belief Model for the health of children is recommended.

Introduction: The present research aimed at decreasing the stress and inhibition due to discharge of effect with written structure in patients who suffer from psychosomatic symptoms.Material and Methods: After using the perceived stress questionnaire and defense mechanism questionnaire, eventually 43 patients who were suffering from psychosomatic disorder were selected among the patients who had referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran. They had obtained M>21 in perceived stress scale, and their repression mean scores were more than 11.5. This research was conducted based on a quasi-experimental design. Then, they were selected through available sampling and randomly assigned into two groups of experimental and control. After instruction on written emotional expression, the data were gathered and analyzed using T-test.Results: The analysis of data revealed that emotional expression significantly declined the perceived stress levels among subjects of in the experimental group in comparison to the control group (P<0.05). Furthermore, inhibition scores among the experimental group, compared to the control group, had significantly decreased after emotional expression contribution (P<0.05).Conclusion: These findings suggest that although emotional expression was very painful in the days which were written, it had positive effects on declining stress levels in the long-term. Also it made a decline in inhibition so that it helped the patients improve their health condition.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to investigate variations of hematological parameters following two bouts of concurrent endurance-resistance exercises.Material and Methods: Eight physical education students (age 21±1.51 years, height 178±5.57 cm and weight 74.25±8.85 kg) took part in this study. The subjects performed two sessions of concurrent endurance and resistance exercises for 90 minutes in the morning and afternoon evenly. In order to measure hematological variations (WBC, RBC, HCT, HB, MCH, MCHC, MCV, PLT and PV) before, immediately after and 3 h after exercises, the subjects were asked to take fast overnight for 12 h. Blood samples (5cc) were taken from an anticubital vein. The data were analyzed using a 1-factor repeated measure ANOVA and bonferroni post hoc test and the significance level was considered as (P£0.05).Results: According to the obtained data, significant increases in WBC 3 h after exercises and PLT immediately after exercises were observed (P£0.05). Also, there were significant decreases in HCT, HB and RBC variables 3 h after exercises (P£0.05). However, there were no significant differences in MCH, MCHC, MCV and PV (P>0.05).Conclusions: With regard to the decrease in the effective hematological factors in gas exchange and its likely effects on active muscle oxygenate and the increase in the immune factors and coagulation after two exercise sessions, it is suggested that the coaches and athletes take the performance of repeated and concurrent exercises into account.