Pars Journal of Medical Sciences
Year:2012 | Volume:10 | Issue:3|Papers Count:11

Introduction: Quality of life is an important criterion in evaluation of medical treatment and status of health and well being, contributing to the prediction of mortality rate in hospitals. QOL may be affected by diseases and their related complications. This study aims to investigate the relationship between the quality of life (QOL) of hemodialysis patients and demographic variables.Materials and Methods: In this descriptive analytic study, SF36 questionnaire was used to examine the QOL of 60 hemodialysis patients in Kerman.Results: The mean score of the QOL in hemodialysis patients was 49.83±17.56. The maximum of score was related to the physical activity domain (57.09) and minimum score was given to the vitality domain (43.85). The relationship between quality of life and age, job, literacy and marriage was significant.Conclusion: Our results revealed that the QOF in hemodialysis patients was less that in than normal people. It was shown that these patients need to live a happy life. Therefore, appropriate mental support and instruction on compatibility methods can increase their QOF.

Introduction: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is the most common endocrine problem seen in children and adolescents; it is one of the main diseases which damages the body organs such as disrupt hypothalamic pituitary-gonadal function if blood sugar is not well controlled. This study aimed to find the correlation between Glycosylated Hemoglobin and menstrual cycle length in Type 1 diabetic adolescent referred to Iran Diabetes Association.Materials and Methods: This is a prospective longitudinal study. The subjects consisted of 60 diabetic girls aged 11-19 years selected by easy sampling method. The research instruments included a questionnaire, HbA1c sample laboratory test, interviews on the biophysical data. Data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistical tests.Results: Our results showed that 86.6% of the patients had normal menstrual cycle.10% had oligomenorrhea and 3.33% amenorrhea. No one had primary amenorrhea. There was no statistically significant correlation between the mean HbA1c and menstrual cycle length.Conclusion: In this study, blood sugar rate and HbA1c in adolescents showed no significant effect on the menstrual cycle.

Introduction: Depression, anxiety and stress are common problems among spinal cord injury patients because of their routine problems in leading their life. So, the main aim of this study was determining the effect of stress inculation training (SIT) on the rate of resilience, anxiety, depression and stress in these patients.Materials and Methods: This is a quasi-experimental research on 32 spinal cord injury patients in Tehran. The type of their spinal cord injury was paraplegia and five year had passed from their spinal cord injury; the cause of their injuries was car accident and their age ranged from 23 to 36 years. The patients were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. After the participants filled out the questionnaires of Conner Davidson and DASS-21, stress inculation training (SIT) was provided to educated to the experimental group for 8 sessions, each lasting 90 minutes. Then, both experimental and control groups complete the questionnaires again. The data were analyzed using Co-variance (Ancova).Results: The results showed that stress inculation training increased the resiliency among spinal cord injury patients (P£0.048). Stress inculation training reduced the rate of depression (p£0.046) and stress (P£0.022) among spinal cord injury patients. However, stress inculation training did not change the rate of anxiety among spinal cord injury patients (P£0.473).Conclusion: It is concluded that SIT plays an important role in increasing the rate of resiliency and reduces the rate of depression and stress among spinal cord injury patients.

Introduction: Several factors, such as nutrition, body mass index and physical activity, are involved in the incidence of osteoporosis. Thus, this study was conducted to determine the pattern of nutrition, physical activity level and body mass index in women with osteoporosis.Materials and Methods: 100 osteoporotic patients participated in this research. The patients were classified based on their body mass index and physical activity level. Daily intake of nutrients was evaluated using Food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and 24 hour recall. Questionnaires and data were analyzed in DFP and SPSS.13 softwares using the sample t-test and Spearman-correlation.Results: According to the results, 50.5% of the patients were in the overweight and obese groups and 89% of them had low activity or were inactive. Average consumption of zinc, magnesium and copper in all age groups and average consumption of calcium in women older than 51 years was significantly less than the recommended dietary allowances (RDA)(P<0.001). However, the average consumption of phosphorus, iron, and vitamin C in all age groups was significantly higher than RDA (P<0.001).Conclusion: The result showed that obesity and low activity are common in osteoporotic patients. The intake of the nutrients with positive effects on the bone density is less than the standards recommended.

Introduction: Free living amoebas are opportunistic pathogens that usually exist in different environmental conditions such as warm and polluted water, even in water supply networks and they could cause serious diseases in humans. So, due to their medical importance, identification of free living amoeba in water resources is necessary.Materials and Methods: Water samples were collected from 70 water wells, 30 water resources and 20 water supply networks in the first six months of 2010. Then, the samples were cultured on non-nutrient agar and the amoeba were collected and stained by Giemsa stain for morphological studies.Results: 42 out of 120 samples (35%) contained free living amoeba. Out of them, 31 samples (73.81%) were polluted with one amoeba and 11 (26.19%) with one amoeba. The frequency of Acanthamoeba species (39 cases) was higher than that of Neagleria (14 cases) and the wells were more polluted than others (44.40%). Based on morphological characteristics, four pathogenic ameba were identified (Naegleria fowleri, Acanthamoeba polyphaga, A.castellani and A.astronyxis).Conclusions: The results showed that water resources contained free living amoeba and some important and pathogenic species of these amoebas were identified by morphological characteristics. Thus, it is necessary to employ new methods for disinfection and filtration of water resources so that the infection with free living amoeba and infectious agents is prevented.

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate the effect of brain lateralization on the function of memory. In other words, this study was an attempt to find out if brain lateralization is effective on the function of memory.Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on 190 university students of Ahwaz Payam Noor University, using random cluster sampling (55 right-handed girls, 40 right-handed boys, 55 left-handed girls and 40 left-handed boys). They completed the Handedness Questionnaire of Chapman (1987), Word-fragment Completion and Yes/No Recognition Test. This study consisted of four sessions. First, the participants completed Handedness Questionnaire of Chapman. Then, they studied 30 frequent words, and completed Word-fragment Completion Test and finally did the Yes/No Recognition Test.Result: The results showed that the explicit memory was different between right-handed and left-handed students (P=0.004), but there was no difference between the two groups in implicit memory (P<0.614). Also right-handed girls were significantly different in explicit memory from right-handed boys, left-handed girl and male students.Conclusion: There were significant differences between right-handed and left-handed students in explicit memory and this difference was also observed between right-handed girls with right-handed boys and left-handed girls and boys.

Introduction: Benign prostatic hyperplasia is a common disease in men for which surgery is a method of treatment. In some cases, due to bleeding transfusion is required during the surgery. In this study, the need for blood transfusion and its effective factors in the candidates of surgical intervention were investigated because of benign prostatic hyperplasia.Materials and Method: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, the ratio of transfusion and effective factors was analyzed in 700 referred patients undergoing prostatic surgery in Imam Reza hospital during 1386-1389.Results: Of total 700 patients, only 14 received blood (2%). As to the type of surgery, 64.3% in the transfused group, and 28.8% in the group without transfusion underwent suprapubic surgery; the difference between them was significant statistically (p=0.01). 50% of the patients in the transfused group, and 86.4% in the group with no transfusion had HCT<35; this difference was also significant (p=0.002). Other factors such as age or basic disease were not significantly different in the two groups.Conclusion: Due to the low percentage of transfusion (2%), its relationship with the type of surgery, HCT, and the costs of blood storage and crossmatching, it is suggested that only for cases with HCT less than 35 and candidates of suprapubic surgery packed cells should be reserved. For other patients, other tests such as antibody screening can be used. This test is less expensive and easier than the previous tests; in addition, in this type it is not necessary to prepare blood before surgery.

Introduction: Several factors such as glutamate and dopamine affect appetite, food and water consumption. Recent research has shown that the release of these two neurotransmitters from their relevant neurons is involved in the central ascorbic acid (AA) release, and the released ascorbic acid can modulate their effects. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of intracerebroventricular injection of ascorbic acid on food consumption in male rats at light phase.Materials and Methods: For this purpose, 50 NMRI rats weighing about 250-300 g were selected randomly and divided into 5 equal groups including control, sham (ascorbic acid solvent), and 25, 50 and 100 mg/10 ml ascorbic acid. First, the animals were annulated (within the right ventricle of the brain). Seven days after the recovery period, all the drugs were injected into the right brain ventricle, after 12 h of food deprivation. Then, the animals were put in the metabolic cages equipped with computer software and the number of container reference and food intake was measured. The amounts of food consumption every 60 minutes and for about 4 hours after injection were recorded.Results: The findings showed that intracerebroventricular administration of ascorbic acid decreased food intake at all three doses, which were important in dosage of 25 mg (P<0.05). Also, the number of container reference was reduced in ascorbic acid groups compared to the control group. All three doses of ascorbic acid also reduced food intake. This reduction was significant only in the 100 µg ascorbic acid group (P<0.05).Conclusion: Findings show intracerebroventricular injection of ascorbic acid affects the animals’ feeding and its effect occurs possibly through interference with the brain chemical mediators, particularly dopamine and glutamine. The cellular involved mechanism must be identified with molecular research.

Introduction: Growth curve is a simple and inexpensive means used for evaluation of children’s health and nutrition, and growth. There was an attempt in this study to find the relationship between children’s growth and the factors affecting it using growth curves.Materials and Methods: This study was analytical. According to other studies and the prevalence of 54% of children under the fiftieth percentile, the sample size was determined 385and the children were below 6 years of age. Chi-square test was used to examine the existence of an index such as malnutrition and its relationship with maternal milk, formula and other factors. Growth and its relation to other factors were determined by the Linear Mixed Model.Results: This study revealed that 63.6% of children who were breastfed had educated fathers, while 38.6% of those who were breastfed had fathers with primary education. This difference was statistically significant. 62.1% of mothers with primary and 39.8% with university education breastfed their baby; the difference was also statistically significant. Maternal job was significantly associated with birth weight (P<0.01). The process of child’s weight gain showed no correlation with nutritional status whereas it showed a relationship with weaning. So, the children were weaned earlier had a lower rate of weight gain.Conclusion: This study showed that parental education and awareness play an important role in children's growth. Although there was no relationship between weaning and the parents’ education, both factors were separately influential on the growth of the children. The mothers’ education was especially important in this regard.