Payavard Salamat
Year:2013 | Volume:7 | Issue:2|Papers Count:9

Background and Aim: Oxidative interactions such as the formation of oxygen, peroxy radicals and LDL-cholesterol oxidation are involved in the development of atherosclerosis process. This study aims to examine the relationship between serum bilirubin levels and the incidence of coronary artery disease.Materials and Methods: Eighty-five patients and ninety-two healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study. Total and direct bilirubin levels were measured using diazo method. Besides, triglycerides and total cholesterol were determined by enzymatic method, HDL-Cholesterol by polyanionic method, and LDL-Cholesterol by direct method. For statistical analysis of data, SPSS 17 was applied. For qualitative variables, Chi-square and for quantitative variables, t student tests were used. The significance level was set at P=0.05.Results: Direct, indirect and total bilirubin levels were 0.213, 0.375, 0.588 mg/dl for control group and 0.228, 0.365, 0.593 mg/dl for patient group, respectively. No significant difference was observed between the mean values for direct, indirect and total bilirubin in the two groups. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between triglycerides and total cholesterol level figures in the two groups. However, there was a significant difference between HDL-Cholesterol levels (P=0.001), smoking (P=0.031), family history (P=0.006), and mean blood pressure (P<0.001) of the two groups.Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that measurement of bilirubin as a marker for predicting coronary artery disease may be important. In the end, it should be mentioned that the findings of this study are consistent with some previous studies, but incompatible with others in this area.

Background and Aim: Firms are always looking for a way to increase the profitability of products or services. Therefore, the determination of cost of services to achieve this goal seems necessary. Aiming to clarify such costs in governmental units, the present study was designed to explain the allocation of costs based on each unit's activities.Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive study. Using field methods, the data were obtained from the activities carried out in Medical Imaging Center of Imam Khomeini Hospital in 2010-2011. To calculate the expenses of each unit, both direct and indirect costs of that unit were included. Data were analyzed using activity-based calculations. And ultimately, the cost-benefit of services rendered in each unit was calculated based on the difference between revenues and expenses.Results: With the average revenue of 573, 486 rials and a cost of 527, 962 rials per service, the benefit per service was computed to be equal to 45, 524 rials.Conclusion: With the full implementation of the accrual accounting system, the cost of all services can be obtained, and services will be priced optimally in each unit. Besides, the management of all costs and elimination of unnecessary ones will lead to the reduction of the total cost of services while maintaining the necessary efficiency. Moreover, it will enable the organization to survive and develop based on its strategic activities.

Background and Aim: Clinical laboratories, due to their succeptibility to potential risks, are priorities in all activities concerning safety issues in hospitals.Total Quality Management (TQM) is a model considered by WHO for clinical laboratories safety development. This study aimed to assess how safety standards were followed at the clinical laboratories of hospitals affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) based on TQM safety regulations.Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on a research population including TUMS hospitals clinical laboratories in 2012. For data collection, census was applied and sampling was not considered. The data gathering instrument was a checklist measuring seven safety components based on TQM. The validity of the instrument was determined through content validation, and Cronbach alpha was calculated to be 0.82. For the analysis of the results, descriptive statistics including frequency percentage of scores was employed.Results: The safety of research population turned out to be suitable in terms of four factors: designing, existence of general safety items, conducting standard safety activities, and safe disposal of laboratory wastes. Besides, implementation of safety programs and increase in employees' knowledge to cope with accidents were relatively acceptable. The emergency evacuation program, however, was estimated as poor.Conclusion: The studied laboratories enjoy relatively safe conditions, but imperfect implementation of safety protocols can endanger safety conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to take the required correcting measures to ensure full safety in clinical labs.

Background and Aim: One of the most important reasons why organizations are distinguished from each other is the extent to which each applies information technology. Among the most important factors playing a role in the application of information technology are organizational factors such as organizational resources, organizational knowledge, processes, management structure, values and goals, all these elements affect the level of information technology acceptance and application. Therefore, this study aims to determine the degree to which the abovementioned elements can affect the application of information technology by middle managers of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) teaching hospitals.Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive-analytic study conducted in 2010. The subjects comprised 110 middle managers of TUMS teaching hospitals. The data-collection instrument was a questionnaire structured by the researchers, and its validity and reliability were confirmed prior to the study. The response rate was 80%.Results: The participants consisted of 56 (62.9%) males and 33 (37.1%) females. The findings of the study showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between organizational resources, organizational knowledge, processes, management structure, values and goals on the one hand and the application of information technology in TUMS hospitals on the other (p<0.01).Conclusion: The results show that organizational factors have a considerable impact on the application of information technology. Besides, managers and experts should consider the important aspects and effects of these organizational factors.

Background and Aim: Pre-hospital delay is an important cause of increasing mortality in acute myocardial Infarction. There are conflicting data regarding the relationship between sex and pre-hospital delay for patients with acute myocardial Infarction. The aim of the present study was to determine the relationship between pre-hospital delay and sex.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted on 162 consecutive patients with acute myocardial Infarction admitted to Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) in Dr. Heshmat hospital in Rasht between May 2010 and September 2011. A convenient sampling method was used. All patients were interviewed within 7 days after admission by using a data collection form.Results: Mean of pre-hospital delay for women was more than men. Majority of men had chest pain. The women often experienced different and non specific symptoms compared to men. Regression analysis showed no significant relationship between patients' characteristics and pre-hospital delay in women, whilst, prehospital delay was significantly related to perceiving symptoms to be serious and interpreting symptoms to a cardiac origin in men.Conclusion: Results of the current study suggest that pre-hospital delay for women was longer than men with acute myocardial Infarction, as women often experienced no specific symptoms compared to men. Therefore, it recommended that clinicians educate public, particularly women, on acute myocardial infarction to enable them to recognize the signs and symptoms of acute myocardial infarction correctly and realize the benefits of early treatment.

Background and Aim: Plasma leptin, adiponectin (as theadipokines) and related obesity – HOMA index in the obese men are introduced as a predictive metabolic indicators for asthmatic individuals. However, under asthma conditions, role of cariometabolic variables interaction for altering clinical pulmonary indexes aren' t clear. In the present study, the relationship between plasmatic adiponectin to leptin ratio (adipo/lep) with respiratory capacities & HOMA in the chronic asthmatic males are investigated.Materials and Methods: Thirty nine obese males with mild to moderate asthma with an average age of 38±2.6 ys and BMI 31.4±1.06 kg/m2 voluntarly participated in this study. Baseline plasmatic leptin, adiponetin, insulin and glucose levels were determined after 10-12 hours fasting overnight. FEV1/FVC, PEF% and FEF25%-75% were determined by standard method. A pearson correlation test was used to analyse data.Results: There were no significant correlation between WHR, BMI with metabolic risk factors (P>0.05). Relationship markedly observed among HOMA with adipo/ lep ratio and leptin levels respectively (P<0.05), Also a marked negative correlation between adipokine ratio and leptin level was obtained (P<0.05). From view of respiratory efficiency, FVC% and FEV1/ FVC were maingly corrected with baseline leptin& adiponectin levels (P<0.05).Conclusion: Inconclusion, it seems that adipo/lep ratio biomarker plays as a clinical diagnosis index for HOMA index than baseline leptin or adiponectin levels.However, these findings showed that FEV1/FVC & adipo/lept ratios are accounted as valuable indicators for evaluating the obesity syndrome and pulmonary efficiency in the asthma disease.

Background and Aim: Knowledge management is effective in promoting organizational structure, level of services, and universities competency power. The present study was aimed to assess knowledge management effective factors including information technology, organization culture, human resources, and librarians' skills among university librarians in Urmia.Materials and Methods: This analytical survey was conducted on 102 university librarians in Urmia. The data were collected using a questionnaire where its validity and reliability was confirmed by specialists' overviews and Cronbach's Alpha (0.94). In order to analyze the data, first the middle of the effective factors of knowledge management was estimated. Next, synchronic effect of the variables was estimated via multinomial logistic regression. Also Chi-square was used to assess the relationship between majors and sex factor of the librarians considering their perspective on knowledge management.Results: Organizational culture, information technology and human resources are the most effective factors to knowledge management circulation. Also the median degree of the knowledge management process includes knowledge creation and reservation and knowledge sharing and employing, which was 2.7 and 2.2 respectively.Conclusion: Knowledge management is an important factor in human resources and competency environment of organizations. Libraries can with launching of knowledge management circulation, earn some promotions, for example: saving research and development costs, capacity increasing, employers' job satisfaction, maintenance of competency environment and etc.

Background and Aim: Analysis of functions enables organizations to identify their special capabilities and weak points accurately and thus they can enhance capabilities and reduce impacts of threats and obstacles through such analysis. The main goal of this work is investigation of status of Weisbord Model's variables (6 variables) as functional dimensions of management in hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences.Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive - analytical study. The study population consisted of 384 staffs from hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Standardized questionnaire for organization recognition was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics (frequency distribution, frequency percentage) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient and significance level) were used for statistical analysis and data analysis was run using SPSS software.Results: The results showed that there is a significant difference (p=0.0001) in hospitals in terms of the internal situation. Internal situation of all hospitals in the study was evaluated as favorable condition by obtaining 94.5 score out of 125.Among the hospitals, Hashemi-Nejad Hospital with highest score (113) showed the better condition and Rasoul Hospital had the lowest score (87) and lower condition as compared to other hospitals.Conclusion: Necessity of systematic perspective in designing and development of fair compensation mechanism with presence of representatives of employees is an action which can considerably influence improvement of current situation in the hospitals and facilitates achieving predetermined goals of the organization.