Payavard Salamat
Year:2011 | Volume:5 | Issue:4|Papers Count:11

Background and Aim: Candida species are among the most common causes of opportunistic fungal diseases. Among Candida species, Candida albicans is responsible for most infections. Having many strains, C.albicans is highly polymorph. C. dubliniensis is very similar to albicans species both morphologically and physiologically. For an infection to occur, cell wall proteins play an important role as they enable yeasts to adhere to host cells and begin pathogenesis. Therefore, we decided to extract these proteins and examine them through molecular methods of protein analysis. Finally we came up with the idea of a modified staining in our analysis.Materials and Methods: Initially cell wall proteins of two C. albicansstrains (CBS 562 & PTCC6027) and one C. dubliniensis strain (CBS 7987) were extracted by using a solution of beta-mercaptoethanol and ammonium carbonate. After dialysis, SDS gel electrophoresis was performed on the protein extract. Bands were then visualized by using three different staining methods among which one method was modified by us.Results: By using Coomassie Brilliant Blue staining method, proteins with molecular weight of 42, 66.2 and 200 kDa were detected. By using Silver staining method, proteins with molecular weight of 21.5, 28.5 and 37 kDa were detected. However, using combined staining methods visualized more bands resulting improved detection.Conclusion: To answer many questions about fungal diseases, fungi cell wall proteins are necessary to be examined. A simple method to enhance such molecular studies is the use of a modified staining method that combines both Coomassie Brilliant Blue and Silver staining.

Background and Aim: High blood pressure in children, especially in developing countries is growing. Birth weight, age and anthropometric parameters such as current height and weight as factors in childhood hypertension and adolescents have been considered. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of hypertension in children school and it's correlation with birth weight and current height and weight.Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectional study, between 2006-2008 among 1195924 students in Tehran's schools, 2040 individuals were selected by multistage random sampling method. Inclusion criteria were age 6 to 19 years, physical health and having health card. The twins, students with hypertensive and smoker mothers were excluded. Statistical analysis was conducted by SPSS software version 16. The multiple regression analysis equation was used to determine the predictors of blood pressure levels.Results: 69 students (3.4%), including 4.84% of girls and 3.5% of boys had high blood pressure (p=0.14). Significant direct correlation between age, current weight, current height, and body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure was found. However, birth weight has a weak reverse linear correlation with systolic and diastolic blood pressure (respectively=-0.152 and r=-0.111, p<0.001).Conclusion: Attention to Current size, especially Current weight with consideration to birth weight can be helpful to predict blood pressure in adulthood. This is important in monitoring the weight and blood pressure in children, especially child with an abnormal birth weight and overweight children.

Background and Aim: Underlying factors of Obesity is various and the main aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of obesity and some socio-demographic related factors among Iranian northern primary school children in year 2010.Materials and Methods: This is a crossectional-descriptive study that was performed on 7399 primary school children (3934=male and 3465=female) from 112 schools that were chosen by two step sampling (cluster and simple random). The number schools were equal with respect to residential area and sex. Center of Disease Control and a prevention (CDC) criterion was used for comparing anthropometric indexes.Results: Linear regression analysis revealed that weight, height and BMI increase 2.70 kg, 4.62 cm and 0.42 kgm-2 in boys (P=0.001) and 3.12 kg, 5.19 cm and 0.52 kgm-2 in girls (P=0.001) in each of years, respectively.Highest and lowest obesity was observed in Gomishan and Ramian districts, respectively. Results of logistic regression analyses showed that the risk of overweight and obesity was 1.203 times in male as compared to females [1.078-1.341, CI 95%], 1.382 times in urban as compare to rural areas [1.240-1.541, CI 95%] and 2.297 times in high economic group as compared to low economic group [1.911-2.761, CI 95].Conclusion: Obesity was a health problem in primary school children in Golestan province and urbanization and rise of economic status was a risk factor.

Background and Aim: Investigations have indicated that general health is associated with behavior style and interpersonal relationships. The present study was performed in order to investigate the relationship between general health and leadership style in managers at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, and its effect on job satisfaction in staff.Materials and Methods: 33 managers and 132 staff were randomly selected. Participants completed Pourbaneh leadership style, Goldberg general health and Herzberg job satisfaction questionnaires. In order to analysis data Pearson correlation coefficient, independent t test and Chi-square were used.Results: There is a positive relationship between manager's general health and their leadership style and also between manager's leadership style and job satisfaction in staff. Also there is no significant difference between numbers of managers in 4 kinds of leadership styles.Conclusion: Empathy, self awareness, high motivation and self confidence, are characteristics that cause positive relationship between general health and participative leadership style. These characteristics also increase self-confidence, motivation and thus increase job satisfaction in staff.

Background and Aim: Since managers' efficiency depends on their communication skills suitable for their employees, this study was conducted to determine such skills among Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS) managers.Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 298 SUMS employees working at different departments were selected through simple random sampling technique. The data-collection device was a 21-item questionnaire having 3 parts: verbal skill, effective listening, and feedback communication skills. The data were analyzed using SPSS software. Statistical tests employed included Pearson correlation, T-Test and ANOVA, and the level of significance was determined at 0.05.Results: The respondents' mean age was 32.7 years. Most of them were female, had a bachelor's degree, and worked in logistics department. According to their judgment, their managers had good verbal and effective listening skills, but were average in their feedback. The highest score for communication skills was reported for the students' department and the lowest score for the research department. Older and more experienced employees evaluated their manager's feedback skill (p=0.001) at a lower level. The statistical test indicated a significant relationship between feedback and level of education (p=0.001).Conclusion: It seems that the intermediate level of effective listening and feedback skills are due to the managers' lack of sufficient scientific and practical attention to the issue of communication. Therefore, it is recommended that educational workshops be held for managers to make them familiar with the importance of effective communication skills.

Background and Aim: The provision of high-quality services is considered as a prerequisite to the success of responsible organizations. Using SERVQUAL model, the present article seeks to delve into the quality of services provided in outpatient clinics as judged by patients in case-study hospitals throughout Tehran.Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive research in which 242 subjects were studied at the outpatient clinics under investigation throughout Tehran using a standardized questionnaire named SERVQUAL (1988).Results: The results of a t-test revealed a meaningful difference between the patients' perception and their expectation about 5 factors (tangible elements, reliability, assurance, accountability and collaboration) affecting the quality of services in clinics. The patients rated ‘assurance' as the most important factor (4.41) and ‘accountability' as the least important of the 5 factors (2.21).Conclusion: The results indicate that the application of SERVQUAL model enables hospital managers to evaluate the quality of services as evaluated by patients as their most important clients and enhance the quality of such services through proper planning and removal of deficiencies.

Background and Aim: Today, one of the challenges of doctors is how they can access medical information as quick as possible.Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and Smartphones are such information technologies that can be used to access health information. This study aimed to review the most important uses of Personal Digital Assistants and Smartphones in medicine and in accessing health information.Materials and Methods: The researchers searched Pubmed, Google Scholar and Scopus to collect relevant articles about the use of PDAs and Smartphones among healthcare professionals. In this search, such terms as Handheld Computer, Smartphone, Personal Digital Assistant, Mobile phone and their synonyms were considered.Conclusion: With regard to the vast amount of information produced daily, PDAs and Smartphones are useful devices for physicians and medical students because they can easily get the most recent bits of information at the point of care, and improve their medical knowledge through these devices.Utilization of PDAs and Smartphones in Medical Centers will improve the efficiency and quality of health services.

Background and Aim: Over the past decade, the number of private centers providing health care services in Iran has had a continuous growth and the highly competitive market in private hospitals industry has caused increasing pressure on them to provide services with a higher quality.The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of services being provided in private hospitals of Tehran as judged by patients.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2010 in Tehran. The study sample comprised 983 patients, randomly selected from 8 private hospitals. The survey instrument was the standard SERVQUAL questionnaire. Wilcoxon, t-test, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for statistical analyses.Results: The total mean scores of patients' expectation and perception were 4.92 and 4.02, respectively. The highest figures were related to the tangible factors dimension and the lowest ones to the empathy dimension.The differences between the perception and expectation for all the 22 items and the 5 dimensions were found to be statistically significant (p<0.001).Conclusion: SERVQUAL is valid and reliable in hospital settings as a standard tool for the assessment of quality. The results of the present study have revealed the areas that need to be improved as far as the patients are concerned. Measuring the opinion of patients can help facilitate the provision of hospital services, and improve the quality of such services and patients' satisfaction.