Journal of North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences
Year:2015 | Volume:7 | Issue:2|Papers Count:23

Background & Objectives: Meningitis is one of the important emergencies in pediatrics. Proper and timely treatment prevents high mortality and morbidity of bacterial meningitis. Given that only5% of meningitis are bacterial, finding a sensitive method to discriminate between the two types of meningitis is of clinical importance. In this study procalcitonin levels as a criterion for the diagnosis of bacterial meningitis and aseptic was studied.Material & Methods: This was a case control cross sectional study in which 32 children with clinically suspected meningitis admitted to the hospital were studied. According to the clinical findings and results of CSF analysis, the patients were classified into two groups: bacterial meningitis and aseptic meningitis. For all cases CSF analysis & culture were done and procalcitonin, ESR, CRP & WBC were measured. Twenty healthy children were selected as control group and their procalcitonin and WBC was measured. Data were analyzed by SPSS software. Results: The average age was 42.6 months. There was no significant difference between two groups in terms of age, sex, ESR, CRP and CSF culture. Serum procalcitonin levels in control group were less than 0.5ng/ml. 80% of bacterial meningitis and only one child (8.33%) in aseptic meningitis had serum procalcitonin more than 2ng/ml. Conclusion: Serum procalcitonin level could be used as a useful diagnostic test with the cut of point 0.5ng/ml differentiating healthy subjects from patients with meningitis. and Procalcitonin more than 2 ng / ml can be identified as Cut of Point diagnosis of bacterial meningitis.

Background & Objectives: Increased rate of aging population is associated with a high health care demand and utilization in the elderly. The purpose of this study was to describe the health services utilization among elderly in Kerman.Material & Methods: This was a cross-sectional study in which 600 elderly people were selected using a randon clustered sampling method in Kerman. Data collection was performed using a structured questionnaire. To analyze the data, we used SPSS software ver 17.0 with descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis.Results: In outpatient services, the most sources were private clinics (46.6%), and the most disease was musculoskeletal disorders (37.3%). In patient services, the main sources were public hospitals (55.7%) and the main reason of complaints was cardiovascular disorders (31.5%). Average length of stay in hospital was 3.9 days.The factors related to outpatient health service utilization by the elderly were age (p=0.012), gender (p=0.002), marital status (p=0.025), insurance status (p=0.035), education (p=0.021), screening (p<0.001) and self‐reported health status (p<0.001), and to inpatient services utilization were age (p=0.041), gender (p0.001), insurance status (p=0.003), self‐reported health status (p<0.001).Conclusion: health problems in elderly such as musculoskeletal and cardiovascular have increased demand for health services. As it was showed that utilization of health services in elderly people is a multi-factorial event, thus, proper planning and policy for this increasingly demand is essential.

Background & Objectives: One of the damageable groups in the world that are exposing disproportionately by the risk of HIV and AIDS infection are female sex worker. Due to this fact that AIDS is related with behavior illness, identification of factors influencing the incidence of AIDS -related behaviors in this population is of importance. The objective of this Study is to determine the factors influencing high risk behaviors associated with AIDS in vulnerable women by using a theoretical model.Material & Methods: This research is descriptive analytic study, which was done on 58 sex worker women were taken to prison. The study instrument was dichotomous questionnaire including demographic information and direct / indirect TPB structures that was completed with face-to-face interview by the study participants. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 16 and presented with descriptive and inferential correlation and linear regression model.Results: The constructs of theory of planned behavior explained the variability in intention to high risk behavior related to AIDS by %42. The standardized linear regression coefficients showed that the strongest predictor of intention to high risk of AIDS- related behavior was perceived controls (b=0.404, P=0.003).Conclusion: by considering of the stronger role of perceive control structure on interventional planning in this group, more attention is demanded.

Background & Objectives: Depression is one of the most popular psychological disorders. There are various methods of treatment on it. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of meta-cognitive therapy in reducing depressive symptoms and improving quality of life in patients with MDD has been conducted.Methods and materials: The design was an experimental with pre and post-test and control group. Sampling method was available sampling. The 22 female subjects were evaluated by the psychiatrist for choosing according to DSM-V. Then subjects were put in one of two groups; experimental and control. The experimental group was studied for two months. BDI-II and WHOQOL-BREF were given to the subjects before and after treatment and at the 3 month follow up period. The results were analyzed using mixed analysis of variance.Results: The results showed that meta-cognitive therapy, significantly reduced depressive symptoms (p<0.001) and increased quality of life (p<0.001) in the experimental group in the post-test and follow-up phase.Conclusion: metacognitive therapy created significant changes to reduce depressive symptoms and improve the life quality of depressed patient. This result is interpretable in the context of the third wave of behavioral perspective. It seems that this therapy is effective in reducing depressive symptoms and improving life quality of these patients, therefore it is recommended as an effective therapy for major depression.

Background & objectives: Diabetes is a common endocrine disorder that can lead to hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia. Nowadays, herbal plants are utilized as inexpensive medicines with low adverse effects for treatment of diabetic disorders. In this study, the effect of hydro-alcoholic extract of prosopis fracta leaves was investigated on liver tissue and serum level of malondialdehyde in streptozotocininduced diabetic rats.Materials & Methods: Male rats (n=45) were randomly divided into 3 groups (normal control, diabetic control and diabetic treated with Prosopis farcta extract). Type 1 diabetes was induced in male wistar rats by injection of 42 mg/kg of streptozotocin.300 mg/kg of Prosopis farcta leaves extract was administered after induction of diabetes for 30 days. The group of normal control and diabetic control received normal saline. After tissue processing, histopathological changes of liver were examined under light microscopy. The serum and liver concentration of MDA were determined as thiobarbituric acid reactive substances. Finally, the obtained data were statistically analyzed using Student's t–test and Mann-Whitney rank sum test.Results: Induction of diabetes with streptozotocin caused a statistically significant increases of MDA in serum and liver tissues (p<0.05). Administration of Prosopis fracta leaves extract significantly decreased concentration of malondialdehyde content in liver tissue and serum of diabetic rats (p<0.05).Histopathological findings confirmed the effective role of this extract in treatment of diabetic disorders.Conclusion: Hydro-alcoholic extract of Prosopis fracta could reduce level of malondialdehyde content in liver and prevent lipid peroxidation of cellular membranes associated with diabetes.

Background & objectives: This study was aimed in order to assessment of pregnancy rate and prognostic factor in success rate of oocyte donated IVF cycles in women who candidated for oocyte donated cycle.Methods & Material: This was a prospective study of 100 women who because of different reasons such as premature ovarian failure, genetic problem and decreased ovarian reserve were candidate for IVF cycle with oocyte donation. Prognostic factors including age of donor and recipient, BMI of both, number of oocyte retrieved and embryos, endometrial thickness and emotional state of recipients and pregnancy rate were assessed.Results: in this study pregnancy rate was 59%. Between different parameters BMI of both donor and recipients has statistically significant negative correlation with IVF successes rate. (CI=95% p<0.05) Younger age of donor and recipient has positive but not statistically significant effect on pregnancy rate. With frequent psychiatric consultation all recipients have a good emotional state and completely accepted the baby as her own child.Conclusion: IVF with donated oocyte is a highly successful treatment in women who are candidate for donation. Lower BMI in addition to health status has positive effect on pregnancy rate. Lower age pregnancy for both donor and recipient accompanied with better prognosis.

Background & Objectives: Providing safe water for consumption with low cost is one of the main objective of water supply systems. A main source of nitrate in water is using excessive fertilizer. The high amounts of nitrate in water has a deteriorating effect on the environment and health so nitrate removal must be below the recommended levels of WHO guidelines. The purpose of this study is nitrate removal from aqueous solution by Poly Aluminum Silicate Chloride (PASIC) and Electro Coagulation process (EC).Materials and Methods: This experimental study was aimed to examine efficiency of the effects of various operating parameters such pH (4-11), initial nitrate (25-100 mg L-1), contact time (5-60 min), residual aluminum in finished water by application of EC process and PASIC..Results: The results showed that the applied methods have the ability to remove nitrate from aqueous solutions to levels less than standard those of WHO. PH and electrical potential difference had direct effect while contrast initial nitrate concentration had reverse effect of nitrate removal. The results showed that the coagulant PASIC and EC process, can reach nitrate removal respectively 65% and 55%, so that the optimum condition of the nitrate removal for EC was contact time of 60 min, a voltage of 30 W, pH=10 and for PASIC was Concentration in 5 mg /L, contact time of 15 min, pH=10. Our results showed significant differences between the mean concentration in all variables of the raw water before and after doing all process (P≤0.05).Conclusion: According to our findings PASIC coagulants in removing nitrates AD better performance than electro coagulation process. Given the higher performance of PASIC in the low concentration and natural pH of water than the EC process, it would be more cost- effective and economical. Residual aluminum in finished water was below the recommended WHO guidelines and Iranian standard institute. In terms of cost and efficacy this method could be considered as an alternative method to the drinking water treatment plant

Background & Objectives: In the world rhizome of ginger is used as a food flavoring and in the treatment of many diseases including diabetes. Considering the prevalence of diabetes during pregnancy and cost of chemical drugs that is used in treating the disorder, especially during pregnancy and lactation and their side effects on children, this study aimed to investigate the effect of neonatal and perinatal extract of ginger on insulin levels and enzymes ALT, AST, ALP in offspring of adult rats.Material & Methods: This experimental study was conducted on 72 adult female rats.The rats were divided into 9 groups (N=8) including; perinatal, neonatal control and 6 experimental groups receiving doses of 50, 100 mg / kg 200 mg / kg alcoholic extract of ginger (orally). At the end of the experiments, blood was collected from heart, and the isolated serum from samples was analyzed for the insulin levels and ALT, AST, ALP enzymes. Data were analyzed by using ANOVA and Duncan tests.Results: The results showed that ginger rhizome extract causes significant increase in levels of insulin and significant dose-dependent decrease in ALT, AST, ALP enzymes on male and female offspring.Conclusion: Ginger with compounds, Jinjerols, Sezkuinterpens, selenium, flavonoids and antioxidants and anti-inflammatory stimuli, serotonin secretion and reduce blood glucose has significant effects on insulin levels and enzymes ALT, AST, ALP.

Background & objectives: Staphylococcus aureus is one of the major causes of nosocomial infections. Recently, increase in its various drug-resistant strains, has increased health problems. Incidence of VRSA (vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) strains has created many concerns about the treatment of these bacterial infections. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of Staphylococcus aureus with reduced susceptibility against vancomycinin clinical samples of patientsadmitted to the Ghaem and Imam Reza academic hospitals in Mashhad in 2014.Material and methods: In this cross-sectional study within 7 months, 176 S. aureus isolates obtained from clinical samples and were identified using the biochemical methods. To determine the resistance, the disk diffusion method according to CLSI (Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute) guidelines was used. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was evaluated by the agar dilution method and approved by E.test.Results: Of 176 S.aureus isolates, 68 strains (64.38%) were methicillin resistant. The results of the agar dilution method represented 55cases of VISA (vancomycin intermediate Staphylococcus aureus) and 6 cases VRSA. But, these results confirm the correct with E. Test standard tapes.Conclusion: Emergence of VISA and VRSA isolates has been limited treatment of infections. Therefore, clinicians must be aware of management of patients who are colonized or infected with VISA and VRSA.

Background & Objectives: Meta-Cognitive therapy is an emerging treatment that supposes reducing rumination as an effective component of psychopathology. The present study is an attempt to consider the effectiveness of this therapy to improve patients with insomnia.Material & Methods: This research performed as quasi-experimental pretest - posttest control group design. Among patients with insomnia referred to a psychiatric clinic in Tabriz, 30 patients were randomly divided into 2 groups: intervention and control. Data were collected with Morin insomnia severity index.Results: The results indicate that meta-cognitive therapy has a significant effect on improving patients with insomnia.Conclusion: The results show that meta-cognitive therapy with focusing on rumination can be effective on treating patients with insomnia.

Background & Objectives: One of the main problems of utilizing the surface water sources is the high concentration of its natural organic materials, which result in reaction of chlorine with some organic ingredients in water components called thrihalomethanes, that their carcinogenic risks and destructive effects on respiratory system have been reported in humans and animals. This study aimed to examine the concentration of thrihalomethanes with chloroform index in drinking water in Mashhad city.Material and Methods: This descriptive study was carried out in 2012. The concentration of thrihalomethanes with chloroform index in water distribution network of different regions of Mashhad was measured and examined. A number of 90 randomized samples from water drinking distribution network in the area of refinery Abo & Bargh Mashhad by priority of begging to end were examined by using the gas chromatography Mass spectrometry.Results: The chloroform concentration average in drinkable water distribution network in spring and summer seasons, were 3.5±0.5 mg/l and the mean of chlorine amount remaining in distribution network were 0.6±0.2 mg/l.Conclusion: The results showed that concentration of chloroform in distribution network with 0.6±0.2 mg/l chloride amount was much more lower than accepted limit of trihalomethane in drinking water of institute of standards and industrial research of Iran and of world health organization (200 mg/l) and was lower than the limit recommended by American environmental protection agency (80 mg/l).

Background & Objectives: The major problem of different wards of hospitals is Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Regarding the global importance of this strain to create nosocomial infections, it is necessary to determine the rate of infection in different wards of hospitals. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization in patients admitted to the internal ward of Imam Reza hospital in Bojnurd.Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 150 patients for 4 months in the internal ward of Imam Reza hospital. Methicillin disk diffusion method was applied for detection of methicillin-resistant strains. Susceptibility of Methicillin-resistant strains to commonly used antibiotics was determined by disk diffusion method.Results: From150 patients, 13 (8.7%) were nasal carrier of Staphylococcus aureus, and %10 of cases (76.9%) were resistant to Methicillin.Conclusions: Presence of nasal carriers, indicated presence of Methicillin resistant S. aureus in patients of Imam Reza hospital. Although the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus was not significant, most of the isolates were MRSA that could potentially distribute widely.

Background & Objectives: Neck mass is the most common complaints among patients referred to otolaryngology clinics and involve a wide range of differential diagnosis of localized disease, metastatic and systemic. In addition to the patient anxiety, it is also a diagnostic problem for medical staff.Matherials and Methods: At a Cross-sectional study in 2011 to 2013, after excluding 58 acute infective cases, 203 patients (110 males and 93 females) who have clinically neck mass or masses referred to the ENT clinic of Imam Reza Hospital, Mashhad were selected. The clinical and demographic variables in terms of location, quantity, consistency, cohesion, sensitivity and communication with other organs of the lesion, pathology and disease duration were evaluated. Some patients diagnosed during the study FNA and endoscopy and definite diagnosis of the lesion was determined based on the biopsy result.Results: The most common pathology observed in men was: SCC (37.38 percent), sialoadenitis (11.21%) and Tyrvglvsal duct cyst (7.5%) respectively, and in women was: tuberculosis (18.89 percent), SCC (15.55%) and nodular goiter (7.8 percent) respectively. The possibility of neoplastic cervical mass in men was more than women. The neoplastic lesions rate showed an increase with age (P<0.05).Conclusion: After eliminating the causes of inflammatory, SCC is the most common disease in men and Tuberculosis in women that so often can be seen in the posterior triangle of the neck juglodigastric lymph chain.

Background and Objective: Garlic (Allium sativum) has been considered to be an excellent medical panacea and a natural antimicrobial agent that can be used as an alternative form of treatment of pathogenic infections. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of different concentrations of aqueous extract of garlic powder (AEGP) and aqueous extract of garlic tablet (AEGT) against three gram-negative diarrhea causing bacteria including Salmonella typhimurium, Shigella dysenteriae and Escherichia coli, in vitro.Material and Methods: In this research, aqueous extracts of garlic were prepared using Bakri and Douglas method. Also Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) of AEGP and AEGT were tested through Standard Tube Test. Data were analyzed by Student t Test of SPSS software.Results: The MICs of AEGP and AEGT against on Salmonella typhimurium, Shigella dysenteriae and Escherichia coli were 12.5, 12.5, 6.25 mg/ml and 40, 40, 20 mg/ml respectively. The MBCs of AEGP and AEGT on tested microorganisms were 25, 25, 12.5 mg/ml and 80, 80, 40 mg/ml respectively. The results of present study showed that the inhibitory and bactericidal effects of AEGP was much more than that of AEGT (P<0.05), either on tested microorganisms in vitro.Conclusion: The results of our research indicated that aqueous extract of garlic (AEG) especially AEGP have significant antibacterial effects on the tested diarrhea causing microorganisms, in vitro. Further studies will be needed for pharmacological standardization and clinical evaluation of garlic aqueous extract, in vivo.

Background & Objectives: The formation of food habits begins from early childhoods and is established in adolescence. The mass media especially television is one of the important factors affecting the formation of food habits and child BMI through changing appetite, the desire to consume junk foods and reducing physical activity. Because of childhood obesity had doubled in the past 10 years and to identify factors contributing to obesity and overweight, this study aimed to identify the relationship between the tendency to viewing TV and content of television programs on food groups’ intake and BMI of children.Material & Methods: This Descriptive – analytical cross sectional study was conducted on 114 children aged 2 to 6 years old who were enrolled in kindergartens in Tehran. Data on the level of viewing TV was collected with questionnaire. Data about the content of television programs viewed by children was collected with a validated questionnaire. Food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was completed by the researchers through interviews with parents. Height and weight of children were measured by standardized procedures. The Pearson correlation test and ANOVA were used by performing SPSS version 21 to analyze the data.Results: The results showed that more than 60% of children watched TV more than the daily recommendation (2 hours). Cartoons and child’s programs, television advertisements and movies were the most popular programs of TV in children. Boys were more interested in watching TV than girls (3.16±0.77 vs.2.95±0.71). The results of the analysis showed that BMI significantly increased in children by the increase in their interest in watching TV (p=0.008). There was a positive significant correlation between the time spent on watching television and age (p=0.032), intake of snacks and desserts (p=0.018) and simple sugars (p=0.012).Conclusions: According to the result of this study, the probability of watching TV in preschool children increase as they grow older. Also Increasing tendency to watch TV leads to an increase in BMI and consumption of junk foods.

Background & Objectives: Thyroid is a vital gland, which affect all of the body oragans such as heart, digestive system, kidney and so on. The intention of this research is to decreas in wrong determination of normal thyroid gland from abnormal using boosting algorithm. This algorithm is a powerful method in diagnosis and prognosis. It iteratively grows base classifer on a sequence of reweighted datasets then takes a linear combination of consequencs and we hope improves accuracy at final.Material & Methods: A total of 103 patients’ data corrolated to November 2010 until November 2011 from Shoushtar salamat laboratory were analyzed for detemination thyroid gland state. Conventional decision trees and boosting decision trees were made for diagnosis normal thyroid gland from abnormal thyroid gland using R softwere vedersion 3.0.1.Results: Our findings revealed that for conventional decision trees misclassification rate, sensitivity and specificity with test set were 0.088, 0.91 and 0.92 respectively .However these figures considered by boosting desion trees were 0.029, 0.955 and 1 crrespondingly.Conclusion: The boosting decision trees had possibily superior sucsses in diagnosis normal tiroid gland ftom unnormal. So using boosting decisin trees propose in determination thyroid gland state.

Background & Objectives: Nowadays, the use of extracts of plants for cure of bacterial infections is beloved on scientists. In this study, the effect of various extracts of aerial parts of Scutellaria pinnatifida on typical food-borne pathogens was studied. Scutellaria pinnatifida from labiatae family and scutellaria genus is endemic to Khorasan province.Material and Methods: After preparation of methanol, dichloromethane and ethyl acetate extracts with maceration method, the presence and amount of phenolic compounds was evaluated and antimicrobial activity of Scutellaria pinnatifida was examined with disc diffusion and well diffusion methods in the positive and negative bacteria.Results: staphylococcus aureus with highest diameter of the inhibition zone, was sensitive bacteria in disc diffusion and well diffusion methods. There wasn’t any effect on the negative bacteria. Methanol extract had highest amount of phenolic compounds. The results showed in the aerial parts of plant, ethylacetate extract had highest effect and dichloromethane extract had lowest effect on the bacteria.Conclusion: The results showed that diameter of the inhibition zone of aerial parts extract of this plant on S. aureus and B. cereus were differentiable to positive control such as Gentamycin and this plant was similar to Gentamycin for inhibition of positive bacteria.

Background & Objectives: The instruction of life skills is an effective way to improve the healthy personality and mental health of adolescents. In this regard, cognitive emotion regulation strategies are one of the most important factors in the favorite growth of adolescent. The current study aimed to determine the effect of life skills training in cognitive emotion regulation strategies of Bojnurd adolescents.Material & Methods: Using pre test and post test with control group experimental design 48 high school students were selected through random multi cluster sampling method and randomly assigned to control and experiment group. The experimental group received 10 sessions ' life skills training. Both groups completed the short form of cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire before and after the intervention. The data was analyzed by ANCOVA.Results: The results showed that the difference of modified means of experimental and control groups in cognitive emotion regulation strategies is statistically significant. In the other word, life skills training led to reduction in self-blame, rumination, catastrophizing and other-blaming maladaptive strategies and increase in acceptance, positive refocusing, positive reappraisal, refocus on planning and putting into perspective adaptive strategies.Conclusion: life skills training is the basic correlates of cognitive emotion regulation strategies so it can help adolescents to improve their psychological and emotional capabilities through designing effective intervention programs.

Background & Objective: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by synovium inflammation and articular destruction. mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) could be effective in the treatment and prevention of several autoimmune diseases.The present study aimed to investigate the effect of molecules secreted by mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for the prevention of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) in rats.Method & Materials: Supernatant of MSCs obtained from rat bone marrow derived MSCs culture. In prevention group, rats treated with collagen-adjuvant emulsion and MSC supernatant on days 0 and 7. In control group, we used from clutter medium instead of MSC supernatant for rats treatment and other cases were similar with prevention group. We also used from rats without any treatment as health control group. From day 7 through day 35after immunization, we investigated onset of CIA, paw swelling and clinical score in rats. We also determined histopathological features of joints and bones.Results: We have found that supernatant of MSCs significantly delayed the onset of CIA and decreased paw swelling, bone destruction, inflammation of synovial and clinical score in prevention group compared with rats treated with culture medium in control group.Conclusion: Taken together, we conclude that molecules secreted by MSCs cells aren' t able to prevent CIA in rats, but they can delay time of CIA induction and also decrease severity of arthritis and local and systemic tissue lesions.

Background & objectives: The aim of this study was evaluation of Life Skills Training Program in junior high school.Materials & Methods: This was a Semi-experimental study. In this relation, from four cities of Kerman, Mashhad, Isfahan and Shiraz, two schools were randomly selected. Girls and boys from experimental schools were compared with those of control schools. Collectively 1428 students were selected. At the end of the educational term, researcher- developed questionnaire from educational materials of each class were completed by both of the experimental and control groups. Then knowledge of two groups was analyzed by SPSS-14 software.Results: Our study showed that the effect of life skills training was significant in only one city. In the most cities, the knowledge of girls in the field of life skills was significantly higher than boys (Kerman: 11.12 Vs.7.5, Mashhad, 11.79 Vs.10.93, Shiraz 10.33 Vs.7.06, Isfahan, 15.89Vs.8.31) and there were siginificant differences between girls and boys in Kerman (F=52.56, P<0.01), Shiraz (F=55.22, P<0.01), and Isfahan (F=133.58, P<0.01). But there was no significant difference in Mashhad. In the most cities, knowledge of life skills of lower grades’ students was significantly higher than students in higher grades. MANOVA revealed that the differences in all cities were significant (Kerman, F=76.9, P<0.01, Shiraz F164.12, P<0.01, Isfahan F=54.56, P<0.01 and Mashhad F=86.22, P<0.01).Conclusion: According to the results, there are sexual and developmental differences in life skills training that should be considered. In addition, evaluation of preventive programs as a serious matter is demanded.

Background & Objectives: acute upper respiratory infections (URI) are one of the most common infections in childhood. It is estimated children younger than 5, suffer from 4 to 8 episodes annually, andURI incidence is 2 million children all around the world. The aim of this review was to evaluate and summarized studies about relation between probiotic and upper respiratory tract infection in children.Material & Methods: The articles were identified by searching the Cochrane Library, PUBMED, Scopus and MEDLINE, IranMedex, Google Scholar, Ovid, Science Direct, Margiran, Scientific Information Database up to December 2014.We selected key words regard to MeSH Database (probiotic AND respiratory infection AND children).Results: Nine types of probiotics were used on 2261 children in these studies, included KB29, CRL-431, BB-12, TH-4, FOS, CRL431, DSM17938, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacteriumbifidum. Only two studies reported the side effects of probiotics.Conclusion: these studies revealed that probiotic administration could reduce the duration of upper respiratory tract infection and decrease the loss of school days.

Background & Objectives: Diabetes is a common disease and one of the biggest health problems in countries. Self-care is known as a health-promoting behavior. According to the studies, spiritual beliefs affect health behaviors. This study aimed to determine the relationship between religious orientation and selfcare in patients with type 2 diabetes having referred to diabetes clinic in Bojnurd city.Material & Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was conducted on 196 patients with type 2 diabetes who had referred to the Diabetes Clinic in Bojnurd city through available sampling method. Data collection tools included the demographic data, and two standard questionnaires; Toobert’s self-care and Alport’s religious orientation. Data were entered into SPSS 18 software and were analyzed using ANOVA, t-test and correlation coefficient.Results: The results of this study showed that the mean score of self-care was 26.7±14.43, and that of internal and external religious orientation were respectively 22.34±6.09 and 33.97±10.64. Self-care had a significant relationship with external religious orientation, but was not related to the internal religious orientation. Age and education had a significant relationship with self-care and external religious orientation.Conclusion: According to the results of this study, holding religious events, even for pretension purposes will lead to the increase in self-care in diabetic patients. Therefore, in addition to the current, it is recommended to include religious-cultural programs as well as common programs of the health centers to improve self-care conditions in people with type 2 diabetes.

Background & Objectives: Premenstrual syndrome is existence of one or more symptom and sign from a large collection of signs, before menstruation. Given the role of women in family stability and peace, any decrease in their pivotal activity or emotional disturbance could affect this balance. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of premenstrual syndrome on marital relations.Materials and Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out on 96 employed women in health centers. Anxiety, stress and depression were rolled out with DASS -21 scales. Premenstrual syndrome was confirmed with short questionnaire PMS within 7 days before menstrual phase and 2 days after menstrual phase for two menstrual periods. Marital relationship of cases with premenstrual syndrome diagnosis was assessed by RDAS questionnaire.Results: The results showed 27.5% of cases were of mild premenstrual syndrome, 56% moderate, 9.9% severe, and 5.4 percent were severe. The relationship between marital relationship and premenstrual syndrome was significant (P=0.024). According Tukey test women with severe and very severe premenstrual syndrome received lower marks in marital relationship.Conclusions: Premenstrual syndrome could affect marital relationship, so it is recommended that women with premenstrual syndrome receive the necessary knowledge about its effects on their life and effective method to improve the symptoms.