HAKIM RESEARCH JOURNAL
Year:2007 | Volume:10 | Issue:1|Papers Count:15

Use of substances to enhance performance seems to be as old as competitive sports itself.There is no consensus regarding a comprehensive and universally accepted definition of doping between sports audience and authorities and it has been defined through a variety of viewpoints. Drugs frequently misused in Iran include anabolic steroids, growth hormone and diuretics; these may be associated with several and sometimes lethal consequences. Convincing data on the prevalence of drug misuse in elite sports are difficult to obtain because the athletes involved in the practice will normally deny their illegal activities. However, the existing evidence indicates that the use of performance enhancing drugs in elite-level sport is now widespread. Unfortunately, doping is increasingly growing in our country. Some studies regarding the point and lifetime prevalence of steroid misuse in Iran have estimated them in the ranges of 10.7-59% and 26-100%, respectively. There are special dilemmas regarding doping in Iran: Athletes usually have no access to expert consultants and frequently get their information from coaches and traders who are not often very well informed. Also, the rate of drug misuse among amateur athletes is high. Furthermore, athletes commonly use drugs which are inappropriate for their sport discipline or may result in various side effects. Inaccessibility of standard supplements is another problem. Three main measures used to combat doping include in-competition drug testing, out-of- competition testing and education of target groups. It seems that education is one of the most efficient and cost effective anti-doping activities.

Nowadays, there is a growing demand for prioritizing research activities based on the subjects associated with health care. In fact, health resources have not increased in developing countries, and despite the increased burden of diseases in these countries, the research budget allocated to dealing with health related issues has not increased in developing countries. Priority setting in health system is a response to the current challenges. For the priority setting process to be collective and participative, involvement of all stakeholders concerned could prove helpful. In the present article, the priorities in health system were set through needs assessment Methods: This project was formulated by needs assessment and involvement of the interested stakeholders as well as users of the health services with the aim of priority setting in health care system in 7 provinces of the country. A unique guideline was proposed to the executing universities as a preliminary guide. The project was implemented using qualitative and quantitative methods.Results: Results of the prioritization of the problems in health system indicate that accidents have the highest frequency, with the environment, water and food health ranking second in frequency.Conclusion: It is the duty of health care system of a country to resolve its health problems. To this end, primarily, problems should be identified. Accordingly, the limitations of the priorities set by the health system must be recognized, and research titles have to be determined for each. The basis of this process is the consensus of the stakeholders concerned on the priority lists.

Evaluations of the quality of food proteins have great biological and economical importance. However, biological, microbiological, chemical and combined methods have been used and introduced for determining quality of proteins. Among the existing methods, NPR, RNPR, TPD and PER have been suggested as appropriate methods for determining quality of proteins. This study was conducted to evaluate the quality of wheat flour and soya protein mixture using the mentioned methods in 2003.Methods: Forty-eight male Wistar rats, aged 21-23 days were randomized into bundles of 8, and each group was assigned one of the 6 diets. Three groups were used to study RNPR and PER for wheat flour and soya mixtures, casein+methionine and control (free Protein). The conditions of studying of RNPR and PER were the same with the exception that the duration of study on PER was 28 days and without limitation on Protein intake. To study TPD, the remaining 3 groups were fed the same diets. The period of the study for NPR was 14 days. Protein intake and weight gain were determined for calculating NPR. The period of the study for TPD was 9 days, and nitrogen intake and fecal nitrogen were determined for calculating TPD. Protein intake and change in weight of animals were determined. Rate of NPR, RNPR, TPD and PER were compared by t- test.Results: NPR values were calculated as 2.7±.3 and 4.3±.48 for wheat flour and soya mixture and casein+methionin, respectively (P<0.0001) with RNPR=64.1. TPD values were 82.7±5.3 and 93.4±2.2 for wheat flour and soya mixture and casein+methionin, respectively (P< 0.0001). PER amounts were 1.15±.12 and 3.04±.24 for wheat flour and soya mixture and casein+methionin, respectively (P< 0.0001).Conclusion: Wheat flour and soya mixture protein has low quality as compared with casein.

This study was done to compare refractive errors, along with probable risk factors between carpet weavers and blue-collar workers.Methods: This was a historical cohort study, in which 188 carpet weavers (with a past history of prolonged near work) and 131 blue-collar workers (without any previous record of near work) were randomly selected. They underwent refraction (dry and cycloplegic), keratometry and biometry.Results: Mean cycloplegic refractive error was more negative in carpet weavers and blue collar workers (p<0.05) and the prevalence of myopia in carpet weavers was higher than blue-collar workers. On the contrary, the prevalence of hyperopia in blue-collars workers was more than carpet weavers (p<0.05). The axial length of eye and corneal refractive power in carpet weavers was more than blue-collar workers.Conclusion: According to above results, carpet weavers were more myopic and other blue-collar workers were more hyperopic. This may be the result of near work in carpet weavers.

PCP remains an important opportunistic infection in HIV- infected patients. In HIV- negative individuals, PCP is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Among immune suppressive agents, the role of steroids is prominent. In this article, we report two cases of PCP due to incorrect use of steroids.

Iranian medical journals which are usually published by the medical universities and research centers play a major role in representing the scientific achievements and reflect the scientific state of the country. One of the tools for evaluating scientific articles is citation analysis.Therefore, this study was performed with the aim of studying and evaluating articles in the scientific research journals published by medical universities in Iran.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, journals accredited by the Medical Journals Commission of Iran were studied between 1997 and 2000. A total of 556 issues of 46 journals including 6792 articles with 94083 Persian and English references were reviewed and studied. Data were collected via a special checklist in three stages. Variables included name of journal, year and season of publication, type of article, number of authors, sex, and level of education, specialization, and affiliation of the first author. The immediacy indexes and impact factors of the articles were calculated. The findings were analysed by SPSS using descriptive statistics and ANOVA.Results: Results showed that 81.2% of the published articles were original articles, 11.4% case reports, 5.5% review articles, 0.5% translations, and 1.4% belonged to other categories. The trend in the number of articles published from 1997 to 2000 showed an increase of 14.1%. 70% of the references used by the authors were articles of others, and approximately 36% of the authors cited their own previously published articles. 31.6% of the articles had two authors, and 54.3% were by assistant professors. 95% of the published articles were not cited at all.Conclusion: With increase in time since publication of an article, the number of citations to that article also increases. Also, researchers rarely cite Persian articles, which could be either due to the fact that there is no comprehensive up-to-date database of Persian articles in medicine, or that no proper compilation of references is made by authors. It is therefore proposed that an organization under supervision of the Medical Journals Commission should undertake Iranian citation and indexing database with the capability of storage, recovery and evaluation.

Introduction: In some countries, wild polioviruses have been isolated from environment without being recovered from clinical cases. Therefore, to confirm polio eradication, WHO has recommended environmental surveillance using sewage specimens and surface water. Due to wild Poliovirus circulation in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the probability of wild virus entrance to Iran, and also to assure wild poliovirus eradication, Tehran was chosen as the target area.Methods: In this study, 63 sewage samples were obtained from 6 main sewage disposals in Tehran by grab sampling and direct, pellet, two-phase method in sensitive cell lines. The isolated viruses were serotype by microneutralization method and differentiated intratypically by ELISA and probe hybridization techniques.Results: From all specimens, only 14 (22.22%) were identified as poliovirus, none of which were wild type. From these polioviruses, 6(9.52%), 13(20.63%) and 14(22.22%) were isolated from direct, pellet and two-phase concentrated specimens, respectively. The most frequent viruses were Polio1 and Polio2 (14.28%) and Polio 3(71.43%).Conclusion: Results have revealed the efficacy of immunization coverage and surveillance programs in Iran.

Introduction: World Health Organization has recognized suicide behaviors as one of the mental health problems in developed and developing countries. In order to increase the knowledge regarding suicide behaviors, WHO has developed a multi-site study across 8 countries. This paper reports the data from Iran.Methods: Karaj was selected as a catchment area and all its emergency departments (EDs) were covered for 24 hours. The questionnaire, which was provided by WHO consisted of comprehensive data on personal, family, social, somatic, psychiatric and descriptive features of the individuals in catchment area was used.Results: During 10 months, 945 suicide attempters were referred to EDs (0.12% of the urban population in the same year). Age, education, marital status, employment, occupation and the method of attempt had significant relation with sex of the attempters (P<0.001). 0.2% of subjects died due to suicide attempt. At the time of discharge, only 5.5% of the subjects were referred to psychiatric or consultation services.Conclusion: Single me and, married women with high school education and in age range of 15-25 are high risk groups and require specific prevention protocols. 

Introduction: Adipose tissue plays a central role in many aspects of lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. The fatty acid composition of human adipose tissue is also a useful biomarker of the long-term average dietary fat. Yet, there have been few biochemical studies of this tissue in man, since it requires surgical excision. The present report describes a simple and risk-free method for obtaining small samples of buttock fat for determination of fatty acid composition.Methods: Aspiration was performed with a 20ml syringe and 19G needle. Adipose tissue samples were obtained from 67 healthy subjects aged 32-70. Adipose tissue fatty acids were determined by a temperature-programmed gas chromatography method.Results: A typical pattern of adipose fatty acid composition in healthy adults was established. The procedure caused no more anxiety or discomfort than a routine venipuncture.Conclusion: This method for sampling and determination of fatty acid composition is easy and rapid, and therefore allows application in epidemiological research on the metabolic and nutritional importance of fatty acids.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the most important pathogen causing nosocomial infections in burn patients. The existence of b-lactamase producing isolates exhibiting resistance to most b-lactam antimicrobial agents greatly complicates the clinical management of patients infected with such isolates. The aim of this study was to evaluate plasmid mediated b-lactamase production in Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates.Methods: 80 isolatedPseudomonas aeruginosa were isolated from patients with nosocomial infections admitted to Motahari Burn Center in Tehran from March 2004 to February 2005. b-lactamase production was determined by Iodomertric test, and plasmids were extracted by alkaline lyses method.Electroporation was used for transfection of E. coli DH5a with extracted plasmids.Results: b-lactamase production was positive in all Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates. Most of the strains (97.5%) showed between one and three plasmid bands in agarose gel. Only large plasmids were transferred to E. coli DH5a by electroporation, and b-lactamase production was positive in all of transformed E. coli DH5a.Conclusion: The results indicate that the b-lactamase producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates are predominant in the Motahari Burn Center, and the plasmids commonly involve in b-lactamase production. Therefore, these plasmids may transfer resistance to the same or different species.

Survival analysis is the statistical method for the study of time to an event, but there are various models to fit the data so the important question is which of these models are the most appropriate. In survival analysis, like all regression models, we can use residuals for assessment of the model fitness. There are varieties of residuals and each of them can be used for an especial purpose.Methods: In this study to compare different models in the study of factors associated with duration of breastfeeding, we used the data collected on women in Mazandaran Province, Iran during 2003-2004.Results: For determination of factors associated with breastfeeding duration, we fitted Cox proportional hazard, exponential, Weibull, Gompertz, log-normal, log-logistic and gamma generalized models to the data. The assumptions of the above models were also checked.Conclusion: Cox-Snell residuals were used for assessment of the fitness of each model. Then a method was suggested to compare different models on the basis of these residuals. It was concluded that Cox proportional hazard model was the most appropriate.