DANESHVAR MEDICINE
Year:2006 | Volume:14 | Issue:65|Papers Count:10

Introduction: One of the consequences of the administrative policies of "Family planning" in our country is the reduction of population growth. In this regard, the ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical education has undertaken the responsibility of family planning. It also encourages people to use contraceptive methods and provides them with the related means for this purpose. Furthermore, through training and consulting, the most successful methods are substituted for the less preferable ones. In spite of these efforts, the usage of ineffective methods is high. Thus, the aim of this study was determining the factors related to the contraceptive methods.Materials & Methods: This was a cross-sectional and analytical research. 310 married and qualified women took part in the study. They were selected to fill out a questionnaire which was statistically analyzed by SPSS software. The mean age of the participants was 29.8±7.6. Results: 29.7 percent of women had used ineffective methods. The reason seemed to be their unwillingness to use other methods. Significant relationships were found among age, (p<0.009), children's number (p<0.02), their husband's satisfaction (p<0.001) and family planning. methods. However, no significant relationship between this variable and educational level, pregnancy number, children's gender and women's jobs was observed.Conclusion: The research highlights the important role of men in using contraceptive methods. Moreover, with an increase of age and experience about the physiology of their body women use ineffective methods more. Therefore, training and consulting men, along with informing women about the irregularity of ovulation during the last years of fertility would be helpful in using more effective and successful methods.

Introduction: This study aimed at investigating whether the intravenous infusion of bone marrow stromal cells migrate to the injured spinal cord.Materials and Methods: Bone marrow stromal cells isolated by their adherence to plastic after four or five passages. Then, stromal cells were detected by antifibronectin. Rats (n=5) were subjected to contusive spinal cord injury by NYU method (10-g rod from height of 25mm). Bone marrow stromal cells (2.5x106) were labeled with Brdu injected into tail vein 1 week after injury. Five weeks after the injury, sections of tissue were analyzed by immunohistichemistry for BMSC identification.Results: A few injected cells entered into parenchyma of the injured spinal cord and there was no BMSC in the intact area.Conclusion: The findings indicated that the route of intravenous administration of BMSC is the suitable method for implantation of these cells in the injured spinal cord.

Background: Infertility has caused a lot of mental problems for the married men and women. Vital movement, that is, reproduction if is not fulfilled, will cause major personality weakness (Erikson). If after one year of normal sexual relationship, without using any contraceptive, the woman does not succeed in pregnancy, she is considered unfertile. This may lead to stress and depression. It may bring about a crisis that causes deep mental and emotional problems for the couple particularly the unfertile spouse (Darvison, 1994). Wong (2004) believes that almost all unfertile couples will experience levels of stress and depression. Moreover, Haytoon (1990) reminds us the danger of a void and fruitless life and having nobody to rely on in the old age.He suggests that these two factors are the cause of stress, distress and mental disorders for the unfertile individual. The present study was carried out in Isfahan in 2005.Materials & Methods: This is a descriptive and comparative research. The sample includes all unfertile and normal couples in Isfahan in the abovementioned year, that is, 87 unfertile couples and 87 normal ones. They were selected through aimed random sampling. The measurement instrument has been Couper and Beck depression test. To analyze the date, in addition to descriptive statistics, T-test and Anova were applied.Result: There was a significant difference between the stress and depression of unfertile and normal couples. Furthermore, a significant relationship was found among age, marriage period and infertility.Conclusion: The findings about stress conform to those of Mouse (2000), Godarizi & Badakhshi (??). These results also comply with those of Parvison (1994), Perlmuler (1999) and Mouse (2000) with regard to depression which appears in the sixth level of emotional reaction. However, they are contrary to Mouse (2000) findings considering the age and marriage period.

Introduction: Bacterial meningitis, caused by different groups of Neisseria meningitides, is still one of the serious health problems worldwide. Capsular polysaccharide of group A and C in general, and W135 and Y, in particular, have been known to be a safe protective vaccine for more than two decades. In contrast, the group B capsular polysaccharide was found to be nonimmunogenic in many controlled field trails. For this reason, the subgroup B has become the main causative agent of meningococcal disease in the developing countries. Nowadays, outer membrane protein class I (PorA) has been considered a potential sub-unit immunogen to control the disease. Material & methods: In the present investigation, standard group B strain of Neisseria meningitidis (CSBPI, G-245) was cultured under controlled submerge in fermenter containing modified Frantz medium. The cells were harvested at the last exponential growth phase. OMV-PorA was extracted from cell wall through Deoxycholate Extraction Technique and was further purified by sequential centrifugation and ultracentrifugation. The pletted OMV-PorA was homogenized in PBS (pH=7.2), containing sucrose and thiomersal as preservatives. Molecular evaluation of OMV-PorA was done by micrograph scanning under electron microscope and SOS-PAGE. The OMVPorA was identified by Double Diffusion Gel Technique through using hyper immune rabbit's anti OMV-PorA anti sera against purified vesicles.Results: In micrograph scanning of electron microscope, more than 70-90 percent of the OMV-PorA retained its native configurational structure ranging from 50 to 150 nm in size after using extraction and purification procedures. Purified vesicle showed a strong band of 40-45 KD molecular weights when run on 10% polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with SOS. A strong precipitate line between hyper immune rabbit's anti OMV-PorA anti sera and purified vesicles was shown by Double Diffusion Gel Technique. Besides, the OMV-PorA was found to be safe when rabbit pyrogenic test and abnormal toxicity test in mice and guinea pigs were performed.Discussion: The obtained results reveal that, OMV-PorA contains intact native structure and composition after extraction and purification. Thus, OMV-PorA can be regarded as a safe potent immunogen to control group B meningococcal disease.

Introduction: Diarrhea is a cardinal symptom of HIV infection and is considered as AIDS defining condition. In the immunocompromised patients, the intestinal opportunistic parasites probably play a major role in causing chronic diarrhea accompanied by weight loss. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between diarrhea CD4 cell counts and Cryptosporidium infection in the HIV- infected patients in North India.Materials & Methods: In a retrospective study, blood and stool samples of 82 HIV-infected patients with CD4<200 were analyzed. 100 HIV-negative patients were assigned to the control group. They were referred to the AIDS division of National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) from March 2001 to June 2003. Each patient was examined for HIV-1 status, CD4 cell counts, Cryptosporidium and was screened for diarrhea symptoms.Results: Diarrhea in HIV-infected patients (CD4<200) was 56.1%. Cryptosporidium infection was 68.4% in HIV positive patients with diarrhea, which was significant as compared to the other patients without diarrhea (p<0.05). Cryptosporidium infection was 85% in HIV negative patients with diarrhea, which was significant compared to the other patients without diarrhea (p<0.05). In this study 56.1% of HIV-infected patients with CD<200 had diarrhea and 56.5% of these patients had been infected with Cryptosporidium. In control group with diarrhea, this rate was 34%. Cryptosporidium infection was significant in HIV-infected patients with CD<200 and diarrhea (Fisher Exact Test p=0.022). Diarrhea was common and mostly associated with low CD4 cell counts. Conclusion: The data stress the importance of Cryptosporidium infection in the HIV-infected patients and that the Cryptosporidium infection should be expected in the HIV-infected patients with low CD4 and diarrhea.

Introduction: The contamination of dental unit water lines is an important source of serious microbial infection that might be dangerous for immunosuppressive patients such as: old people, patients who suffer from AIDS or those receiving organ transplants.Materials & Methods: This descriptive study was carried out with 15 samples of water from dental units at shahed dentistry school compared to samples obtained from drinking water supplies in the local area. The research was performed at two stages during 2 different periods of time to investigate the contamination with gram positive cocci. The contamination was detected by collecting samples before beginning of daily work and after flushing water lines for 10 minutes, and then all samples were transferred into microbiology laboratory in sterilized conditions. The samples were carried into transport cultural media colony count and biochemical tests for the identification of micro organisms, after the colonies were cultured. Results: There was no contamination in 15 samples from local area water supplies but there were gram positive cocci among 15 units in different departments of dental school (surgery, orthodontic and periodontal departments), these samples were contaminated with gram positive bacillus, gram negative bacillus and gram negative cocci. The highest range of contamination was related to gram positive bacillus.Conclusion: The contamination with gram positive cocci and gram negative bacillus were observed in dental unit water lines at shahed dental school. The maximum range of contamination is present on 4th and 5th floors. The existence of gram negative bacillus and gram positive cocci is probably due to the contamination of water by feces and contamination with gram positive cocci can also be related to the back flow of saliva via dental unit suctions or through the head of hand pieces.

Introduction: This is a quasi-experimental case-control study that aimed at determining the effect of educational program, based on James, W. Brown Method, on the knowledge and attitude of type 2 diabetic patients toward nutrition.Materials & Method: A total number of 82 patients (aged 30-60) with a mean age of 48 were selected by convenient sampling. 40 individuals were assigned to the case group and 42 to the control group by their own will. Data were collected by a multi-sectional questionnaire that was designed to determine the demographic data, the sample's knowledge and attitude toward nutrition and the characteristics of the educational program. Data collection was done at two pre and post stages of intervention. After the first stage the educational program was carried out for the case group in two sessions (2 hours each). The last stage of data collection was carried out by the same tool.Results: The analysis of data showed a significant difference between knowledge (p=0.000) and attitude (p=0.01) of the research sample in two groups after the intervention.Conclusion: It can be concluded that health education program can promote the knowledge and attitude of type 2 diabetic patients.

Backgrounds and Aims: Natural killer (NK) cells are a component of innate immune system and play an important role in numerous protective and regulatory mechanisms in human. Several methods have been developed to determine cytotoxic activity of NK cells. The classical 51Cr-releaseassay is the conventional method for cytotoxicity determination but several drawbacks of this assay has increased the demand for new reliable testing system. This study showed a flowcytometric based method to assess natural killer cell activity. This assay was based on the use of two D275 and PI fluorochromes. Materials and Methods: For the assessment of flowcytometric method, peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMC) were collected from an apparently healthful person at different times and then each sample was tested with both flowcytometric and LDH-release methods for several times. In this assay, the target cells (K562) were labeled with D275 dye, prior to incubation with effector cells (PBMC) and at the last stage the PI dye was added and analyzed by flowcytometry. The flowcytometric method permits the differentiation of four cell population: live target cells, dead target cells, live effector cells and dead effector cells.Results and Discussion: Human NK-cell cytotoxicity assessment results in flowcytometric and colorimetric LDH-release methods correlated in the normal conditions and after sever activity. Thus, no significant difference was found between them (p=0.3).Conclusion: Flowcytometric assay which uses the D275/PI fluorochromes dye, is an accurate, reproducible and sensitive method that is capable of analyzing cytotoxic activity of natural killer cells.

Introduction: Acute Myeloid Leukemia is a hematological malignancy which is diagnosed through increase of myeloblasts in the bone marrow cells and the surrounding blood. Different factors such as genetics, X-ray, viruses and immune-deficiency can develop the disease. Nowadays, FLT-3 (fms like tyrosine kinase 3) mutations in pathogens have been introduced.Purpose: FLT-3 is a membrane tyrosine kinase receptor, which is defined in premature bone marrow cells specific to the stem and progenitor cells. It reacts with its ligand on the surface of struma marrow cells. In addition, it involves the proliferation of stem and progenitor cells. The activating FLT-3 mutations are the most prevalent mutations in AML patients. These contain internal tandem duplication (ITD) and D835 mutation. The studies show that FLT-3 mutations are related to AML subgroups, leukocyte count, blast increase, response to treatment and patients' prognosis.Materials & Methods: 70 AML patients were selected after exact diagnosis, and their DNA was extracted from their blood samples. The DNA was multiplied by PGR. Then, the ITD and D835 mutations were studied. ITD which is a length mutation increases the DNA length in electrophoresis and is directly detected. D835 is a spot mutation. It is determined by enzyme section of PGR productions which are electrophoreses. Among 70 patients, 40 were male and 30 female (aged 15-73).Results: ITD mutation was found in 15 cases (21.4%) and D835 mutation was detected in 5 patients (7%). These mutations were more prevalent in AML-M-3 subgroup (53% of the patients). Most of the patients (47%) had leukocytosis.Conclusions: The relationship between FLT-3 mutations and the patients' prognosis it is highly recommended be taken into consideration.

Introduction: Although nosocomial infections have been identified for so long and their importance has become clear for many years, they are considered a significant world problem. The aim of this research is to study the distribution of bacterial agents in bloodstream infections in the hospitalized patients, to rate and assess the bacterial infections, which cause nosocomial and acquired infections in these patients in NICU. Materials and Methods: In this study 6 ml of blood was extracted from the patients who were likely to have septicemia. Then, the extracted blood was added to the bottle containing the blood culture broth. 202 cases of these samples were positive for bacteria.Results: Among the positive blood cultures, 109 were gram positive bacteria and 93 were gram negative bacteria. Among the gram-positive bacteria, 73 cases were acquired infection and 36 cases were nosocomial infection. Among the gram negative bacteria51 cases were acquired infection and 42 cases had nosocomial infection. In determining the relation between the rate of death and the type of infection, it can be concluded that 83 out of 202 patients died (41%). 48 (39%) of the cases were related to the acquired infection and 35 (45%) cases were related to nosocomial infection.Discussion: This result is similar to Dickmen's results obtained in America, which reported 14% deaths related to acquired infection and 34% related to nosocomial infection.