DANESHVAR MEDICINE
Year:2017 | Volume:24 | Issue:129|Papers Count:14

Background and Objectives: Pulmonary complications are one of the most important long-term sulfur mustard (SM) exposure that chemical victims are suffering for years. IL-21 is one of the important cytokines contributing in chronic pulmonary inflammatory diseases. In this study, the serum and sputum levels of IL-21 and their correlations with pulmonary complications was evaluated 27 years after sulfur mustard exposure.Materials and Methods: Final sample size was 475 (350 men and 125 women) SM exposed and 150 (100 men and 50 women from Rabat) unexposed controls.The age span of volunteers was 27-67 years.Results: There was no significant different between exposed and control groups in serum and sputum levels of IL-21, but the serum level of IL-21 showed a significant correlation with spirometry parameter (FEV1/FVC) in SM exposed group was observed.Conclusion: The affected serum and sputum levels of IL-21 by sulfur mustard exposure were not variable, but there was a significant negative correlation between serum level of IL-21and FEV1/FVC in SM exposed group.

Background and Objective: There is a direct relationship between high intake of salt and increased risk of many non-communicable diseases. The aim of this study was to determine the self-efficacy and readiness of women to reduce discretionary salt consumption.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016 using a self-administered questionnaire on 561 women attended to the women care centers of Tehran. The questionnaire contained questions about awareness of the relationship between salt and diseases, disposure to decreasing consumption due to family disease, discretionary salt consumption, stages of change, self-efficacy and demographic status of women. Data was analyzed by chi-square, ANOVA and logistic regression tests.Results: The mean age of women was 36.21±10.1 and 39.8% of them were exposed with reducing salt intake. Over 80% of women always or often add salt to their food during preparation. A third of women were in pre-contemplation stage and 41.2% were ready to reduce salt consumption. Stages of change increased with increasing self-efficacy (r=0.42, p<0.001). Self-efficacy and exposure to salt intake limitation were the most important determinants of women's readiness to change discretionary salt consumption (OR=1.1, 95% CI=1.06-1.14, p<0.001 and OR=1.58, 95% CI=1.03-2.42, p<0.038, respectively).Conclusion: The results showed that salt is used for cooking food by a large number of women and less than half of them are ready to behavior change. In general, stages of change increased with increasing self-efficacy. Because the self-efficacy is important for initiating and maintaining behavior change, for empowering women increasing self-efficacy and replacement of salt with healthy flavors should be emphasized.

Background and Objective: The cardiovascular diseases are going to become a major problem in the world. Since a widespread range of physiological and psychological factors may have a role in the onset and continuation of cardiovascular diseases, a combination of all factors should be considered, in describing the onset and course of CV diseases. This study was accomplished in an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of drug therapy in combination with emotion regulation on the perception of anxiety control and cardiovascular responses in female patients with CV disease.Materials and Methods: Thirty female patients with CV disease were selected via accessible sampling method according to inclusion and exclusion criteria.They were then assigned to experimental and control groups. The Intervention consisted of 10 sessions of emotion regulation, each session lasting 90 minutes.Both of the groups were asked to complete ACQ, and their hemodynamic cardiovascular responses were registered. The data was analyzed through repeated measure analysis of variance by SPSS-24.Results: The findings showed that emotion regulation was effective in improving cardiovascular responses and enhancement of the perception of anxiety control.Conclusion: The results of current study suggest that decrement of cardiovascular responses and enhancement of the perception of anxiety control can be achieved through training of emotion regulation techniques.

Background and Objective: From the perspective of molecular studies, since the relationship between high intensity interval training and apoptosis-related proteins in the lungs has not investigated, aim of this study was immunohistochemical detection of apoptotic proteins Bax and Bcl-2 in the lungs alveoli after 6 weeks of high intensity interval training.Materials and Methods: This research was an experimental study. Samples of this study were 14 male Wistar rats (4 weeks old, 72±8 gr weight), healthy and no history of disease that divided into training and control groups (exercise training=7, control=7). The high intensity interval training program was carried out for 6 weeks. Training program was started with 25 m/min and ended with 70 m/min speed at the final stage. In each training session, rats completed the 1-min activity with 10 repetition and work to rest ratio was 1: 2. Lung tissue was extracted for Immunohistochemistry tests and protein levels of Bax and Bcl-2 were measured. To analyze data, independent t- test was used (P<0.05).Results: After 6 weeks of high intensity interval training, level of Bax protein significantly increased. Also, after 6 weeks of high intensity interval training, level of Bcl-2 protein also significantly increased (P<0.05).Conclusion: It seems that intensity interval training period causes significant changes in expression of pulmonary alveolar apoptotic proteins and its accurate interpretation that it may be helpful or harmful require further researches.

Background and Objective: Epilepsy is one of the most common neurologic disorders which make lots of economic and social problems and negative conceptions in relation with these patients. The aim of this study was evaluation of attitude and awareness (AA) of non-medical students about this disorder.Materials and Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 300 of nonmedical students randomly selected and a questionnaire was completed with each participant. Data was analyzed using simple linear regression and t test in SPSS software and results were considered statistically significant at P<0.05.Results: There was significant relation between AA and age (P=0.004 and P=0.001, respectively). But relation between gender and AA was non-significant (P>0.05). Also, there was positive and significant correlation between education and AA.Conclusion: There was good information about the disease and its presentation.Awareness was moderate in relation with etiology of the disease but low in correlation with treatment, complications, and provocation factors.

Background and Objective: Depression is one of the most common mental disorders, which imposes a large burden on the health care system. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a period of aerobic training on blood levels of serotonin and endorphin and decreasing depression in addicted women to drug.Materials and Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental study. A total of 30 addicted women to drug with moderate to severe depression were selected to participate as a purposeful and available sample and were randomly divided into two groups of experimental (n=15) and control (n=15) groups. Experimental group received 8 weeks (3 sessions per week) of aerobic exercise intensity in 60-80% of maximum heart rate, while the control group did not take part in any regular physical activity. To measure blood levels of serotonin and endorphin, in two stages, before and after training, 5 ml of blood was collected from the brachial vein of the subjects. Data were analyzed using independent and paired sample t tests. The level of significance was set at p<0.05.Results: Eitgh weeks of aerobic training significantly increased blood levels of serotonin and endorphin and reduced depression in the experimental group as compared to the control (P<0.05).Conclusion: According to the findings, it can be concluded that aerobic training can affect blood levels of serotonin and endorphin and improve the depression in addicted women to drug.

Background and Objective: Alopecia Areata (AA) is a multifactorial disease characterized by hair loss especially from the scalp affecting approximately 5.3 million people. Since major histocompatibility complex (HLA) region is considered to be associated with AA susceptibility, the effect of HLA-DQB1*3 allele frequency was investigated in the present study in AA patients and their respective controls.Materials and Methods: This study consisted of 30 patients with AA (13 females and 17 males, with a mean age of 26.3 ±2.28 years) and 15 healthy controls (5 females and 10 males, with a mean age of 30.1 ±1.5). DNA was extracted from blood samples using DNG plus method and PCR-SSP was used to detect HLA-HLA-DQB1*3. Furthermore, association of this HLA allele with some baseline clinical and demographical features was assessed.Results: The frequency of the HLA-DQB1*3 allele was not significantly higher in patients (23.3%) as compared to the controls (26.7%). We found no association with family history, stress, phobia, and onset of the disease in patients with AA (p>0.05).Conclusion: Our data do not show a correlation between the HLA-DQB1*3 allele and occurrence of AA in population.

Background and Objective: Increased oxidative damage to DNA can be mentioned as the main cause of age-related diseases. This damage can result in translation of specific genes which regulate cell proliferation and apoptosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a regular swimming training with garlic extract on the levels of Bax and Bcl-2 in the liver tissue doxorubicin -induced aging rat Materials and Methods: In this study, 42 aged male rats, 40-50 weeks, with an average initial weight of 250-300g were randomly divided into 6 groups: 1.control, 2. saline, 3. doxorubicin, 4. doxorubicin+exercise, 5. doxorubicin+garlic, and 6. doxorubicin+garlic+exercise. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) was induced by injection of 8.5 ml/kg of doxorubicin. The animals in the exercise groups were forced to swim 30 min once a day, 3 days per week, for 8 weeks. Groups receiving supplement and exercise+supplement, daily treated with 1ml of garlic extract per kilogram of body weight for 8 weeks orally (gavage). In addition, 48 hours after the last training session and after 12-10 hours of fasting, rats were anesthetized and liver tissue separated immediately and stored at -70ᵒ C to measure the levels of Bax and Bcl-2. For comparisons among the groups, oneway analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey’s test were performed with P<0.05 as an indication of statistical significance.Results: The findings showed that eight weeks of swimming training and garlic extract and the combination of exercise training and garlic extract resulted in a significant increase in the levels of Bcl-2 and also a significant decrease in the levels of Bax and Bax/Bcl-2 in the kidney tissue of aged rats induced by doxorubicin (P<0.05).Conclusion: Exercise training, herbal supplement of garlic, and a combination of these two methods can be as an effective non-pharmacological therapy to reduce liver damage and protect liver tissue against oxidative stress and inflammatory injuries associated with aging.

Background and Objective: Need for health has changed regarding economic, social and political conditions. Responsiveness to these changes was one of the main reasons for establishment of Health Transition (Transformation) Reform (HTR) in Iran.Materials and Methods: This research was a cross-sectional study that was conducted in Shahid Chamran Hospital in Shiraz in 2015. Five questionnaires were applied for each of the study population consisting managers, physicians, nurses, official workers and patients. The source of these questionnaires was in national center of research. Reliability of the questionnaires was confirmed (a>0.7). The study ample was calculated by Cochrane and about 295 participants were included. SPSS19 was applied through ANOVA, t-test and Pearson correlation for analyzing data.Results: The least rate of satisfaction was belonged to physicians (1.62±0.56), official workers (2.82±0.88), nurses and clinical workers (2.84±0.25), managers (3.09±0.48) and patients (3.44±0.30). The mean of satisfaction was significantly different among physicians according to their marital status (p=0.038), the patients satisfaction was also different significantly according to their level of education (p=0.008).Conclusion: In spite of all the advantages of Health Transformation Reform, it had some disadvantages in different aspects that may lead to dissatisfaction and it is recommended to evaluate and periodical monitoring.

Background and Objective: Parkinson's disease is one the most common neurodegenerative diseases clinically diagnosed by movement disorders such as slowness of movement, muscle stiffness, tremor at rest and personality disorder.The goal of this study was to examine the impact of diosgenin with antioxidant and neuroprotective effects on a rat model of Parkinson's disease induced by 6-hydroxydopamine.Materials and Methods: Forty male Wistar rats were divided into four groups.1-sham, 2-sham treated with diosgenin (100 mg/kg) 3- The group microinjected with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) and 4- 6-OHDA group treated with diosgenin. Rats received diosgenin by gavage before surgery for 1 week. At the end of this period, the experimental model of Parkinson's disease was induced by unilateral injection of 6-OHDA into the striatum. Rotational behavior was studied after the surgery. Malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione (GSH), catalase, nitrite and glial fibirally acidic protein (GFAP) were measured in the homogenate. Also, nigral neurons were counted and compared using Nissl staining.Results: There was a significant reduction of rotations in diosgenin-pretreated 6-OHDA-lesioned rats as compared to untreated 6-OHDA group. In addition, pretreatment with diosgenin in 6-OHDA-lesioned group significantly prevented the reduction of neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta as compared to the untreated group (P<0.05). Also, diosgenin pretreatment decreased the level of GFAP and MDA in the brain homogenate (P<0.01) and increased level of glutathione (GSH) (P<0.05). There was also no significant change regarding nitrite and catalase.Conclusion: Diosgenin pretreatment improved motor behavior and asymmetry in 6-OHDA-lesioned rats and protected substantia nigra pars compacta neurons and its effect is mediated via attenuation of oxidative stress and astrogliosis.

Background and Objective: Renal transplantation is an efficient solution for end-stage renal disease patients. Since the purpose of treatment of renal failure patients is not only to sustain life, but also to improve the quality of life, this study investigated the quality of life in transplanted patients and affecting factors.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 188 transplanted patients in Beheshti Hospital by census in 2013. Public health (sf36), Ferrans and Powers, GHQ-28 and last patient experiment and demographic questionnaires were used. Then, t-test, chi-square and logistic regression tests were used (SPSS v18).Results: The mean quality of life for men and women was 23.4 ± 3.7 and 23 ± 4, respectively. The mean score of social functioning, bodily pain, physical area with the type of dialysis (hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis and non-dialysis) had a significant difference (p<0.05). The mean score of quality of life, healthmental performance and psychological realm with urea levels was statistically significant (p<0.05). In mental health areas, depression with gender (1.4±2 male, 5.5 ± 4 female, p=0.2), physical realm with source of income (3.2±2 no income, 1.4 ± 3 employment, p=0.4), anxiety with income (3.9±3 no income, 2.9±4 employment, p=0.2), depression domain with income (1.5±2 no income, 5.2±4 employment, p=0.4), the average total score of mental health and source of income (15±9 no income, 18 ± 12 employment, p=0.008) had statistically significant differences.Conclusion: The results of this study showed favorable situation of quality of life in Shahid Beheshti transplant center. This can be due to favorable services but it needs to improve this situation to highest level.