Crescent Journal of Medical and Biological Sciences
Year:2016 | Volume:3 | Issue:3|Papers Count:8

Nowadays, parasitic zoonoses are of the main causes of human parasitic diseases worldwide and considered a major threat to social and economic development, especially in developing countries. The main agent is the zoonotic worms which affect the eye and may cause blindness and also severe socio-economic consequences in human societies. These worms include nematodes, cestodes, and trematodes that can be transferred by insects (dirofilariasis, Onchocerciasis, thelaziasis), through contaminated foods (sparganosis and Trichinellosis) or indirectly through contact with the environment (Ascaris, Fascioliasis, and Echinococcus). Adult and larval forms of worms affecting human eye may either attack the external tissues of the eye (for example, lacrimal glands, eyelids, and conjunctiva bag) or penetrate into the eyeball (retina and the anterior or posterior chamber of the eye) and cause various symptoms depending on the site they affect. In addition, they can cause disease through the immune response in the host.

Objective: Medication errors can be a risk factor undermining the patient’s health, giving rise to irreparable consequences. The medication errors involve miscalculation of drug dosages by nurses and nursing students.Methods: This study employed several databases including Google Scholar, PubMed and Scopus. For this purpose, the keywords were relevant to virtual learning, electronic learning, learning through lecture, blended learning, online learning, distance education, nursing education, multimedia learning, and teaching aids. The search results were not limited in terms of time.Results: Lack of knowledge and skills in pharmacology and miscalculations are the major factors contributing to medication errors by nurses and nursing students. Moreover, poor basic knowledge of mathematics among the nursing students can lead to numerous mistakes. The results of previous studies have indicated that blended learning can have a positive impact on learning progress among nursing students. However, some studies have suggested that multimedia tools and teaching aids leave little impact on learning.Conclusion: It is suggested that the correct adoption of blended learning methods can improve the nursing education in terms of drug calculations.

Objective: Physical and hormonal changes during pregnancy result in biomechanical alterations which result in re-adjustments in the musculoskeletal system. Influence of these changes on the foot during gestation has been understudied. The aim of this study was to compare the arch indexes of pregnant and non-pregnant women and then determine the relationship between arch index and each of gestational age and body mass index (BMI) of pregnant women.Materials and Methods: In this study, 328 (215 pregnant women in different trimesters and 113 nulliparous women) participants were selected from Enugu in South-Eastern Nigeria. Their arch indexes were obtained from their foot prints. Data was summarized using frequency counts, mean, standard deviation and percentages. Inferential statistics of independent t test and Pearson correlation test were used to determine the differences and relationships among variables with alpha level set at P<0.05.Results: Results showed that a greater percentage of the pregnant women (57.2% on the right foot and 59.1% on the left foot) had low arches, indicating pes planus as compared to their age-matched nulliparous counterparts (19.5% on the right and 23.3% on the left). Statistical analysis further showed significant differences between the arch indexes of women in both groups. No significant relationship was found among gestational trimesters, BMI and arch index of pregnant women.Conclusion: Pregnant women have lower arch indexes, indicating pes planus, than nulliparous women. Gestational trimesters and BMI had no associations with the arch index during pregnancy.

Objective: Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is well known low back disorder. Beside a lot of reason, the chronic inflammation is stated to have a role in the importance of LDH. As known, there is a complex connection between inflammation and oxidative stress. The relationship between LDH and the levels of lipid hydroperoxide (LOOH), total oxidative status (TOS), paraoxonase 1 (PON1) and total antioxidative status (TAS) has not been studied until now. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the levels of oxidative markers, such as LOOH, TOS, PON1 and TAS in patients with preoperative stage of disc herniation Materials and Methods: Fifty consecutive patients (8 patients were excluded; n=42) with LDH and 50 healthy controls were subjected in this prospective study. Serum PON1, LOOH, TAS and TOS levels were determined.Results: Serum PON-1 level was found to be significantly lower (P=0.008), serum TAS and LOOH levels were measured as significantly higher (both P<0.001) in the LDH group than in the control group. Positive significant correlations were detected between LOOH and TAS, TOS, and oxidative stress index (OSI); then again between OSI and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C).Conclusion: The inflammatory-oxidant environment decreased PON1 and increased LOOH- may be the cause or reason of disc herniation. This result suggests that LDH may be related with atherosclerosis.

Objective: In order to increase investment in medical and biomedical research particularly in developing countries the need for visibility of research outputs is very important since this would lead to more investments and more researches within the country. Medical and biomedical research information system utilizes computers and communication equipments that allow collection, storage, processing, exploitation and dissemination of research information in Medical and biomedical field. One of the most important success criteria for an information system are the users’ comments, therefore, this study is aimed to investigate the users views regarding the medical and biomedical research information system in the country.Materials and Methods: This is a comparative descriptive study in which the proposed model for the national information research system in the domain of medical and biomedical was initially prepared basing on comparison then the applicability of the model to meet users’ needs was presented for final evaluation in the form of a survey to 40 users which were selected based on convenience sampling. A questionnaire was the tool used for gathering the data. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire was approved by a Cronbach alpha reliability of 94%. Descriptive statistic was used for data analysis.Results: Results of the survey conducted on users indicated that all of the participants with the majority of items and categories presented in a designated five axes had a unanimous consensus and no item has been opposed. Also, cases such as the presence of educational system, researchers’ evaluation system, automatic identification of research priorities and the process of integrating research outputs into industry were taken into consideration.Conclusion: For the success of the system, all stakeholders involved in medical and biomedical research must coordinate in determining priorities, creating health research networking and in strengthening the overall capacity of the network and in collecting the baseline data. Assessment of tools and the stages of research implementation with corporate and national supervision, must comply with international scientific and ethical standards.

Objective: Escherichia coli is the member of Enterobacteriaceae family and is one of the most important and common species of Escherichia in medicine. Escherichia coli has high potential in creating different intestinal and extraintestinal diseases in human and animals. The goal of this research determination of phylogenetic groups of Escherichia Coli isolated from human urine in Urmia city.Materials and Methods: In the present research, 950 urine samples were studied from hospitalized patients in Urmia city. The urine sample were inoculated on MacCankey agar and blood agar and incubated at 37oC. Positive urine cultures was identified by standard laboratory methods involving morphological characteristics and biochemical tests. To determine the phylogenetic group, multiplex-PCR (m-PCR) was used. Primers used in this study could successfully amplify genes, including yjaA, chuA and TSPE4.C2 with 211, 279 and 152 bp, respectively.Results: Fifty samples were positive after culture and bacterial isolation. Fifteen of isolates belong to group A (30%), 6 belong to group B1 (12%), 20 belong to group B2 (40%) and 9 of them belong to group D (18%).Conclusion: The high number of bacteria in group B2 as extra intestinal pathogenic agent, indicative of having a care about choosing a treatment for such infections.

Objective: The impact of supplementation with omega-3 fatty acid during gestational period on lipid profile levels remains unknown. The objective of this trial was to investigate the impact of supplementation with fish oil on maternal lipid profile.Materials and Methods: This research was a randomized triple blinded controlled trial. The study population was comprised healthy pregnant subjects who had family records at health care centers in Tabriz, Iran. A total of 150 women who were eligible for study were randomized into two groups, one group took fish oil supplement capsules (1000 mg/day), and another group took placebo. A total of 92 women fulfilled the study which 45 participants were in the supplemented group and 47 participants were in the placebo group. Consumption of fish oil capsules and placebo was daily one capsule from the beginning of the 21th week of gestation until delivery which was about 20 weeks. At the start of trial (16th-20th weeks) and in the fifth care of gestation (during 35th-37th weeks) 3 cc blood samples collected and sent to the laboratory for evaluation of lipid profile levels.Results: Despite substantial increases in total cholesterol, triglycerides and Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels with advancing pregnancy, there was no statistically significant discrepancy between the intervention and placebo groups. (P=0.345, 0.299, 0.109, respectively). Despite a significant decrease in the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol with advancing pregnancy, there was no statistically meaningful difference between two groups (P=0.786) Conclusion: We found no effect of supplementation with fish oil during gestation on plasma lipid profile of pregnant mothers.

Objective: Placenta is the maternofetal contact zone, provided by normal membranes and endometrium, for which the intrauterine fetal life depends on. Regarding the importance of placenta in embryonic period, this study aims at investigating the histopathological changes of placenta in newborns with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR).Materials and Methods: This study was performed on two groups (control and experimental) of pregnant women with IUGR fetus in the Histological Department of Medical School of Azad University, Tabriz. In the experimental group, 30 samples of IUGR placentas were examined. The samples were first fixed in formalin, embedded in paraffinized mold, and cut into 5 μm sections. After that, the samples were prepared for staining with Hematoxylin and Eosin (H& E), trichrome, and PAS techniques.Results: Findings showed the increase of syncytial knots and fibrinoid, the presence of villous fibrosis, and decrease of glycogen deposit in the experimental group. In addition, statistical investigations suggested that placental and fetal weights in the experimental group were significantly lower than control group (P<0.05).Conclusion: The results obtained from this study showed that fetal placental and birth weights were lower than control group. Pathological results showed increase of syncytial knots and fibrinoid in the experimental group in comparison to control group.