Journal of Inflammatory Diseases (The Journal of Qazvin University of Medical Science)
Year:2008 | Volume:12 | Issue:2 (47)|Papers Count:20

Background: Shear stress is known to play a central role in restenosis formation and is sensitive to stent geometry.Objective: To investigate the effect of flow divider on restenosis in a stented human coronary artery.Methods: The present paper describes a qualitative study in which a computational fluid dynamics model to analyze the blood flow in a stented human coronary artery was used. Stents were assumed with real structure and modeled using the commercial software package (Gambit, V2.0). A flow divider is a flexible cylindrical body with different diameters and lengths which is centered within the stent lumen by means of self-expandable stabilizing arms. The blood flow was modeled as an incompressible Newtonian viscous fluid. Rigid geometric boundary conditions were assumed for all simulations. The governing equations were solved using the commercial software package (Fluent, V6.0.12).Findings: The wall shear stress between stent struts was sensitive to the flow divider, and the wall shear stress distributions for different types of flow divider were calculated.Conclusion: Application of a flow divider led to noticeable increase in wall shear stress in stented segment.

Background: Physical growth retardation is an early and prominent feature of zinc deficiency.Objective: To determine the effect of zinc supplementation on linear growth of school children with short stature in Qazvin during 2004-2005.Methods: The study was designed as a double-blind randomized clinical trial during a 5-month period. Anthropometric data were collected at 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 months. Measurements included plasma zinc concentration, height, weight, nutrition state. Subjects were 30 short stature female students (<3rd percentile) aged 10-11 years. Children were randomly divided into two groups, one with zinc supplementation (15mg/day ZnSo4) and the other with placebo. As control group, 15 healthy children with normal growth were included.Findings: The prevalence of short stature in children was 7.1% (52 from 725 children). The mean age was 10.5±0.5 years. After supplementation, zinc group showed a higher serum zinc concentration (89.5±12.99 vs. 81.1±9.04 mg/dl, p=0.009) compared to the placebo group (72.66±7.82 vs. 86.13±17.8 mg/dl) with one child found to have serum zinc concentration of less than 70 mg/dl. The linear growth rose at 3, 4, and 5 months following supplementation. The height velocity was significantly increased in zinc group (3.22±0.9cm) comparing with placebo (2.33±0.7cm) and control (3.02 ±1.59cm) groups (p=0.004). The weight increase was statistically significant only at the end of 5 months compared to the beginning of study.Conclusion: Zinc supplementation caused an increase in growth velocity and serum zinc concentration. Regarding the notable prevalence of zinc deficiency in female students during the adolescence growth spurt, zinc supplementation is recommended.

Background: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common childhood mental disorders.Objective: To determine the prevalence and associated factors of ADHD in 2004 Method: This cross - sectional study was performed on 1085 students selected through a multistage random sampling. The data were collected using two questionnaires; a CSI-4 (teacher and parent version) questionnaire and a demographic questionnaire.Findings: Based on reports by parents, 13.4% of students were found to have ADHD. Of these 6.8% were inattentive type, 9.2% hyperactive - impulsive type, and 3.1% with combined type. The prevalence of ADHD according to the teachers’ report was 18%. Additionally, the prevalence rates for inattentive type, hyperactive-impulsive type, and combined type were 12.5%, 9.3% and 4.1%, respectively. Factors such as gender, education satisfaction, history of educational failure, and age were shown to act as associated factors for ADHD reported by parents and teachers.Conclusion: The prevalence of ADHD in Yazd is similar to those of other studies thus, the school consultants and psychiatrists are recommended to pay serious attention in identification of ADHD with further therapeutic intervention to prevent the progress of such condition.

Background: The occurrence of chronic diseases such as cancer in parents lead to family problems especially among children, therefore, the assessment of these problems are essential in improving the family quality of life and their health.Objective: To assess the physical and psychosocial problems of children aged between 6-12 with parents suffering from cancer who was referred to Nemazee hospital in Shiraz during 2005.Methods: This was a descriptive analytical study performed on 100 children between 6-12 years old using the standard child behavior checklist to determine the presence or absence of disorder in performance, communication, education, fear and sleep. The data were collected through interview sessions with parents followed by statistical analysis using chi square test, Fisher exact test, and Pearson correlation coefficient.Findings: Our findings revealed that 49% of children suffered physical problems whereas fear, regressive behavior, and sleep disorder were detected in 37%, 72%, and 32%, respectively. Regarding the social problems, 63% of children showed performance problems, 61% communication problems, and 38% educational problems. Statistically, significant correlations were found between the age of children and their educational problems (p=0.03), the parents’ gender and the occurrence of physical problems (p=0.01), and the duration of disease in parents and physical problems (p=0.01).Conclusion: Based on findings of the present study, it was shown that the existence of life - threatening disease in parents leads to stress and disturbance in normal process of family especially among their children causing physical and psychosocial problems. Hence, the need for counseling with children and parents seems to be obvious and of prime priority.

Background: Depression is among the most important barriers to proper treatment of cardiac patients causing failure in accepting their conditions, decreasing their motivation in following the therapeutic recommendations and thus negatively affects the patients’ function and their quality of life.Objective: To investigate the effect of PRECEDE Model-based educational program on depression level in coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (CABGS) patients. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study in which 54 post-bypass surgery patients of Isfahan Cardiovascular Research Center were investigated. The patients were randomly divided into two groups marked as intervention and control groups. The data were collected using two questionnaires.Primarily, the Cardiac Depression Scale Inventory questionnaire was used to measure the degree of depression followed by PRCEDE Model-based educational questionnaire to identify the role of educational intervention on patients. The PRECEDE Model-based intervention composed of nine educational sessions per week (60 to 90 min each). The patients were followed up for two months post-intervention.Findings: Following the educational intervention, the mean score of Predisposing factors, Enabling factors, Reinforcing factors, and self-helping behaviors was significantly increased in intervention group compared to control group (p<0.001). Also, a significant difference associated with the mean score of depression level in patients was demonstrated between two groups following the educational intervention (p<0.001).Conclusion: The findings of current study confirmed the practicability and effectiveness of the PRECEDE Model-based educational program on preventing or declining the depression level in CABGS patients.

Background: According to the World Health Organization, mental disorders are among the first ten major causes of disabilities worldwide. These disorders can decrease the success rate of educational progress in students and prevent their further achievements.Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the student’s problems and vulnerable individuals suspicious of developing mental disorder.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study in which the identification of mental disorder among the students of the first- and last year of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences was attempted. The SCL-90-R questionnaire (Symptom Checklist 1990 Revised) was used for data collection. Statistical analysis was performed using c2, t-test, ANOVA and correlation coefficient.Findings: Out of a total of 607 students, 30.7% were found to be in normal mental health whereas 69.3% suspiciously recognized of having different degrees of mental disorder (53.5% light, 14.3% mild and 1.5% severe). There was a statistical association between the study field and mental health (P=0.042). The percentage of healthy students and those with light, mild and severe mental disorder among the first-year students were 27.1%, 54.5%, 16.9%, and 1.6%, respectively. In the same way, the similar figures among the last-year students were 34.5%, 52.6%, 11.6% and 1.4%, correspondingly. The differences were insignificant, statistically.Conclusion: According to our results, consideration of a policy to reduce the effect of predisposing factors leading to mental disorders is recommended.

Background: Application of financial analysis in hospitals for optimization and correct planning is of particular importance.0bjective: To determine the cost-benefit status of in-patient wards of Qods Children Hospital affiliated to Qazvin University of Medical Sciences.Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted in 2006. Allocation of cost to inpatient wards was accomplished based on Activity Based Costing (ABC) method and the income for individual wards was calculated through the counting of patients’ files. The data were collected using information sheets specifically designed to cover necessary parameters.Findings: Bed-occupation rate was 63 percent. Personnel and non-personnel costs were 71% and 29% of total hospital costs, respectively. While the surgery ward earned 1,388,519 Rials per patient per day, the pediatric ward 1, pediatric ward 2, neonatal ward, and ICU ward were found to have a loss of 169806, 61249, 308495, and 901503 Rials per patient per day, respectively.Conclusion: Regarding the cost-benefit pattern demonstrated in our study, the hospital managers and decision makers must focus more seriously on lowering the waste operational costs, detecting causes of non optimization efficiency variance, and enhancing the activity capacity.

Background: The Bed Occupancy Rate (BOR) among Iranian hospitals was reported to be 57.4% in 2001 indicative of a significance difference with standard index of 75%.Objective: To evaluate the bed occupancy rate modeling in Shiraz hospitals.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out on random samples from different hospitals in Shiraz during the first half of 2004. The Poisson models including the negative binomials and mixture Poisson were used for BOR modeling. Hierarchical mixture Poisson, negative binomial and hierarchical two-component normal distribution were applied for the role of each hospital ward.Findings: Our findings showed that the average BOR was 66.4% in Shiraz hospitals. Regarding the relative hemogenity in observation of BOR in different hospitals, the hierarchical mixture Poisson and negative binomial models failed to accurately explain this variable and it was the hierarchical mixture two-component normal model which gave an accurate explanation for BOR found in our study. In this model, one of the components indicates the BOR observation close to mean and the other represents the outlier observations.Conclusion: The hierarchical modeling in which a hospital ward acts as a random component was shown to lead to the highest value for BOR.

Background: During recent years, due to the importance of health services quality, the health service managers have been paying enormous attention to improvement of health care quality and therefore, the Organizational Excellence Model is increasingly in use as a competition framework for recognition of achievement towards the organizational quality, performance excellence, and also the growth of organizational knowledge regarding the quality and performance excellence.Objectives: To assess the results of two hospitals affiliated to Social Security Organization in Tehran based on the Organizational Excellence Model.Methods: The present work was a cross-sectional study carried out at two hospitals named as Alborz and Panzdah-e-Khordad in 2005. Both hospitals were granted an ISO 9001 certification. The data gathering tool consisted of an EFQM questionnaire filled in during group working sessions, interview with hospital managers, and also the available documents kept at different wards. Data were collected according to the "four criteria of results" in the hospitals.Findings: The highest scores were gained in Panzdah-e-Khordad hospital in key performance results (56.5%) followed by customer results (46.1%), society results (40.6%), and people results (39%).Totally, our findings showed that Panzdah-e-Khordad hospital achieved a higher score (236.1 out of a total of 500 points) compared to Alborz hospital with 212.2 points.Conclusion: It is believed that the health care area is one of the best fields for application of the model towards the performance excellence and gaining better organizational results and hence, it seem that the model has a high potential in responding to problems commonly seen in health sector.

Background: Human milk plays a vital role in growth and development of infants especially in low birth weight & premature neonates. Lack of mothers’ sufficient knowledge and also inadequate support given could lead to failure in continuous breast feeding.Objective: This study was performed to determine the effects of interventional education on continuous breast feeding in low birth weight and premature newborns.Methods: In this interventional study, 55 mothers of low birth weight infants, hospitalized in neonatal ward at Amirkolah children hospital in Babol (Iran), were selected by convenience sampling method. The population study was randomly divided into two study groups marked as experimental group (n=26) and control group (n=29). The data collection tools were a questionnaire including parent and infant demographic information and a recording sheet to register the type of infants' diet.Interventional education was given both theoretically and practically to those in experimental group following the evaluation of mothers and neonates regarding the mothers’ learning needs about breastfeeding.The members of control group were only taken care of according to the hospital routine. All study subjects were followed for three months after discharge to assess their nutritional diet through asking the mothers about continuation or discontinuation of breast-feeding and delivery of necessary instructions to mothers in experimental group having problem with breast feeding and repetition of educational program if needed. The data were analyzed using SPSS.Findings: Three months of exclusively continuous breast-feeding in experimental group led to a significant difference between two groups (p=0.03). The decline in progress of breast feeding during the similar period in control group was quite noticeable compared to experimental group.Conclusion: Based on findings, delivery of necessary education and counseling on breast feeding to mothers according to their needs could enhance the success of continuous breast feeding practice by mothers.

Background: Adolescence is one of the three critical periods of life with a variety of developmental changes in which the reproductive heath (RH) plays a key role towards the general healthiness.Objective: The aim of the present work was to study the educational needs of adolescents concerning the reproductive health and determination of proper strategies towards an effective education of target population.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 300 teenage girls, randomly selected from six guiding schools in Qazvin, in 2005. Data were analyzed using Chi-square and t-student tests.Findings: The average scales of knowledge on exercise & nutrition, anatomy, reproductive physiology, menstruation, puberty heath, 35, breast cancer, AIDS & STDs, and family planning methods were 29, 11, 13, 36, 35, 15, 60, and 27%, respectively.Conclusion: Based on the data obtained in our study, the level of knowledge on reproductive health among the target population found to be quiet weak. Therefore reproductive health education by schools midwifes, mothers, teachers, friends, and etc in adolescent age group is recommended.

Backgrounds: It is proposed that the excessive immunological response of mother to feto-placental unit follows by preeclampsia.Objective: To investigate whether the sperm exposure can reduce the incidence of preeclampsia by increased tolerance of mother to semen antigens.Methods: This was a prospective cohort study carried out on Iranian primigravid women receiving prenatal care at health clinics of hospitals affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2006. The study population was divided into two groups marked as sperm-exposed group (n=143) and non-exposed group (n=250). The data were collected using a questionnaire including information such as time interval between the beginning of sexual contact and conception, duration of sperm exposure, and the development of preeclampsia. Statistical analysis was performed using t-student test, chi square test, and logistic regression.Findings: Our results showed that the rate of preeclampsia in sperm-exposed group was significantly lower than that of non-exposed group (p=0.043). An inverse relationship between the length of exposure and the occurrence of preeclampsia was demonstrated (p=0.03).Conclusion: Exposure to sperm seems to offer protection against development of preeclampsia and preconception sexual contact over a long period could reduce the risk of preeclampsia.

A total number of 659 school children (6-12 years-old) selected primarily in cluster and later by stratified random samplings were studied for proteinuria in Qazvin during 2002. Initially, the morning urine samples were qualitatively analyzed using dipstick test followed by sulfosalicylic acid method, quantitatively. After 6 months, the positive cases were followed up for urine proteine/creatinine ratio. The prevalence of proteinuria was found to be 1.8% among the population study with boys twice as common as in females. Symptomatic renal disease was shown to have a prevalence of 1.5 per 1000 children.

To determine diabetes-associated eye problems in Qazvin, in a cross- sectional study, 371 patients (742 eyes) were studied at eye clinic of Boali hospital in Qazvin (Iran). Visual acuity was taken and the refractive state performed. Corneal surface, anterior and posterior chamber, lens, vitrous body and retina were assessed. In ocular examination, 55 eyes (7.4%) were normal, 242 (32.6%) with hyperopia and 443 (59.7%) with myopia. Cataract, diabetic retinopathy, and blindness were diagnosed in 77.22%, 18.3%, and 1.35% of cases, respectively.

This descriptive study was conducted to compare the research activities of different faculties of QUMS during 2006-2007. The existing information showed that the percentage of abstracts presented in Iranian seminars, published books, and approved researches were increased by 57%, 22%, and 18%, respectively.However, the rate of research budget and the abstracts presented in foreign seminars were decreased by 10% and 11%, respectively. The number of articles written in English was increased by 155% during the same period and the Faculty of Dentistry obtained the highest score based on the number of articles and approved researches.