Journal of Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences
Year:2010 | Volume:11 | Issue:4|Papers Count:18

Background and aim: Previous studies have shown an anti-tumoral effect for different species of Artemisia. This study was performed to evaluate the anti-tumural effects of different kinds of Artemisia annua extracts on gastric cancer cells.Methods: Methanol, ethylacetate, dichloromethane and hexan extracts of Artemisia annua were prepared by step to step procedure. Cultivated gastric cancer cell line (AGS) and normal fibroblast cells (L929) were incubated with different concentrations of extracts for 24 hours and cell growth inhibition was determined using MTT assay and results were reported as IC50 (concentration that caused 50 percent inhibition of cells growth). Annexin V and propidium iodide (PI) staining was used to evaluate the apoptosis and/or necrosis induction in cancer cells. One way ANOVA was used for analysis.Results: The results obtained from MTT assay showed a strong and dose-dependent inhibition of cancer cell growth by different Artemisia annua extracts. The most cytotoxic effect was obtained by methanolic extract (IC50: 500 mg/ml) and it caused apoptosis more than other extracts.Conclusion: Isolated extracts from Artemisia annua caused a significant decrease in gastric cancer cell growth mainly by induction of apoptosis and at the same time they had less toxicity on normal cells. Therefore, Isolation and purification of effective compound/s from this extracts and determination of their mechanisms of action is suggested.  

Background and aim: Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) strains are among the most important diarrheagenic agents in developing countries. This study aimed to determine the common serotypes and antibacterial susceptibility pattern of EPEC strains isolated from less than 5 years old children with diarrhea hospitalized in Shahrekord-Hajar hospital in first six months of 2007.Method: A total of 50 rectal swabs were collected from less than 5 years old children with diarrhea. In addition, 50 rectal swabs were obtained from outpatient children without history of diarrhea and gastroenteritis as control group. Stool samples were cultured on differential media EMB and Mac Conkey agar and incubated overnight in 35oC. Standard biochemical tests (IMVIC) were used for identification of bacteria. Confirmation of isolated bacteria as EPEC strains was performed with specific antisera (Bahar Afshan-Tehran) using slide agglutination method. Besides, antibacterial susceptibility pattern of 13 EPEC isolates against some common antibiotics: cephalotin, ampicillin, nalidixic acid, sulfamethoxazol- trimethoprim, gentamicin, ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacine and nitrofurantoin was evaluated using disk diffusion method. Data were analyzed using t-test, chi-square and logistic regression.Results: EPEC strains were isolated from 26% of the children with diarrhea (13 patients) compared with 4% of children without diarrhea (2 cases). Our data showed that fifty percent of the EPEC isolates were belonged to O44, O125, O126 and O128 serogroups. In addition, 33.3% of the EPEC isolates were belonged to O20, O114 serogroups and finally, 16.6% were belonged to O26, O55 and O111 serogroups. Nitrofurantoin, ciprofloxacin and gentamicin were the most effective antibiotics against EPEC bacteria.Conclusion: The prevalence of EPEC demonstrates the important role of these strains in causing of acute diarrhea in children. Therefore, we suggest the application of routine diagnostic tests for identification and serogrouping of EPEC strains in bacteriologic laboratories.

Background and aim: Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most causes of food poisoning (FP) in dairy products. The main etiologic agent of FP is staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE). There are different types of SE, but type A (SEA) and type B (SEB) are the most important types. Because traditional dairy products are still produced and sold without a permit from the Ministry of Health, this study was conducted to evaluate molecular and serological detection of enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus SEA and SEB from traditionally dairy products.Method: In the current study, 100 samples of dairy products, which were produced by traditional methods, were transported to the laboratory under sterile conditions and were assessed. Samples were cultured and identified by routine bacteriological methods. The isolated bacteria were evaluated by PCR tests for diagnosis of the gene encoding of SEA and SEB. Subsequently, the ability of above mentioned strains to produce enterotoxin were examined by Sac’s culture method and were confirmed by SRID. Data were analyzed using chi-square test.Results: The results indicated that 32% of dairy products were contaminated by Staphylococcus aureus (18% cream, 10% cheese, 4% milk). The PCR results showed that 15.6% of Staphylococcus aureus isolates possessed the SEA gene, 9.3% had the SEB gene and 6.2% possessed both genes. The ability of enterotoxin production indicated that 80% of SEA and 33% of SEB genes were expressed.Conclusion: Enterotoxins SEA and SEB are heat stable; therefore heating has no effect on dairy products contaminated by entertoxins and gastritis may occur in a short period of time. As PCR is a rapid, sensitive, specific and inexpensive method, we suggest that it can be replaced to traditionally assays for detecting SE.

Background and aim: Familial hypercholesterolemia is an autosomal dominant inherited disorder, characterized by increased level of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and lipid accumulation in tendons and arteries. It can cause premature atherosclerosis and increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Familial hypercholesterolemia is caused mainly by mutations in low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) gene. The aim of this study was to analyze the LDLR gene mutations in a group of patients from Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari province.Methods: in this descriptive-lab based study, 57 suspected FH patients were screened for mutations in promoter and exons 1, 3, 5, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17 and 18 of LDLR gene using PCR-SSCP strategy.Results: Tow different LDLR gene variations, including heterozygote mutation 283T>A and polymorphism 1959T>C, were identified in 1 and 9 FH Families studied, respectively.Conclusion: We conclude that LDLR gene mutation may not be the major cause of FH in the population studied and the cause of FH in chaharmahal va Bakhtiari province remains to be detected in other loci or genes.

Background: Nutritional factors, especially breakfast can have some effects on children’s learning, educational improvement and memory. Nutrients, such as niacin, folic acid, cobalamine etc. can have effect on short-term memory via several mechanisms. This study was conducted to evaluate breakfast intake pattern and short-term memory status in junior secondary school students in Shiraz.Method: In this cross-sectional study, a total number of 150 girl students were randomly selected from four secondary schools in Shiraz.  The students were asked to fill out the socio-economic questionnaires as well as food frequency questionnaires for breakfast. They were provided by three-day breakfast and their short-term memories were evaluated by Weksler test. Socio-economic conditions and dietary intakes were analyzed using ANOVA test.Results: The results of this study showed that there was no correlation between parents job, students mean age and their school grades with their memory scores. Dietary analysis demonstrated a negative correlation between local soup consumption in breakfast and memory scores. Food record analysis showed no correlation between fat, cholesterol, protein, vitamin B6, B12, calorie or iodine intake in breakfast and memory scores, but there was a positive correlation between carbohydrate, iron and vitamin B3 intake in breakfast and memory scores, similarly there was a positive correlation between B12 intake in the breakfast and students' average school grades during the year.Conclusion: Adequate breakfast with lesser lipid and meat and higher carbohydrate, Fe2+ and vitamin B3 can have important role to improve short-term memory.

Background and aim: In the last decades efforts have been dedicated to improve research activities among academic staff in the universities. However less attention has been paid to improve research skills among nonacademic staff of health system, especially physicians. Thus, in this research capability of the physician working in Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari for doing applied researches has been investigated.Methods: In this interventional research, the study population was consisted of all general physicians who were working in health care centers in Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari (CMVB) province. From the whole population of general physicians 60 physicians were selected and were randomly divided into two separate groups (30 physician as case group and 30 physicians as control group). Case group participated in a research methodology workshop. In this workshop they were trained how to find the health system priorities and how to write a research proposal. After finishing the workshop, they returned to their work and conducted their research proposal and then they participated in the second workshop to present their research results. In second workshop they improved their abilities for writing a scientific article, preparing a poster, giving a scientific talk and paper publishing.  Prior and after the workshop their knowledge about the subject was collected in both groups, using a questioner. At the end, results collected from both groups were analyzed using paired and independent-t tests.Results: The average scores of knowledge about research methodology in case group was 6.23±0.24 and 12.97±2.35 prior and after interventions, respectively (P<0.05). The capacity of case group for conducting research activities was significantly higher compared to the control group. They were principle researchers in 16 research projects and co-workers in 70 research projects.Conclusion: We conclude that continuous running of this project may lead to improving performance of more applied research projects and to solve more health problems.

Background and aim: Osteoporosis is a common metabolic bone disease that cause bone fracture. Menopause is the most important risk factors for osteoporosis. This disease is prevalent in menopausal women (50%) because of estrogen deficiency and less bone mass in menopausal period. The aim of this study was to determine the osteoporosis preventive factors in menopausal women referred to the health care centers of Ilam University of Medical Sciences.Methods: This research was an analytical-descriptive study; in witch 150 menopausal women were selected by random sampling method as population of the study. The data were collected by interview, observation and physical examinations, using specific questionnaires and check lists. The data were analyzed by Chi-square and Fisher tests using SPSS software.Results: The result of this study showed that %90 of the samples did not exercise, %92.7 have not consumed enough calcium and just %45.3 of the samples used to exposed in sunlight. These women also suffered from joint pain (%76.7), back pain (%47.3), and muscular weakness (%42.7). In addition, our results showed that age (P<0.05), amount of calcium intakes in 24 hour (P<0.05), previous history of bone fracture in family (P<0.01), amount of vitamin D intakes (P<0.01) and steroid drugs (P<0.05) could have influences on osteoporosis intensity, but other variables did not show an influence on osteoporosis intensity (P>0.05).Conclusion: The finding of this study showed a weak performance of menopausal women for preventing the risk factors causing osteoporosis. Thus, more training should be in considered for menopausal women to reduce osteoporosis among them.

Background and aim: Malaria is one of the most important parasitic diseases in the world and a major health problem in some areas of Iran. In addition to endemic areas in the south and south-eastern part of Iran, a new threat of Plasmodium vivax malaria importation emerged from the Parsabad district, which is located in Ardabil province in the north western part of the country. Malaria in this area may have originated from Azerbaijan, Armenia or southern part of Iran. This study has been carried out to clarify seroparasitological results from Indirect Fluorescence Assay (IFA), stability of antiplasmodial antibodies and its comparison with those of confirmed direct microscopy in Parsabad district during 2003-2005.Methods: This seroparasitological study has been carried out on 250 samples from malaria infected patients which was previously confirmed by microscopy and treated with routine antimalarial agents, and 250 samples of healthy control with no history of malaria in Parsabad during two years (2003-2005). Sera of collected blood samples were assessed for the presence of anti-plasmodial antibodies using IFA assay. Statistical analysis was applied by using ANOVA and Student's t-tests with Graph Pad Prism.Results: The results of this study indicated that all blood smears of test group were detected as positive by observation of P. vivax by direct microscopy and no positive smears were found among control group. Moreover, no mixed-infection was observed among collected samples. In addition, serological results revealed that 47 cases (19%) from test group and 4 cases (1.6%) from control group had antibodies against P. vivax malaria (P<0.001).Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that the rate of anti-plasmodial antibodies is not stable in malaria infected patients which was previously confirmed by microscopy and can not be used for epidemiological evaluation for malaria in this area. Therefore, more investigation is needed for evaluation and detection of the malaria.

Background and aim: Evaluation is a routine process for developing teaching and learning methods. This qualitative process is challengeable among faculty members. Validity of student evaluation and managers are controversial. In this study we tried to assess viewpoints of students and faculty members regarding this process and to develop it.Methods: This cross sectional descriptive study was performed on 60 faculty members and 370 students using 2 questionnaires containing demographic information and evaluation process. Data were analyzed by t-test, Chi-square and one way ANOVA using SPSS13.Results: Attitude of most faculty members were agree to be evaluated by students and managers, but they believed that the student proportion for evaluation should be higher than the managers. They also mentioned that the best persons for the evaluation are head of the departments, vice chairman and deans of faculties. Our results showed that 63% of faculty members were agreed with the evaluation by their colleagues and 37% were agreed with self evaluation. Despite of accepting the evaluation by 89% of the students, 53% of them believed that these evaluations had positive effect. The results also showed that 62% of the students thought that the faculty authorities had not chosen the best time for evaluation. Evaluation criteria and indices in viewpoint of both students and faculty members were almost the same. Scientific knowledge and teaching methods were selected as main criteria.Conclusion: Using the idea of faculty staff and students about evaluation process can increase quality of it and decrease unsatisfaction thoughts and reform evaluation.

Background and aim: The incidence of pre-lingual deafness is about 1 in 1000 neonates from which more than 60% of cases are inherited. Deafness is a heterogeneous disorder and may be due to genetic or environmental cause or both. Mutations in the DFNB59 gene encoding pejvakin protein have been very recently shown to cause neural deafness. In the present study, we have conducted type and frequency of the DFNB59 gene mutations in a cohort of 100 non syndromic deaf subjects in Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari province.Methods: In this descriptive-lab based study we investigated the frequency of DFNB59 gene mutations in the entire coding exons of the gene. DNA was extracted from the peripheral blood samples following the standard phenol chloroform procedure. DFNB59 gene mutations were investigated using PCR-SSCP/ Heteroduplex Analysis (HA). The results of PCR-SSCP/HA were confirmed by sequencing of exon 7, nested PCR and PCR-RFLP of 3 known DFNB59 mutations.Results: Altogether 3 different gene polymorphisms (793C>G, 793C>T and 874G>A) and one mutation (988delG) were detected in 7, 5, 2 and 1 subjects respectively.Conclusion: Based on our data from the present study and previous study, we conclude that DFNB59 gene mutations have a very low contribution to deafness in patients in Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari province and are not of great clinical importance in this region.

Background and aim: Dysmenorrhea or painful menstruation is one of the most frequent female disorders. The aim of this investigation is studying the effects of one term stretching exercise on primary dysmenorrhea in high school student.Method: In this semi-experimental study 179 students, 15-17 aged, not athlete and volunteer bachelor girls with moderate or severe primary dysmenorrhea were selected from 6 high schools in two different city zones. Total numbers of the students were 519 ones. Selected high schools were randomly divided into two groups: experimental group (4 high schools, 124 persons) and control group (2 high schools, 55 persons). In pre-test, all of subjects were studied for pain severity (1 to 10), pain duration and using sedative tablets in two continuous menstruation cycles. Post-test was given 8 weeks later. Data were analyzed using student t-test and nonparametric Wilcoxon test.Results: Our results demonstrated that after 8 weeks, pain severity was decreased from 7.65±1.94 to 4.88±1.92, pain duration was decreased from 7.48±5.26 to 3.86±2.5 hours and finally, using sedative tablets was decreased from 1.65±1.02 to 0.79±0.69 tablets in experimental group (P<0.01). No significant differences were observed between these parameters in control group (P>0.01).Conclusion: The results of this study showed that stretching exercises are effective in reduction of pain severity, pain duration and also in reduction of using sedative tablets in girl students with primary dysmenorrhea.

Background and aim: Indicating the quantities and qualitative characteristics of raw wastewater entering treatment plant is one of the basic fundamentals of correctl designation of treatment plants. The purpose of this study was to determine the design parameters for making urban treatment plants in cold regions of Iran.Methods: This applicative research is based on empirical studies which have descriptively been done in a temporal manner. In this study, three wastewater plants were selected as pilot from cold regions of Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari province i.e. Shahrekord, Broujen and Farsan wastewater plants. The quantative and qualitative characteristics of waste water entering to these wastewater plants were analyzed in a one-year period. In this research as well as measuring the waste water flow entering the plant the temperature, PH in entrance, chemical oxygen demand (COD), 5-days Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), suspended Solids (TSS), volatile suspended solids (VSS), Kajaldal Nitrogen (TKN) and phosphate phosphorous (P) were measured in 24-hours compound samples proportional to the wastewater flow. Data were analyzed using t-test and ANOVA.Results: The final results of the research parameters in cold weather regions for BOD5, COD, TSS, VSS, TKN and P has daily been 41, 60, 65, 47, 8.3, and 0.93gr per capita. Average production of wastewater was found 177 liter per capita per day. The obtained results from Max and Min wastewater flow coefficient were 1.76 and 0.29, respectively. No significant differences were found for BOD5, COD, TKN and P between three wastewater plants, but TSS, VSS were significantly higher in Shahrekord (P<0.05).Conclusion: In the case of using design parameters based on different climates and real characteristics of waste waters, we can obtain higher efficiency in guidance of exploitation from wastewater plants. In order to design plants in cold weather regions like Shahrekord (and most cities in the west of Iran) it is recommended that the per capita production and other design parameters to be considered in the trust range of this research.

Background and aim: Taxol is an effective anticancer drug which is used widely for the treatment of a variety of cancers. Taxol is normally isolated from the bark of the yew trees. Since obtaining Taxol from this source requires destruction of yew trees, researchers were thinking to find other sources for producing this substance. Fortunately, Iranian yew consists of different species of endophytic fungi that are able to producte Taxol. The aim of this study was to find and isolate Taxol-producing endophytes fungi from Iranian yew.Methods: To isolate endophytic fungi, stem and twig were collected from yew trees in north forests of Iran. After superficial sterilization, samples were placed on the surface of potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium in Petri plate. After some days, emerged fungi were isolated in the plates, some individual hyphal tips of the fungi were transferred to new PDA medium and this was repeated three times for fungus purity. The ability of fungus to make Taxol was substantiated by HPLC analyses. HPLC separation was performed using a kromasil C18 column. Data were analyzed using Duncan's test.Results: From a total of 80 isolated fungi from Iranian yew, five fungi were observed to produce Taxol. Among these fungi, TbPm4 produced the highest amount of Taxol (21/74 gm/l).Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that isolated endophytes fungi from Iranian yew tree have capability to produce Taxol.