Studies in Medical Sciences
Year:2004 | Volume:14 | Issue:4|Papers Count:11

Introduction: Planning for providing essential mental health services to the people requires knowledge about the present status of psychiatric disorders in the society. The object of this research was to carry out the epidemiological study of the psychiatric disorders in the individuals 18 years and above in urban and rural areas of West Azerbaijan province. Materials & Methods: 1041 individuals were selected through randomized systematic and clustered sampling methods from among the families of West Azerbaijan province and the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS) questionnaires were completed by clinical psychologist. The diagnosis of the disorders was based on DSM-IV classification criteria. Results: The results of the study showed that the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the province is 29.01 percent that was 40.23 percent in the women and 17.74 percent in the men. The anxiety and mood disorders respectively with 14.03 and 7.80 percent had the higher prevalence in the province. The prevalence of psychotic disorders in this study was 2.30 percent, neuro-cognitive disorders 3.18 percent and dissociative disorders 1.73 percent. In the group of mood disorders, major depression with 4.61 percent and in the group of anxiety disorders, post trauma stress disorder with 2.79 percent had the higher prevalence. This study also showed that 14.99 percent of the individuals suffered from at least one of the psychiatric disorders. Discussion: The prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the province among the individuals in the age group of 66 years and above with 20 percent, individuals whose spouses had passed away 18.60 percent, the residents of Orumieh city 25.42 percent, the illiterate individuals 20.05 percent and retired individuals 23.81 percent was more than- other individuals in the sample.

Introduction: The goal of this study is determination of various nutrients consumption that is needed for pregnant women and comparing it with Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA). Also we introduced the factors that affect nutrient intakes in Urmia-Iran. Materials & Methods: 118 pregnant women in 12-16 weeks of gestational period were assessed in dietary nutrient intakes by 24 hour recall for three days (two week days and a weekend day). Dietary intakes were evaluated by FPII soft ware package. The soft ware outputs were compared with RDA standard tables' values. Average of consumption, percent of consumption efficacy and number of women that intake less than RDA recommendation were calculated. Results: The results showed that the average of energy intake was, 2304±636 Kcal/day and protein was 75.76±29.2 gr/day. But 39 percent of women have recived less energy and protein than RDA recommendation. The average intake of different vitamins were: VitA 1441 mg, VitB1 2mg, VitB2 or riboflavin 1.47 mg, VitB3 or niacin 21.79 mg; VitB6 1.91 mg, VitB123.46mg, folic acid 180.3 mg, pantothenic acid 2.40mg, VitC 141mg and VitE 20.78mg. The average of minerals were Ca 838 mg, Cu 1.72 mg, Fe 28.9mg,Mg 162mg, P 735 mg, K 2536mg, Si42.8 mg and Zn 9.4 mg. Discussion: Some reports (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9) have showed that in many undeveloped countries, the RDA registered nutrient intakes was not completed to pregnant women. Our results in parallel with some reports showed that many pregnant women in Urmia-Iran also received fewer nutrients than RDA registered recommendation. The low dietary nutrient intakes can threat fetus - mother health and newborns. We concluded that the main factor in biasing to RDA recommendation is the consumers' knowledge to nutrients intake role. The availability of nutrients and economo - social position of pregnant women had less effect on nutrients intake in our study in Urmia - Iran. We concluded that the education of pregnant women about gestational necessities have major role in preventing of mother, prenatal and neonatal health.

Introduction: In the past few decades it has become increasingly evident that human embryos are subject to a variety of environmental influences. that might have deleterious effects on their development. One agent to which many human mothers may be exposed is acetaminophen. Acetaminophen is a widely used analgesic and antipyretic which is considered safe at therapeutic levels during pregnancy. Materials and Methods: In this investigation, we administered therapeutic does of acetaminophen (48.5mg/kg) in mice during critical periods of pregnancy (days 8-11 of gestation). We also administrated the double therapeutic does (97 mg/kg) of acetaminophen to other experimental group. The control were received the same volume of physiological serum on the same days. Results: Our finding have shown that the administration of therapeutic doses of acetaminophen resulted in defects of the visual system such as microophthalmia, anophthalmia, intrauterine gross retardation and fetal resorption among other developmentally related malformations are those affecting the central nervous system, urinary tract and skeletal system. Although administration of a doubled therapeutic dose caused a further increase in the severity and frequency of the malformations, there was no significant difference in visual system defect in experimental groups. Conclusion: It seems that when pregnant animals were exposed to acetaminophen, it is metabolized in the liver and converted into potentially toxic metabolites. These metabolites can pass through the placenta and may cause malformation in the embryo. The mechanism by which acetaminophen affects components of the developing embryo remains to be determined.

Background & Aim: Iron is one of the essential trace elements which have crucial metabolic and hematologic effects. Restricted intake, low intestinal absorption and important metabolic role make iron a very important trace element in human body which should be studied meticulously. Mercury which used in dentistry material, industry and agriculture adversely affects on Iron Metabolism; therefore we decided to study the effects of mercury on iron metabolism in rat in vivo and in vitro. Materials & Methods: Each group of 5 rats were treated with daily IP injection of either 5 mg/kg (Body weight) HgCl2 for 10 days and 2 mg/kg B. W for 30 and 60 days, before determination of serum levels of iron, TIBC Ceruloplasmin and evaluation of peripheral blood smear with Hb, HCT assay. Results: The results obtained are as follows. Daily intraperitoneal injection of 5mg/kg B. W of mercury chloride for 10 days elevated serum Ceruloplasmin and TIBC by 14.5, 20.7 percent, Iron, Hb and hematocrit were decreased 7.1, 8.2 and 9 percent respectively. Daily intraperitoneal injection of 2 mg/kg B.W of mercury chloride for 30 and 60 days elevated TIBC by 27.7 and 58.8 percent, Ceruloplasmin by 47 and 70 percent but decreased HCT by 18 and 24 percent, iron by 14.5 and 43 percent respectively. Peripheral blood smear show hypochrom. Optimum time for iron absorption by everted gut sac was 45 minutes. Iron in the form of divalent was absorbed in E.G.S. Experiment by 12.7 percent. Absorption of iron by everted gut sac in the presence of mercury was decreased by 22 percent. Discussion: The results show that mercury could affect on iron metabolism in a dose and time dependent manner. The decreasing of iron in the presence of mercury by E. G.S. may be related to competition of mercury with iron to occupying the specific sites on transferring. This effect might be considered as a possible cause of Iron deficiency anemia in those who are intoxified with mercury.

Background & Aim: Bovine leukocyte interferon (IFN) was produced in bovine peripheral blood leukocytes after priming and induction with Sendai virus. This interferon can be used in bovine viral infection and for this reason, it is necessary to have a suitable procedure for interferon purification. Materials & Methods: Interferon produced with Sendai virus by bovine leukocytes was precipitated with KSCN (pH 3.5) and purified by column chromatography using Sephadex G-100. To obtain higher recovery of interferon several procedures were used. Results: Using 25% ethylene glycol and one molar NaCl in the column elution buffer resulted in over 93% recovery of the applied IFN activity, versus only 25% when buffer contained no ethylene glycol. Column-purified IFN was analyzed by SDS-PAGE in denaturing buffer and a single band of 19000 Dalton protein with interferon activity was identified. Discussion: This is a suitable procedure for purification of enough interferon to be used for production of monoclonal antibody and for biological investigation.

Background & Aim: Clomipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant agent, and fluoxetin, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, have been shown to be effective in treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorders. This study was carried out to compare the efficacy of fluoxetine and clomipramine in treatment of 110 obsessive - compulsive outpatients. Materials and Methods: 110 obsessive-compulsive outpatients were selected randomly from two psychiatric clinics in Tabriz. At the beginning, patients were devided in to two groups randomly, and in the second phase of the study, they were assigned to three groups, by a sequential sampling. The efficacy of fluoxetine and clomipramine was compared in first and second groups. In the third and fourth groups the patients resistant to each drug were treated with the other drug. In the last phase patient to both drugs were treated by combination of two agents (5 th group). Results: The results showed relative superiority of fluoxetine to clomipramin in some patients with obsessire-compulsive disorder (p<0.01 and p<0.05), but in some cases the difference was not significant. Discussion: Considering the results of the study, fluoxetine is a first line probably therapeutic agent for obsessive-compulsive disorder and probalily an appropriate pharmacological approach in treating obsessive-compulsive patients in our country.

Background & Aim: Recent studies have demonstrated high prevalence of multiple drug resistant mycobacterium tuberculosis. In this survey we assessed the treatment outcome of tuberculosis and the role of drug resistance and patients compliance in Mazandaran Province. Materials & Methods: In a prospective study during three years (2001-2003) 107 patients with a culture proven diagnosis of mycobacterium tuberculosis of sputum referring to Health Center of Province who underwent anti-tuberculosis medication were examined. Treatment outcome was classified as positive of negative based on the clinical assessment, improvement or detoriation of chest X rays and the results of follow-up sputum examination. Patients were divided to three groups based on treatment regimen compliance. The patients were regared as compliance when she or he completed the treatment without any interruption. .Non compliance was registered when the treatment was interrupted for more than two weeks. Patients who were between these two groups were regarded as a poor compliance. Susceptibility testing was performed to isoniazed, rifampicin, etambutol and streptomycin by Agar dilution method. Multiple drug resistance was defined as a strain resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin. For data analysis chi square test was used and if data was less than 5, Fishers exact test was performed. Analysis was carried out using the SPSS 11.0 software package and p<0.05 was defined statistically significant. Results: Ninety five patients (51 men, 44 women, age range 18-85 years) completed the treatment. Of these, 69 patients (72.6%) showed positive results and 26 (21.4%) were negative as the treatment outcome is concerned. However positive, results, is less (64.5%, 69.107) and negative result is higher (35.5%, 38.107) if patients who were lost to follow up are regarded as negative results. Multiple drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis was observed in patients with negative results. The prevalence of poor compliance were found, to be significantly, higher in patients with negative treatment results compared to patients with positive results (p<0.0001). There, was no significant difference in, treatment outcome between the different age groups. Negative result was more common among males than among females patients, (20 patients, 39% and 6 patients, 13.6%, respectively, p=0.01). In this study; prevalence of poor compliance among males was significantly higher than females (37.2% and 11.4% respectively, p=0.03). Conclusion: In this survey, positive result of anti-tuberculosis treatment in Mazandaran province was below the rate recommended by WHO. This low rate was cc associated with poor compliance and drug resistant mycobacterium tuberculosis. These results emphasize the importance of sensitivity tests for mycobacterium tuberculosis and close supervision of patients taking anti-tuberculosis medications.

Background: As addiction to narcotics in Iran is increasing, use of illegal pain relievers have caused some problems for the misusers. Even some of the users, have complained about dependence to these pain relievers. The aim of this study is to study the possible exsistance of opium alkaloids, (especially morphine and codeine) in the pain relievers that are being sold illigally. Method & Materials: Pain relievers in different forms which were used by unsatisfied users were delivered to our lab. The liquid-liquid extraction was used for extraction method. The identification prosses was by TLC. Results: Our obtained results indicated that the samples contained morphin and codeine. In additon other derivatives such as Methadon and Diphenoxylate were found in them. These drugs were in capsul, powder, brown liquid forms. Discussion: As addiction to narcotics in Iran is increasing, use of illegal pain relievers have caused some problems for the users. It is necessary to Control of such drug sellers, correct applied, teaching to users about side effects of these drugs.

Background: Crossed renal ectopia occurs more commonly in males in a ratio of 2:1 and left to right ectopia is seen three times more than right to left. Clinical Data: The patient is a 32 years old female referred to us with an abdominal mass and recurrent urinary infection. Paraclinical Investigation showed non fusion left crossed renal ectopia. Discussion: It is necessary to be aware of this anomaly regarding to its association with other organ anomalies, its complications and rarity.

Background & Aim: Posterior dislocation of hip joint with femoral head fracture is unusual. - Comprehensive long bone classification system is used for typing and treatment guide. Case report: A 22 Years old man is referred us with posterior dislocation of the hip join with type C1-3 femoral head fracture. This is the first case reported in Urmia University of Medical Sciences. Discussion: In car accident if hip joint is positioned in adduction and internal rotation, knee contact with dash board and directed force to the hip would be resulted in posterior dislocation, but in parallel thighs with few hip adduction and internal rotation, femoral head would be contacted with acetabulum and fractured anteromedialy beyond posterior dislocation.