Journal of Kerman University of Medical Sciences
Year:2012 | Volume:19 | Issue:5|Papers Count:14

Background & Aims: Sleep disorders are common complains in patients with cerebral stroke, studies on these issues are limited. We aimed to evaluate the sleep changes in patients with supratentorial ischemic stroke.Methods: In this cross sectional study, 38 patients (19 patients in supratentorial ischemic stroke group and 19 people in control group) were evaluated. Total sleep time, sleep efficacy, percent of stage 2 of Non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, Rapid eye movement (REM) latency, sleep spindle, sleep intensity, and saw tooth wave were evaluated by Electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring during sleep in both groups and were compared between them.Results: Patients in supratentorial ischemic stroke group had less sleep efficacy (P<0.01), shorter stage 2 of NREM sleep (P<0.01), greater REM latency (P<0.05) and lesser sleep spindles (P<0.01) in comparison with those in control group. There was no significant difference in saw tooth wave between two groups.Significant differences observed between two hemisphere in sleep density (P=0.01) and REM latency (P<0.05).Conclusion: Supratentorial ischemic stroke accompanied with sleep changes on EEG monitoring. These changes were seen in both REM and NREM periods and showed that supratentorial structures are involved in sleep–awake process.

Background and Aims: Ehrlichiosis is an emerging tick-borne zoonotic disease caused by the gram negative coccid obligate intracellular bacteria of the family Anaplasmataceae. Since the only available evidence in regard to monocytic Ehrlichiosis in Iran is related to dogs, the present study was designed to use the polymerase chain reaction assay for confirming the presence of Ehrlichia spp. in tick infested client owned dogs in Kerman.Methods: Blood samples were prepared randomly from 100 owned tick infested dogs regardless of clinical status. Complete blood count was done for each sample and in the next step, DNA extraction was done and PCR was carried out by a commercial kit.Results: Six of 100 (6%) examined dogs were positive for Ehrlichia spp. based on PCR.Conclusion: Results of the present study confirmed the presence of Ehrlichiosis as an emerging zoonotic disease in Iran and dogs could be considered as a main reservoir for the disease. It is recommended to determine the prevalence of Ehrlichiosis and the most prevalent Ehrlichia species in animal reservoirs, vectors, and human population in different geographical regions of Iran in further epidemiological studies.

Background & Aims: Hepatitis B virus is one of the causes of acute and chronic hepatitis. Due to multiple hospitalization and blood transfusion, thalassaemic patients are at higher risk of this infection. Duration of the immunity after vaccination in this high-risk group and the need for booster vaccination is uncertain. The aim of this study was to find antibody titration and immunity to Hepatitis B vaccine in thalassaemic patients at different time intervals after vaccination.Methods: A total of 454 thalassaemic patients in Kerman were evaluated in this study. All patients had been vaccinated with recombinant hepatitis B vaccine according to the national vaccination program. On the base of the time interval after vaccination, patients were divided into the 6 groups of 1 year, 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 4-5 and ³5 years. According to their anti-HBs antibody titer, patients were classified as non-immune (<10 IU/L), semi-immune (10-100 IU/L) and complete-immune (>100 IU/L).Results: The rates of non-immune cases in the 6 considered groups were respectively 3.28%, 3.3%, 5.7%, 19%, 33.3% and 58.2%.Conclusion: Three years after Hepatitis B vaccination in thalassaemic patients anti-HBs antibody levels decreases significantly. Therefore, evaluation of hepatitis B immunity level and performing booster vaccination after this period should be considered.

Background & Aims: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of 8 weeks specific aquatic therapy on kyphosis angle and some pulmonary indices in male university students with kyphosis.Methods: A total of 15 males with increased normal thoracic Kyphosis (kyphosis³40 degrees, 20.70 ±0.705 years old, height 175.5±6.19 cm, weight 64.19±8.23 kg) were selected. Before and after aquatic therapy, the angle of kyphosis was measured by using flexible ruler as a noninvasive and reliable method.Pulmonary indices such as force vital capacity (FVC), force expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), maximal voluntary ventilation (MVV), peak inspiratory flow (PIF) and peak expiratory flow (PEF) were measured by digital spirometry. Pre-test and post-test results were compared using t-test.Results: Kyphosis angle, FVC, MVV and PEF were improved significantly after an 8-week aquatic therapy (P£0.05).Conclusion: According to the results, aquatic therapy in patients with kyphosis is recommended.

Background & Aims: stroke is a stressful event associated with numerous physical, psychological, social and economical problems that can complicate the balance of different life aspects, but after a period of time, patients try to benefit from different coping styles to reduce their problems and retain to a normal life. The aims of this study were to investigate coping strategies used by stroke survivors, and to identify their distribution based on demographic factors.Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, all stroke patients in Kerman city were considered as study population. Finally, ninety-five patients were selected by convenience sampling method and based on the study inclusion criteria. Data were gathered by demographic questionnaire and Folkman & Lazarus Coping Questionnaire. The severity of symptoms was measured by National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS). Data analysis was performed by using descriptive and referential statistics (t-test, ANOVA) and through SPSS 16 software package.Results: Maximal means were achieved for seeking social support and planned problem solving, while minimal means were achieved for escape-avoidance and self controlling. There were significant relationships between coping styles and some demographic features such as age, level of education and severity and duration of the disease (P<0.05). Gender did not have a role on use of coping styles.Conclusion: According, to the results of this study, stroke survivors use problem-focused coping strategies more than emotion- focused coping strategies. The results of this study in regard to the relationship of age and educational level with the adopted coping style and using emotion-focused coping strategies by patients with more severe disease should be considered in the patients, treatment planning and process.

Background & Aims: The aim of the present study was to find whether prone position is one of the symptoms of childhood gastro esophageal reflux disease or not.Method: In this prospective case-control study, 200 children with gastro esophageal reflux disease (case group) and 210 healthy children (control group) were studied between 21 march 2009 and 21 march 2011.Data gathering was performed by a questionnaire including variables of sex, age, main complaint, sleeping position, endoscopic and pathologic findings. The questionnaires were filled out by face to face interviews with children's mothers. The patient group underwent upper endoscopy with pediatric video-endoscope. Pathologic reflux was approved in histological studies.Results: Mean age of case and control groups were 5.0±3.2, and 5.2±3.0 years respectively. The most common symptoms were abdominal pain (46.5%), and vomiting (34.8%). The majority of cases with esophagitis (73%) lied in prone position in night that had significant difference (P<0.0001) with the corresponding value in the control group (37.1%). In present study sensitivity and specificity of prone position for gastro esophageal reflux disease were respectively, 73% and 62.9%.Conclusion: According to the results, during taking history, prone position should be questioned.

Background & Aims: Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a functional intestinal system disorder defined with specific intestinal symptoms and no organic cause. Since mental problem is one of the main factors in etiology of this syndrome, studying the impact of psychological therapies on IBS seems to be useful. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of problem solving and assertiveness trainings on symptoms of IBS.Method: The present study was performed in pretest-posttest from with control group. A total of 45 patients referred to internal specialist were selected by systematic random sampling and divided into two experimental groups and one control group. After completing the pretest, experimental groups received 8 sessions of either problem-solving or assertiveness training and 3weeks after posttest, follow-up test was performed. Measurement instrument was the irritable bowel syndrome criteria’s check list completed by an internal specialist. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and through SPSS software package.Results: The results showed that both training methods decrease the IBS symptoms and the impact of them is the same. Based on the results, the impact of problem-solving and assertiveness trainings based on gender and educational level are the same. But the impact of problem-solving training is more in patients over 30 years old while the impact of assertiveness training is independent of age.Conclusion: We can benefit from psychological therapies such as problem-solving and assertiveness trainings in addition to medication therapies for improving IBS symptoms.

Background: The growth and evolution are among the basic sciences in pediatrics. All of the health staff should be familiar with infants care and the natural pattern of their growth. The present study aimed to help the health staff in urban society of Bam and Baravat, Iran to solve infants growth disorders.Methods: This cross-sectional study was done in 8 health centers of Bam and 2 health centers of Baravat and Bam, two cities of Kerman Province, Iran during 2003-2008. After data collection, the analysis was done to determine the correlation between growth disorders and the risk factors by using chi-square test.Results: Totally, 8.9% of studied population had growth disorders consisted of 29.92% non-obvious growth, 44.07% descending deviation from weight percentile (14% of cases was even under 3rd percentile), 6.47% with descending deviation from length percentile, and 19.52% with descending deviation from weight and length percentiles. There were significant relations between growth disorders and variables of place of residency age, duration of breast feeding, time of starting feeding, sex and prematurity.Conclusion: The high prevalence rate of growth disorders show a health and educational gap in relation to growth disorders which could be solved by health staff training.

Background & Aims: Major depression is one of the common psychiatric disorders imposing negative effects on patients and their families. There are several treatment methods for depression. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect of combination of cognitive behavioral group therapy, family psycho-education and medication versus medication alone on the improvement of major depression disorder.Methods: This study was a clinical trial in which using convenience sampling 60 patients with major depression admitted in Hajar Hospital Shahrekord /Iran were randomly selected. The patients were randomly allocated into three groups (n=20). The first group underwent medication therapy as well as cognitive behavioral group therapy. The second group received medication therapy, cognitive behavioral group therapy and family psycho-education. The third group, served as the control group, only received medication therapy. Beck Depression Inventory II was applied to all three groups before and after therapeutic interventions.Results: Our findings indicate a significant difference between control group and both cognitive behavioral group therapy and family psycho-education after therapeutic interventions. In other words, while both cognitive behavioral group therapy and family psycho-education groups showed significant difference with medication therapy group, no significant difference was found between cognitive behavioral group therapy and family psycho-education group.Conclusion: Medication therapy accompanied by cognitive behavioral therapies and family psychoeducation is more efficient in improving depression symptoms compared to pure medication therapy.

Background & Aims: children and adolescents can use their maximum of mental capacity and potential capabilities, if they benefit from a positive attitude towards their surrounding environment and a strong incentive for being active in the community. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship of social anxiety including social phobia, social interaction and maladaptive behavior with self-concept among fifth grade female students in Jahrom /Iran.Methods: In this correlation study, from 810 fifth-grade female students in Jahrom city, 153 female students were selected by single step cluster random sampling. Then, they investigated using Social Anxiety Questionnaire and Tennessee Self-concept Questionnaire.Results: Correlation and regression analysis showed significant reverse relationship between social phobia and self-concept. There was also significant positive correlation between social interaction and self-concept.Maladaptive behavior was the best predictor of self- concept among other variables of social anxiety.Conclusion: Social phobiaand maladaptive behavior can predict self-concept well but the best predictor of self-concept among components of social anxiety is maladaptive behavior.