Yafteh
Year:2006 | Volume:8 | Issue:2 (28)|Papers Count:16

Background: Scoliosis is a Greek word for crocked and is an often referred as an shape side to side curves of spine. The spinal column twists and rotates creating an uneven shoulder and a rib hump, which can lead to breathing problems as the heart and lungs became compressed. Early detection, can increase the chances of successful treatment. The treatment of scoliosis varies depending on severity of the curve; however, treatment usually consists of either bracing or surgery. This study was conducted to find the frequency and to find out different kinds of scoliosis and their recommendation to a physician for the right time treatment.Materials and methods: We investigated 2433 cases; include 1400 girls and 1033 boys from secondary high schools at Ahwaz. Sampling was carried out randomly and necessary equipments were used.Results: 42 cases (1.73%) out oftota1 were scoliosis positive, of which 28 were girl and 14 were boy. The frequency of having 20 and 20-30 degrees scoliosis in female sample was 85.7% and 14.3% respectively and any cases with more than 30 degree were not found. However, in boys' samples, the frequency of having 20, 20-30 and more than 30 degree scoliosis was 77.78%, 11.11%, 11.11% respectively.Conclusion: Scoliosis not only causes physical problems but also leads to various health problems like breathing and heart diseases. School screening can be a great help to us for early detection of scoliosis, which can have important role in society health.

Background: Hyperlipidemia and especially hypercholesterolemia is a known risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. There are several types of drugs with different side effects, to lower blood lipid levels. statins are the most commohly used drugs for treating high LDL cholesterol level. Apple cider vinegar and verjuice as old folk remedies claimed to have been beneficial in treating a long list of Medical ailments for at least 10,000 years. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy and safety of apple cider vinegar and verjuice, in treating hyperlipidemia in compare with Lovastatin.Materials and methods: This prospective randomized clinical trial was done on 3 groups. In each groups, 25 healthy subjects [13 men and 12 women aged 40-60, with hyperlipidemia (total cholesterol, 250-390 mg/dl; LDL cholesterol, 120-250 mg/dl; Triglycerides, 210-380 mg/dl and HDL cholesterol 30- 60 mg/dl)] who were not being treated with any drug or agent known to affect plasma lipids concentrations, participated.Pair matching was performed for patients in 3 groups. A fasting blood sample was taken for all subjects to detect the concentrations of lipids before treatment. One group was treated with apple cider vinegar (5 cc twice a day for 4 weeks, 30 minutes before lunch and dinner). Another group was treated with verjuice with the same dosage. In the third group, subjects received either 20 mg Lovastatin daily for 4 weeks or all of the subjects instructed to consume a same diet during the study. Lipid measurement was performed after 2 and 4 weeks. Pair wise comparisons for each variable between weeks 2 and 4 and baseline were carried out for each treatment group and between groups.Results: In all treatment groups, total cholesterol and LDL concentrations decreased significantly ep < 0.001) and HDL concentration increased significantly ep < 0.001). A 2 weeks treatment with vinegar, verjuice and lovastatin resulted in a mean decrease of 16%, 5% and 21% in total cholesterol. A 4 weeks treatment resulted in a mean decrease of25%, 8% and 26% respectively. Treatment with vinegar, verjuice and - lovastatin for 2 weeks resulted in a mean increase of 20%, 7% and 28% and for 4 weeks resulted in a mean increase of35%, 8 % and 36% of HDL-C, respectively.Conclusion: Apple cider vinegar and verjuice have a significant effect on treatment of hyperlipidemia and especially vinegar has effects like lovastatin on hyperlipidemia,  though vinegar and verjuice are two old folk remedies without Statins' side effects. It seems that apple cider vinegar could be a valuable alternative for lovastatin in the treatment of hyperlipidemia.

Background: Diabetic nephropathy is one of the causes of end stage renal diseases (ESRD). Increase of IGF-1 (insulin like growth factor) and GH (growth hormone) in diabetes induce kidney lesions especially Intraglomerular mesangial expansion, glomerular sclerosis and finally nephron dysfunction. In this research, IGF-1 and GH production inhibition by octreotide and sclerosis inhibition assessed quantitatively.Materials and methods: 21 male rats (2-month ages) were uninephrectomized from left flank and then randomly divided in 3 groups (7 per group). Diabetes was induced in second and third groups by injection of alloxan tetrahydrate (120 mg/kg) subcutaneously. Five days after diabetes induction, third group received octreotide (10 mg/day) subcutaneously for 8 weeks. After 8 weeks, kidneys from all groups were removed, fixed and sliced in 1 mm thickness for stereological study. After tissue processing, sections with 5 micron thickness were prepared from each slice and stained by PAS method. Cortex volume, glomerular volume and glomerular mesangium volume were estimated by Cavalieri and point counting methods. Mean difference of variables was analyzed by Mann- Whitney statistical test at P<0.05 level using SPSS V.12.0.Results: Chronic low dose usage of octreotide in diabetic rats can prevent increase of cortex volume (67%) and glomerular mesangial expansion (53%) significantly.This treatment inhibits increase of glomerular volume by 26% which is not significant.Conclusion: Inhibition of cortex volume and mesangial expansion in octreotide treated group showed significant effects 'in comparison to the non-treated diabetic group. But this treatment has no significant effect on glomerular hypertrophy in diabetic rats.

Background: Certain behaviors put people at high risk of premature death, disability or chronic diseases. The most common of such behaviors are smoking, bad eating habits, low physical activity, drug abusing and alcohol consumption, violent and injury and finally sexual high risk behavior. These behaviors are established during youth and extend to the adulthood. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of these behaviors among young people in Khorramabad.Materials and methods: In this cross sectional study, 700 students were participated. The assessment tool was a two - part self administrated questionnaire, consisted of demographic data and questions in 10 parts. Data was analyzed with SPSS V9.6 by X2 and Fisher exact test.Results: 67.1% of the students were female and 87.6% were single. The mean of their age was 21.26 years. 44.1% of them never used the seat belt of their cars. 13.9% had carried a weapon. 5.7% had an attempt for suicide. 25.1% of the university students had smoked cigarettes, 6% had drank alcohol an 8.3% had drug abuse. 32% of whom that experienced sexual intercourse had more than two partners and 39.8% of them had not used a condom. More than 90% had not eaten 5 servings /day of fruits and vegetables. More than 70 % had insufficient amount of physical activity. Conclusion: Health education at national and local levels can reduce these behaviors among youth.

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common abnormality and is associated with symptoms like abdominal pain or defecation discomfort (i.e., constipation or diarrhea). Treatment of this abnormality requires a high cost. Psychiatric complications of this syndrome are numerous; accordingly %20 to %60 of affected individuals suffers from them. Anxiety, depression and somatoform disorders are the most frequent complications.Materials and methods: This cross sectional-descriptive study was performed during 6 months on 76 patients who suffered from different gut abnormalities. The research tools were a general health questionnaire (GHQ-28), Rome-II criteria for diagnosis of irritable gut, demographic characteristic check list and clinical interview.Results: The prevalence of IBS was higher among females, married persons, younger people and city dwellers (p<0/05). The prevalence of the syndrome was not differed significantly among people with different levels of literacy. The incidence of depression, anxiety and somatic symptoms differed in control and IBS-affected groups, but there was not a significant difference between them in relation to social functionality (p<0/05).Conclusion: There is a strong relationship between psychological factors and IBS.Mental abnormalities such as depression, distress and somatic symptoms are prevalent among these individuals. So, paying attention to these mental disorders and use of non-medicinal treatment modalities along with medicinal treatments can lead to the reduction of treatment expense and better symptomatic therapy.

Background: Sharks get cancer rarely. A major difference between these animals and other species is that sharks have a great amount of cartilaginous tissue.Immunomodulatory effects of the cartilage of, some species (cow) have been proved. Because the immune system has a major role in the defense of the body against cancer, we studied the effects of shark cartilage on the mouse and human immune system.Materials and methods: In an experimental study, the effects of different doses of shark cartilage on humoral (antibody titer) immune response against sheep red blood cells (SRBC), were measured in mouse. In addition, we evaluated the modulatory effects of the shark cartilage on the natural killer (NK) activity of the peritoneal cells of mouse against a tumor cell line called K562, according to the standard methods. The proliferative response of the human peripheral blood' mononuclear cells was measured under the influence of shark cartilage.Results: Pure shark cartilage enhanced antibody response against SRBC in vivo. The hemagglutination titer which was 1/147 in the control group (injected with hen cartilage), increased to 1/1355 in the test group The optimal dose was 100 mg/ml both type of cartilage had blastogenic effect on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (the blastogenic index was 6.7 and 4.9 for impure shark cartilage and hen cartilage, respectively). NK activity was inhibited completely by pure shark cartilage (the amount of the killing activity of the effect or peritoneal cells for the control and test groups against target cells was 25.9% and 5.5% respectively). Conclusion: Shark cartilage has a potent immunomodulatory effect on the specific immune mechanisms and some inhibitory effects on the innate immune mechanisms such as NC activity. Since the specific immunity has a more pivotal role against tumor formation, shark cartilage can be used as a cancer immunotherapeutic.

Background: Complications of national program vaccination have great importance, because widespread use of vaccines and expanded age range of vaccinees increases the percentage of side effects. Present study was performed for evaluating the complications of national measles and rubella vaccination in Hamedan province. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was done from, December sixth to January fifth 2003 and two months after termination of vaccination program. The study was performed by filling complication forms that were distributed in the vaccination centers. The data was analyzed by SPSS software.Results: A total of 827468persons had been vaccinated in Hamedan, 260 out of them showed different complications. They had occurred mostly in 10 to 14 year old age group and had reported mainly by vaccination teams. 61.41 % of complications had been occurred in the first 24 hour after vaccination. 86 % of them had reactions to vaccination. 91 % of cases were outpatient. The complications with incidence rate more than 1/100000 were urticaria, fever, head ache, vomiting, lymphadenopathy, cough, skin rash, myalgia, pharyngitis, arthritis, rhinitis, restlessness and ocular complications in decreasing order. The complications with incidence rate less than 1/100000 were sever dyspnea, seizure, diarrhea, paresthesia, anaphylaxis, encephalitis, 100000 thrombocytopenia, and Gillan - Barre syndrome.Conclusion: Mild complications were more frequent than severe ones. Most of the complications were related to reaction to vaccine, we didn't have any program fault. Therefore we suggest a potent and flexible care system for reacting to side effects.

Background: Coronary heart disease is a common disease after adolescence. Strong epidemiological evidence is available that iron is an important factor in coronary artery disease. Therefore this study was done to assess the relationship between iron stores and coronary artery disease.Materials and methods: 208 subjects with cardiovascular disease were included in the study. Personal information was collected by a questionnaire, and blood samples were taken to measure HB, HCT, TIBC, ferritin and iron.Results: 110 (52.9%) of participants were female and 98 (47.1%) were male. Average age of participants was 63.5. Average ferritin level in males was 127.41 mg/ml and in females was 108.214 mg/ml. Iron level in males was 93.70 mg/ml and 84.71 mg/ml in females. Results showed a significant correlation between age and ferritin and iron levels.Conclusion: The findings indicate that high age is associated with an increase in iron stores. This phenomenon has been linked to several common diseases, such as cardiovascular disease. Therefore, our results indicate that high iron level a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Background: Asthma is recognized as a common cause of disability, of great economic cost, and of preventable deaths. In this study we aimed to test our hypothesis to evaluate the relationship between the Human Platelet Antigen-1(HPA-I) polymorphism and bronchial asthma and its severity, which would suggest genetic variances that may be responsible for expression or activation of these receptors, so play a role in explaining the suggested genotypic differences in the risk of bronchial asthma occurrence.Materials and methods: To investigate the relation between the HPA-I polymorphism and bronchial asthma, we conducted a case-control study of 110 patients with bronchial asthma and 129 non-asthmatic outpatient controls, which were participated voluntarily in this study. After the participants answered a questionnaire aimed at identifying their age, sex, clinical signs and symptoms to identify asthma severity, a trained observer assessed airway reversibility in asthmatic patients. To determine HPA-I allele frequencies (la, Ib) and genotyping for Ia+Ia, Ia+Ib and Ib+Ib in both patients and controls, a blood sample was sent to the laboratory.Results: It was found that the dyspnea was the most common symptom in asthmatic patients, recurrent episodic wheezing (93.6%), cough (90%) and nocturnal symptom (89.1%) were other more common symptoms respectively. Assessment of HPA-1 allele frequencies (Ia, Ib) and genotyping for Ia+la, Ia+Ib and Ib+Ib showed no differences in both patients and controls (P>0.05). The rate of Ia allele frequency and Ia+Ia genotype had a direct relationship with asthma severity. Conclusion: We observed strong association between HPA-1 a allele and asthma severity, but no association between the presence of HPA-1 polymorphism and bronchial asthma.

Background: Women spend more than One - third of their life in postmenstrual period and more than 50% of them have urogenital problems in this period. The most common type of urinary incontinence in women is stress urinary incontinence and middle aged women are the most affected persons.Materials and methods: We treated 93 menopaused women during 3 months. There were three groups and each group contained 31 patients. First group took Estrogen, the second group used Imipramine and the third group used estrogen in combination with Impramine. This study was a clinical trial and its main aim was verification of Estrogen effects on the treatment of stress urinary incontinence compared with Imipramine in menopaused women. We obtained information by using a questionnaire. Results: The improvement percent of first group was 22.5% (7 patients) Improvement percent of second group was 54.8% (17 patients) and in last group was 70.9% (22 patients).Conclusion: Imipramine is more effective than Estrogen in treatment of stress urinary incontinence and combination therapy with these two drugs is not more effective than Imipramine alone.

Background: Zinc has important effects on the human health, especially on the structural and functional activities of immune system. This study was carried out to examine the in vitro cytotoxic effects of Zinc on the Raji cell line.Materials and methods: The cell line was exposed to different concentrations of Zinc followed by incubation (37°C, 5% Co2) at various time points (12 to 72 hrs).Viability and proliferation of Raji cells were then evaluated with florescent (10ml Ethidium-Bromide and Acridine-Orange) staining. Data were analyzed by SPSS (Dunnet and Variance Analysis tests).Results: There was not a significant difference in the response of the Raji cells to different amount of zinc up to 100 mM at different incubation time points. At higher concentrations (200-500 mM) of Zinc, viability diminished significantly at 12, 24 and more hrs of incubation time when compared to the controls (p<0.05).Conclusion: We conclude that Zn has dose-dependent cytotoxic effects on Raji cells and probably could be used for immune-modulation.

Background: Abnormal uterine Bleeding (AUB) is one of the most common gynecological disorders. Dilatation and curettage is a diagnostic procedure in the management of AUB. Definite treatments such as hysterectomy may be applied based on the results of dilatation and curettage. This study was conducted to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of dilatation and curettage.Materials and methods: Histopathological results of the specimens that were obtained from dilatation and curettage were compared to hysterectomy. 85 patients were enrolled in this descriptive study from 2002 to 2004 (3 year period), patients were admitted in Besat hospital of Sanandaj. Data was obtained from pathologic study of dilatation and curettage specimens and hysterectomy. Data was analyzed with SPSS software.Results: The mean age of the subjects was 47.25 year, the lowest age was 28 and the highest was 78 year old. 75.3 percent of the patients were lived in rural area and 70.6 - percent had not have education. 96.6 percent of the study group has had more than 3 pregnancies. Tubal ligation was the most common contraception method in our patients. Sensitivity of dilatation and curettage for diagnosis of AUB was 78.1 and specificity was 79.16.Conclusion: The result of our study suggested that, dilatation and curettage is a safe an inexpensive method for diagnosis of abnormal uterine bleeding.

Background: Congenital hearing loss due to different genetic and environmental causes affects 1 in 1000 newborns. Mutations in the GJB2 (Gap Junction Beta-2) gene encoding the gap junction protein connexin 26 have been established as the main cause of autosomal recessive non-syndromichearing loss.Materials and methods: The aim of this study was to study the frequency ofGJB2 Mutations in Lorestan non-syndromic deaf population by using ARMS/PCR, DHPLC and Direct sequencing.Results: 106 chromosomes from 53 patients were studied. Eighteen chromosomes (17%) carried GJB2 mutations including: 35delG, 314del14, 512insAACG, - 3170G>A, W24X, V95M, 510insCGAA .The last mutation is a novel GJB2 mutation and 35delG mutation was diagnosed in 10 chromosomes (9/4%), (4 patients were homozygote and 2 patients were heterozygote). Also polymorphism V153I were found in 3 families. This frequency is significantly higher compared to the whole population of Iran.Conclusion: Unexpectedly, in this research just 17 percent of cases are covered. In this study 510 in sCGAA mutation was seen. This is a new mutation which is not reported in other studied populations in the world. Hence, this research shows that – at least in our studied population- the effect of other genes that could cause nonsyndromic hearing loss is possible and should be studied.