Introduction: Tetracyclic antidepressants-mirtazapin is one of antidepressants drug that exhibits both noradrenergic and serotonergic activity. It is commonly used to treat major depressive disorder. The genotoxic effect of mirtazapine has not been examined previously. The purpose of this study was to investigate the genotoxic and cytotoxic effects of mirtazapine on human peripheral blood lymphocytes.Methods: The genotoxic and cytotoxic effects of mirtazapine on human peripheral lymphocytes were examined by micronucleus (MN) test. The human lymphocytes were treated with 10, 25, 40 and 55 mg/mL concentrations of mirtazapine for 24 and 48 hours treatment periods.Results: MN formation was not significantly induced at 24- and 48-h treatment periods when compared with control but Nuclear division index (NDI) significantly decreased at all concentrations for two treatment periods.Conclusion: Mirtazapine was not genetoxic but was cytotoxic in human peripheral blood lymphocytes. According to this study mirtazapine has cytotoxic effects on human’s cells.

Contact dermatitis is an inflammatory skin disease due to contact with different substances and caused by two mechanisms: allergy and irritation. Contact dermatitis is a common skin disease and the most common occupational dermatosis. Differentiating between allergic and irritant contact dermatitis is essential in the identification of etiologic factor(s) and hence, its control and prognosis. This differentiation can be done only by patch test. Unfortunately, this simple, safe and useful test is always neglected. We review the basics of patch test, the method of performance, reading and interpretation of its results, possible side effects and results of studies done with patch test in different countries.

Producion of efficient antimicrobial drugs against to common human pathogens is one of the most important challenges in the field of medical microbiology. Continuous screening of clinical isolates and survey of antimicrobial resistance pattern is critical.Today, disk diffusion and dilution methods are known as the common antimicrobial susceptibility testing methods. Disk diffusion method does not render dependable results in determination of antimicrobial susceptibility pattern because this method is semi quantitative. MIC determination by microdilution and macrodilution techniques and recent method “E-test”, have given interpretable results to researchers. Microdilution and macrodilution methods are also time consuming, expensive and error- prone methods. Whereas E-test method is one of the means by which we will be able to determine susceptibility pattern of known species in low cost and short time. In this survey, constructing and printing of E-test, coating of antibiotic on O.H.P film and quality control of constructed E-tests were performed according to M7 A7 CLSI Standard. In this study quality of required materials for E-test Production were suitable. Evaluation of constructed strips was performed using standard strain of staphylococcus aureus and reproducibly of results was appreciated.

The present study investigated varieties of C-test as measures of General Language proficiency (GLP). C-test was first introduced into language testing as a modification of close procedure. The original C-test was developed by mutilating the second half of every other word, beginning from word two ID sentence two of [l passage. Through various studies, C-test proved an integrative and a highly reliable and valid measure of (GLP. The present study was also aimed at further confirming those findings by investigating not only the original C-test but other varietis of C-test. To this end ten C-test versions were developed, by applying different deletion techniques and deletion rates, and were administered among nearly 500 senior EFL students, in the way that each form was given to almost 50 subjects. All the subjects had already taken a TOEFL. and a close test prior to the administration of the C-tests. The results of data analyses showed that C:-test may measure different things one of which might be general language proficiency and as such, not all varieties of C-test measure this construct to the same extent.

Background & aim: Nowadays, toxic compounds derived from plants used against microbes and cancer cells. The aim of this study was to evaluate Cytotoxicity of Dorema aucheri, Achillea millefollium and Artemisia aucheri using brine shrimp, Artemia urmiana, lethality test.Methods: In this experimental study, the plants were collected from the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer- Ahmad Province, then identified by a botanist. Clean and air-dried aerial parts of plants were extracted with suitable solvents. Cytotoxicity evaluation was performed using larvae hatched cysts were purchased from Urmia. Live larvae were exposed to different concentrations of extract and the numbers of live and dead larvae were counted after 24 hours. Mean of LC50 of any extracts from control and exposed live larvae were examined. The data were analyzed using the Finney's Probit analysis.Results: Hydro ethanol and chloroform extracts of Achillea millefolium, Dorema aucheri and Artemisia aucheri exhibited potent brine shrimp lethality with LC50 67.8±0.53mg.ml-1, 76.50±0.60mg.ml-1, 92.70±6.05mg.ml-1 respectively. The degree of lethality was found to be directly proportional to the concentration of extracts.Conclusion: According to BSLT, LC50 of D. aucheri, A. millefolium and A. aucheri, they were considered as toxic. So these plants could be a source of new compounds with biological activity.

Background: Streptococcal pharyngitis is the most common type of acute bacterial pharyngitis that may have different complications if remained untreated. On the other hand, antibiotics may impose side effects if prescribed for healthy subjects, thus, the appropriate diagnosis of affected individuals is of utmost importance. Previous studies have indicated the accuracy of Rapid test for streptococcal pharyngitis, so the present study was conducted to determine the accuracy of Rapid test among a group of Iranians.Materials and methods: For this clinical trail, 320 consecutive cases of sore throat were enrolled. Rapid test was performed for all cases; however, culture was our gold standard for diagnosis. Finally, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were calculated.Results: The study population included 150 males and 170 females with the mean age of 21 ± 7 years. The positive and negative predictive values of Rapid test were 66% and 98.5%, respectively.Conclusion: With respect to the known complications of acute pharyngitis, we strongly recommend Rapis test for all patients with sore throat.