Journal of Advances in Medical and Biomedical Research
Volume:13 Issue: 52, 2006

Regarding growing incidence of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases in diabetes mellitus, the effect of oral intake of Marrubium vulgare (MV) shoots on contractile response of isolated aorta was investigated in rats for two months in Tehran during 2003. In this experimental study 44 male wistar rats were randomly divided into control, MV-treated control, diabetic and MV- treated diabetic groups. To induce diabetes 60 mg/kg streptozotocin was applied intraperitoneally. Two MV- treated groups received MV powder mixed with standard pelleted food at a weight ratio of 1/15. After 2 months, contractile response of aortic rings to KCl and noradrenaline was determined using isolated tissue setup and the results were analysed through Tokey, variance of analysis and repeated measure tests. Serum glucose level showed a significant increase in diabetic group in the 4th and 8th weeks (P=0.001), compared with the week before experiment, whereas serum glucose level in MV-treated diabetic group showed no significant decline compared with diabetic group. In addition, contractile response to KCL and noradrenaline in MV-treated diabetic group was significantly lower than untreated diabetic group (P=0.03). Furthermore, no significant difference was observed in contractile response to KCL and noreadrenaline between MV-treated control and control groups. With regard to the obtained results it could be concluded that oral intake of Marrubium vulgare for 2 months attenuates the contractile response of the vascular system and probably prevents the hypertension in diabetic rats. More research in this field is recommended.

Blatella germanica as a significant urban pest, can transmit various diseases and cause allergy. In spite of frequent pyrethroid spraying, contamination to German cockroach continues in Shahid Beheshti hospital and so far no survey has been carried out concerning the cause of persistent contamination to this pest. This study was carried out to assess the susceptibility of German cockroach in shahid Beheshti hospital during 2003-2004. In this quasi-experimental study, B. germanica samples were collected from different wards of Shahid Beheshti hospital and transferred to the laboratory. Both hospital and susceptible strains were divided into treatment and control groups. Adult males were sorted out and bioassayed through surface contact with 15.62, 31.25, 62.5, 125, 250 and 500 mg/m2 of permethrin and the number of knockdown samples was counted at different time intervals in all groups. Each dose of permethrin was tested in three replications of ten and a control replication of ten, surface contact with acetone was also carried out. The data were analyzed through probit test and linear regressions between contact time and percentage of knockdown samples was plotted through which knockdown time for 50% of samples (KT50) was estimated. The survey of 480 cockroaches in two group of 240 (60 control and 180 treated) showed resistance to knockdown effect in contact with permethrin in hospital samples. At contact dose of 15.61 mg/m2, hospital samples were heterogeneous (P=0.0004) and resistant samples were easily recognized from susceptible ones. In this dose, KT50 in hospital samples was 63.6 (95% CI: 60.37-67) minutes and in susceptible strain 22.42 (95% CI: 20.28- 26.65) minutes. Resistance ratio in hospital samples reached 2.83 (95% CI: 2.72-2.96). Regarding the resistance to permethrin, the study of genetic nature of resistance, cross resistance to new pesticides and their bioassay are necessary in control measures.

Every year around 1.5 million people in U.S get acute myocardial infarction and almost all causes of myocardial infarction are connected with atherosclerosis. The previous studies have shown that mortality rate due to coronary diseases decreases with elevation of serum albumin level. This study was conducted to investigate the association of serum albumin - protein level and myocardial infarction in hospitalized patients in Modares hospital in Tehran during 1997-1998. The research was a case-control study in which 100 patients were surveyed in two control (50) and case (50) groups. Control cases were healthy (healthy exercise test) and treatment cases suffered from myocardial infarction (MI) (clinical symptoms, ECG and CkMB). The research cases were all over 40 years of age. Albumin level was measured through calorimetric method. To analyze the data χ 2 and Mantel- Hansel test were used. There was a clear and inverse association between serum albumin and risk of coronary disease. Protein level of under 7.5 g/dl was 10.3 times as high as control group. The results showed that albumin concentration of lower than 4.9 g/dl in patients with MI was as 6 times as control group. (P=0.0001). This association exists even with other risk factors. Lower levels of albumin could imply permanent damage to artries and advanced athrosclerosis and thrombosis. However, the association between albumin and coronary disease needs more investigation.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Lymph node involvement is the most important prognostic factor in this cancer. Since there is no consensus about the relationship between lymphocytic infiltration and breast cancer prognosis, this study was conducted to investigate the correlation between stromal lymphocytic reaction and lymph node involvement in grade 1 ductal carcinoma of breast in Isfahan during 2004. In this cross sectional study 182 formalin - fixed and paraffin-embedded breast cancer tissue specimens were evaluated. Samples were classified according to the number of lymph nodes and age. Finally, the correlation between these parameters and stromal lymphocytic infiltration was examined. T student, one-way analysis of variance and χ 2 were used for statistical analysis. There is a significant correlation between stromal lymphocytic infiltration and lymph node involvement (P=0.001), whereas there is no significant correlation between menopause and stromal lymphocytic infiltration (P=0.09). The research results indicated that tumors with severe stromal lymphocytic reaction are associated with high possibility of lymph node involvement. More research is recommended.

Normal growth is the most important indicator of child health and measurement of height and weight is the simplest and the most reliable means to its evaluation. Due to the significance of the issue, the present study was conducted with the aim of determining the anthropometric indices of secondary school girls of Zanjan in 2004-2005. This cross sectional study was carried out on 1010 students who had been selected through cluster random sampling from 10 schools. Height and weight were measured by standard method and body mass index (BMI) was calculated thereafter. The data were analysed using Excel and SPSS softwares and χ 2 and t-tests. The survey of 1010 secondary schools girls showed that the height and weight of research group were 10.5 and 7.3% lower than the 5th percentile of National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) respectively and also, 0.6% and 4.5% were higher than 95th percentile of NCHS respectively. However, the 5th percentile of BMI almost matched the 5th percentile of NCHS. Moreover, 21.7% of the short students were underweight and 3.8% were overweight which were statistically significant (P=0.0001). 13.5% of short stature students were from district 1 and 7.8% of them were from district 2, showing a significant difference (P=0.0003). The research results and other reports throughout the country demonstrate that the height and weight of adolescent population in the country are below standard NCHS although the differences are not significant. However, NCHS curves overestimate the prevalence of underweight and short stature whithin our community.

Aeromons is the cause of various infections in humans and has been isolated from different food samples and even drinking water. Research studies report the prevalence of the bacteria in diarrheic patients to be equal to or higher than shigella. Regarding the contradictory reports this study was conducted to investigate the prevalence and significance of Aeromonas in children's dysentery and their sensitivity to antibiotics in Tehran in 2003-2004. In this descrpitive study 310 stool samples of diarrheic children under 10 years of age were tested for infection to Aeromonas, plesiomonas, bacterial pathogens such as salmonella, shigella, enteropathogenic E.coli and enteric parasites and susceptibity of these agents to antibiotics was assessed through diffusion disc method on aeromonas isolates. Data were analysed using discriptive and analytical statistics (χ 2, t-test and, Fisher exact test). The results showed that Aeromonas prevalence was 4.5% and higher than salmonella and enteropathogenic E.coli in diarrheic children and it was the second leading pathogen after shigella. All Aeromonas strains were susceptible to ceftizoxime, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin and resistant to ampicillin. Aeromonas species are of etioloical significance in diarrheic children and they must be taken into account in bacteriologic survey of the stool samples. More research is recommended.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) has worldwide distribution and its prevalence rate depends on factors such as economic and geographical conditions. An important way of the virus transmission is via blood. Due to high prevalence of antibodies against the virus in blood donors and lack of data concerning its seroprevalence in the region, this study was carried out to determine the frequency of IgG and IgM antibodies in Zanjan province in 2004. This descriptive study was conducted on 500 healthy donors referring to blood transfusion center. Demographic data were recorded in the questionnaires and following the routine screening tests, antibody tests against CMV (IgG and IgM) were performed by Italian Radium kit through ELISA technique and the data were analysed using t and χ 2 tests. Out of 500 research samples, 85.8% were males and 14.2% females. IgG antiviral antibody was positive in 446 people (89.2%), negative in 8 people (1.6%) and weak positive in 46 people (9.2%). Moreover, IgM anti viral antibody was negative in 481 cases (96.2%), positive in 17 cases (3.4%) and unclear in 2 cases (0.4%). Regarding the high seroprevalence of CMV in Zanjan province and latency of the virus inside the blood cells and its possible transmission via blood and blood products to blood receivers, particularly among immunodeficient patients, screening test of donated blood samples for CMV specially in high risk cases is recommended.

Around 50 to 80% of total expense of health and therapeutic sector is allocated to hospitals. Thus, quality promotion through application of productivity mechanisms can be effective in dynamism of the hospitals. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the productivity mechanisms in supporting units of the hospital that was conducted in Arak in 2005. This research is a descriptive study in which the research society includes all supporting units in three education hospitals and one social security- affiliated hospital. Mechanisms of productivity promotion in different units including: sterilization, medical records, laundry, nutrition, drug warehouse, equipment warehouse and transportation were evaluated through eight separate checklists. Mechanisms were compared in four hospitals on the basis of indicators such as rate of mistakes, complaints, wastage and so on. The data were analysed through Excel software. The research results showed that social security hospital possessed the highest score in productivity mechanisms with the mean score of 77.1 (good ranking) Amirkabir and Taleghani hospitals received 47.3 and 42.7 respectively (Moderate ranking) and vali-e-Asr hospital got 38.7 (poor ranking). This research demonstrated that efficacy and efficiency of hospitals lie in compiling structural, processing and outcome strategies in supporting sectors and continuos monitoring of services. This also necessitates the commitment of senior managers and participation of the whole administration staff of the hospital.