مجله دانشکده پزشکی اصفهان
پیاپی 425 (هفته اول خرداد 1396)

Flow-mediated dilation (FMD) in terms of blood pressure is impaired and it seems that exercise training can improve it. The present study intended to compare flow-mediated dilation in patients with hypertension and normotensive people and examine the effect of exercise on it.
In this semi-experimental study, 12 normotensive and 24 hypertensive middle-aged men (age: 49.66 ± 2.80 years, height: 174.16 ± 4.66 cm, weight: 81.08 ± 12.65 kg) were selected using convenience sampling method. Patients were randomly divided to equal groups; 12 for control (age: 52.08 ± 2.53 years, height: 173.75 ± 5.81 cm, weight: 80.08 ± 8.26 kg) and 12 for interval aerobic training (age: 50.50 ± 2.91 years, height: 173.4 ± 4.69 cm, weight: 85.2 ± 13.6 kg). The training included 12 weeks of treadmill interval aerobic running with 50 and 80% heart rate reserve for 2 and 1 minute, respectively, three times a week for totally 12 minutes each session. Each week, 3 minutes to 6th week and then, every two weeks, 3 minutes added to the training time. So that, training in the last two weeks was 36 minutes. Blood pressure and flow-mediated dilation were taken before and after the training period. The distribution normality of data was assessed using Shapiro-Wilk test.
Findings: Independent t-test showed that flow-mediated dilation was lower in patients than in normotensive subjects (t = 4.469, P It seems that, flow-mediated dilation in patients with hypertension is impaired and these patients can do aerobic interval training to relieve pressure and improve endothelial function.

There is not a perfect clinical nerve regeneration assessment test. Tinel’s test is an acknowledged test for clinical evaluation of nerve regeneration, but has significant imperfections. Therefore, there is great incentive to develop perfect clinical tests. Scratch collapse test and tender muscle sign have been described recently as valuable nerve entrapment provocative tests. In this study, scratch collapse test and tender muscle sign were used for evaluation of nerve regeneration and compared to Tinel’s test and electrodiagnostic study.
Scratch collapse test and tender muscle sign were prospectively compared to Tinel’s test and electrodiagnostic study every 3 months post operation in 20 patients underwent nerve repair. Positive and negative frequency, sensitivity, specificity and coefficient agreement of each test were calculated.
Findings: Sensitivity of Tinel’s test, tender muscle sign, scratch collapse test, and electrodiagnostic study was 70%, 60%, 50%, and 80%, respectively. Specificity of Tinel’s test, tender muscle sign, scratch collapse test, and electrodiagnostic study was 80%, 90%, 60%, and 80%, respectively. The highest positive and negative predictive values were related to tender muscle sign and Tinel’s test, respectively. The scratch collapse test had the lowest positive and negative predictive values, sensitivity, and specificity.
Tinel’s test and tender muscle sign had the most sensitivity and specificity, respectively; routine application of these two tests is recommended for evaluation of nerve regeneration. But, scratch collapse test has not required sensitivity and specificity to be used routinely for evaluation of nerve regeneration process.

Hodgkin lymphoma is one of the treatable malignant diseases. The incidence of secondary cancers, especially breast cancer, and cardiovascular diseases after radiotherapy doubles the importance of patient treatment plan. In this study, some comparisons were made between a variety of treatments by using photon energy of 6 and 18 Mv on the treated areas of neck and mediastinum.
The contouring of all sensitive organs and treatment volumes were performed for 18 female patients with Hodgkin lymphoma involving neck and mediastinum, using TiGRT software. Then, comparison between different anterior-posterior (AP-PA) treatments with different weights of 6 and 18 Mv was done.
Findings: Using 18-Mv photon with the same weight of the anterior and posterior than conventional 6-Mv photon caused 2-9% reduction in mean dose to breast, heart, and lungs. Although changing the normalization (isocenter) point from the center of tumor to sternal notch reduced the mean dose of the studied organs, 9-13% reduction in the mean dose of treatment volume did not meet the criterion (prescribed dose ± 105%).
For women with Hodgkin lymphoma involving mediastinum and neck, using 18-Mv photon with the same weight of the anterior and posterior is more appropriate to meet the design criteria of treatment (coating suitable treatment volume of prescribed dose ± 105%). Changing isocenter point from the center of the tumor to sternal notch causes a more favorable result. The better uniformity of the dose distribution in treatment volume is achieved by using 18-Mv photon.

Scaffold, an essential element of tissue engineering, should provide proper physical and chemical properties and evolve suitable cell behavior for tissue regeneration.
Polycaprolactone/gelatin-based nanocomposite scaffolds containing nano-hydroxyapatite and vitamin D3 was fabricated using the electrospinning method. To obtain suitable properties, solution and process parameters were optimized. Fiber morphology and MG-63 cells were cultured; chemical interactions between molecules forming scaffold and the amount of mineral deposition were determined via scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and alizarin red staining, respectively.
Findings: The mean diameter of PCL/Gel/nHA/Vit D3 nanofibers was about 531 nm. The culture of osteoblast cells on the scaffolds showed that the addition of Vit D3 to PCL/Gel/nHA scaffold caused further attachment and proliferation of the cells. In addition, stained mineral deposits scaffolds with alizarin red staining showed that the amount of mineralized deposits was significantly higher in PCL/Gel/nHA/Vit D3 scaffold than other scaffolds (P Superior properties of nano-hydroxyapatite and vitamin D3 blended in polycaprolactone/gelatin-based scaffold were confirmed. The observations also revealed that the composite scaffold could be a good candidate for bone tissue engineering.

Great interests have been drawn to the quality of diet. Dietary energy density is a good indicator of diet quality. In spite of the comprehensive concept of energy density rather than energy intake, no studies have evaluated the dietary energy density of lactating mothers. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the association between dietary energy density and infants’ growth.
Dietary intake data were collected from 300 lactating mothers through the 168-item food frequency questionnaire. Data on physical activity were reported by participant’s responding International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). The anthropometric features were taken from the health records in health centers.
Findings: Infants’ weight, height, head circumference, and weight for height at birth, and 2 and 4 months later were not significantly different within any of 4 categories of energy density.
The results of this study suggest that there is no association between quartiles of mothers’ dietary energy density and infants’ weight, length, weight for length, and head circumference growth by the age of 2 and 4 months.