Journal of Research in Medical Sciences
Volume:15 Issue: 5, Sep & Oct 2010

Nutritional deprivation in the early stage of life increases the risk of developing schizophrenia. Oxidative stress, disturbed thinking and irrational behavior which are common to schizophrenic patients may be a result of changes in the levels of certain trace metals. Twenty (20) healthy volunteers and a total of thirty-five (35) schizophrenic patients consisting of 20 on antipsychotic drugs for at least 2 weeks and 15 newly diagnosed but not taking antipsychotic drugs were considered. The plasma levels of trace metals were analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Fe and Se were significantly reduced in newly diagnosed and medicated-schizophrenic patients compared with controls. Pb, Cd and Cr were significantly raised in newly diagnosed drug free schizophrenic patients compared with controls. While Cr and Cd were significantly raised in schizophrenic patients on treatment compared with the controls. Levels of certain nutritionally essential trace metals (Fe and Se) were reduced while levels of certain heavy metals (Pb, Cr and Cd) were raised in schizophrenic patients.

Patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) often complain of prominent pain in shoulder and arm, also there are patients that have pain in their shoulder and arm which is due to myofascial trigger point (MTP) located in their upper trapezius muscle. Despite the frequency of this observation, few studies have previously sought to establish possible relationship between the CTS and MTP in shoulder area. Samples were 160 patients (221 hands) consist of 130 females and 30 males, with suspected diagnosis of CTS, from March 2008 to October 2008. In this study after performing electrodiagnosis searches, another evaluation was performed to find out if there was any sign of myofascial trigger point. The correlation between these two was sought. It was found that all of 36 hands with normal electrodiagnostic findings had myofascial trigger points in their upper trapezius muscle. Out of 185 hands, 130 hands (70%) with electrophysiological evidences of CTS showed myofascialtrigger points in their trapezius muscles. Statistical analysis revealed significant (p < 0.001) reverse correlation between the severity of CTS and the presence of MTP. The findings of this study imply the significant correlation between occurrence of CTS and MTP. It is suggested that clinicians consider the probability of existence of MTP in patients referred for diagnosis of CTS.

Anxiety disorders are one of the most psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents that can cause long life functional disability. The first line treatment for this disorder is cognitive behavioral therapy that has primary, secondary and tertiary preventive effect, but is expensive and long time. Today there is some effort to find short term, group, semi-attendance and low cost therapies. Subjects were 42 girls (12- 17 y) with at least one anxiety disorder according to DSM-IV-TR with their parents who were divided into two groups randomly: group A which participated in 8 sessions and group B which participated in 4 sessions and the contents of sessions 3, 4, 6, and 7 were recorded on a CD for them. The tests used in this study were: SCARED, CATS, CAIS-C, CAIS-P, conducted before (T0), just after (T1) and three months after the treatment (T2). The collected data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance test using SPSS software package,version 15.0. There was no significant difference between efficacy of semi-attendance group CBT and attendance group CBT in T0, T1 and T2 according to 4 tests (p = 0.311). The difference between the scores of these tests between T0 andT1 and T0 and T2 was significant in both groups (p < 0.001) but the difference between T1 and T2 was not significant.(p = 0.771). The efficacy of semi-attendance group CBT and attendance group CBT is similar and would sustain after 3 months.

The aim of this study is to investigate the need for diabetes primary prevention program in isolated impaired fasting glucose (i-IFG) of the first degree relatives of type 2 diabetics. In a cross sectional study, 793 individuals with prediabetes [543 with i-IFG and 250 with isolated impaired glucose tolerance (i-IGT)] who were the first degree relatives of type 2 diabetic patients, were enrolled. Isolated IFG was considered as fasting plasma glucose between 100-125 mg/dl and 2 hour plasma glucose < 140 mg/dl and isolated IGT as FPG < 100 mg/dl and 2 hour plasma glucose between 140-199 mg/dl during an overnight fasting 75 g oral glucose tolerance test. Mean of the age, weight, waist circumference, body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure,plasma glucose, HbA1C, and lipid profile were compared between two groups (i-IFG and i-IGT). The prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2, hypertension, cholesterol ≥ 200 mg/dl, LDL-C ≥ 100 mg/dl, HDL-C ≤ 40 mg/dl, and triglyceride ≥ 150 mg/dl) adjusted by age, sex and BMI were compared. The prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors is higher in i-IFG group than i-IGT. The mean level of LDL-C is significantly higher in i-IFG than i-IGT group. First degree relatives of T2DM with isolated impaired fasting glucose should probably be included in the primary preventive program for diabetes. However, longitudinal cohort study is required to show high progressionof i-IFG to T2DM.

Few studies that have investigated hypertension have onsidered a state of oxidative stress that can contributeto the development of atherosclerosis and other hypertension induced organ damage. The aim of this study was to investigate whether pre-hypertension and hypertension status is associated with activities of erythrocyte antioxidant enzymes in a random sample of cardiovascular disease-free women. In this case-control study, 53 pre-hypertensive women, 32 hypertensive women and 75 healthy controls were included. General information was gathered using questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. Blood pressure and anthropometric measurements were measured for each subject. Venous blood samples were drawn from subjects and plasma was separated. Activities of erythrocyte antioxidant enzymes were also evaluated by measuring activities of copper zinc-superoxide dismutase (CuZn-SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and catalase (CAT) in selected subjects. Fifty-three (33.1%) and 32 (20%) participants were pre-ypertensive and hypertensive, respectively. The hypertensiveand pre-hypertensive women had lower CuZn-SOD (p < 0.001) and GPX (p < 0.01) activities compared to normotensives. Furthermore, hypertensive women had lower CAT activity compared to pre-hypertensive and normotensive women (p < 0.001). Moreover, significant differences were also observed between hypertensive and prehypertensive women in erythrocyte CAT activity (p < 0.01). The present findings show that activities of erythrocyte antioxidant enzymes decrease in prehypertensive and hypertensive women, which may eventually lead to atherosclerosis and other high blood pressure related health problems.

Cadmium chloride is an important occupational and environmental pollutant. However, it can also be anti-carcinogenic under certain conditions. Copper, an essential trace element, has the ability to generate reactive oxygenspecies and induce cell apoptosis. This study was aimed to determine the growth inhibitory effects of cadmium and copper on the MDA-MB468 human breast cancer cells. By using MTT cell viability test, treatment of monolayer cell cultures with different metal concentrations (1- 1000 μM) showed a significant dose dependent decrease (p < 0.05) of viable cells in different times. A considerable cytotoxicity was observed for CdCl2 at 200 μM and 1 μM after 48 and 72 hours incubations, respectively. The highest concentration of CuCl2 (1000 μM) had little cytotoxic effects after 48 hours incubation period, but 1 μM of CuCl2 revealed a considerable cytotoxicity after 72 hours. The maximum synergic cytotoxic effect was observed at 0.5 μM of both metals. The results of the present study indicate that cytotoxic effect of CuCl2 is somehow lesser than that of CdCl2. This may be due to vital role of copper which is not known for cadmium so far.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of HIV infection in Iranian long distance truckdrivers using rapid HIV test. The study included 400 consecutive participants in Bazargan city, north-west of Iran in the late 2008 and the early 2009. No HIV infection was observed among these long distance truck drivers. Although results of this study is plausible compared to other similar studies, repeated surveys are necessary to know the trend of HIV infection in truckers in Iran.

Objective. In recent decades many guidelines has been conducted by radiation protection organizations about radiation protection in dentistry. This study aims to evaluate the observance of these guidelines in educational clinics of all dental schools in Iran. Material and methods. In this cross-sectional study a self-administered questionnaire based on National Radiation Protection Board (NRPB) and European Commission guidelines was conducted. The radiology departments of all dental school (18 schools) surveyed in this study. The questionnaire was consisted of 3 sections including intraoral radiography, extraoral radiography and implementation of quality control programs. Results. In the case of the existence of radiation protection facilities (such as lead apron, thyroid shield and lead impacted walls), use of high speed films and existence of automatic processor in dental schools there was a proper condition. The main problem was related to lake of regular quality control and quality assurance programs. Digital radiography systems were employed in none of schools and only used occasionally in research purposes at some of them.Conclusions. This study emphasizes on the need for further consideration of radiation protection principles in dental school, especially on the field of quality control and quality assurance programs.

Protein energy Malnutrition and inflammation in hemodialysis patients often leads to the malnutrition inflammation complex syndrome or atherosclerosis malnutrition and inflammation that has relation to atherosclerotic cardio vascular disease. This syndrome will occur in patients who are under dialysis for along time and is accounted as an important factor of mortality among these patients. Considering that different studies show different results about inflammation and malnutrition، we decided to investigate the relation of inflammatory and nutritional indexes in HD. Patients. This research was done by a sectional method on 35 people of HD. Patients of Alzahra hospital who were being dialyzed for at least 6 months. Information were gathered by a questionnaire containing personal and medical characteristics and clinical tests and a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). The persons being studied (20 men، 15 women) were with an average age of 51 years. Anthropometric characteristics including height and weight were measured by using a seca scale and hightmeter and the blood sample of patients were taken and sent to the laberatory for the tests and Food Frequency Questionnaire including 192 questions of all the people were completed and the obtained results were analyzed by a SPSS software. After finishing the study، the relation between selenium and TG and CRP was meaningful (P=0. 000) and about other indexes being investigated (albumin، cholesterol، calorie، protein، vitamins and minerals) no meaningful relation was observed. Discussion and In this study CRP as the inflammation index and albumin as the nutritional index were measured. 25. 9 people had albumin less than 3. 5g/dl who were suffering from malnutrition or were exposed to it، and 23. 8% had CRP less than 1mg/dL which is indicative of the existance of inflammation in these people. While there was no meaningful relation between CRP and albumin، therefore، probably because of being short-term، many of participant in the study haven''t been involved in the inflammation-malnutrition cycle yet.