Internal Medicine Today
Volume:16 Issue: 2, 2010

Nowadays, We have focused our attention to herbal medicines because of their side effects and expensiveness of chemical drugs. In this research, we evaluated antinociceptive effects of hydroalcoholic extract of L actuca sativa longifolia leaves using tail-flick and formalin test in male mice. We evaluated antinociceptive effects of hydroalcoholic exract of L actuca sativa longifolia leaves at doses of 85, 165,330,660 and 1300 mg/kg. All injections were administered intraperitoneally. Sham group received normal saline and Morphine group (1 mg/ kg i.p.) was used as positive control. The possible mechanisms of antinociceptive action of the extract were also investigated by pretreatment with Naloxane (1mg/kg i.p.). Hydroalcoholic extract of L actuca sativa longifolia leaves exhibited significant antinociceptive activity at doses of 165,330,660 and 1300 mg/kg in tail flick test, and maximal inhibitions were observed at doses of 660 and 1300 mg/kg (P<0.01). This extract showed antinociceptive effect at doses of 660 and 1300 mg/kg in the first phase of formalin test. The maximal effect was observed at dose of 660mg/kg, and lactuca sativa longifolia leaves extract showed significant decrease in Licking time at doses of 330,660 and 1300 mg/kg in the second phase of formalin test (P<0.001). Antinociceptive effect of hydroalcoholic extract of LS was inhibited by a Naloxane pretreatment. This study presents a remarkable antinociceptive effect which supported the traditional use of lactuca sativa longifolia. Furthermore, it seems that opioid pathway is one of the possible mechanisms of antinociceptive effect of the extract.

Different daily activities need different sensory information and cognitive processing. The aim of this study is to compare the cognitive performance in daily life of the blind veterans with normal sighted matched persons. In this cross-sectional comparative study, we compared 92 blind veterans and 113 matched sighted persons regarding age, gender and education using Brock Adaptive Functioning Questioner (BAFQ). Mann –Whitney U Test was used to compare the two groups. The results showed a significant difference between planning, arousal level and empathy scales. Results did not show a significant difference between the two groups in initiation, flexibility, caution, attention, memory, emotionality, impulsivity, aggressiveness and sociality. The blind have better performance in arousal level and planning that is related to lack of peripheral flanker stimulus. Also, the blind have better empathy skills than the sighted because of their dependence upon others.

The genotype of Beijing strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has attracted special attention due to the association with multi drug resistance and rapid transmission although Spoligotyping is the gold standard for the identification and classification of Beijing strains of MTB. This technique however, is needed to apply special equipments that do not exist in clinical laboratory. Therefore, in this study we used a fast and cost-effective method for detection of this genotype to prevent its spread in the community.

CTAB method was used to extract DNA from positive culture specimens in tuberculosis patients. Next, with spoligotyping, we determined different strains of MTB, and then we used multiplex PCR with 3 sets of PCR primers.

A total of 200 MTB isolates were genotyped by both spoligotyping and multiplex PCR of which19 isolates were determined to be Beijing strains and the remaining (181) isolates were non-Beijing strains. The multiplex PCR method indicated the same result.

Considering the same detection power of two methods to distinguish Beijing strain and higher cost-effectiveness in comparison to spoligotyping, Multiplex PCR can be used in clinical laboratory settings.

The respiratory system is one of the most important targets for infectious and common diseases. At the present time, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the fifth cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide and is predicted to be the third mortality cause in the subsequent years. Smoking is a progressive risk factor in respiratory diseases. Therefore, detection of change in pulmonary volume in patients with COPD in smokers and non-smokers would be very important. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of albuterol on pulmonary volume in smoker and non-smoker patients with COPD. This is a semi-experimental study in which 75 patients with COPD participated during 2008-2009 in Sabzevar, Iran. The data were collected through interviews and observations. Physical examination and respiratory tests were conducted by a physician. Respiratory tests were taken before and after using albuterol by spirometry. Pulmonary volume (FVC, FEV1 and FEV1/FVC) were measured and recorded. The data were analyzed using statistical Mann-Whitney test and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. Out of 75 patients, 41(55%) were male and 34(47%) were female. The mean age for males was 50.1± 2.9 and for females was 49.6 ± 2.6. The mean of FVC in patients before inhalation of albuterol did not show any difference between age group of less than 60 years old or over 60 (p=0.07). However, the mean was significant after using albuterol (p=0.04). The Pearson regression test showed that there is a significantly direct relationship between age and ratio of FEV1/FVC in non-smoker patients but there was no such a relationship in smoker patients. Our results showed that in smoker patients not only did pulmonary volume decrease but also the effect of albuterol as a drug was reduced in comparison with non-smoker patients.

Bone marrow transplantation is a strange, frightening and stressful experience for a child. The child is going through a lot of physical-psychological problems during the process of transplantation. Of course, it is important for medical team, especially for nurses, to recognize and discover their experienced world during hospitalization. The aim of this study is to determine children's experiences during bone marrow transplantation process. This research is a phenomenological qualitative study, in which 6 children with hematological disorders who underwent bone marrow transplantation, were assessed via profound and semi-structured interviews during hospitalization after bone marrow transplantation process. There were two sessions of interview each of which lasted for one hour. The content of interview was recorded and analyzed through conventional content analysis method after documentation. Totally, there were six main themes which consisted of: hope to absolute convalesce, happiness of transplantation, closer family relationship, solitary and loneliness, encountering difficulties of transplantation, preparates and threatening of transplantation. The child experiences a huge world of happiness, sorrow, stress, worry and different feelings during transplantation process. Also, a majority of the children had a lot of never told before secrets and statements that considering and recognizing clever points in their statements can help nurses to prepare a better nursing care.

Antioxidants are the main factors for neutralizing the free radicals which are active and harmful for human. Preparing antioxidation resources to reduce the effects of oxidation stress is important. These two plants are a rich plant source of polyphenolic compounds. Thus, this research, which is the first one of the kind in the world, was carried out to study the antioxidation properties of water and Alcoholic extracts of Cuminum cyminum and Cardaria draba. In this laboratory study, the antioxidant activities of the samples were determined by two different test systems, namely, DPPH free radical scavenging and ß-carotene/linoleic acid and the results were compared with synthetic antioxidant BHT. The data were expressed as the mean ± the standard deviation and they were statistically analyzed by SPSS software using ANOVA (P<0.05). The results showed that among all the solvent extracts, methanolic and water extracts of Cuminum cyminum and methanolic and ethanolic extracts of Cardaria draba had high antioxidant activities as measured by DPPH scavenging (28.62±0.01, 20.58±0.12 and 50.78±0.17, 142.9±1.12, 56.08±2.72, 120.43±0.85 µg/ml) and inhibition of linoleic cid oxidation, respectively (77, 86,70, 58, 72, 62%). These parameters for BHT were 10±0.02 µg/ml, and 95.24%±0.14. The findings indicated that the water and alcoholic extracts of Cuminum cyminum and Cardaria draba can act both as natural antioxidants and as a possible food supplement or be used in pharmaceutical industry after complementary tests.

Familiarity with mental status of students at the beginning of education has a basic role in acquiring mental health and their academic achievement. Thus, this study was carried out with the general objective of determining the mental health among the freshmen in their first term in Gonabad University of Medical Sciences in 2009-2010. This descriptive-analytic study was carried out on all freshmen (136 students) of Gonabad University of Medical Sciences entering the first semester in 2009-2010. The data were collected using GHQ-28 and demographic questionnaire. To determine suspicious cases, the cut-off point of total score was set as 28 and in each scale it was set as 6. The data were analyzed by SPSS software version 11 using descriptive and analytical statistics (Chi-square and T-test). The significant level was set as 0.05. This study showed that 31.6% of students are suspected to have psychological disorders. These disorders among males and females were 27% and 33 % (p=0.599), and among single and married students were 31% and 33% (p=0.909), respectively. But each of these differences in demographic factors was not statistically significant. The comparison of the mean scores in test scales showed that the mean scores of social dysfunction (9 ± 3.65) and somatization (4.95 ± 3.13) were more than anxiety (4.15 ± 3.55) and depression (2.07 ± 2.89) scales, respectively. By using the cut-off point 6 at these scales, it was indicated that the students have a bad condition on social dysfunction and somatization, but there were not significant differences between these scores and gender (p=0.891), marital status (p=0.220) and academic courses (p=0.455). With regard to these results, symptoms related to social conflict at the beginning of study in students were more common than other symptoms. Confirming the existence of mental disorders in students requires more psychological investigation and assessment for students. Thus, providing counseling and psychological services based on the findings are recommended.

Mosquitoes are the most important vectors of disease in the world which transfer important diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, and F ilariasis to human. Today, living in the suburbs, slums, and non-standard housing conditions has increased which, in turn, has brought with it ecological changes and manipulation of nature. These transformations have prepared the conditions for growth and proliferation of disease causing vectors. This study was designed to study the biology of mosquitoes in Gonabad city so that in case of danger appropriate measures could be taken to fight them in the shortest period of time. This descriptive study was conducted in four rural districts, namely, Darb-e Sufeh, Kureshk, Shehab and Senjedak. The mosquitoes were collected every fifteen days from April to September 2008. Sampling for mosquito larvae and Pope was done through ladle handling method and to catch adult mosquito, light traps and hand fishing method were used. The mosquito collection was performed in the shelters and environments surrounding larvae sites. The collected samples were transferred to the laboratory to determine the species, and they were identified using a stereomicroscope or Binocoler based on Iranian guide for identifying mosquitoes. In total, 230 samples of mosquitoes (170 larvae and 60 adults) were collected with three methods of ladle handling, hand catch, and light trap for which three species of Anopheles superpictus, Culiseta longiareolata, Culex pipiens were identified. Their abundance was as follows: An. superpictus 10 larvae (4.34%), Cu. longiareolata 160 larvae and 50 mature larvae (91.32%) and Cx. pipiens 10 adult (4.34%) and their activity peak was from May to July. Regarding the species collected and the fact that these mosquitoes are considered the most important vectors of malaria and viral diseases, it is necessary to educate people about vector borne diseases in these areas.

Focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH), after hemangioma, is the second most common benign tumor of the liver. Rupture and hemorrhage in FNH is rare. To the best of our knowledge, only eight cases of rupture and hemorrhage in FNH have been reported in English literature. A 40-year-old woman presented acute onset of right upper quadrant pain. Ultrasonography of the abdomen demonstrated a large sub-capsular hematoma along the right side of the liver with non-homogenous mass with a diameter of10 cm. Abdominal CT scan with IV contrast revealed a huge sub-capsular hematoma in the posterior segment in the right lobe of the liver. The patient underwent surgery with presumptive diagnosis of hemorrhagic adenoma. During the operation, we noticed a nodular center in the resected liver mass. Pathologic examination revealed Focal Nodular Hyperplasia (classical type) in Right Liver lobe with extensive hemorrhage and necrosis. This is the first report of ruptures and hemorrhage in FNH in Iran which must be distinguished from liver adenoma.