Journal of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences
Volume:19 Issue: 5, 2015

Silver nanoparticles are of interest to be used as antimicrobial agents in medical care, wound dressings and cosmetics. Despite the fact that AgNPs are among the most commercialized nano materials owing to their specific antimicrobial properties, there is limited information about their risk assessment and possible hazards to human health and environment. Thus, this study was carried out to evaluate the cytotoxicity and morphological changes of different concentrations of two samples of commercialized silver nanoparticles (A and B) in CHO-K1 cells using MTT assay. The cytotoxicity effect of silver nanoparticles AgNP-A (19.6 nm in diameter) and AgNP-B (15 nm in diameter) on CHO-K1 was evaluated in the range of 0.005-500 µg/ml after 24 hours of treatment using MTT assay. The morphological changes of treated cells were examined by light microscopy. Based on the results of cytotoxicity by MTT assay, reduced viability of cells and cytotoxicity were observed. The 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) of silver nanoparticles was recorded at 100 and 10 µg/ml for AgNP-A and AgNP-B, respectively. Moreover, microscopic observations indicated clear morphological changes of treated cells. Concentration and physicochemical properties of silver nanoparticles like size, shape, surface area, coating and zeta potential play a role in cytotoxicity and morphological changes of treated cells.

Crocin is one of the main components of saffron. The effect of saffron on birth abortion has been established. So, the possible effect of crocin on abortion was evaluated in this study. Pregnant mice were divided into 8 groups. Each group received crocin (0 or 10 or 50 or 100 mg/kg, i.p.) from the first to the fifth day of pregnancy. Then, the first four groups were sacrificed on the seventh day to evaluate the implantation sites. The other four groups were sacrificed on the 20th day and the number of embryos was counted. Data were analyzed by ANOVA. Administration of crocin (50 and 100 mg/kg) significantly reduced the mean number of implantation sites and embryos compared to the control group (P<0.05). Administration of high doses of crocin in the first week of pregnancy reduced the number of implantation places and embryos in mice.

The parents of children with autism face severe stress and suffer from psychological problems due to specific conditions of their children. The present study investigated the impact of early family-centered intervention on stress syndrome in the mothers of children with autism. The research method was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design and control group. The participants included 30 mothers of children with autism in Kermanshah who were selected by purposive sampling method and randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. The early family-centered intervention was presented to the experimental group. Stress Symptom Inventory was used to collect data and covariance analysis was applied to analyze the data. After intervention, the scores of the two groups of mothers were significantly different (p<0.05) and the stress syndrome was significantly reduced in the experimental group. Considering Eta-squared value, it can be concluded that 56% of these changes occurred as a result of the effect of intervention. The finding indicated that the early family-centered interventions lead to improved stress symptoms among the mothers of children with autism.

Heating causes extensive physical and chemical changes in oil and fats, which can change all physical and chemical characteristics and quality of oil during frying is so critical. This study was aimed to compare the thermal stability of virgin sesame oil and grape seed oil. The grape seed oil and virgin sesame oil were heated at 180 ° C for 8 hours. Every hour, a sample of the heated oils was taken to determine the changes in acid value, peroxide, anisidine and Totox. Heating the oil caused extensive chemical variations both oils. The acidity index increased over time (p<0.05), there were fluctuations inperoxide value, and anisidine and Totox values also increased during thermal processes (p<0.05). Grape seed oil showed more resistance to heat than sesame oil.

Headache is one of the most common complaints of the patients referring to the treatment centers. Also, some studies have reported the correlation of sleep disturbances with migraine and tension headaches. This study was aimed to analyze the association of sleep disturbances with migraine and tension headaches. In this cross-sectional study, 1005 students of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences were selected by stratified random sampling during the academic year 2013-2014. Having attracted the participation and cooperation of the participants, sleep disorder and symptoms of headache (migraine and tension) tests were administered. The overall prevalence of headache, migraine headache and tension headache in students of medical science were 73.8 %, 16.7 % and 30.9 %, respectively. 20.3% of medical students had sleep disorder. Difficulty in sleep onset, daytime fatigue, apnea and sadness and anxiety were associated with headache. Total sleep disorder was directly associated with migraine headache (P<0.05). There was a correlation between sleep disorders and headache, especially migraine headache. Considering the importance of sleep in the incidence of headaches, sleep hygiene education and changes in the quality and patterns of sleep are essential for students, which can greatly affect their individual and social life.

The surveillance systems need to define the levels of alarm threshold for early detection of outbreak. The purpose of this study was to determine the threshold levels of meningitis outbreak in Hamadan province, Iran. The suspected cases of meningitis that were reported through meningitis surveillance form 2010 to 2012 were investigated in this study. Explainable patterns of the syndromic data of fever and neurological symptoms were removed by Generalized Linear Model. The upper limits of cumulative sum (CUSUM) algorithm were used to estimate the alarm threshold levels of meningitis outbreak. The seasonal pattern of dynamic alarm thresholds was defined using the data obtained from different seasons. The fixed alarm threshold levels according to standardized CUSUM, i.e. 1.5 to 2 standard deviations from the mean, were equal to the occurrence of more than 3 and 4 suspected cases of meningitis, respectively. The corresponding values for dynamic levels based on the upper control limit of CUSUM were 2.6 to 3.2 cases for different seasons. In other words, 3 cases were considered to be a discrete scale for suspected cases of meningitis. Due to the seasonality pattern of meningitis, dynamic levels of alarm threshold should be determined according to the seasons and months of year.

Expenditure on healthcare has become a persistent issue of policymaking at both national and international levels. The aim of this study was to investigate the main factors affecting household healthcare expenditures in Kermanshah province by Econometric ARDL model over 20 years (1991-2011). This retrospective-analytical study investigated the impact of such variables as per capita income, proportion of population aged >65 years, number of physicians and urbanization rate) on healthcare expenditures. These data were obtained from the yearbook of Kermanshah province and Iranian Statistical center (ISC). The data analysis was done by Stata 12 and Microfit 4.1 software. The results showed a positively significant relationships both in short- and long-run, between healthcare expenditures and per capita income, number of physicians and urbanization rate. Also, no significant correlation was observed between the proportion of the population aged 65 years and above and healthcare expenditures both in short-term and long-term. The findings showed the elasticity of income was less than 1 and healthcare was an essential goods in Kermanshah province during the study period. Because the impact of variables could be different in different areas and during the time, the healthcare expenditures and its determinants are suggested to be evaluated over time.

Women's health and prenatal care have always been important issues for health authorities and policy makers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the geographical distribution of gynecologists and midwives and to determine their distribution trend in Kermanshah province in the period 2008-2013. Gini coefficient was used to analyze the distribution of human resources involving in women’s health and t-test was used to examine the assumption of equal distribution of the resources. Gini coefficient was calculated for gynecologists and midwives on the basis of number of live births per year and women population. Four regression models were fitted to determine the time trend of inequality. Gini coefficients for gynecologists and on the basis of the number of women for the study period were 0.489, 0.587, 0.677, 0.545, 0.474 and 0.46, respectively. The minimum and maximum Gini coefficient based on the number of live births were 0.457 and 0.566, respectively. The Gini coefficient for midwives on the basis of the number of women decreased from 0.249 in 2008 to 0.215 in 2013. Moreover, the minimum and maximum Gini coefficients based on the number of live births were 0.268 and 0.397, respectively. Inequality declined during the study period, but was not statistically significant. the distribution of human resources associated with the women's health has improved in recent years, however, it is still far from ideal distribution of the resources. Therefore, the women are recommended to be provided with adequate healthcare services by performing the required planning.