Journal of Disease and Diagnosis
Volume:9 Issue: 1, Mar 2020

Breast cancer is the most widespread type of cancer of women throughout the world. The likelihood of its treatment can be increased by screening and early detection in the early stages. The present study aimed to determine the knowledge and behavior of women referred to health care institutes of Bandar Abbas regarding screening for breast cancer.

The present cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 370 women who referred to Bandar Abbas health care centers and were selected by the cluster sampling technique. A questionnaire containing demographic characteristics, knowledge assessment, and performance evaluation was used to collect the required data. The minimum and maximum scores were within the range of 0-20 and 0-7 for wise questions and performance, respectively. Finally, data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t test, along with chi-square and analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests using SPSS16.

The mean age of women was 55.35 ± 2.27 years. In addition, 298 (80.5%) and 72 (19.4%) of them were married and single, respectively. The mean knowledge score was 12.48 ± 3.85 and the mean score was 2.9 ± 2.29 as well. Finally, there was a significant relationship between the knowledge and behavior of the subjects (P < 0.001).

According to the results of this study, regular education programs are suggested to increase women’s knowledge. Thus, their performance is hoped to increase by extending their level of knowledge.

Sleep disturbances are very common among elderly population and mostly remain incurable. Practical, brief, and effective interventions are needed to promote sleep quality in older adults with moderate sleep disturbances. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a brief behavioral training program in ameliorating sleep quality in older adults suffering from moderate sleep disturbances.

This study was conducted on 64 older adults with moderate sleep disturbances, as defined by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score ≥ 5. Participants were randomly allocated to either intervention (n = 32) or control (n = 32) group. Older adults in the intervention group received a brief behavioral-based sleep training program which was delivered in a single in-person session followed by four telephone sessions during 4 weeks. While their peers in the control group did not receive any intervention. The main outcome of the study was scores on the PSQI which was compared at pre- and post-intervention between both groups. Data were analyzed using the SPSS software version 19.0.

At 4 weeks, PSQI scores decreased in older adults receiving intervention, as compared with the scores of participants to the control group (P < 0.001). Subjects in the intervention group also showed sig nificant improvements in sleep latency, subjective sleep quality, sleep duration, and sleep efficiency (P < 0.05).

Brief behavioral interventions may be promising and useful for older adult population with moderate problems, and can be considered an efficacious and non-invasive intervention approach to improve elderly’s sleep quality.

Adenosine receptor family, especially A1 type is-overexpressed in breast-derived tumor cells and the P53 gene is mutant in some of these cells while the casps gene is of wild type as well. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the A1 receptor function on cell programmed death or proliferation, as well as the relationship between this receptor stimulation/inhibition and caspase 3 (casp3) expression in T47D cell line that has a mutant and non-functional P53 gene.

The expression of casps3 was measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction and then flow cytometery and MTT assay were used to assess the apoptotic and proliferation cell rate after the treatment of T47D cells with specific agonist N6-cyclopentyladenosine (CPA) and antagonist 1,3-dipropyl-8-cyclopentylxanthine (DPCPX) of this receptor 24, 48, and 72 hours after treatment.

Our results indicated that DPCPX significantly induces apoptosis in T47D cells and the rate of survival cell after the reduction of this treatment, especially 72 hours after treatment. Finally, the expression of casp3 was up-regulated by DPCPX treatment, especially in 72 hours while CPA treatment had opposite results (P > 0.05).

In general, DPCPX could up-regulate casp3 gene expression and subsequently increase the apoptosis rate in T47D cells with casp3 expression without the P53 gene interference. Therefore, adenosine A1 receptor antagonists may be introduced as anti-cancer agents.

The ability of communicating with people is of great importance for physicians. Predicting unknown variables like personality traits is one of the important impressive issues in choosing future medical experts in medical training. Regarding this, medical colleges have training programs all around the world. The present study aimed to investigate the attitude toward learning communication skills based on the personality traits of medical students.

This correlational study was done in 2019 and the participants were medical students who were selected using a convenience sampling method. Zuckerman-Kuhlman personality questionnaire and communication skills attitude scale (CSAS) were used for data collection. CSAS was used to assess positive and negative attitudes.

The results showed that only the sociability dimension among the five dimensions of personality had a significant relationship with attitude toward learning communication skills (P = 0.018). Moreover, significant relationships of gender (P = 0.022), mother’s education level (P = 0.049), and residence (P = 0.036) with attitude to learning communication skills were found.

According to the results, the dimension of demographic characteristics is effective in improving communication skills of medical students. Therefore, it is recommended that it should be considered in medical curriculum development and revision and modifications.

Addiction is now recognized as a global problem facing all countries. Reducing neurotransmitters in addicts is an important barrier to drug addiction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of resistance training on some neurotransmitters and the pulmonary function of men after quitting the addiction.

In this regard, 20 subjects were selected as the statistical samples of this research and were randomly divided into control (10 people) and resistance training (10 people) groups. The experimental group performed 3 sessions of circular resistance training for 8 weeks and weekly with 50%-65% intensity in one maximal repeat. Then, the subjects’ blood sample (4 cc blood) was taken in order to study the variables of the research 48 hours before and after the implementation of the protocol. Next, all biochemical variables of dopamine and serotonin were measured by enzyme-linked-immunosorbent assay. Finally, all statistical calculations were performed using SPSS software, version 16 and P ≤ 0.05 was considered as a significant level.

The results of the study showed that 8 weeks of resistance training significantly increased dopamine levels (P = 0.0001), serotonin (P = 0.0001), maximum ventilation volume (P = 0.0001), and vital capacity (P = 0.0002). Eventually, the results indicated that 8 weeks of resistance training did not significantly change the forced expiratory volume in seconds (P = 0.628).

According to the results of the study, it seems that 8 weeks of resistance training can increase neurotransmitters and pulmonary function in men who are addicted to drugs, and therefore, it can be used as a non-pharmacological approach to help these people to quit the addiction.

Due to the stability and economic development in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, increase in the number of traffic crashes has been one of the serious challenges that local authorities have faced with. The present study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of road traffic accidents (RTAs), road traffic injuries (RTIs), and their causes in Sulaimaniyah City, Kurdistan Region, Iraq.

The present descriptive study was conducted based on the data collected from the Health Directorate/ MOH and the Traffic Department/ Ministry of Interior in Sulaimaniyah. A questionnaire was also used to collect required data from RTA casualties who were admitted to Sulaimaniyah Main Emergency Hospital during a 6-month period from January first till the end of June 2014. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software version 21.0.

Based on the results obtained from Sulaimaniyah Main Emergency Hospital, there were 251 RTA victims in 2014 within the age range of 1 to 81 years. Moreover, RTAs led to the death of 270 and 280 individuals in 2012 and 2013, respectively. The main causes of RTAs were respectively over speeding (33%), the sudden appearance of a vehicle (13.9%), and vehicle slip (10.4%), speeding (48.7%), followed by drowsiness of the drivers (36.9%), and drunken driving (5.6%).

In order to reduce RTAs, the overall quality of roads, quality of cars, and general driving skills should be improved. Moreover, for decreasing the rate of crashes inside the city, public transport modes such as tram or train should be prepared.

Poor medication adherence may cause unfortunate consequences such as disease progression and even death, particularly in older adults. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of pillbox use on medication adherence among older adults with cardiovascular diseases.

This study was conducted as a two-group randomized controlled trial in a clinic in Kerman, Iran in 2017. Participants included seventy patients who were randomly allocated to either a control or an intervention group. The patients in the intervention group were verbally educated to manage their medications using a pillbox for four consecutive weeks while their counterparts received their medications without the use of any drug reminders.

The mean score of all participants’ medication adherence was 4.02 ± 2.19 at the beginning of the study. Medication adherence significantly improved in the intervention group during the study (P < 0.001) while it remained poor in the control group (P > 0.99). Finally, medication adherence was significantly better in the intervention group compared to the control group at the end of the study (P = 0.001).

In general, pillbox use can promote medication adherence in older adults with cardiovascular diseases thus it is recommended for improving medication adherence and minimizing the consequences of non-adherence.

Various hematological and immunological changes can occur in pregnancy which could be beneficial for the growth of the fetus and the maintenance of the pregnancy although some of these changes could be hazardous to the fetus and can cause complications during pregnancy. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the hematological and immunological changes in normal pregnancy and preeclampsia (PE).

To this end, hematological and immunological changes were evaluated in 62 normal pregnant women and 56 pregnant women with PE. Moreover, 58 healthy non-pregnant women were studied as the control group. The study was done between December 1, 2018 to May 1, 2019 in Chwarbakh Private Clinic and Shorsh Teaching Hospital. The venous peripheral blood from the antecubital vein was used in this study.

The results revealed a significant increase in the number of granulocytes, monocytes, and mean platelet (PLT) volume in both normal pregnant women and PE patients in comparison to normal (non-pregnant) controls (P < 0.01). In addition, there was a significant correlation between a reduction in their hematocrit (HCT), PLT, and lymphocytes (P < 0.01). With regard to immunological changes, a significant increase was also observed in the serum interleukin-4 (IL-4) levels in both normal pregnancy and preeclamptic patients when compared to non-pregnant controls (P < 0.01), but gamma interferon was not significantly different. Conversely, there were no significant associations between the serum level of antiphospholipid antibodies and anticardiolipin antibodies in the study groups except for antiphospholipid antibodies which were significantly lower in the third trimester of pregnancy in the preeclamptic patients (P < 0.05).

In general, significant changes in hematological and immunological parameters were observed in both normal pregnant and PE patients although further studies are required to include more immunological parameters.