نشریه دانشگاه علوم پزشکی البرز
سال یازدهم شماره 1 (زمستان 1400)

Prednisolone is a key component in the treatment of severe asthma.Recent studies show that dexamethasone is a promising option due to its easier dosage regimen and better tolerance. However, little is known about the efficacy of dexamethasone in patients.The aim of this study was to compare the effects of dexamethasone and prednisolone on the control of asthma attacks.

In this clinical trial, 100 children aged 2 to 10 years were studied with asthma referred to the clinic of Ayatollah Golpayegani Hospital in Qom in the second half of 2018-2019. Patients were treated with prednisolone and intramuscular dexamethasone in two groups by random method. Salbutamol spray was initially prescribed for all patients. GINA and VAS questionnaires were completed for each child before and 7 days after treatment. Data were analyzed using SPSS Ver23 statistical software and descriptive and analytical tests.

The mean age of patients was 5.98 years. 40 were girls (40%) and the rest were boys. Chi-square and Fisher's exact test showed that both treatments were able to reduce GINA standard symptoms after 7 days and this reduction is significant (P = 0.001); Also, paired t-test showed that both treatments were able to reduce the VAS standard score after 7 days and this decrease is significant (P <0.05)

In the treatment of acute asthma attack, oral and injectable corticosteroids have the same effect. The treatment method can be chosen according to the parents' consent, the child's cooperation, considering the side effects of the drug, and so on.

Hospital infections worldwide, as a major public health problem, have a significant burden on patients. Therefore, due to the increased antibiotic resistance and mortality in hospitalized patients, this study aimed to determine the frequency of hospital infections and its antibiotic resistance pattern.

This is a descriptive-analytical study that was conducted on a retrospective survey on 16566 children admitted to the Sheikh Pediatric Hospital in Mashhad. Data were collected using a questionnaire designed for the National Institutes of Internal Medicine Infection Monitoring System (INIS) to detect the prevalence of major hospital infections (blood, urinary, respiratory and burn), and all hospitalized patients were monitored for clinical signs and if they were suspected of being infected, they were confirmed by an infectious expert on the basis of clinical and laboratory symptoms.

In the present study, a total of 16566 patients admitted during the year 1395, 60 cases of hospital infection (0.36%) were observed. The most common type of infection is respectively 0.19%, pneumonia 0.102% ,  urinary tract infection 0.036% and eye infection 0.030%. The most common bacterial agents in the most commonly reported type of hospital infection in children undergoing infections are Staphylococcus aureus (53.22%). The highest microbial infections caused by Klebsiella are 19.35% and the lowest is Candida Albicans 1.61%.

The results of this study show a lower proportion of hospital infection in this center than the country's statistics one of the reasons for this is the effect of observing handwashing by mothers of children in adolescents and staff, the effectiveness of health education to employees and mothers, as well as the proper use of disposable items. In this study, the highest incidence of infection related to blood infection, 32 cases, due to the fact that patients admitted to hematology and oncology departments are immunocompromised due to their individual circumstances and the nature of the disease ; identifying the causes of these infections and the weaknesses in the care of patients admitted to this section is of great importance.

The birth of a premature neonate causes increasing possibility of postpartum depression in mothers. The most important parental needs of infant admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit are communicational and informational needs, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of Interpersonal psychotherapy on postpartum depression  in mothers of infants admitted to neonatal intensive care unit.

This randomized interventional study investigated 92 primiparous women with a newborn admitted to neonatal intensive care unit. of Kamali Hospital. Sampling method was available and samples were randomly assigned into 2 groups of control and intervention by four blocks randomization method. In addition to routine care, the intervention group received 3 IPT counseling sessions. The data collection tool in this study was Edinburg Questionnaire.

There was no statistically significant difference in demographic characteristics between the control and intervention groups. The results of repeated measure test indicated that the postpartum depression  had a significant change over time (p = 0.000) with significant differences between the two groups (p = 0.000).

Considering the impact of IPT on postpartum depression, as well as the limited duration and cost of this program and the possibility of training it by midwives and medical staff, it is suggested to include this training program in the routine interventions for mothers with a newborn hospitalized in neonatal intensive care unit.

To investigate the effect of infertility on sexual and marital satisfaction of infertile couples. Present study designed to increase the knowledge of infertile couple regarding psychological and sociocultural problems of fertility and improve the health policy plans to increase the sexual and marital satisfaction of infertile couples.

This cross-sectional study was carried out at Rooyesh infertility center of Alborz Province during 1393-1394. All infertile couples with at least primary education were enrolled. Data collection instrument was a questionnaire which was given to each partner separately by the researcher. The first part of data collection form included demographic questionnaire (13 questions) and the second part was the marital satisfaction (18 questions) and the third part was the assessment of sexual satisfaction (11 questions). The scores of couples’ marital and sexual satisfaction were compared among couples with different cause of infertility by using appropriate statistical tests.

Overall, 174 couples were evaluated during the study period. The significant correlation was found between couples ‘age and education and income (P=0.02 = P. 01, P <0.0001, P and P =0.04, respectively). There is no association between demographic characteristics and couples’ sexual satisfaction. In this study, the cause of infertility  in 27% of couples were diagnosed as male factor (n=47), 30.5% female factor (n=53), %20 both male and female factors (n=35) and %22.5 unexplained infertility (n=39). No significant relationship was found between causes of infertility and couples’ marital and sexual satisfaction.

On the basis of present results, it seems that the cause of infertility has no impact on couples’ marital and sexual satisfaction. However, to confirm these results, more studies with larger sample sizes are needed.

Infertility is one of the most important crises in marital life that affects other aspects of personal life. The aim of the present study was to compare the sexual self-concept in fertile and infertile women referring to community health centers and infertility in Karaj, Iran.

This study is a causal-comparative and cross-sectional study. The study population included all fertile women who were referred to community health centers and infertile women referred to the infertility center of Karaj. To select the sample group, a sampling method was used to select the sample of infertile women and a two-stage cluster randomized cluster sampling method was used for the fertile women. A total of 280 subjects were selected as the research sample. For data collection, a questionnaire was used for demographic characteristics, fertility and infertility characteristics and the multivariate sex-self-concept questionnaire (MSSCQ) for both groups.

The results showed that fertile women in relation to the components of positive sex self-concept include prevention of sexual problems, sexual satisfaction, sexual self-esteem, sexual behavior management, sexual motivation, sexual desire, motive for avoiding high-risk sexual relationships, sexual alertness, sexual self-efficacy had a better situation compare to infertile women (p <0.05). Fertile women were better than infertile women in terms of negative sex self-concept components, including sexual anxiety, sexual and sexual patterns, and internal control of sex (<0.05).

Infertile women referring to infertility centers should be assessed about positive and negative sexual self- concepts to receive proper training by highly qualified counselors.

Aside from classic indexes of infant growth such as weigh, length and head size, other infant parameters have been investigated in different studies and its relationship with gestation age and uterine internal growth have been evaluated. these parameters include breast size, underfoot size and arm size. In this study, the correlation between underfoot size of new-borns and other classical growth indexes and the traits during the birth such as mother age and gestational age and the gender of infant is studied. In this study, the length of underfoot is selected after birth. This study is done to obtain the average of this size in the infant under study and could be the furs study in out country.
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in this study 500 new-borns infant department of Yazd worker in 2014 were selected randomly and the information related to growth index and the traits during the birth were prepared by question and were extracted from their records. The data was analyzed by SPSS software.

in this study ,500 new-borns infant with the accepted criteria were evaluated. 51.8% of them were boy and 48.2% of theme were girl. The average of mother age was 26.52. the average of gestational age 36.2 weeks and the average of new-born weight was 2890.52 gram. The average of new-born was 49.7 centimeters and the average of head size was35.11 centimeters. The average of underfoot size of infant was 66.91 centimeters. The correlational coefficient of underfoot length than other variables (mother age, the weight, length and head size) was respectively 0.192, 0.524, 0.797,0.606 and 0.575.

there was significant and positive correlation between feet length and other indicators of uterine internal growth such as weigh and head size in the birth and the traits during the birth such as gestational age and new-born gender and can be used separately to examine the health of infant.

As a vulnerable social stratum, female heads of households are exposed to all kinds of psychological, social and economic harms. The present study aimed to determine the effects of resilience skills on psychological well-being and self-efficacy in female heads of households based on the Henderson and Milstein model.

This quasi-experimental study with an interrupted time-series design was conducted on 34 female heads of households presenting to local facilitation and development centers in the suburbs of Karaj, Iran, in 2020-2021. Once the eligible individuals were identified, data were collected using a self-efficacy questionnaire, a psychological well-being questionnaire and a resilience scale. The study variables were measured at three time points: Before, immediately after and three weeks after the intervention. On each measurement occasion, the data of each individual was compared to her own data from the other occasions. Using the resilience training program by Henderson and Milstein (1996), all the individuals were given eight 75-minute sessions. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software, version 21.

According to the results, participants’ mean age was 37.91 ± 6.81 years and their resilience score was 47.26 ± 5.05. The results of the repeated-measures test revealed the effect of the intervention on the mean scores of self-efficacy and psychological well-being over time(P<0.001). The effect of the resilience training program was 69.6% on self-efficacy and 52.6% on psychological well-being.

By developing emotional capabilities, promoting spirituality and creating a sense of hopefulness and optimism in life, resilience training programs can be effective in improving individuals’ psychological health and self-efficacy.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of Paprika on the metabolism of lipid changes and hepatic enzyme activities following oxytetracycline administration in rats.

A total of 36 adult male rats were divided into 6 equal groups and treated as follows. The control group (normal saline), fatty liver  FL (oxytetracycline (Erfan drug Company) with dosage120 mg/kg per day for 3 days), fatty liver group-1 treatment  FL1(oxytetracyclinefor three days, then the extract of Paprika daily 75 mg/kg by stomach tube for thirty days), liver-fatty-therapeutic group FL2 (oxytetracycline for three days, then Paprika per day 100 mg/kg by stomach tube for thirty days), pretreatment group 3  FL3 (Paprika 75 mg/kg daily with gastric tube for 15 days then oxytetracycline for three days) and pretreatment  group 4 FL4 (Paprika 100 mg/kg daily with gastric tube for 15 days followed by oxytetracycline for 3 days.

Pre-treatment with Paprika at dose 100 mg/kg resulted in a significant decrease in AST level compared to the control group (P <0/05). Pre-treatment of Paprika with a dose of 75 mg resulted in a significant decrease in ALT level compared to the control group (p <0.01). Also, pretreatment with Paprika at dose of 100 mg resulted in a significant decrease in ALT level compared to control group and all of the other groups (P <0.001). Serum total cholesterol concentration in the fatty liver group had a significant increase compared to control, fatty liver, FL 3 and 4 groups (P <0.001). The concentration of triglyceride in the fatty liver group was significantly higher than that of the pretreatment group 4 (P <0.001). The concentration of HDL in the pretreatment group 4 showed a significant increase compared to the control, fatty liver and FL1 groups (p <0.01) and in the pretreatment group 3 compared to the fatty liver and FL1 groups (p <0.01).

It seems that Paprika extract have a positive effect on the prevention of liver poisoning, lipid metabolism changes and protective effects against hepatic enzyme activities in rats.

Streptococcus pneumoniae or pneumococcus, gram-positive diplococcus with a diameter of 0.5 to 1.2 μm, alpha hemolytic and oxygen tolerant of Streptococcus and causes diseases such as meningitis and pneumonia. The bacterium carries the Pneumococcal A surface protein gene (PspA) from S, and several studies show that PspA is a very promising target for new vaccine formulations. Therefore, the aim of this study was to isolate and clone the Streptococcus pneumoniae surface protein (psp) gene in Escherichia coli DH5α in order to provide a vaccine for children.

Sampling of a total of 60 pneumococcal isolates was isolated from nasopharyngeal samples of healthy children under 6 years of age. In order to isolate and initially identify Streptococcus pneumoniae, culture medium and biochemical tests were used and DNA extraction was performed. Then, strains with pspC gene were identified by PCR. The pspC gene of the positive strains was transfected into Escherichia coli host bacteria by vector and cloned by TA cloning technique. Finally, the expression of genes in Escherichia coli DH5α was measured by Real time PCR technique. ClustalX and Mega5 software were used to draw the phylogenetic tree.

A total of 12 pneumococcal isolates were isolated from the screening of clinical specimens sent to the laboratory, which were identified based on morphological, microscopic and biochemical characteristics. Of these, 1 isolate had pspC gene. After cloning, pspC genes were isolated from cloned selection colonies (blue / white). In order to confirm the results of DNA cloning, it was extracted from suspected colonies and PCR by real time test. Finally, sequencing images, m13 and proliferation curves, and confirmed gene expression in Escherichia coli DH5α.

In this study, by genomic evaluation of pneumococci isolated from children under 6 years of age, pspC gene with immunization potential was extracted from this bacterium in order to make a vaccine. And cloning was successful. Finally, by examining the phylogenetic tree drawn in this study, the degree of similarity and kinship of Streptococcus pneumoniae with other species was shown.

Due to the spread of infections caused by broad-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing actinobacteria in recent years in our country, this study was conducted to determine the pattern of antibiotic resistance and to determine the prevalence of blaoxa23 and blaoxa10 genes in Acinetobacter strains isolated from patients admitted to centers The treatment was taken.

Using specific culture media and biochemical tests, 75 clinical isolates of Acinetobacter were collected from patients hospitalized in Alborz province. 70 isolates were identified as Acinetobacter baumanni by biochemical and molecular methods. Disk diffusion method was used to determine the antibiotic identity of isolates according to the CLSI instruction. In this study, 14 antibiotic disks were used. Finally, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to investigate the prevalence of bla oxa23 and bla oxa10 genes in antibiotic resistance using specific primers. The blaoxa51 gene, which is characterized by Acinetobacter Bumanni, was used to confirm the isolation of the isolates.

  The results showed that 100% resistance to ciprofloxacin, sulfumetoxazole, ceftriaxone, cefotaxime, cefoxitine, imipenem, meropenem and piperacillin - tazobactam antibiotics and the least resistance to colistine (0%), tobramycin (78.5% ), Ampicillin Sulbactam (92.8%), Levofloxacin, cefepime and ceftazidime, each of which was 98.5%. The results of PCR to detect strains containing resistance genes showed that the prevalence of blaoxa23 and blaoxa10 genes was 90% and 61%, respectively. The blaoxa51 gene, which is characterized by Acinetobacter Bumanni, was found in 100% of isolates.

The present study suggests that Acinetobacter Berumani bacteria is highly prevalent in patients admitted to treatment centers of Alborz province. Regarding the identification of blaoxa 23 and bla oxa10 genes in Acinetobacter and relationship its between Antibiotic resistance, it is recommended to revise the pattern of antibiotic use and the criteria for controlling infectious diseases.

In the recent century, the improper use of antibiotics has led to the emergence of resistant isolates that pose a serious threat to the health of human populations. In order to deal with this phenomenon, various approaches have been used, including the use of natural herbal extracts to treat infectious diseases. Ghalghaf Gall is caused by abnormal growth of plant tissues under the influence of living factors such as bees on various organs of the oak tree. Laboratory findings obtained from the evaluation of this plant indicate its high potential for antimicrobial properties. In the present study, the antimicrobial effect of Ghalghaf Gall extract on Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus was investigated.

This study was performed on standard strains of Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923. Aqueous extract of Ghalghaf Gall was obtained by Soxhlet method. To evaluate the antibacterial activity, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) were determined by broth-macrodilution method.

The MIC value of the extracts of Ghalghaf Gall obtained for Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were 3125 µg/ml and 98 µg/ml respectively. Also The MBC value of the Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus obtained 50000 µg/ml and 1562 µg/ml respectively.

The results of this study showed that the herbal extract of Ghalghaf Gall has a very good antimicrobial effect on the gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus compared to the gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli. Also, although relatively strong bacteriostatic function of the above extract was observed on Staphylococcus aureus, but there was a significant difference between bactericidal and bacteriostatic concentrations.

The aim of this in vitro study is to compare the antimicrobial efficacy  of fluoride Varnish (flurodose) with two endodontic sealers against Enterococcus faecalis and streptococcus mutans.

Two different endodontic sealers, namely, resin based (AH Plus), mineral trioxide aggregate (Endoseal-MTA) based and fluoride Varnish (Flurodose) were tested for their antimicrobial efficacy against E. faecalis and S.mutans  using agar diffusion method.Four wells were made by the removal of agar at equidistant points and filled with freshly mixed respective root canal sealers and were inoculated with E. faecalis and S.mutans. All the three plates were incubated for a period of 72 h at 37°C under aerobic conditions. The diameter of inhibition zones was measured at 24, 48, and 72 h time intervals. Data obtained were statistically analyzed using SPSS,Kruskal-Walis and Mann Whitney test.

All the tested sealers showed some bacterial growth inhibition of E. faecalis and S.mutans. Their efficacy in descending order of antibacterial activity against E.faecalis was as follows: AH Plus > Endo seal MTA> Fluoride varnish(fluorosode) and efficacy of antibacterial effect against S.mutans was including : AH plus> Fluorodose > Endo seal MTA. However, no significant differences were observed in terms of diameter of growth inhibition zone against both Enterococcus faecalis and Streptococcus mutans in pairwise comparison.  The efficacy of the root canal sealers decreased marginally with increase in their duration of  action.

Antimicrobial efficacy of resin based sealer (AH-plus) was highest followed by fluoride varnish(flurodose) and MTA based sealer(Endo seal MTA).