Internal Medicine Today
Volume:28 Issue: 1, 2022

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most frequent malignancy in the oral cavity. Early diagnosis of OSCC could provide on-time treatments and increase survival rate of patients. Recently, the level of salivary biomarkers has been studied as a mean for the early diagnosis of different cancers. This study assessed salivary zinc finger protein 510 in patients with OSCC and healthy individuals as a new biomarker for the diagnosis of OSCC in early stages.  

In this study, 21 OSCC, and 21 healthy individuals were selected in 2019 and their unstimulated saliva were collected by spitting method.  Salivary zinc finger protein 510 were determined using the ELISA technique. All calculations were performed using the SPSS software ver 23. The significance level was set at ≤ 0.05 for all tests.

In this study mean of Salivary zinc finger 510 protein of OSCC patients were significantly higher than healthy subjects (p=0/019). But after considering age as a confounder variable, although ZNF510 level was higher in the patient group than the healthy group, the difference was not valuable (p=0.090). In addition, in the patients with OSCC, the mean of ZNF510 in patients with grade II lesion was significantly higher than those in grade I (P = 0.001).

In this study, after considering the age, although the mean of ZNF510 in the patient with OSCC was higher than the healthy group, but no significant difference was observed. Therefore, although in this study, age had a direct and weak relationship with the mean of ZNF510, but it can be stated that there is an age-related effect on ZNF510 secretion in saliva. Therefore, additional studies with age consideration, and higher sample size are recommended.

On 12 December 2019, a new Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (Sars-Cov-2) was reported in Wuhan, China, causing the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). On 25 January, 2021, the number of COVID-19 deaths worldwide reached 2 million and the number of confirmed cases reached more than 100 million. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on human health and has caused sudden changes with social and economic consequences in human lifestyle due to social distancing and staying at home. Improving public health during this pandemic requires to have knowledge of medical and biological concepts, as well all concepts related to lifestyle and social and behavioral acts, including eating habits. One of the methods to strengthen the immune system against COVID-19 is to modify nutrition and have proper dieter regimen. This study aims to review the role of nutrition during the COVID-19 pandemic and present recommendations for improving nutritional health at this period.

 Nowadays, herbal medicine is commonly used due to the side effects and high costs of chemical medicines. Cinnamon appears to be effective in the prevention and treatment of a variety of diseases, which is used in both food industry and traditional medicine. This study aims to review the effects of cinnamon on the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases and their related risk factors. 

In this review study, the search was conducted using the keywords in English including Cinnamon, Cinnamomum, Cinnamaldehyde and Heart, Cardiac, and Cardiomyopathy based on MeSH terms and the keywords in Persian for the related articles in Web of Sciences, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Scientific Information Database (SID) databases published until March 2021. Out of 205 studies, 51 experimental and clinical human and animal studies were reviewed.

 The results of studies reported the effects of cinnamon on the risk factors of cardiovascular diseases such as hyperlipidemia, hypertension and oxidative stress.

 The majority of human and animal studies have shown that cinnamon prevent and treat cardiovascular diseases by lowering oxidative stress and improving blood pressure and blood lipid parameters.

 This study aims to evaluate the effect of Stress Inoculation Training (SIT) on Heart Rate Variability (HRV), salivary cortisol and psychological complications (anxiety, stress and depression) after Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) surgery.

This is a quasi-experimental study with a pretest/posttest/follow-up phase. The study population consists of all patients who had underwent CABG surgery and referred to the Cardiac Rehab center of Tehran Heart Hospital in Iran. Of these, 30 patients were selected using a random sampling method and divided into two intervention and control groups. The instruments were a cortisol salvia ELISA kit, a HRV monitor, and the 21-item Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale. The intervention group received SIT at 10 sessions of 90 minutes.

The results of multivariate analysis of covariance showed a significant difference in depression (P<0.001), anxiety (P<0.001), stress (P<0.001), salivary cortisol level (P<0.001) and HRV (P<0.001) between the two groups. The mean HRV was significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group. In other variables, the mean scores were lower in the intervention group than in the control group.

Reduced negative emotions following SIT plays an important role in preventing the severe complications of heart disease. Interventions based on the SIT method are recommended for patients with heart disease.

 Considering that the correct management of patients with brain death in critical care units is a basis for organ transplantation and given the importance of nursing care in the organ donation process, this study aims to assess the performance of nurses in critical care units of hospitals in Qazvin, Iran regarding organ donation.

This is a cross-sectional study performed in hospitals affiliated to Qazvin University of Medical Sciences in 2019. Participants were 190 nurses working in critical care units of these hospitals who were selected using a stratified random sampling method. To collect data, a demographic form and a researcher-made nursing performance questionnaire regarding organ donation were used. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and statistical tests (t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation test, and Spearman correlation test).

The highest and lowest mean scores of performance belonged to ICU nurses in Kowsar Hospital (2.75±0.61) and the nurses in dialysis ward of Velayat Hospital (0.85±0.48), respectively. Only 22.8% of nurses had organ donation card. Majority of them (76.8%) signed for organ donation, and were reluctant to receive money for organ donation (96.9%). There was a significant difference in the mean scores of nurses’ performance between different wards (P<0.001). The organ donation performance was higher in female nurses than males and in married nurses than singles, but these differences were not statistically significant.

Nurses in critical care units of hospitals in Qazvin city have poor performance regarding organ donation. They should be informed about their role in the organ donation process, and coherent and targeted training courses should be developed to improve their performance.

 Patients with Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) have very low psychological flexibility that can lead to severe pain, depression, and other psychiatric disorders. This study aims to evaluate the effect of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on depression, chronic fatigue and pain intensity in patients with FMS.

This is a quasi-experimental study with a pretest/posttest/follow-up design. A total of 40 patients with FMS referred to Bu Ali Hospital in Tehran, Iran during 2019-2020 were selected using a convenience sampling method and randomly assigned into two groups of intervention (n=20) and wait-list control (n=20). The group ACT was presented at 8 sessions for both groups. Participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory, the McGill Pain Questionnaire, and Krupp’s Fatigue Severity Scale before, immediately after, and three months after the intervention. Repeated measures Analysis of Covariance was used to analyze the collected data.

 Treatment based on ACT method had a significant effect on reducing depression, chronic fatigue, and pain intensity in patients with FMS (P=0.001).

ACT can reduce depression, pain severity, and chronic fatigue through acceptance of and adaptation to the disease conditions and better interpersonal relationships.

 Cardiovascular diseases are the most prevalent diseases and one of the leading causes of death in the world. The present study aims to evaluate the effect of a combined exercise program on expression of ATP-Binding Cassette Transporter A5 (ABCA5) in middle-aged men after Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) surgery.

In this quasi-experimental study, 26 middle-aged men participated who had underwent CABG surgery and were randomly divided into two groups of exercise and control. The combined exercise program included resistance and aerobic exercises for eight weeks (three sessions per week). During this period, the control group had no physical activity. Fasting blood samples were taken for 10-12 hours in two stages before and 48 hours after the study and anthropometric characteristics were also recorded. Dependent t-test was used to examine intra-group differences and independent t-test was used to examine extra-group changes. The analyses were conducted in SPSS software v. 21, considering a significance level of P<0.05.

 The results showed no significant difference in the ABCA5 gene expression between the two groups at baseline, but after eight weeks of combined exercises, its expression increased significantly compared to pretest scores (P=0.001). A significant difference was observed between the two group (P=0.001).

 It seems that the combined exercise program can reduce cholesterol levels by increasing the expression of ABCA5 gene, leading to an increase in endothelial cell health-related factors. It can be used as an appropriate exercise program to improve physiological status in patients with CABG.

 Epilepsy is a brain disorder disease that affects people’s quality of life. If it is detected at an early stage, seizures will not spread from the initial area. Electroencephalography (EEG) signals are used to diagnose epileptic seizures. However, this method cannot diagnose the state of epileptic seizure precisely. With the help of the Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) system, neurologists can diagnose epileptic seizure stages correctly.
This study aims to present a novel method for epileptic seizures detection in EEG signals.

The Bonn dataset was used in this study with avaibale EEG signals divided into 5-second windows. Then, the Tunable Q-Factor Wavelet Transform (TQWT) was utilized to decompose the segmented EEG signals into various sub-bands. Several statistical and nonlinear features based on fractal dimension and entropy algorithms were extracted from the TQWT sub-bands. Then, the Autoencoder (AE) method with 7 layers was applied to reduce the number of features. Finally, the Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Grasshopper Optimization Algorithm with SVM classifier (GOA/SVM) were used for their classification compared to the K-Nearest Neighbors and Random Forest algorithms. The employment of AE for feature reduction and GOA/SVM for classification are the novelties of this study.

The proposed method demonstrated better performance compared to other methods used in different studies. The GOA/SVM classification method had a high accuracy rate of 99.42% and 99.23% for two-class and multi-class classification problems, respectively.

The combination of EEG feature classification methods increases the accuracy of the CAD system in diagnosing epileptic seizures. The method proposed in this study using different methods for extracting features and their classification has high accuracy for epileptic seizures detection.