نشریه دانشگاه علوم پزشکی البرز
سال یازدهم شماره 4 (پاییز 1401)

Since prevalence of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2), millions of infected people presented with various manifestations. Some studies report ocular complications, such as conjunctivitis and sub-conjunctival haemorrhage, as an initial manifestation of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). This article aims to report unilateral acute anterior non-granulomatous uveitis manifested in COVID-19. Systemic work up and laboratory results, confirmed the diagnosis.

A 37-year-old female patient with a history of hypothyroidism, fever, weakness and lethargy, throbbing chest pain, non-productive cough and diffuse painful redness of the left eye with positive COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test from nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs and erythrocyte sedimentation rate of 43 mm/h is reported.

Demographically, the patient was a 37-year-old female. On ophthalmologic examination, right and left eye vision were 10/10 and 5.10, respectively. The relative afferent pupillary defect was negative. External ocular motility was within normal limits. On slit lamp biomicroscopy, conjunctival peri-limbal injection, 2+ cells and 3+ flares in the anterior chamber of the left eye, posterior synechiae was seen and the vitreous cavity was clear. Right eye examination was completely normal.

Covid-19 can be associated with ocular involvement as acute non-granulomatous anterior uveitis, which can be prevented ocular complications and vision loss if diagnosed and treated early. Acute anterior non-granulomatous uveitis can also be an early sign of Covid-19 disease, which should raise clinical suspicion of the disease and therefore reduce the morbidity and mortality of Covid-19 disease by starting timely treatment.

Leukemia is the most common malignancy in childhood. It accounts for about one third of children's malignancy. The most common is acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), which is characterized by a majority of immature lymphatic precursors in the blood and bone marrow.

In this descriptive cross-sectional study, all patients under 16 years of age who were admitted to the pediatric ward of Ayatollah Mousavi Hospital in Zanjan between 2008 and 2017 with leukemia were included in the study. Data was obtained from patients' records and analyzed using SPSS software.

Fifty three patients less than 16 years of age were enrolled in this study. Forty six patients (86.8%) had ALL and 7 patients (13.2%) had AML. Twenty nine patients (54.7%) were male and 24 patients (45.3%) were female (45.3%). There was no significant difference in types of leukemia between girls and boys (P = 0.890). Thirty two (%60/3) of patients were under 5 years of age. In children 1-5 years old, Forty eight patients (90.6%) had ALL and 5 patients (4.9%) had AML. There was no significant difference between types of leukemia based on age groups (P = 0.076)
 

The most common type of leukemia in children is ALL, with the most prevalence in boys and younger than 5 years old children.

Anemia is one of the most common diseases in women. According to some studies, vitamin D seems to be involved in the hematopoietic process. Therefore, this study was performed to investigate the relationship between 25-hydroxyvitamin D deficiency and anemia in women.

This case-control study was  performed in Kermanshah reference laboratory. In this study, 200 patients with anemia and 200 healthy individuals as a control group were selected from the women in the age range of 20 to 80 years and according to the criteria of the World Health Organization.

The mean age of patients with anemia was 44.79± 15.02 and the mean age of the control group was 44.58±14.35 years. The mean serum levels of vitamin D in patients with anemia and the control group were 20.31±9.62 ng / mL and 26.26 ±14.41 ng / mL, respectively, which was significantly lower than in patients with anemia than the control group (P <0.001). Based on the results, no significant relationship was observed between serum vitamin D levels and the severity of anemia.

According to the findings of this study, there is a significant relationship between serum vitamin D levels and the incidence of anemia.

Abnormalities in the structure of the cerebral cortex of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy can be detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, many of these patients have a normal MRI even a few years after the disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the cortical thickness of patients with left and right temporal lobe epilepsy with healthy individuals using MRI images.

In the present study, MRI images of healthy control cases (n = 20) and patients with left temporal lobe epilepsy (n = 19) and right temporal lobe epilepsy (n = 14) were used. The mean cortical thickness of these patients was calculated using FREESURFER software. Finally, areas of the cerebral cortex affected by epilepsy were identified and introduced by Mann-Whitney U test.

Patients with left temporal lobe epilepsy had less cortical thickness than healthy individuals in the cingulate, anterior, occipital, and parietal lobes. Cortical thickness atrophy was seen in patients with right lobe epilepsy compared to healthy control individuals in the right hemisphere in the occipital lobe in the lateral occipital region. There was no significant difference between the mean cortical thickness in patients with right and left temporal lobe epilepsy.

In the present study, changes and disturbances in the thickness of gray matter in different areas of the cerebral cortex of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy have been identified as the effects of this disease on the cerebral cortex.

When the Covid-19 was spread around the world, there have been concerns that the mental health of people in the community is at risk. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of psychological counseling program on stress during the Quid-19 virus epidemic crisis among the staff of Alborz University of Medical Sciences.

This intervention study was performed over a period of one month. Psychotherapy intervention was performed in eight sessions (two sessions per week) for the intervention group and the control group received routine care. Chi-square, independent t-test and two-way ANOVA were performed.

According to the two-way ANOVA test, training over time had a significant effect on the mean score of anxiety (p-value> 0.001, sleep (p-value = 0.001) and life satisfaction (p-value = 0.005). But these trainings over time had no a significant effect on the mean score of depression (p-value = 0.22), stress (p-value = 0.26), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (p-value = 0.21), Templer scale (p -value = 0.496), health satisfaction (p-value = 0.073) and ZUNG scale (p-value = 0.051).

The results of the study showed that with good care and psychological counseling sessions during difficult collective times such as epidemics, the level of anxiety was greatly reduced and the quality of sleep and life satisfaction increased.

Work motivation is a key to emerge and enhance the nurse’s satisfaction and their work performance. Accordingly, the factors that affect the work motivation among nurses became essential instruments to modify and shape the work behaviors of the nurses and its consequences. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship quality of working life and emotional intelligence with work motivation of female nurses.

In this descriptive–correlational study, the statistical population was all 2000 female nurses of karaj state hospitals in the year 2018.Out of this population, 322 subjects were selected via cluster sampling method, and were evaluated via Work motivation by Hackman and Oldham (1976), emotional intelligence by Sibrea Shering (1996) and work life quality by Walton (1973) questionnaires. For statistical analysis of data the descriptive and inferential statistics methods such as Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise multivariate regression were used.

The results of the analysis showed that there was a significant positive correlation between work life quality and emotional intelligence with female nurses’ work motivation (p<0.001).

considering the positive and significant relationship between quality of work life and Emotional intelligence with work motivation of female nurses, it is necessary consider their Emotional intelligence in the process of recruiting and they are taking measures to train Emotional intelligence. Also managers develop and implement programs to improve the quality of work life of nurses in order to increase their work motivation.

Addressing the issue of liability in the field of medical topics that are complex, and functional. In this writing was attempts to consider cases dealing with medical negligence and violations, we try to analyse those faults and violations which give rise to non-responsibility of physicians.

This is an functional study descriptive method of analysis which their data are collected through documentary studies.

In all cases, that an unexpected or undesirable result occur for patient, there could be a case against doctors, but they are not necessary caused by their fault basically, after the opening of such cases obtaining experts opinions is necessary. Forensics is the most important authority in this area. The existing arguments in medical cases show that if the resulted harm can not be attributed to the doctors or the chain of causation is broken, there is no responsibility.

The contemplation of the comment that are recorded in medical malpractice cases reveals that following scientific procedures, nature of disease, lack of causality between physicians maltreatment and  patients fault are the most important factors that lead to their authentication. So, first of all, observance of scientific standards and the use of reasonable and diligent efforts can be effective in removing the responsibility of the physician. Based on this criterion, to the extent that the physician is familiar with the science of the day, he has not committed a fault, he has sufficient accuracy in diagnosing the disease, and chooses the appropriate treatment according to the patient's conditions, for his lack of responsibility. In the second place, some factors can be considered as external factors or Cairo, which are beyond the control of the owners of medical matters and they do not interfere with the realization or occurrence. Therefore, if a complication is unpredictable and preventive or corrective, it will be decisive.

Pregnant women experience different type of stresses which affect the fetus brain physiological processes like memory. Therefore, it is attractive to find the protective agents that are safe in the pregnancy and neutralize the stress induced manifestations. The aim of current study was to investigate the protective effects of melatonin on memory impairment induced by prenatal restraint stress in offspring rats.

In this experimental study, pregnant rats were randomly assigned to control, restraint stress group and four melatonin treated groups that received 3, 5, 10, and 50 mg/kg of melatonin concomitant with restraint stress. Restraint stress daily induced from 10th to 21st day of pregnancy. Melatonin was daily injected intraperitoneally before the restraint stress. One month after the birth, the memory of offspring was evaluated by measurement of "Discrimination" and "Recognition" indices using Object Recognition Task.

From the data, administration of 3 or 5 mg/kg melatonin did not show significant differences in Discrimination and Recognition indices compared to restraint stress group while injection of 10 or 50 mg/kg of melatonin significantly increased the above indices (P <0.001). There is no significant difference in indices values for 10 or 50 mg/kg of melatonin.

The findings showed that prenatal restraint stress induced memory impairment in one month offspring rats. Administration of melatonin in high doses actively prevent restraint stress induced memory impairment.

  Nitrite is widely used in food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries. In this study, the effects of sodium nitrite poisoning on embryonic parameters (Head length, head width, body length, body weight) in male and female rats were investigated. 

In this experimental study, 30 adult Wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups of 15, including sham group and experimental group receiving sodium nitrite (175 mg / kg / day) in drinking water for 4 weeks. Forty-eight female rats were randomly divided into three groups of 16 including the sham group, the experimental female group receiving sodium nitrite (175 mg / kg / day) in drinking water for 2 weeks, and the experimental female group receiving 2 sodium nitrite (175 mg / kg / day). ) Were divided in drinking water for 4 weeks. After mating, pregnant rats were treated with sodium nitrite according to the previous dose. Newborns were removed and tested for microscopic abnormalities. Body weight, head length, head width and body length were measured and statistically analyzed.

The mean head length in the treated female groups (two weeks) - sham male and female - treated male showed a significant increase compared to the sham female and sham male groups. The mean head width in the treated female (two weeks) - sham male group and treated female (two weeks) - treated male group compared to the sham female group - male sham showed a significant increase. Mean body weight in drug group (two weeks) - sham male and drug female (two weeks) - drug male compared to sham  female group - sham male showed a significant increase. The mean body length in the female (2 weeks) and male-drug-drug (female) (2 weeks) and sham male groups showed a significant increase compared to the female sham -male sham groups (P <0.05)

It seems that administration of sodium nitrite disrupts the embryonic parameters (head length, head width, body length, body weight) of neonatal rats.

Cadmium is a toxic heavy metal found in environmental pollutants in metropolitan areas that enters the body via inhalation and causes the production of reactive oxygen species, apoptosis, and changes in protein structure. The purpose of this study was to see how N-acetyl cysteine (due to its sulfhydryl group and purification of reactive oxygen species) affected liver enzymes and inflammation in rats exposed to acute and chronic cadmium chloride doses.

In this study, 30 two-month-old male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 5 groups of 6. The control group (G1) was fed only standard water and food and the first treatment group (G2) received 80 mg / kg cadmium chloride on the first day of the study. The second treatment group (G3) received 2.5 mg / kg cadmium chloride daily for four weeks. The third treatment group (G4) received 80 mg / kg cadmium chloride along with 50 mg / kg n-acetyl cysteine ​​on the first day of the study. The fourth treatment group (G5) received 2.5 mg / kg cadmium chloride and 50 mg / kg N-acetyl cysteine ​​daily for four weeks. At the end of the treatment period, after anesthesia, blood samples were taken from the hearts of rats to measure the level of liver enzymes. Then their liver was removed and histopathological tests were performed.

Treatment with cadmium chloride in continuous dose caused a significant increase in the levels of ALT, AST, ALP and LDH enzymes compared to the control group. There was no significant change in GGT enzyme level. Cadmium chloride caused inflammation around the arteries and increased the thickness of the hepatic arteries. After treatment with N-acetyl cysteine ​​in the fourth treatment group (G5), the level of enzymes compared to the second treatment group (G3) showed a significant decrease. Inflammation around the arteries and the thickness of the arteries were also reduced compared to G3.

Continuous N-acetyl cysteine administration reduces cadmium chloride toxicity in rats exposed to a continuous dose of cadmium chloride by lowering serum levels of ALT, AST, ALP, and LDH enzymes, as well as hepatitis.

Cadmium has similar chemical and physical properties to metals such as zinc and copper, can be transferred to cells via an ionic and molecular process, and disrupts cell biological functions and homeostasis. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of cadmium chloride on serum and tissue levels of zinc and copper, Also, the protective role of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in preventing cadmium-induced toxicity and tissue inflammation in the lung tissue of rats exposed to single-dose and continuous-dose cadmium.

30 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups of six in this interventional-experimental study. The control group only received regular water and food. The first group received a single dose treatment of 80 mg/kg of cadmium chloride on the first day of the study, while the second group received a continuous dose of 2.5 mg / kg of cadmium chloride every other day for 4 weeks.  On the first day of the study, the third group received a single dose of 80 mg / kg cadmium chloride along with 50 mg / kg N-acetylcysteine. For four weeks, the fourth treatment group received a continuous dose of 2. 5 mg of cadmium chloride along with 50 mg of N-acetylcysteine. Cadmium chloride and N-acetylcysteine were administered to the animals via gavage. At the end of the treatment period, blood samples from the heart were taken to determine the level of the elements. After anesthesia, lung tissue was removed from the chest and part of it was used for histological work, while the other part was used to measure element levels.

Treatment with cadmium chloride showed a decrease in serum copper levels in the second treatment group compared to the control group (P-value <0.01). In addition, cadmium chloride treatment in the second treatment group compared to the control group caused a significant reduction in copper tissue level (P-value <0.001). Cadmium chloride treatment reduced serum zinc levels in the second treatment group compared to the control group (P-value <0.01). Tissue level of zinc in the second treatment group compared to the control showed a significant decrease (P-value <0.001). Simultaneous treatment of cadmium chloride and N-acetylcysteine ​​in the fourth treatment group as a continuous dose compared to the second treatment group caused a significant increase in serum copper level (P-value <0.05). And copper tissue level in the fourth treatment group increased significantly compared to the second treatment group (P-value <0. 001). Also, simultaneous treatment of cadmium chloride and N-acetylcysteine ​​in the fourth treatment group showed that serum zinc level (P-value <0.05) and tissue level of zinc (P-value <0.01) were significantly higher than the second treatment group.

Continuous N-acetylcysteine administration reduces the toxicity of cadmium chloride in rats exposed to a continuous dose of cadmium chloride and improves serum and tissue copper and zinc levels.

Although for a long time it was thought that the health benefits of probiotics depend on their viability but, in the last decade, studies have shown that the passive form of these bacteria (non-viable), microbial fractions, and cell lysates also offer physiological benefits to the host. Thus from 2011 onwards, new terms such as postbiotic have emerged, indicating that viability is not necessary for health-promoting effects of probiotics. Postbiotics refers to soluble factors secreted by live bacteria or released after bacterial lysis including, enzymes, peptides, polysaccharides, organic acids, teichoic acids, and cell surface proteins. Treatment of some diseases in human and animals has been demonstrated in case of using these postbiotics. Identification of postbiotics can be associated with the production and development of drug formulations without live bacteria. With this review, we aim to provide a comprehensive picture of the postbiotics, their production and identification methods, and their application in food and pharrmaceutical industries.

Today, the main treatment for bacterial infections is the use of antibiotics, but due to side effects and increased antibiotic resistance, the use of complementary or alternative methods to treat infectious diseases has become particularly important.

In this study, prodigiosin pigment was produced by a strain of Seratia marcescens and its antibacterial effect on a number of gram-positive and gram-negative pathogenic bacteria was investigated by determining the MIC and MBC of the pigment. The synergism effect of pigment with a number of common antibiotics was also investigated.

The results of this study showed that produced prodigiosin, at concentrations of 32, 64, 256 and 512 μg / ml could inhibit the growth of Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella oxytoca respectively. The study of synergism phenomenon also showed that, this pigment has a synergistic effect with the antibiotics oxacillin, ceftriaxone and vancomycin.

According to the results, it seems that gram-positive bacteria are more sensitive to produced prodigiosin and also the synergistic effect of this pigment is mainly with antibiotics that affect the cell wall of bacteria. If the harmlessness and non-toxicity of this pigment is proven in living animal and human models, we can hope that this pigment will be used as a complementary drug or even as an alternative to antibiotics.

The use of doxorubicin is limited due to its dose-dependent toxicity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the hydroalcoholic extract of ginger on the levels of liver enzymes (AST, ALT, ALK), albumin and total protein in male rats after receiving doxorubicin.

63 adult male rats were divided into 7 groups: Control group, Sham group: received solvent. Experimental group 1 received doxorubicin at a dose of 20 mg / kg and experimental groups 2 and 3 received 300 and 600 mg / kg of hydroalcoholic extract of ginger, experimental groups 4 and 5, doxorubicin received 20 mg / kg + 300 mg / kg of hydroalcoholic extract of ginger and doxorubicin 20mg / kg  + 600 mg / kg of hydroalcoholic extract of ginger, respectively. After the end of the test period, blood samples were collected and serum levels of liver enzymes (AST, ALT, ALK), albumin and total protein were measured.

Serum levels of ALT, AST and ALK enzymes in DOX group increased significantly compared to controls and serum levels of albumin and total protein showed a significant decrease. Serum levels of ALT, AST and ALK enzymes in DOX + ZIN300 and DOX + ZIN600 groups decreased significantly compared to DOX group. Serum albumin and total protein levels showed a significant increase compared to the DOX group (P <0.05). Also, serum levels of liver enzymes (ALT, AST and ALK) and biochemical factors (total protein, albumin) in ZIN300 and ZIN600 groups did not change significantly compared to the control group.

Hydroalcoholic extract of ginger may improve liver function after receiving doxorubicin due to its antioxidant properties.

Rodents are the reservoir of many zoonotic diseases, including some helminth infection. The necessity to identify rodents and parasites which are transmitted through in different geographical areas of Iran and control and prevention measures can be very important from a health point of view.

In this study 40 rodents were caught from different parts of Alborz province from autumn 2018 to autumn 2020. Internal organs and viscera of mice erer examined after dissection using direct parasitological methods and parasites isolated from each rodent were identified in terms of genus and species.

Of the 40 rodents killed, 57.5% were infected with parasitic helminth. Detected worm species include Hymenolepis diminuta (17.5%), Hymenolepis nana feraterna(7.5%), Syphacia obvelata(7.5%), Syphacia muris(2.5%), Aspicularis tetraptera(7.5%), Trichuris muris(15%), Cysticercus fasciolaris(Taenia taeniae formis Larva Stag)(2.5%), Trichosomoides crassicauda(2.5%).

The results indicate the infection of rodent in Alborz province with different types of worms. Isolation of some zoonotic worm parasites from rodents in urban and rural communities reminds the neceeity of more attention for control and prevention measures as the most important action to prevent spread of parasitic disese in province.