مجله دانشکده پزشکی اصفهان
پیاپی 690 (هفته دوم آذر 1401)

Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging by using new quantitative mapping techniques such as T2 and ADC mapping, is a new approach to detect ischemia and myocardial edema. In this study, the sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic utility of ADC maps in diffusion imaging compared to T2 maps in the diagnosis of cardiac ischemia were investigated and compared.

This is a cross- sectional study that was conducted at Shiraz Peyvand Hospital using 3-Tesla MRI from February 2020 to March 2022 on 60 patients with cardiac ischemia an average of five days after the infarct. For this, images of T2 and ADC maps of the myocardium were obtained and compared. Cine images were used to check the function of the left ventricle, and the infarcted area of the myocardium was defined based on the Late Gadolinium Enhancement images.

In the analysis that was done with the segmentation of the left ventricle, the sensitivity and specificity of T2 maps were reported as 84% and 95%, and the sensitivity and specificity of ADC maps were reported as 88% and 97%, respectively.

Based on the evaluations, ADC maps showed higher sensitivity and specificity than T2 maps that are commonly used in the clinic, so their use is recommended to investigate ischemia in cardiac patients.

Musculoskeletal pain is one of the most common pains in patients referred to medical centers which may have a psychological basis. The aim of this study was to develop a structural model to explain the mediating role of catastrophizing pain, depression and anxiety between psychological flexibility and pain self-efficacy in patients with musculoskeletal pain.

In a cross-sectional study, 200 patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain were selected by convenience sampling method from those referred to medical centers affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2020-2021. Eligible participants filled out: Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire (CPAQ), Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ), Self-Experience Questionnaire (SEQ), Value-based Life Questionnaire (VLQ), Committed Action Questionnaire (CAQ-8), Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (PSEQ) and the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Then the data were analyzed using SPSS-24 and AMOS software and statistical methods of regression analysis and structural equations.

The results showed that the direct effect coefficient of pain catastrophizing, anxiety, depression and psychological flexibility on pain self-efficacy is (0.357), (0.255), (0.127) and (0.849) respectively. The total relationship between psychological flexibility and pain self-efficacy is (0.346). To test the suitability of the models, NFI, TLI, CFI and IFI indices were used, which were within acceptable limits.

The psychological flexibility variable predicts pain self-efficacy mediated by catastrophic pain, depression and anxiety (P < 0.01, r = 0.85) and it appears that predicting pain catastrophe, depression, anxiety and psychological resilience can increase pain self-efficacy. Ultimately, the improvement of these psychological factors may affect the process of better disease management.

According to the World Health Organization, infertility refers to a couple's inability to conceive following at least one year of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. Male infertility accounts for about half of the various causes of couples' infertility. This review aimed to investigate the cellular and molecular differentiation of spermatozoa, focusing on the structure of the cytoskeleton, microtubules, actin filaments, motor, and non-motor proteins, to study the known genes associated with their formation and function, as well as the proteins involved in intracellular cargo transport, and ultimately investigate their essential role in maintaining sperm morphology and motility and subsequent male reproduction and infertility. The importance of microtubules in the critical processes of sperm production, transformation, maturation, and fertility of spermatozoa is such that the term "microtubule" has been recently used to denote the microtubule and all microtubule-related components in the sperm cell. The cellular process of sperm evolution and differentiation was discussed first, followed by a description of the cytoskeletal system of the acroframosome-acroplaxome-manchette axis, which is involved in acrosome formation and development, sperm head and flagellum shaping mechanisms, in response to the current and future demands of infertility researchers and clinicians in this emerging field of research. The significance of the aberrant function of different components of the sperm cytoskeleton in creating major disorders associated with male infertility was next inspected to clarify the ambiguous aspects of this complex process.