مجله دانشگاه علوم پزشکی گیلان
پیاپی 126 (تابستان 1402)

Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease with the production of cytokines that can lead to local and systemic inflammatory responses. On the other hand, during systemic inflammation in the body, the levels of acute phase proteins (APPs) can change. APPs include positive and negative types, which in response to inflammatory conditions, the concentration of positive types increases and negative types decreases. Therefore, examining changes in APPs can be used as a marker during periodontitis and periodontal treatment.

The purpose of this review article was to investigate the effect of periodontitis and periodontal treatment on positive APPs. The distinguishing feature of this article is the investigation of the effect of periodontal disease and its treatment on positive APPs. In addition, the introduction of new positive APPs in the future can be used to conduct new studies.

In this study, the keywords periodontitis, acute phase proteins, periodontal debridement, and inflammation mediators in English were searched in Google Scholar and PubMed and Scopus databases from 2000 to 2022. Among the found articles, finally, 65 related articles were selected and reviewed. 

Periodontal treatment can reduce the levels of positive APPs increased during periodontitis. 

Periodontitis as an inflammatory disease can lead to changes in the levels of positive APPs leading to an increase in the levels of these proteins. Periodontal treatment, which includes non-surgical treatment (the first step of periodontal treatment and the gold standard of this treatment is scaling above and below the gums and leveling the root surfaces to remove etiological factors) and, if necessary, surgical treatment can lead to the reduction of their levels.

The proper diagnosis and treatment of neonatal sepsis is done depends on the understanding of its causative organisms.

The present study aimed to investigate the types of microorganisms in definitive neonatal sepsis.

Neonatal sepsis is a serious infectious disease with high mortality. And its diagnosed by blood culture. It includes early (appearance of clinical symptoms from birth to the third-seventh day) and late (from the third day to the twenty-eighth day) types with specific and sometimes common clinical symptoms. This cross-sectional study was performed on 266 neonates hospitalized with definitive sepsis in Ghaem Hospital in Mashhad from 2010 to 2020 using available sampling method. Infants suspected of bacterial infection who had positive blood cultures were included in the study. Type of bacterial organism, time of sepsis, main causes of death and need for mechanical ventilation were evaluated.

Eighty eight neonates had early sepsis and 197 neonates had late sepsis. The bacterial organism of early sepsis was gram negative as 70.1% and in late sepsis was gram negative as 77.1%. The most common causes of early sepsis were Klebsiella pneumonia 21 cases (23.9%), Staphylococcus epidermis 16 cases (18.2%) and 10 cases (11.4%) E. coli . And the most common causes of late sepsis were K. pneumonia 35 cases (25.4%), Enterobacter aeroginosa 25(18.1%), S. epidermis 12(8.7%) and E. coli 11(8%).

K. pneumonia, S. epidermis and E. coli were three most common organisms in early neonatal sepsis and K. pneumonia, S. epidermis and Enterobacter were the most common organisms in late neonatal sepsis.

Toxoplasmosis is a common parasitic infection with high prevalence and worldwide distribution. It may cause severe disease in the fetus of newly infected pregnant women.

This study aimed to evaluate the seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis and its related risk factors among pregnant women in Ramsar city, Mazandaran province, north of Iran, from October 2017 to March 2018.

In this analytical-cross sectional study, specific anti-Toxoplasma gondii IgG and IgM antibodies were measured in 191 pregnant women by ELISA method. The length of T. gondii infection was estimated by the IgG avidity test. Demographic and behavioral information about pregnant women and possible risk factors of toxoplasmosis were collected through interviews.

Specific IgG antibody against T. gondii was detected in 46.1% and IgM in 5.8% and both IgG and IgM antibodies were detected in 4.7% of pregnant women. The IgG avidity test did not show any acute case of toxoplasmosis. None of the demographic characteristics, such as age, occupation, place of residence, education, income, trimester of pregnancy, frequency of pregnancy, and history of abortion was correlated with toxoplasmosis. Moreover, behavioral characteristics, such as the source of consumed water, contact with soil, presence of cats in the household, consumption of vegetables, type of meat consumed, and the way of cooking meat had no significant correlation with toxoplasmosis seropositivity.

More than half of the pregnant women (54%) were toxoplasmosis-free and therefore at risk of acquiring this infection. Increasing the knowledge of pregnant women about toxoplasmosis prevention may reduce the risk of this infection during pregnancy.

The rheologic, mechanical, and pharmacological characteristics of hyaluronic acid (HA) gels vary in terms of their specific crosslinking technologies.

To evaluate the various characteristics of selected HA gels available in Iran, using simple, inexpensive, and reproducible experimental tests are necessary to better understand their appropriateness for specific indications.

The HA gels produced by various crosslinking technologies were evaluated by three experiments, including cohesivity, resistance to stretch, and microscopic examination. The gels subjected to these experiments in this study included Neuramis, Desirial, Belotero, Restylane, and Juvéderm.

We found that cohesivity was different among the gels so that Desirial was the least cohesive and Belotero was the most cohesive gel. Other HA gels were observed as partially cohesive. The resistance to stretch test confirmed the cohesivity results and Belotero had the most significant resistance. Microscopic examination of the HA gels showed HA particles of varying distribution and size. Belotero and Desirial were the gels with no particles visible under the microscope.

Simple and inexpensive laboratory tests help to understand the way that they can affect the specific gel performance, and may be beneficial for physicians to decide on the best product for a particular therapeutic indication.

Emotional intelligence as the ability to understand emotions in self and others, is recognized as underlying success in various aspects.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and sleep quality in female high school students.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 284 female high school students in Rasht in 2019-2020, selected by cluster sampling. Demographic, the Bar-On emotional intelligence, and the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) questionnaires were completed online by the participants. Data were analyzed by IBM SPSS statistics software, version 22 using Spearman’s correlation coefficient and multiple logistic regression analysis.

The Mean age of participants was 13.94±0.95 years, and the mean previous grade point average (GPA) of participants was 19.61±0.89. The Mean total score of students’ emotional intelligence and sleep quality were 334.95±42.82 and 4.71±3.20, respectively. There was a significant negative correlation between the total score of emotional intelligence and sleep quality (r=-0.427 and P<0.001). Also, 31% of the subjects had poor sleep quality (95% CI, 25.7%-36.6%), and the multiple logistic regression showed an inverse relationship between poor sleep quality and emotional intelligence score (OR=0.98, P<0.001). There was no association between demographic variables and sleep quality (P>0.05). 

About a third of female students had poor sleep quality. There was a significant relationship between sleep quality and emotional intelligence. Therefore, poor sleep quality was associated with lower emotional intelligence.

Treatment measures for ankle sprains include care recommendations, symptomatic therapy, joint immobilization using bandages and plasters, and reconstructive surgery.

The purpose of this study is to compare the therapeutic effect of bandages and plastering in the treatment of ankle sprain.

This study was a randomized clinical trial that was conducted on 78 patients who were referred to the Poursina Hospital emergency room with ankle sprains. Patients who needed treatment after being diagnosed with ankle sprain were included in the study. The patients who met the inclusion criteria were divided into two groups A (plaster) and B (bandage) by a simple random method, and 3, 6, and 12 weeks after the start of the treatment, they were examined for the level of pain.

The results showed that the amount of pain based on the visual analogue scale (VAS) after three and six weeks in the bandage group was lower than in the plaster group and this difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). Ankle-hindfoot scale (AHS) after 3, 6, and 12 weeks had the same average in the two studied groups. The duration of activity restriction in the plaster group was significantly lower than in the bandage group. The treatment results were evaluated in terms of complete recovery, time to return to work and activity, and pain level.

Plastering treatment reduces the days of activity limitation and patients return to work and daily activities faster. However, plastering has limitations, such as more cost and limiting the movements of the limbs. For a logical conclusion, there is a need for more studies considering all aspects of applying bandage and plastering methods in ankle sprain.

Technology-based interventions, such as electrical brain stimulation may be effective in the cognitive and personality processes of substance abusers, including nicotine dependents.

We conducted this study to investigate the effectiveness of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) using alpha frequency on inhibitory control and impulsivity in nicotine-dependent individuals.

We used a pre-test/post-test/follow-up quasi-experimental design with control and sham groups. We selected 30 eligible nicotine addicts from Mashhad using the available sampling method and randomly divided the subjects into three groups. We applied the intervention in eight sessions for 20 minutes in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for the first group, fake interventions for the second group, and no intervention for the third group. The Fagerström questionnaire, Barrett impulsivity questionnaire, and go-no-go task were used to collect data. After eight sessions, people’s inhibitory control and impulsivity were evaluated and analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Also, after two months, we evaluated inhibitory control data with repeated-measures analysis of variance.

The effectiveness of alpha-tACS intervention on short- and long-term inhibitory control was significantly different in the experimental group compared to other groups (P=0.001). There was no significant difference between these three groups in impulsivity (P=0.700).

Alpha-tACS intervention effectively increases inhibitory control in nicotine-dependent individuals but does not explicitly affect their impulsivity.