نشریه ارمغان دانش
سال بیست و نهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 162، فروردین و اردیبهشت 1403)

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressive chronic disease that can have an effective role on the psychological status of these people due to physical disability and chronic pain. Considering the importance of this issue, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effectiveness of compassion-focused acceptance and commitment therapy on catastrophizing and acceptance of pain in people with MS.

The statistical population of the present clinical-trial study included all MS patients of Borujerd, Iran, registered in the MS Association in 2022. Fifty participants voluntarily participated in the present research and were randomly divided into two groups; 25 people in each group. Treatment group sessions based on acceptance and commitment with a focus on compassion included 10 90-minute sessions that were held once a week for the intervention group; but the control group did not receive any intervention during this period. In the present study, Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) and Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire – Revised (CPAQ-R) were used. Data analysis was done in SPSS-24 statistical software using repeated measurement variance analysis.

The results indicated that the intervention was significant over time on the variables of pain catastrophizing (F=5.347, p=0.007) and pain acceptance (F=30.446, p=0.001). In fact, the results of the Bonferroni test displayed that in the treatment group, there were changes between pre-test and post-test (p=0.001) and pre-test and follow-up (p=0.001) in the variables of pain catastrophizing and acceptance. There was a significant difference in pain, but no significant difference was observed between the post-test and the follow-up, which indicated the stability of the treatment effect over time. No significant difference was observed in the control group.

In general, it can be concluded that acceptance and commitment therapy with a focus on compassion had an effective role in reducing pain catastrophizing and increasing pain acceptance in MS patients.

Lead is an environmental pollutant and has destructive effects on the functioning of various body systems such as the reproductive system. The aim of the present study was to investigate the protective effect of hydroethanolic extract of palm meristem on the process of spermatogenesis in male Wistar rats induced with lead acetate.

In the present experimental study conducted in 2023, 35 male Wistar rats with 200-220g were used and divided in five groups: Control (received water and normal food), positive control (received palm meristem extract with a dose of 500 mg/kg, ip), witness (received lead acetate 0.5 gr/ L, in drinking water) and Treatment 1 and 2 (receiver of lead acetate, 0.5 gr/ L, in drinking water and palm meristem extract with a dose of 250 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg, ip, respectively).The experiments were conducted  for 2 weeks. At the end of the experiments, blood and serum were taken from the animals to measure testosterone, LH and FSH hormones, then sperm count and testicular histological samples were evaluated. Collected data were analyzed using Kolmogorov-Smironov statistical tests, one-way analysis of variance within the subject and Tukey's post hoc test.

The results of the present study indicated that lead acetate causes destruction and necrosis in the testicular tissue of rats. It correspondingly caused a significant decrease in the number of sperms and the serum level of testosterone hormone (P<0.001). Palm meristem's extract protected the testicular tissue and increased the process of spermatogenesis in the treatment groups compared to the witness group. Testosterone hormone increased significantly in the treatment groups compared to the witness group (P<0.05).

The hydroethanolic extract of palm meristem had a protective effect on the testicular tissue of rats against the toxic effects of lead acetate.

The corona epidemic and the closure of the clubs led to the forced non-training of athletes and as a result increased abdominal fat and obesity and caused the spread of liver diseases. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of a strength training session on alpha phytoprotein, gamma glutamyl transferase and alkaline phosphatase in men with regular training and forced non-training due to covid-19.

The current research was a semi-experimental study. According to the current quarantine conditions due to the spread of the coronavirus, 18 male athletes were selected in a targeted manner from among the available male athletes in Zanjan city. The second included 9 people who had not exercised in the past 6 months. On the day of the test, after consuming a standard breakfast by the subjects, the first blood sample was taken in the amount of 5 ml while sitting, then a training program with weights, consisting of 10 movements with 60% of a maximum repetition with supervision Three referees were conducted. Then, the second blood sample was taken one hour after the end of the training under the same conditions. To adjust the plasma volume, the Dale and Castile formula was used and AFP was measured with the Architect 2000 device. Correspondingly, the GGT level was measured with the Prestige autoanalyzer and ALP was also measured using the fully automatic biolis50i autoanalyzer. Data were analyzed using independent sample T-test, paired-sample-T-test, and Covariance using SPSS software.

A session of resistance training had no significant effect on the levels of alpha phytoprotein (AFP), gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in the plasma of trained and untrained men(P>0.05). Also, after a session of resistance training, the level of gammaglutamyl transferase, alkaline phosphatase and alpha-phytoprotein in the plasma of the untrained group did not change significantly(P>0.05), but the level of alpha-phytoprotein in the trained group decreased significantly(P<0.05).

Considering the lack of effect of a strength training session on AFP, GGT and ALP serum levels of untrained and trained men, it can be said that the effect of a strength training session on changes in liver enzymes of trained and untrained men is the same. However, the reduction of alpha-phytoprotein as a cancer parameter and a predictor of acute liver problems in the exercised group may indicate the effect of regular exercise in reducing risk factors in response to an acute activity session.

Milk is a dairy product which is susceptible to contamination by pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms. One way to control the growth of pathogenic bacteria is to use preservatives and antimicrobial compounds. Due to the general concerns about the side effects of chemical preservatives, there is a tendency to consume products that use natural preservatives. Natural products provide unlimited opportunities for novel and suitable additives. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of hydro-ethanolic extract of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) against some gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria innocua) and gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and the next stage was to investigate the impact of hydro-ethanolic extract of this plant at 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75% (w/w) concentrations on the shelf life of pasteurized milk.

The present experimental study was conducted in 2022 at Nahavand Higher Education Complex. The total phenolic content of the extract was measured by Folin-ciocalteau method. Antioxidant activity of different concentration of extract were assessed by diphenyl picrylhydrazyl radical-scavenging activity and compared with synthetic antioxidant butylated hydroxyl anisole (BHA). Antibacterial effects of resemary on pathogenic bacteria was determined by well diffusion agar, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) methods. Experimental data were analyzed using ANOVA by the SPSS version 20 software and mean comparison were done using Duncan's multiple range test.

The phenolic content of hydro-ethanolic extract weas 96.47±0.35 mg galic acid/g extract. Hydro-ethanolic extract of rosemary had the greatest effect on Staphylococcus aureus. The MIC of rosemary ethanolic extract ranged from 12.5 to 50 mg/ml, depending on the type of bacteria (gram positive or gram negative). Also, the treatments of pasteurized milk with 0.5%, acceptable sensory properties had a significantly lower total microbial count and longer shelf life compared to the control sample.

Therefore, considering that the hydro-ethanolic extract of rosemary had a significant effect on preventing the growth of pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms, as a result, this extract can be used as a natural antibiotic in milk.

High blood pressure is one of the most important causes of premature death worldwide. One of the ways to control high blood pressure is lifestyle modification, especially paying attention to nutritional behaviors, such as reducing the consumption of salt-containing foods, therefore the purpose of the present study was to investigate the application of social cognitive theory in adherence to a low-salt diet in patients with high blood pressure.

The present descriptive-cross-sectional study was conducted in 2021 on 100 patients with high blood pressure covered by comprehensive health centers in the city of Charam, located in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province. Data collection tools included a questionnaire on adherence to a low-sodium diet, based on a modified version of the self-care activities level adjustment questionnaire in hypertension, and a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of components from the Bandura Social Cognitive Theory, including self-efficacy, social support, and self-regulation. Patients meeting the inclusion criteria were randomly selected, and with the assistance of a disease specialist, questionnaires were completed. The collected data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and linear regression statistical tests.

The participants' age ranged from 40 to 69 years, with a mean of 57.26 ± 29.7. 61% were female and 39% were male. 34 participants (34%) were illiterate, while 20 participants (20%) had university education. 27% had a family history of hypertension. The mean systolic blood pressure was 136.95 ± 10.22, and the mean diastolic blood pressure was 85.56 ± 5.44. The adherence rate to a low-salt diet among the studied patients was 32% (34% for females and 33% for males). Linear regression analysis revealed that the social cognitive theory predicts for 20% of the variance in adherence to a low-salt diet

The findings indicated a low level of adherence to a low- salt diet among the studied patients. This can serve as a warning sign for both these patients and the healthcare system. Implementing interventional treatment programs and utilizing educational strategies, particularly in the areas of family social support and self-regulation, can play a significant role in increasing adherence to a low-sodium diet and controlling hypertension for these individuals.

Extracting information from the heart sound signal and detecting the abnormal signal in the early stage can play a vital role in reducing the death rate caused by cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, many researches have been done in processing these signals up to now. So, this study aimed to determine the improvement of heart abnormalities diagnosis by extracting features from the heart sound signal by applying machine learning classification algorithms.

The present descriptive–analytical study was conducted at Kazerun Azad University in 2023. The research data were selected from the 2016 Physionet Challenge database. After pre-processing and noise removal, 6 new features and 35 features (41 features) used in previous researches were extracted from the heart sound signals. The 6 new features are " Relative Average Perturbation", " five-point Period Perturbation Quotient", "local shimmer (in dB)", " three-point Amplitude Perturbation Quotient " and " five-point Amplitude Perturbation Quotient " and " correlation of time center of signal and frequency center of signal". The extracted features were applied as input to four classifiers of random forest, support vector machine, K nearest neighbor and linear discriminant analysis. Accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of each classification were calculated. In order to investigate the impact of new features in the diagnosis of cardiac abnormalities, the results obtained were compared with studies that used similar data and classifications but extracted fewer features from the data. The collected data were analyzed using t-tests and logistic regression.

The highest accuracy and sensitivity were obtained in the Linear Discriminant Analysis classifier, which are 91.52 and 96.19, respectively. The highest specificity was obtained in the Random Forest classifier at the rate of 88.90. According to the obtained results, by adding new features, the three indices of accuracy, sensitivity and specificity are improved in the two classifiers of K-nearest neighbor and Linear Discriminant Analysis. Extraction of these features also increases the level of specificity in the Random Forest classification.

The results indicated that the extraction of new features led to increase in the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of cardiac abnormalities compared to the results of previous researches.

Psychosomatic complaints are symptoms that appear in the human body, but are rooted in the psychological processes. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between the three psychological factors such as self-compassion, resilience and difficulty in emotional regulation with psychosomatic complaints.

In the present descriptive-analytical study, the population of study were medical students of Yasuj University of Medical Sciences studying in 2017-2018. There were 267 participants who entered the study as convenience sampling. Neff's self-compassion questionnaire, Connor and Davidson's resilience scale, Gratz's and Roemer's difficulty in emotional regulation scale, and Takata's and Sakata's a psychosomatic complaints scale were used to collect information. Collected data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation, independent t test, one-way analysis of variance and multiple regression analysis.

The mean and standard deviation of psychosomatic symptoms among students was 27.14 ± 14.30. The mean of psychosomatic complaints had an inverse and significant relationship with self-compassion and resilience (r = -0.41 and r = -0.28 and p<0.01) and had a significant direct relationship with difficulty in regulating emotions (r = 0.51 and p<0.01).

The three variables of self-compassion, resilience and difficulty in emotional regulation have a moderate correlation with the severity of psychosomatic symptoms, and among them, the highest correlation was related to the variable of difficulty in emotional regulation. It is suggested to train medical students to increase self-compassion, resilience, and learn emotion management skills.

Three oral drugs, including fingolimod, dimethyl fumarate, and teriflunomide, which are clinically approved for the therapy of relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) were reviewed in this work. The present study aimed to recognize the side effects of the oral drugs in RRMS patients who were consulted in neurology clinic in west of Iran.

The study population of the present prospective observational study conducted in 2016-2017 were patients with relapsing-remitting MS referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital (RA). Three hundred patients with RRMS were randomly assigned to three treatment groups. The first group received fingolimod, the second group received dimethyl fumarate, and the third group received teriflunomide. The response to treatment assessed at 1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months after the start of treatment. Eventually, the frequency of adverse effects characterized for each group and the collected data compared in each treatment group. The collected data were analyzed using ANOVA statistical tests.

The findings of the present study revealed that the most common clinical complications were neurological (21.8%) and gastrointestinal complications (15.6%). The most common laboratory complications were liver (12.9%) and cardiovascular complications (10.3%). Moreover, the lowest clinical complications were musculoskeletal (4.6%) and endocrine complications (3%) and lowest laboratory complications were macular edema (0.6%).

In the present study, fingolimod had the most side effects and triflunomide had the least side effects. Dimethyl fumarate was stopped due to the severity of side effects and triflunomide was continued.

Birth injuries can be defined as a disruption in the function of the baby's body due to adverse events during birth, which can be avoidable or unavoidable. Despite careful antenatal care, birth trauma usually occurs in long and difficult labors or fetal malformations, although it may also occur in deliveries that are initially unproblematic. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to determine and investigate the causes of newborn injuries in childbirth processes in the cases referred to the legal medical department of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad province, Iran, during the years 2010-2020.

The present retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with the aim of investigating newborn injuries during childbirth. Its statistical population includes all complaint cases in the fields of gynecology and midwifery in the Forensic Medicine Department of Kohgiluyeh and Boyar Ahmad provinces during 10 years (2010-2020). The data collection tool included a checklist and a form containing the desired information, which was prepared and completed by the researcher using the files referred to the Department of Legal Medical Commissions. The collected data were analyzed using chi-square statistical tests.

The results indicated that 58 cases were investigated, 39 babies died at birth or shortly after birth and the reason for their complaint was the death of the baby, 19 babies were born alive and the reason for their complaint was birth injury. Infant injuries include; hypoxic-ischemic as the most common injury; Neuro-skeletal injuries, which include Orb-Duchen's paralysis as the most common injury in this group, and bone fractures, including; Fractures were humerus, clavicle, scapula and femur. 39 babies died, of which 10 babies had nerve damage, 8 people died of meconium aspiration, 4 people died due to asphyxia and other cases, moreover the results exposed that one person had a bruised tissue damage.

The results of the present study indicated that the causes of infant mortality and the disorders that occur in them can be influenced by various factors, and by identifying the cause of errors and omissions, preventable maternal and infant complications can be reduced.

Human health is a fundamental right and a valuable asset for all members of a society at any level and social class. The existence of a strong and stable health system in a country displays the all-round stability of that society. The three main characteristics for evaluating the performance of the health system include the health status of the community, citizens' satisfaction with the services provided by the health sector, and protection against financial risks. Therefore, the aim of the current research was to design an efficient model for cost management of non-surgical cancer treatment in Iran.

This was a descriptive-analytical study with a survey method conducted in 2018. The method of data collection was a library (through examining hospital records) and the tool used was a questionnaire. For this purpose, an available sample consisting of 50 elites from the fields of health service management and health economics was selected and were asked to answer the designed questionnaire. The data collected by means of the main statistics used in the Delphi technique were the central measurements (mean, median and mean) and dispersion index, standard deviation and interquartile range.

The amount of extracted variances was 0.529 after management of visit costs, 0.518 after management of diagnosis costs, 0.494 after management of hospitalization costs, 0.496 after management of chemotherapy costs, and 0.501 after management of radiation therapy costs. These results indicated that the amount of extracted variances was higher than 0.5; moreover, all the AVE values of the model dimensions were lower than the combined reliability, as a result the, condition of convergent validity was established.

The results of the present study indicated that the costs of non-surgical cancer treatment could be classified into 5 main indicators, including the cost of visits, diagnosis, hospitalization, radiation therapy and chemotherapy.

Unhealthy diet - as one of the main risk factors of non-communicable diseases and responsible for most chronic diseases and their mortality, which affects people's health regardless of age, gender and social cultural conditions. The healthy eating index is one of the developed methods to evaluate the diet status and predict the chance of chronic diseases, considering the fact that no study had been done on the food quality of the residents of Yasuj, Iran. In the present study the status of the healthy eating index, fat intake, Cholesterol and sodium were investigated in residents over 19 years of age in Yasuj, Iran, in 2020.

The present descriptive study was conducted in 2020 on 300 residents of Yasuj randomly sampled at their houses. The food intake collection tool was the food frequency questionnaire with 168 questions, which was developed and used by previous researchers. The healthy eating index was calculated and reported using the scoring of this index in the 1995 healthy eating index tool. The collected data were analyzed using chi-square test.

Examining the status of the healthy nutrition index calculated based on the pattern of food intake indicated that in 82.7% (248 people) cases, the overall nutrition index of people was favorable and in 17.3% (52 people) it needed to be changed and modified, while that none of the examined people had a poor nutrition index. In total, with a 95% confidence level, 13-22% of the people examined have nutritional index that needs correction, also 78.9% of daily cholesterol intake is above 300 mg, 15.7% of sodium intake is above 2300 mg, and 29.3% of fat is above 30%. had received between the status of socio-economic indicators such as; Literacy, occupation and home ownership did not have a significant relationship with the healthy eating index.

Based on the obtained information, the status of cholesterol and sodium intake in the residents of Yasuj, as well as the intake of calories and the status of the nutrition index in some of the surveyed people, was unfavorable, which is the need to pay attention to the nutritional status, calorie intake and cholesterol intake. and sodium, which cause the risk of cardiovascular diseases.