Journal of Kerman University of Medical Sciences
Volume:8 Issue: 4, 2001

Intravenous glucocorticoid pulse therapy is a common treatment for immunologically origin diseases but it can not be considered a completely benign treatment. The effects of long term administration of glucocorticoids on calcium and phosphorus metabolism are well known, but less is known a bout the effect of pulse therapy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of methylprednisolone pulse therapy on serum and urinary calcium and phosphorus and serum parathormone. In this prospective study 40 patients who received methylprednisolone pulse therapy for different reasons were investigated. Patients with renal insufficiency and those taking medications affecting calcium and phosphorus metabolism were excluded. Serum calcium, phosphorus, parathormone, creatinine and urinary calcium, phosphorus, and creatinine were measured before pulse therapy and in three consecutive days after treatment. This intervention had no effect on serum calcium, parathormone and urinary calcium. Serum phosphorus decreased with a nadir on the second day and urinary phosphorus increased. It was concluded that glucocorticoid pulse therapy directly increases renal phosphorus excretion, but calcium metabolism is not disturbed.

This study was designed to elucidate the possible differences between Supa and Ethicon, nylon in suturing rat skin. 75 Female Spragne-dawley albino rats with mean weight 250g were used and randomly divided into three groups of 30, 30 and 15 rats. In 60 rats anesthesea was induced by ketamin and xylazin. Followed by surgical preparation, a 5cm abdominal skin incision was made and sutured by simple interrupted suture pattern. In group 1, 3/0 nylon, Supa product and in group 2, 3/0 nylon Ethicon product were used. 15 animals of each group were sacrificed on day 6th for histopathologic examination and the rest of the animals on day 13th for histopathologic and biomechanical examinations. 15 rats were sacrificed for biomechanical evaluation of normal skin. Histopathologic sections were stained by H&E and examined under light microscope for reepithelization, acanthosis, age of granulation tissue, type of predominant inflammatory cells, hyperemia and the presence of giant cells. Tissue repair in group 2 was significantly more mature than group 1 on day 6th (P?0.05). There was no significant difference between the two groups on day 13th. In biomechanical study, the following parameters were measured form load-elongation curve: linear starting point, yield point, ultimate strength, stiffness, ultimate strain, maximum stored energy and yield stored energy. The stiffness of group 1 samples was significantly more than group 2 (P?0.05). There were no significant differences between the two groups in other biomechanical parameters. According to the results of this study it can be concluded that concerning short term tissue reactions, Ethicon nylon suture is superior to Supa, though there was no significant histopathologic difference between the two groups on day 13. However, cystic structures were observed only in group 2. The biomechanical quality of group 2 was also superior to group 1

Pyrethroid-impregnated bednets have been shown to be one of the most promising tools that have emerged in recent years to control malaria. Mosquitoes may be physically irritated by pyrethyroids, reducing the time searching for blood meals, or driving them away. Permethrin impregnated nets also may deter a proportion of mosquitoes from entering houses. Irritant effect of nets treated with 200 mg and 500 mg permethrin/m² on susceptible and resistant genotypes of Anopheles stephensi was studied using the modified W.H.O. provisional technique. The W.H.O. irritability test was not used in the present study. Irritability test were carried out in a W.H.O. plastic bioassay cone. Three days old unfed, females were tested individually or in group of five mosquitoes. When female mosquitoes were confined in bioassay cones on treated netting, the resistant strain of A.stephensi showed significantly less irritability (Scored on the time until first flight take-off) in response to each dose as compared with the susceptible strain and F1 hybrids. The higher dose provoked more irritation of each genotypes, this could cause lower knockdown and kill rates which this dose could produce with each genotype. From the results of this study it could be concluded that a dose of 200 mg/m² of permethrin impregnated into bednets is preferable to 500 mg/m² for malaria control.

Contraversies have been reported in recent studies regarding the risk of T.B contamination for hospital personnel. Some of the experts consider all of the hospital staff in high risk groups while others consider the risk only for hospital staff working in the wards in which T.B patients are hospitalized. Therefore in this study tuberculin test results of hospital clinical staff was compared to that of the administrative staff. In multistage cluster sampling a total of 269 clinical staff and 270 administrative staff were injected with PPD. After 48 hours muscle spasm was determined. No significant difference was observed regarding age, family history of tuberculosis, or a BCG scar in the two groups. The rate of T.B infection was higher in clinical staff compared to that of the administrative personnel (54.27% compared to the 32.71% in administrative staff). Among the clinical staff the rate of positive PPD test was higher in people who worked 6 months or longer in the infectious diseases wards compared to the people who worked less than 6 months in the same ward, or not worked at all. This study emphasizes the need for offering education programs for hospital personnel.

In traditional medicine, Some plants are used as analgesic. The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the analgesic effect of "Melilotus Officinalis", which is used traditionally to relieve rheumatic pain, migrain and as anti-inflammatory a gent. For this purpose different doses of the suxheleted and percolated extract of melilotus officinalis, were injected intraperitonealy to mice and the analgesic effect was determined by tail flick and formalin tests. The results showed that, suxheleted methanolic extract with doses of 50, 100, 200 and 300 mg/kg induced significant analgesia effect in comparison with the control group (P<0.01). The maximum analgesic effect was observed in 200 mg/kg which reached to its peak at 120 min after injection (P<0.01). Analgesic effect of suxheleted extract was higher than percolated one. Pretreatment of animals with naloxane did not change the analgesic effect of the extract, therefore the involvment of opioid receptors was excluded in this respect. The ulcerogenicity test showed that the ulcerogenic effects of the extract was lower than that of the same dose of indomethacine. Overall the results indicated that the extract of the plant had analgesic effect.

Fibromyalgia (FM), a chronic musculoskeletal syndrome, is characterized by widespread pain and multiple tenderness in the body. Clinical studies show a wide range of prevalence (1% to 20%). There is no published data about the prevalence of FM in Kerman. In this descriptive study demographic variables and the final clinical diagnosis of 8270 cases referring to Kerman rheumatology clinic from 1995 to 1998 were reviewed. These 1046 cases fulfilled ACR 1990 criteria for FM (12.46%). The mean age of FM cases was 39.6±11.1 years (mean±SD) and 75% of them were 30-60 years old. 95.2% of cases were female and the mean of disease duration was 4.2±3.8 mounths (minimum and maximum were 3 and 50 mounths respectively). There is no statistically singnificant difference between male and female in age and duration of disease. The corelation coefficient between age and duration of disease was 0.047 (P=0.13). Fibromyalgia is a common diagnosis among patients referred to clinics which needs more attention for correct diagnosis. Information on age and sex distribution of FM cases might help physicians to treat rheumatic patients and women more precisely.

The previous studies have been suggested that tolerance, sensitivity and pain threshold are different between men and women. These differences can be affected by various factors. In this study, the effect of gonadectomy on gender differences in thermal pain threshold was tested by hot plate method in rats. Therefore the reaction time (The delay occurred in response to thermal stimulus) at zero, 15 and 30 minutes was registrated. Mean of those 3 values was respected as thermal pain sense threshold. Then the gonads were occluded and the pain sense threshold at 7th, 21st and 35th days was measured. The results were compared between sexes and also in each sex in different days. The results showed no gender differences before gonadectomy. However after gonadectomy the thermal pain threshold was decreased in both sexes and reached to its minimum value on 21st day an returned to basal value on day 35 in both sexes. Although this reduction was more dominant in males, no significant difference was observed between sexes. Gonadectomy in males caused a significant reduction of pain threshold in 7th and 21st days. Gonadectomy in females had no effect. In conclusion it seems that female sex hormones have no effect on thermal pain threshold, but testosterone was effective. Since pain sense threshold was also returned to basal value in male rats, we concluded that stimulatory effect of testosterone (up to day 21) may be more important than its organizational effect that appear after 30th day.

Nocardiosis is a rare infection that is more frequent in patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and its clinical manifestations are nonspecific. While concurrent treatment by corticosteroids is an independent risk factor for nocardiosis it increases both diagnostic and management problems. This article presents a 35 years old woman who has Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. She was hospitalized due to pneumonia. The patient was determined to have tuberculosis and nocardiosis simultaneously.

An odontoma is a slow growing and non-aggressive odontogenic tumor composed of enamel, dentin, cementum and pulp tissue. Complex odontomas comprise of an unorganized mass of odontogenic tissues, morphologically not resembling the normal teeth. In this report, a case of rare odontoma in a ten-years-old boy that caused delayed eruption of a maxillary right first permanent molar, buccal expansion of the alveolar plate and a swelling on the palatal surface of this tooth is presented. After consultation with the department of orthodontics and regarding the radiographs of the area, it was decided to extract the tooth. During careful extraction of the tooth just an irregular overlying mass of hard tissue was removed. At this stage, no attempt was made to completely extract mentioned tooth. Histological examination revealed that the hard tissue was a complex odontoma. 3 months follow-up resulted in complete resolution of the swelling and eruption of the tooth which reached to the occlusal plane.