Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal
Volume:14 Issue: 7, Jan 2012

Iron deficiency is still considered the most common nutritional deficiency worldwide and the most significant negative consequence of iron deficiency is iron deficiency anemia (IDA). This study elucidates if IDA among healthy women of child bearing age could be predicted by various iron parameters, using serum ferritin as a gold standard.. Between January and June 2009 at primary care clinics of a teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia, 112 anemic (Hemoglobin ≤ 120 g/l) subjects participated in the study. Mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), red blood cell distribution width (RDW), serum ferritin, and hemoglobin electrophoresis were obtained from all participants. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves were used to assess the accuracy of various iron parameters.. With respect to the serum ferritin, the best predictive cut-off value of MCV, MCH and RDW at the most optimal were 76 fl (ROC curve=0.768), 24 Pg (ROC curve=0.72) and 16.1% (ROC curve=0.711), respectively. MCHC was not significant in predicting the iron deficiency in these patients.. IDA can be predicted among women of child bearing age using complete blood count test. MCV, MCH and RDW are the iron parameters of complete blood count test, which is a cost effective, easily accessible and could be useful tool in areas with limited resources and a high prevalence of the disease.

Health care workers (HCWs) are vulnerable populations for infection with blood borne pathogens. This study was conducted to determine occupational exposure to blood and body fluids among HCWs in teaching hospitals in Tehran, Iran.. A self- structures questionnaire was used to study 650 HCWs during 2006 -2007 in some teaching hospitals in Tehran, Iran.. occupational exposure to blood and body fluids to blood and body fluids of patients was noticed in 53.4%. Recapping was the most common cause of niddle stick injuries (26.5%) and 19.9% of HCWs with a history of needlestick or mucosal exposure had sought medical advice from a specialist, 79.4% of these visited a doctor in the first 24 hours after exposure. Twenty percent of people with a history of needlestick or mucosal exposure to human immune deficiency virus positive (HIV+) patients received post-exposure prophylaxis and 46.7% tested themselves for seroconversion. 25.8% of HCWs with a history of needlestick or mucosal exposure with HBsAg+ patients received hepatitis B immunoglobuline (HBIG), all of these had received it in the first 72 hours after exposure. History of vaccination, and reassurance about the effective serum antibody titer was the most frequent reason mentioned in case the individuals did not receive HBIG (56.5%).. There is a need for further research to investigate why many HCWs do not take prophylactic and essential actions after needle stick or mucosal exposure to body fluids of infected patients.

Urinary tract infection is the most common health problem affecting millions of people each year, mainly caused by a large genetically heterogeneous group of Escherichia coli called uropathogenic E. coli. This study investigates the genotypic analysis of E. coli strains isolated from patients with cystitis and pyelonephritis.. During 2008-2009, 90 E. coli strains were analyzed, consisting of 48 isolates causing pyelonephritis in children and 42 isolates causing cystitis. Having identified the strains by standard methods, they were subtyped by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and their corresponding patterns were compared using dendrogram.. Sixty five PFGE profiles were obtained from the genome of E. coli strains by this genotyping method. Thirty six and thirty three patterns were obtained for pyelonephritis and cystitis, respectively. Most strains exhibited twelve and thirteen bands and the patterns with eight or nineteen bands had the lowest rate. Genome sizes of the strains were between 1610-4170 kbp.. With due attention to these results, genetic patterns showed that the strains had different clonalities and it could be suggested in some cases that the strains causing pyelonephritis or cystitis have common patterns and different diseases could be explained by different gene factors.

The range of motion after a total knee arthroplasty is an important clinical outcome affecting the life of the patient. The aim of this study was to determine the most important factors influencing the postoperative knee flexion in Tehran, Iran.. Between July 2007 and January 2009, on 95 cases of total knee joint replacement (89 patients), who were followed for 1 year postoperatively, the risk factors were assessed. Patient demographics (sex, age, body mass index, previous surgery, preoperative Knee Society System score, and preoperative range of motion) as well as radiographic measurement for preoperative tibiofemoral angle were statistically analyzed and the probable predictors entered into a linear regression model.. Univariate analysis showed that age, preoperative flexion angle, preoperative flexion arc and preoperative tibiofemoral angle had significant correlation with the postoperative flexion angle. The linear regression model on the other hand revealed that preoperative flexion angle and preoperative tibiofemoral angle were the true predictors of the postoperative flexion angle with coefficients of 0.64 and -0.21, respectively. Better range of motion before the surgery with a lower tibiofemoral varus/valgus angle were more likely to result in a better range of motion after the surgery, suggesting that an appropriate timing for the surgery when the knee joint is still in a better function can lead to a better outcome.

Infection control is one of the primary responsibilities of dental health care personnel. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the infection control practices of Iranian dentists and dental nurses working in governmental dental health care centers were influenced by their educational level and years of practice.. This cross-sectional analytical study was completed in 2009, and it included 63 Iranian dental practitioners. Infection control knowledge was evaluated with a self-administered questionnaire, and infection control practices were evaluated with a checklist of questions by observation with one researcher.. The dental practitioners in Mashad had a low level of infection control knowledge. Dental personnel with a higher educational level had significantly greater knowledge than those with less education. Additionally, dental personnel who had more years of practice had a greater knowledge of infection control.. Since dental practitioners working in Mashad governmental dental health care centers with fewer years of practice and less educational level had a low level of infection control knowledge, we recommend a continuing educational program for this group and dental nurses.

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune disorder that leads to premature destruction of antibody-coated platelets. This study evaluated perinatal outcome and medications used for pregnancies complicated by ITP.. Medical records of 132 pregnancies belonged to 125 parturients with ITP who delivered between March 2001 and January 2011 were reviewed. Cases were included if diagnosed before pregnancy or if their platelet counts (PCs) were less than 80,000/µL during pregnancy without any other cause. Maternal and fetal outcomes were compared.. Fifty six mothers (42.1%) had PC<50,000, 18 women (13.5%) developed preeclampsia and 15 (11.3%) were diabetics. Corticosteroid was used for120 cases (90.9%) and intravenous immunoglobulin for 14 women (10.5%). PCs of 114 neonates were available in the charts and 84 (83.2%) had PC>150,000/µL. Three neonates (2.3%) had PC<50 000, 31 neonates (23.3%) had preterm births and 32 (24.1%) needed NICU admissions. Fifty seven cases of ITP (43.2%) were diagnosed before pregnancy and 75 (56.8%) were diagnosed during pregnancy. There were 2 intrauterine fetal deaths and higher NICU admissions, 20 (34.48%) versus 12 (16%) in the first group (p=0.01).. Perinatal outcome of pregnancies with ITP is generally good. However neonates born from parturients with chronic ITP needed more NICU admissions.

Increasingly nutritional experts express the necessity of research on dietary patterns to identify numerous modifiable risk factors of disease. This study was conducted to identify major dietary patterns among adolescent girls in Talaat intelligent guidance school, Tabriz, Iran.. Among 257 adolescent girls aged 11-15 years, usual dietary intakes were assessed using a 162-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Factor analysis was used to identify major dietary patterns in this Turkish population.. We identified 6 major dietary patterns: (1) Western pattern high in pizza, meats and fruit juice; (2) Sweat junk foods pattern high in dried fruits, jams, honey and sugar; (3) Asian pattern high in legumes, potato and other vegetables; (4) Salty junk foods pattern high in carrot, puffs and potato chips and (6) Iranian traditional dietary pattern high in hydrogenated fats, garlic and broth.. Our findings suggested that among the 6 major dietary patterns, Asian-like food was the healthiest one.

Researchers believe that most of diabetic patients are not necessarily aware of the role of exercises, especially jogging in controlling their disease. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of educational program and jogging based on health belief model (HBM) on sugar control in type 2 diabetic patients.. One hundred diabetic (type 2) patients were involved in this prospective quasi- experimental interventional study. Patients were randomly divided into two groups of experimental and control. Data was collected using a questionnaire based on the HBM model, a check list for patient`s practices and a check list for recording the patient`s hemoglobin (HbA1C) and fasting blood sugar (FBS) levels.. Our findings indicated that after intervention, there was a significant difference between the mean score of the HBM model variables (susceptibility, severity, benefit and perceived obstacles,) in the experimental group compared to the control group. Additionally, behavioral jogging, level of HbA1C and FBS levels improved significantly among the experimental group when compared to the control group.. Applying the HBM model was found to be a very effective means for developing an educational program of jogging for diabetics, in order to control their blood sugar.

Mucormycosis is a rare complication of immunosuppression. Most of the reported cases have been rhinocerebral or disseminated. Isolated renal involvement is extremely rare and until now less than 30 patients have been reported in the English literature. Isolated renal mucormycosis with renal artery rupture in a liver transplant patient has not been reported so far. Herein we report an extremely rare case of isolated renal mucormycosis in a liver transplant patient who was successfully treated with nephrectomy.