Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal
Volume:14 Issue: 8, Aug 2012

Patients in the therapeutic environment worry about their health and therapy; they are away from their usual social activities, and these entire put a great deal of stress on them, and delay their therapy by affecting their immune system and reducing their spiritual power.. The present study seeks to investigate the effect of gender, age, and nationality of children on their personal space preferences during hospital stay in children’s hospitals the dependent variable, i.e., personal space preference, was measured in hospital rooms with or without a barrier to separate children’s beds. (Barriers could be curtains or walls).. Patients and The research method was descriptive survey research, and the participants included 120 Iranian children staying at Tehran children’s hospitals and 104 German children staying at Stuttgart’s children hospitals, who were chosen through stratified random sampling.(in all wards except infectious wards) The data was gathered through self report questionnaires and analyzed conducting categorical methods of Logic Log Linear Analysis and Logistic Regression methods using the SPSS software.. The results show that Iranian children, contrary to German children, prefer a space without any barrier, and that girls prefer closed spaces more than boys. Regarding the age, it was revealed that children and adolescents have nearly similar preferences. Finally, remarkable differences were found among groups with regard to their desired kind of barrier.. Preferring a space without a barrier, which provides more chances for social interaction among individuals, shows that the majority of children prefer to have social interactions and contacts in the hospital that is in line with the results of similar studies. Last preference (separating the beds with curtains) was not generally favored by the respondents, which is in line with the results of similar studies in 2006.

Hepatitis C is a major reason of morbidity and mortality among hemophilia patients. Although combination therapy with peginterferon (peg-INF) and ribavirin is considered as standard treatment for chronic hepatitis C (CHC), but more evidence of the efficacy and safety is needed.. In this study, efficacy and tolerability of combination therapy with peginterferon α-2a–ribavirin was investigated among hemophilia HCV infected patients.. Patients and Materials: In a quasi-experimental, 45 naive hemophilia patients with chronic HCV received 180 mg of pegylated interferon (Pegasys) by subcutaneous injection weekly plus an oral dose of 800-1200 µg ribavirin daily according to body weight. The treatment continued 48 weeks in patients with genotype one and 24 weeks in those with genotype 3. Sustained virological response (SVR) was considered as efficacy of treatment.. Forty three patients (95.6%) reached to end of treatment response (ETR); only two (4.4%) patients did not respond and were discontinued from treatment. None of 43 patients relapsed. SVR obtained in 43 of 45 patients (95.6%), in multivariate logistic regression model, third month’s treatment WBC (WBC > 2000) remained the only significant predictor of SVR. Regimen dose reduced in three patients; two of those because of ALT increasing and other one for his retinal bleeding. In repeated measurement analysis, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and hemoglobin (Hb) decreased significantly during treatment, but reduction of platelet (PLT) was not significant.. Results show high efficacy and safety of combination therapy of Peg-IFN-α 2a plus ribavirin among hemophiliacs with chronic hepatitis C.

Transfusion-transmitted hepatitis is the most important cause of transmitted infections by the parenteral route in patients with haemophilia.. This study was performed to determine the prevalence of HBV, HCV, and different genotypes of HCV among haemophilia patients in Ahvaz city, southwest Iran.. Patients and A cross-sectional study was conducted on 87 haemophilia patients referred to the Hemoglobinopathy and Thalassemia research centre during February 2008 to March 2009. Patients, sera were tested for HBsAg and anti-HCV using ELISA and confirmed by PCR (HBV) and RT-PCR (HCV). HCV genotypes were determined with HCV genotype specific primers using HCV genotyping kit.. The overall prevalence rate of HBsAg and anti-HCV were 1.1% (95% CI: 0-3.39) and 54% (95% CI: 43.5-64.4), respectively. Forty two of the anti-HCV patients (89.3%) were also HCV RNA positive. The prevalence of anti-HCV seropositivity was significantly higher (P = 0.0008) among patients who had started to receive transfusions before implementation of blood donor screening. Moreover, the number of transfusion were significantly associated with anti-HCV and HCV RNA positivity (P = 0.0041 and P = 0.023, respectively). The predominant HCV genotype among haemophilia patients in our region was 1a (26/42, 61.9%), although genotypes 1b and 3a were found in 26.1% (11/42) and 11.9% (5/42) of the patients, respectively.. It appears stringent donor selection procedures reduced HCV infection in multi-transfused patients, but it is still serious risk for these subjects.

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a highly prevelant disorder and found in approximately 2-4% of middle-aged adults.. To assess the efficacy of WatchPAT-200 in the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS).. Patients and Patients suspected of having OSAS underwent overnight Level I polisomnography and simultaneously wore WatchPAT-200 in the sleep laboratory.. 51 adult patients included in the study. The average age was 45.3±10.5 years and the average body mass index (BMI) was 29.4±4.0 kg/m2. There was a high agreement between PSG and Watch PAT regarding apnea-hypopnea index, respiratory disturbance index and oxygen desaturation index. Significant but a low agreement was found in stage 1 and 2 of non-REM sleep when two methods compared. No agreement was found between PSG and WatchPAT regarding stage 3 and 4 of non-REM sleep. Very low agreement was found between PSG and WatchPAT regarding the REM sleep.. WatchPAT-200 is an effective method in the diagnosis of OSAS.

GST is a family of enzymes that are important in protection of the body against oxidative stress.. Investigate the association between GSTT1 and GSTM1 polymorphism and hypertension.. GSTT1 and GSTM1 genotypes were detected by PCR. The fragments were then analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis.. There is no significant association between GSTT1 & GSTM1 polymorphism and hypertension (OR = 2.4, P > 0.05 and OR = 1.6, P > 0.05). GSTT1 & GSTM1 polymorphism can be considered a risk factor for hypertension.

Wound healing is a complicated and integrated process. Researches in the molecular level on human and animal models have indicated several molecular changes related to the effect of diabetes on wound healing process.. Increasing number of researches implicates the influence of mast cells on skin wound repairing. In this study the effect of systemic pentoxifylline (PTX) administration (daily dose of 25mg/kg twice a day, for 7 consecutive days) on normoglycemic (NG) and diabetic (DB) wistar rat’s wound healing by secondary intention was studied.. In this study forty eight wistar rats (weighting 250-350g) were divided randomly in two groups: Normoglycemic and diabetic, each group was divided into experimental and control groups, experimental received intraperitoneal (PTX) and controls received distilled water(DW). The number and maturing process of mast cells was evaluated by counting the number of types of mast cells (1, 2, 3) microscopically and by stereological methods on day 3 and 7 after surgery.. In this study it was cleared that in wound healing process PTX caused increasing the number of type 2 mast cells in all experimental groups(P = 0.00). In normoglycemic experimental group, receiving PTX there was decrease in the number of type3 mast cells, comparing experimental NG groups (P = 0.00).. In all PTX treated groups delay in converting type 2 into type 3 mast cell was seen. Pentoxifylline causes decreasing mast cell degranulation in wound healing process.

A comparison of oral/inhaled opium addicts with a healthy control group was investigated. Using the graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy (GF-AAS) followed by chemometric analysis, sub-to-low µg L-1 concentrations of blood lead level (BLL) was detected in both the addict and the control groups.. In this study, BLL of 78 subjects (Iranian volunteers) in two opium-addicted (patient group) and healthy control groups was evaluated. All the volunteers were men. The patient group was comprised of 39 patients who used opium orally or by inhalation with a mean age of 48.6 ± 7.3 years. The patient group was selected through systematic incidental sampling from 150 orally or by inhalation opium-addicted patients referred to Shariati Hospital located in Tehran. The control group (39 subjects) was matched with the patient group with regard to age and sex and with a mean age of 44.8 ± 5.6 years.. The mean concentration of lead was found to be significantly lower (P = 0.0001) in control group (16.70 ± 12.51 μg/dL) compared to addicts (57.04 ± 46.03 μg/dL). When the addicts were divided into various age groups, there appeared to be a significant difference (p= 0.0451) in blood lead concentration as a function of age, however when the control group was considered, no difference was observed (P = 0.51). Also, a tendency (P = 0.048) towards increasing BLL with respect to BMI was observed due to drug consumption, but there was no significant variation between BLL concentration and BMI when the control group was considered (P = 0.35).. It was observed that the BLL in opium-addicts was significantly higher than that of the healthy control group. The mean difference of both groups was statistically significant.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) occurs more frequently in patients with south-east Asian racial backgrounds. This disease may spreads superiorly to the skull base and intracranium followed by skull base destruction. We report a 56 year-old man presented with headache and diplopia. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed extension of destructive mass from ethmoid sinus to the parenchyma. Intraoperative touch cytology showed loose syncytial sheets of pleomorphic abnormal epithelial cells, dyskeratotic cells with abnormal chromatin clumping and irregular nuclear outlines, in a necrotic background. These findings were infavor of keratizing squamous cell carcinoma which was confirmed by histopathology. During interpretation of intraoperative imprint cytology of central nervous system tumors, the possibility of local invasive tumors like NPC should be considered..

These days cochlear implantation is the accepted modality to rehabilitate deafened people. Meningitis is still a life threatening disease which may lead to deafness due to sole disease or secondary to ototoxic drugs used to stop the disaster (1). Sepsis and/or meningitis may harm neonates whom are taking care in nurseries. TEOAE neonatal hearing screening programs are unable to find all of these deafened children and ABR would be necessary to explore most of them (2).Cochlear implantation should be performed as soon as possible and before complete ossification of cochlea..

We report a 21-year-old woman who was admitted because of unilateral facial paresis and then developed progressive ascending flaccid tetraparesis with generalized areflexia. Electrodiagnostic studies revealed acute motor axonal polyradiculoneuropathy (AMAN type of Guillain-Barré Syndrome). Further evaluations revealed severe leukocytosis, increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), increased protein content and presence of a few lymphocytes in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and then presence of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-I) in serum and CSF. Finally, biopsy of the enlarged lymph nodes resulted in the diagnosis of Adult T-cell Leukemia-Lymphoma. The HTLV-1 has been endemic to certain parts of Iran like Khorasan province in the northeast since 1985 with 2.3% prevalence rate of infection. Thus, some rare neurologic complications occasionally occur in this area as a result of being infected with HTLV-1..