مجله پزشکی بالینی ابن سینا
سال نوزدهم شماره 3 (پیاپی 65، پاییز 1391)

Introduction &

Abuse of prescription drugs is on the rise in Iran and tramadol is not an exception. Tramadol abuse can lead to a wide range of illegal and risky behaviors; therefore, the need to understand the tramadol abuse status among students is necessary. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and related factors of tramadol abuse among college students in Hamadan.

This cross sectional descriptive study was carried out on 400 college students of Hamadan recruited with a stratified sampling method. The participants completed a self-administered questionnaire. Data analysis was done with the SPSS software (version 16), using χ2 test and logistic regression methods.

The result showed that lifetime, past-year and past-month prevalence of tramadol use were 12.5, 11 and 9.5%, respectively. Also, significant relationship between tramadol abuse and demographic variables such as gender, educational status and dwelling of students were showed (P<0.05). Cigarette smoking and illicit drug abuse were other factors associated with tramadol abuse among students (P<0.05). In logistic regression, factors influencing tramadol use were smoking and use of other drugs (P< 0.05).

The study concluded that there is a worrying increase in tramadol abuse among students. The results of this study as an introduction to designing effective strategies to prevention of drug abuse, particularly in the colleges play a very effective role.

Introduction &

Maxillary canines are esthetically and functionally important، but patients with impacted maxillary canines are perceived to be more difficult and time-consuming to treat than the average orthodontic patient. The aim of this study was to define orthodontic Treatment Difficulty Index (TDI) of impacted maxillary canine with CBCT according to experts'' opinions.

In this cross sectional study، nine variables in CBCT of thirty six consecutive patients with 50 impacted maxillary canines were measured using Dolphin 3D. The related 3D and 2D pictures and the measured data were uploaded on a website. Ten orthodontists were asked to judge the difficulty of bringing the impacted canine to occlusal plane from 1 to 10 (1 = easy، 10 = extremely difficult). Then، they were also asked to evaluate the effect of each variable on treatment from 1 to 5 (1= very low، 5= very high). Random effect linear regression was used in exploration stage and then simple linear regression was used for the application of the model.

The patients mean age was 19. 08 ± 5. 8 years. Mean clinical experience of examiners was 22. 7 ±12. 02 years. Three variables were deleted at exploration stage and two other in model application stage. Vertical distance to the occlusal plane (P=0. 000)، overlap in frontal view (P=0. 000)، angulations of the canine to the occlusal plan (P=0. 029)، dilacerations (P=0. 000)، and rotation (P=0. 029) had a significant relationship with TDI.

Treatment difficulty of impacted maxillary canines could be predicted quantitatively by measuring variables in CBCT.

Introduction &

Staphylococcus aureus has been known as one of the most common nosocomial pathogens worldwide. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus is one of the most important nosocomial pathogens with increasing global prevalence in the recent 3 decades. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of nasal carriage of this organism in medical students because they، being potential carriers، can be considered as one of the infection sources.

In a cross-sectional study nasal swabs were collected from 258 medical students (103 males and 155 females) including: 116 preclinical، 92 clinical students and 50 residents. Samples were cultured on blood agar. S. aureus isolates were further analyzed for antibiotic resistance with agar disk diffusion method. Each person was questioned for sex، grade، recent disease and drug history and family members’ employment in hospital.

25. 2% of 258 students were positive for nasal carriage of S. aureus. There was no significant difference among sexes or grades in carrier prevalence. Most isolates were resistant to penicillin (92. 3%)، and 47. 7% were methicillin-resistant. Most methicillin-resistant strains were isolated from clinical students (87%)، and most vancomycine-resistant isolates were found in residents (30. 8%).

The rate of nasal carriage of S. aureus in medical students was similar to general population and hospital personnel but the rate of MRSA and vancomycin-resistant S. aureus carriers in the students is more than hospital personnel.