Jundishapur Journal of Chronic Disease Care
Volume:4 Issue: 2, Apr 2015

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common causes of chronic liver disease including simple steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). NASH could progress to cirrhosis and liver cancer. The prevalence of NAFLD is increasing by increasing the prevalence of obesity.. This study was designed to determine the prevalence of NASH in morbidly obese patients undergoing sleeve bariatric surgery and its correlation with other comorbidities..Patients and In this analytical cross-sectional study, 114 morbidly obese patients undergoing sleeve gastrectomy were selected. Liver ultrasonography was performed for all patients before surgery and NAFLD existence and its grade was determined by hyperechoic texture and fatty infiltration. The liver enzymes and lipid profile were also measured. Prevalence of NAFLD in these patients and its correlation with other comorbid conditions (e.g. diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, hypothyroidism and ischemic heart disease) were evaluated by SPSS software version 18.. One hundred fourteen patients with a mean age of 33.96 ± 9.92 years and mean BMI of 43.61 ± 5.77 kg/m2 were enrolled (48 males and 66 females). The prevalence of NAFLD was 16.7%. NAFLD existence was associated with systolic blood pressure, hyperlipidemia, hemoglobin, hematocrit, triglyceride, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase and potassium (P < 0.05).. According to high prevalence of NAFLD in morbidly obese patients undergoing sleeve gastrectomy in Iran, we suggest using gold standard diagnostic method to determine the exact NAFLD prevalence and evaluation of impact of sleeve surgery on NAFLD in short and long term follow-up periods..

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is still an important cause of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and a major cause of death in the world. Extrapulmonary TB is spread almost as much as one third of pulmonary TB.. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of TB and type of affected tissue in patients with extrapulmonary TB in Tuberculosis Center in Baghmalek City..Patients and This retrospective cross-sectional study was performed on the medical records of patients with TB referred to Tuberculosis Center in Baghmalek City over a five-year period. Data included information about age, sex, location, and affected tissue or organ.. Among 145 patients with TB, 67 patients (12.25%) were diagnosed with extrapulmonary TB including 39 males and 28 females with the age range of 15 to 64 years. Most common organ involved in the extrapulmonary TB was the lymph nodes (29%) followed by TB meningitis (17%), urinary tract TB (17% each), bone TB (13%), and pleural TB (13% each).. The findings suggest that the prevalence of extrapulmonary TB was significant. Therefore, it is necessary to perform tests for extrapulmonary TB besides tests for TB..

Studies show that traditional teaching methods, such as lecturing, do not lead to in-depth learning. Concept maps have been used for a long time by researchers and teachers to facilitate learning.. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of concept mapping on the learning levels of students in nursing care of patients with glandular diseases subject in Urmia University of Medical Sciences.. In a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test/post-test design, 28 nursing students were selected and divided into two groups: the experimental and the control groups. After administration of pre-test, the students in the experimental group participated in classes on designing concept maps. Next, lessons on glands and nursing were presented to the students in the experimental and control groups through concept maps and lectures, respectively. At the end of the semester, the learning levels of the students in both groups were evaluated by the post-test.. The means of the scores of the students as determined by results of the pre-test revealed insignificant statistical difference between the two groups. However, the learning level of the students in the experimental group was significantly higher (P < 0.05). As a metacognitive intervention, concept mapping can contribute to in-depth learning of nursing students.. According to the findings, it is recommended that concept mapping should be used for teaching and evaluation. Further studies are needed to compare the effect of concept mapping with those of other metacognition approaches on different types of learners..

Obesity and lipid profile are major risk factors for noncommunicable diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. In this regard, improving indicators of abdominal obesity and lipid profiles is necessary.. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of endurance exercise on abdominal obesity and lipid profile in premenopausal women living in Mahshahr City, Iran..Patients and This study was a randomly and controlled clinical trial. For this purpose, 40 obese women (age range, 38-52 years) with Body Mass Index (BMI) of 28.8 to 30.6 kg/m2 were assigned to either a non-exercising control group or a resistance exercise training group. The resistance exercise training group took part in supervised 45-to 50-minute resistance training sessions, 3 times per week on nonconsecutive days for 10 weeks. The control group did not take part in any structured physical activity.. Two-way analysis of variance with t test and student t test measures showed significant (P < 0.05) increase in the strength level in the exercise group. There were significant (P < 0.05) decreases in total cholesterol and body fat percentage (P < 0.05), but we found no significant difference in triglycerides (high density lipoprotein and low density lipoprotein) between two groups.. These findings suggest that resistance training has a favorable effect on total cholesterol and body fat percentage in premenopausal women, but has no significant effect on others the lipid profiles. The participants were followed just for 10 weeks, further studies with longer duration are recommended..

Context: Receiving a diagnosis of cancer can be devastating and life-altering news for any person. Recent studies have shown that spirituality and religiosity may have positive effects on physical and psychological well-being in patients with cancer. This review article aimed to assess the effects of spirituality and religiosity on well-being of patients with cancer..Evidence Acquisition: A literature search was done for related articles published between 2000 and 2014 on PubMed, Science Direct, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus for both English and non-English language articles by the following keywords: “cancer”, “spirituality”, “religion/religious/religiosity”, and “Well-being”.. Of the 16 studies reviewed, ten studies have found that spirituality and religiosity were positively associated with well-being, two studies found no association, and four studies showed both beneficial and detrimental effects of spirituality and religiosity on well-being of patients with cancer.. Most of the reviewed articles showed the important role of religiosity and spirituality in palliative treatment of patients with cancer. It has recommended that medical care team, especially nurses, pay more attention to spiritual and religious beliefs of patients with cancer to improve their well-being..

Different studies have shown that health level, performance statutes and quality of life in chronic patients are less than the expected level especially in patients with diabetes.. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a self-care program with a multimedia software support on quality of life in patients with diabetes type II..Patients and This study was a randomized controlled clinical trial in which 60 patients who had been referred to the diabetes clinic of Arak city were randomly divided to experimental (n = 30) and control (n = 30) groups. Diabetes Quality of Life Brief Clinical Inventory was used for determining the quality of life. Data were collected before and two months after the intervention for both groups. An educational program with equal content was conducted for both the experimental group (self-care program with multimedia software support in two sessions) and control group (lecture and presentation with PowerPoint in one session). Data analysis was made by the SPSS 16 software.. There were no significant differences between the two groups in mean scores of quality of life before the intervention (P = 0.97) while after the intervention, the difference between the two groups was significant (P = 0.029). Applying the self-care program with software support improved quality of life of the experimental group after the intervention (P < 0.0001) while there was no significant difference in mean score of quality of life in the control group after eight weeks (P = 0.051).. According to the results of this study, the examined method is a simple, cheap, effective and attractive intervention program for patients with diabetes..

Among the complications of diabetes, foot problems are increasing due to nonconformity of preventive issues.. The current study aimed to evaluate the effect of an educational intervention on knowledge, attitude and practice of foot care among the patients with type 2 diabetes..Patients and In this randomized controlled clinical trial, 69 patients aged 30-60 years who were referred to an Iranian diabetes clinic were randomly selected and divided into two groups, intervention and control. The control group just received the routine training of the center. A three week educational program was held for the intervention group. Data were collected before and after the intervention by a researcher-made questionnaire and analyzed with SPSS version 19 to apply dependent and independent t-tests and chi-square test.. There was insignificant difference between the two groups in terms of demographic variables and the mean scores of other assessed variables before the intervention (p > 0.05). After the intervention a significant increase was observed in the mean scores of knowledge, attitudes, and foot care practice of the intervention group compared to those of the control group (p < 0.05).. The educational program was effective on the foot care performance of the patients with diabetes..

Control of hemodynamic status and vital signs of patients is a critical practice in intensive care unit (ICU) and use of a low-cost and soothing method to maintain stable physiological parameters is necessary.. This study aimed to investigate the effects of reciting the word “Allah” on patients’ vital signs and blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery..Patients and This randomized clinical trial study was performed on 80 hospitalized patients in open heart ICU of Busheher Bentolhoda Hospital, Iran in 2013. Data was collected by a researcher-made questionnaire. Patients were randomly assigned into intervention (n: 40) and control (n: 40) groups. In intervention group, we asked patients to recite Hazrate Zahra’s praises (AS), in which the word “Allah” is repeated 100 times, while in the control group, patients just received routine procedures of hospital. Vital signs and SpO2 were assessed before and immediately after the intervention three times (24, 48 and 72 hours after surgery) in both groups. Data was analyzed by SPSS 19 software using descriptive and analytic (Chi-square and t-test) statistical methods.. There was a significant difference between mean of respiratory, pulse and SpO2 rate of patients in intervention group during three days after the operation, before and after the intervention (P < 0.05). However there was a significant difference between mean of diastolic blood pressure and temperature (P < 0.05), excepting in one time section; no significant difference was found in systolic blood pressure in any time sections (P > 0.05) before and after the recitation in intervention group. Moreover, a significant difference was seen in the mean of SpO2 and respiratory rate within 72 hours after operation between the two groups (P = 0.01), but no significant difference was found between the two studied groups before the intervention.. Reciting the word “Allah” as a non-pharmacological, low-cost, noninvasive and without side effects method can be effective on physiological responses, especially respiratory and SpO2 rate after CABG surgery..