سمیه سلیمان زاده مقدم

Burn infections are one of the leading causes of death in the world. Antibiotic resistance is a major concern among the medical community. In this study, we investigated the effect of common probiotic strains on multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains.

Strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from burn wounds of patients were isolated. Then pathogens were biochemically identified and their antibiotic resistance pattern against imipenem, gentamycin, ciprofloxacin, tetracycline and chloramphenicol were examined. Susceptibility of multidrug-resistant pathogens to 5 commercial and 5 native strains of probiotics were investigated using disc diffusion method. The probiotic strain, with the highest anti-pathogen activity was tested either alone or in combination with five previously tested antibiotics.   

The Lactobacillus plantarum 299V strain showed the highest inhibitory effect against the antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogens compared to the other probiotic strains. In most isolates, probiotic alone, had a higher mean diameter of growth inhibition zone compared to the combination with antibiotics, except for tetracycline antibiotic, which is synergistic with probiotic bacteria and has the highest anti-pathogenic properties (P <0.001).

According to the results of this study, Lactobacillus plantarum can be used as an adjunct in the treatment of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in the treatment of burn wounds.

Salmonella is considered as a main cause of community-acquired diarrhea in humans, however, sources of the multi-drug resistant (MDR) strains and their link with the disease are not well known.

This study aimed to investigate the frequency, serogroup diversity, and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of Salmonella strains in poultry meat and stool samples of patients with community acquired diarrhea in Tehran.

We compared the frequency of non-typhoidal Salmonella serogroups, the similarities of their resistance patterns to 10 antimicrobial compounds, the prevalence of extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) and ampicillinase C (AmpC) genetic determinants, and class 1 and 2 integrons in 100 chicken meat and 400 stool samples of symptomatic patients in Tehran during June 2018 to March 2019.

Salmonella was isolated from 75% and 5.5% of the chicken meats and human stool samples, respectively. The chicken meat isolates mainly belonged to serogroup C (88%, 66/75), while the human stool isolates were mainly related to serogroup D (59.1%, 13/22). The MDR phenotype and the most common rates of resistance to antibiotics, including tetracycline, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (TS) and azithromycin, were detected in 4.5% and 45.3%, 59% and 13.6%, 43% and 9.1%, 42% and 9.1% of the human stool and chicken meat samples, respectively. Carriage of blaCTX, blaSHV, and blaPER genes in the meat isolate with ESBL resistance phenotype and blaACC, blaFOX, and blaCMY-2 among the 7 meat strains with AmpC resistance phenotype was not confirmed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). High prevalence of class 1 and 2 integrons was characterized and showed a correlation with resistance to TS and chloramphenicol.

These findings showed a lack of association between chicken meats and human isolates due to discrepancy between the characterized serogroups and resistance phenotypes.

Pathogenic species of Campylobacter, in addition to diarrhea and gastrointestinal diseases, could cause debilitating auto-immune and chronic diseases in humans. Investigation of the existence of this bacterium in food sources and clinical samples, and detection of antibiotic resistance could be helpful in the control of its spread and treatment procedures. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency and antibiotic resistance of Campylobacter isolates isolated from poultry meat.

In this study, a total of 100 poultry meat samples were collected from 22 districts of Tehran from July 2018 until March 2019. Accordingly, standard enrichment of the collected samples and their culture in selective medium was done. The isolates were characterized biochemically and by polymerase chain reaction for genus and species specific primers for C. jejuni, C. coli, C. upsaliensis, and C. lari. Antimicrobial susceptibility of the isolates to 7 antibiotics were done using E-test and disk diffusion methods. Moreover, resistance to three or greater classes of antibiotics was determined as multiple drug resistance phenotype (MDR) and the results were statistically analyzed using SPSS16 software.

Campylobacter was isolated from 35% of the poultry meat samples. C. jejuni (23%), C. coli (1%), and C. lari (1%) were among the Campylobacter isolates from these samples. Highest resistance phenotype and the lowest ones were detected against tetracycline (62.8%), and ampicillin and clindamycin (17.1%, each one), respectively. The MDR phenotype was detected among 42.8% of the isolates.

Our results showed high level of contamination with Campylobacter in the poultry meat samples which proposed increased risk of the infection with MDR strains among the consumers in Tehran. Further studies on human clinical samples could better determine this correlation.

Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world and Iran. Despite appropriate treatment, recent researches indicate that asthmatic patients have poor asthma control. The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between educational level of asthmatic patients and asthma control indices. This retrospective cross-sectional study was performed on 80 asthmatic patients admitted to Shahid Labbafinejad hospital. ESMAA questionnaire was used to collect data to assess the level of asthma control, according to ACT (Asthma Control Test) and 2016 GINA (the Global Initiative for Asthma) guidelines. Patient medication compliance was evaluated based on Morisky medication adherence scale (MMAS). ANOVA test (Regression and Pearson correlation) and Chi-Square test were used for analysis of quantitative and qualitative variables, respectively. The P - value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Eighty asthmatic patients with an average age of 54.65 were entered to this study that of them 32 patients were at primary school level, 26 patients at high school level and 22 patients at university state. According to ACT test, 52.5% and 47.5% of patients were in control and uncontrolled state, respectively.
According to GINA classification, 30% of patients were in control, 45% in partially control and 25% in uncontrolled state. According to MMSA scale, 20% of patients were high adherent to medicine, 40% were moderate adherent and 40% were low adherent. In this study, there was no significant correlation between the asthma control in terms of ACT and patients' educational level. Also, there was no significant relationship between sex, asthma control and medication adherence. In addition, there was no significant relationship between educational level and drug adherence. The results suggest that there was no relationship between asthma control indices and patient's educational level. Perhaps other factors, other than education, affect the asthma control indices and medication adherence which requires more studies.

Recently, using probiotics for preventing and treating the immune system diseases via increasing the absorption of protective factors has attracted the attention of researchers. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of probiotic bacteria, Lactobacillus plantarum 299v and Bifidobacteria B94, on serum Fe +2 and vitamin D3 levels following ethidium bromide - induced demyelination of rat hippocampus. In this study, 40 male Wistar rats were divided into four groups, including control, damaged with ethidium bromide, lactobacillus plantarum 299v, and bifidobacterium B94 treatment groups. In damage and treatment groups, a single dose of 3 μl ethidium bromide was directly injected for inducing demyelination in the hippocampus of rats. Also, in control group, the same amount of saline was used. After the induction of demyelination in treatment groups,1/5×108 probiotic bacteria were administered by gavage for 28 days. Results showed increased levels of Fe +2 in the treatment group with lactobacillus plantarum and that of vitamin D3 in both treatment groups. The level of serum Fe +2 in the treatment group with Bifidobacteria B94 decreased, although this increase and decrease were not significant. Although the findings in this study were not significant, but, somehow were in agreement with the findings of previous studies that suggested effects of probiotics. Perhaps the reason for such result is a difference in the type, number and duration of probiotics use compared with other studies.

Burn is from the main causes of death, and studies show that prevention is the best way to reduce deaths from burns. This study aimed to evaluate the epidemiological burns, as well as evaluating the relationship between different variables. This cross-sectional study performed on 335 patients, from September 2011 to March 2012 in Motahari Hospital, Tehran. Information includes age, sex, total burn surface area (TBSA), cause of burn, length of hospitalization, burn extent and death rate and morbidity were extracted from patient's records. result showed that 78.6% of patients were male and the rest female and 34 patients died. Also TBSA of 86.2% of patients was less than 40%. In this study, explosions and scalds are the highest causes of burns, respectively. Length of hospitalization varied from 1 to 105days and the mean was 13 days. Identifying factors influencing burns, prevention and preventive education is important for control and reduce burns.

The increasing use of β-lactam antibiotics in clinics for the treatment of different bacterial infections since early 1980s has led to increased rates of resistant bacteria isolated from patients. One of the problems in the treatment of nosocomial infections is related to resistant bacteria such as Enterobacter cloacae due to cross resistance through extended-spectrum beta-lactamase production. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing E. cloacae from different clinical specimens collected from hospitalized patients. In the present study, 101 E. cloacae confirmed by standard specific microbiologic tests were collected from different specimens in Milad and Motahri hospitals in Tehran, Iran during February 2010 and September 2011. Antibiotic susceptibility tests were conducted according to the process recommended by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute for 13 antibiotics of choice. Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing strains were screened for by combined disk method as a phenotypic diagnostic test. From a total of 101 E. cloacae, 33 (33%) were shown to produce extended-spectrum beta-lactamase by phenotypic tests; 5% of the bacteria were resistant to imipenem too. This study clearly showed the high prevalence of resistance to broad-spectrum beta-lactam antibiotics in the isolated E. cloacae among which 5% were multi drug resistant. All the isolated E. cloacae were susceptible to Colistin. These results can be alarming for physicians treating resistant E. cloacae infections, especially extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing species.