Hormozgan Medical Journal
Volume:24 Issue: 1, Mar 2020

In recent years, non-bone diseases have been shown associated with vitamin D deficiency, of which type 2 diabetes is a group of metabolic disorders caused by insulin deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency affects the metabolic function of the cells, including beta-pancreatic cells. Regarding the effectiveness of vitamin D to control type 2 diabetes, the present study aimed at reviewing the relationship between vitamin D, glucose homeostasis, and insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes.
Evidence Acquisition: In this review, descriptive and analytic studies were analyzed using biochemical tests, questionnaires, and interviews. Using the keywords, such as vitamin D, type 2 diabetes, and insulin resistance, 11 articles, including descriptive-analytic, cross-sectional, case-control and interventional studies published from 1986 to 2018 were included.

The levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in diabetics, women, and obese people are lower than others, which can indicate the effect of vitamin D on glucose homeostasis. In addition, vitamin D affects intracellular calcium, and, consequently insulin secretion. It can be said that vitamin D deficiency can make calcium unable to regulate insulin secretion.

According to the studies, it can be concluded that vitamin D can be effective to prevent and control type 2 diabetes. Also, there is no association between vitamin D and insulin secreted by food and hemoglobin A1c

Cryptosporidiosis is a parasitic disease caused by a small protozoan of the genus coccidian. It is important in the medical and veterinary area, since it is a zoonotic parasite. Transmission of fecal-oral infections occurs through direct and indirect contact with food and contaminated drinks. Many HIV-positive individuals live in the areas where intestinal parasites are hyper-endemic.

Given the significance of the study associated with opportunistic infectious diseases in this group of patients, we decided to study the prevalence of the parasite in those individuals.

In this descriptive cross-sectional study, we collected a single fecal specimen of 133 HIV-positive patients seeking treatment from the center for Behavioral Disease Counseling of Bandar Abbas, Iran. Stool samples examined by direct, formalin-ether concentration method and modified Ziehl-Neelsen stain for Cryptosporidium spp.

The mean age of the patients was 42.15 (ranged 12 - 82 years). No oocyst of cryptosporidium spp. or other intestinal coccidian was found in any of the samples. Only four species including Giardia lamblia, Hymenolepis nana, and both Entamoeba coli and Blastocystis hominis were found in three patients, which indicated less diversity and low frequency of parasitic infection in this study.

Monitoring and evaluating the therapeutic process of the patients lead to less infectious diseases, especially those of opportunistic parasites.

Improving the quality of life in osteoporotic women is one of the crucial goals of health systems. Hence, recognizing the factors affecting the quality of life in such patients is an important issue. The body mass index (BMI) seems to be capable of affecting quality of life. Besides, BMI is a quantitative index simple to measure.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of BMI on quality of life in a group of osteoporotic women.

One hundred osteoporotic women aged 50 - 60 participated in this descriptive-analytical study. These women were referring to the internal clinic of Mousavi Hospital of Zanjan. The body mass index was calculated after measuring both height and weight. Based on the BMI, the patients were divided into three groups: BMI < 18.5 underweight, 18.5 ≤ BMI < 25 normal and BMI ≥ 25 overweight. The short form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire was employed for measuring the quality of life. Given the normal distribution of data, one-way-ANOVA and Independent t-test were utilized to compare the means of the three groups. In all tests, P < 0.05 was accepted as a significant level.

Comparison groups using the one-way ANOVA test on SF-36 subscale and total QOL scores showed in all components of QOL; underweight, overweight and normal groups were significantly different (P < 0.05). Considering the Independent t-test, osteoporotic women in overweight group reported a poor quality of life as measured by the SF-36. Yet, the quality of life score in the normal group and the underweight group did not have a significant difference.

The results of this study demonstrated that increased BMI negatively affects quality of life. Therefore, it can be avowed that keeping the BMI low and controlling it are effective in raising the quality of life in osteoporotic women. Thus, so as to improve the quality of life in those patients, therapists ought to take greater heed of their BMI and its changes.

Hypoglycemia and hypocalcemia are common metabolic disorders in high-risk infants that may cause serious complications in case of late diagnosis.

This study intended to determine the prevalence of hypoglycemia and hypocalcemia among high-risk infants.

A cross-sectional study was conducted on all the infants prone to hypoglycemia and hypocalcemia admitted to the neonatal ward of Fatemieh Hospital in Hamadan from September 2016 to October 2017. If infants’ blood glucose was less than 40 mg/dL within the first four hours after birth and less than 45 mg/dL within 4 - 24 hours after birth, they were diagnosed with hypoglycemi. If their blood calcium was less than 7 and 8 mg/dL in preterm and full-term infants, respectively, within 12 - 24 hours after birth, they were diagnosed with hypocalcemia.

A total of 883 infants participated in this study. The prevalence of hypoglycemia and hypocalcemia was 39.1% and 1.8%, respectively. The mean birth weight was 2124.1 ± 272.8 g, and the gestational age was 35 ± 1.88 weeks. Hypoglycemia had a significant relationship with preterm birth (P = 0.002), lower mean birth weight (P = 0.001), and low Apgar score at 1 and 5 minutes after birth (P < 0.05). Hypocalcemia had a significant relationship with small for gestational age (SGA) (P = 0.007), lower mean birth weight (P = 0.025), and low Apgar score at one and five minutes after birth (P < 0.05).

It is recommended to measure blood glucose and blood calcium in high-risk infants, including infants of diabetic mothers (IDMs), preterm infants, and infants with lower birth weight (LBW), SGA, and low Apgar score at one and five minutes after birth.

Self-medication is one of the most important social, health, and economic challenges of many countries, especially Iran.

Therefore, this study aimed to predict the adoption of self-medication prevention behaviors according to Health Belief Model (HBM) constructs in the women attending health centers of Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan Province, Iran.

The participants of the present investigation were 180 women residing in Bandar Abbas in 2016. Convenient sampling method was applied to select the participants. Data were collected through a questionnaire containing questions on demographic information, as well as the HBM constructs. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS version 19 using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and logistic regression.

The mean age of the participants was 30.8 ± 8.6 years. Among the HBM constructs, it was found that there was a positive relationship between the perceived susceptibility and perceived severity that the relationship was 0.231 at the significant 2-tailed level of 0.01. While, there was a negative correlation between the perceived barriers and perceived benefits that the relationship was -0.231 at the significant 2-tailed level of 0.01. The results of multiple regression analysis represented that considering HBM constructs, only R2 = 0.048 of the self-medication preventive behaviors could be explained (R2 = 0.048, P = 0.042).

Regarding the results of this study, only four percent of Health Belief Model Constructs could predict the preventive behavior in self-medication. Based on the weak prediction of model constructs and the findings of this study, there is a need to focus on the benefits, perceived susceptibility, and perceived barriers in designing health promotion programs.

The Internet of Things (IOT) plays an important role in health care applications and is a system of interoperating computing devices, mechanical and digital machines.

This descriptive study was carried out in 2017 using a pre-designed questionnaire, using Brender and Richards Heeks information system. It contains managerial, cultural, functional, technical, organizational, political and human factors relating to smart hospital based on internet of things. The questionnaire was completed by all 230 physicians working at university hospitals. Validity of the questionnaire was determined using content validity and its reliability was determined by test-retest method with 95% correlation coefficient. Data were analyzed by SPSS statistical software, using descriptive statistics as well as t-test and analysis of variance.

In this study, 149 (79.5%) males and 38 (20.5%) females participated. Based on the physicians’ viewpoints, percentage of agreement for managerial, cultural and organizational factors in creating a smart hospital was higher than other studied factors. Moreover, the viewpoint of male and female physicians on managerial, functional, organizational and human factors in implementing a smart hospital was significantly different.

It seems that the management, organizational, and cultural factors are the most important factors in the implementation of smart hospital in Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences. It is necessary for planners and system owners to pay more attention to these factors.

A scorpion sting is one of the major medical problems in southern Iran. Hemiscorpius scorpions are the most dangerous species in this area and Hemiscorpius acanthocercus belonging to this genus is distributed in the southern part of Iran. The venom of this scorpion causes pathological changes in the blood and kidney of the victims, which eventually lead to hemolysis and renal failure.

This report describes the occurrence of severe hematuria in a patient within a few hours after the scorpion sting.

The present report suggests that more studies are needed to set out a protocol for the management of scorpion stings in high risk areas.

Ectopic pregnancy (EP) is a life-threatening pregnancy complication and can cause maternal morbidity and mortality and early fetal death with the incidence rate of approximately 2% of all pregnancies. The rate of recurrence of EP increases in patients with a past history of EP. We present here two cases that have had three consecutive recurrent EPs during one year with different management.

Case 1: A 27-year-old woman gravida 3 Ep2 with 6 weeks gestational age was referred with abdominal pain. She had a history of two consecutive ectopic pregnancies 9 and 4 months ago that were treated with methotrexate (MTX) and right salpingectomy. Transvaginal ultrasonography showed left tubal ectopic pregnancy with intra-abdominal bleeding. Left salpingectomy was performed. Case 2: A 34-year-old women gravid 3 with a history of 2 consecutive Ep 11 and 6 months ago that were treated with left salpingectomy and MTX, was referred. She was treated with two doses of MTX.

The rate of recurrent EP considerably rises in patients with a history of the previous EP and considering this medical history is highly recommended in future pregnancies for early diagnosis