Journal of Advances in Medical and Biomedical Research
Volume:29 Issue: 133, Mar Apr 2021

Clostridium perfringens is an anaerobic bacterium, commonly present in retail foods. Its enterotoxin-producing ability, short generation time, ability to grow at elevated temperatures, and spore-forming ability, allows it to survive in food-processing temperatures, and cause foodborne illness. The aim of study was to screen dehydrated vegetables contaminated with cpe and cpa carrying C.perfringens.

This is descriptive-analytical study, was carried out on 140 samples (70 unpacked and  70 packed) dehydrated vegetables collected from different areas of Tehran. Samples were inoculated on peptone and sulfite polymyxin sulfadiazine (SPS) agar for enrichment. The enrichment culture was then incubated on anaerobic condition for 48 hours. The black colonies were selected for identification test and PCR. The bacterial colonies were identified by biochemical tests, and duplex PCR was performed for α-toxin (cpa) and enterotoxin (cpe) genes.

 In general 13 samples (9.3%) were identified as C. perfringens using phenotypic methods, all of the isolates were also positive for cpa but negative for cpe gene. The contamination rate for packed vegetables was 12.8% and for unpacked was 5.7%.

Our finding showed that contamination of packed dehydrated vegetables was higher than unpacked; this might be due to drying as well as packaging process. We found that these isolates were negative for enterotoxin.

The ability of breaking bad news to patients, especially to patients diagnosed with cancer is one of the challengeable issues in the field of medicine. On this basis, this study was designed to assess physicianschr('39') performance as well as importance of their training on how to deliver bad news to patients diagnosed with cancer.

This was a prospective cross-sectional study for assessing physicians’ performance in delivering bad news. The hematologists and oncologists from Imam Khomeini and Shariati hospitals, Tehran, Iran, were included in the study. A questionnaire for physicians (SPIKES model) which comprised six statements was used to evaluate their performance. The time of breaking the cancer diagnosis news to the patients by the physicians and educational records were evaluated with the average score of the physicians in relation to each statement.

Totally, 12 physicians participated in the study. There was no significant difference between the statements and age or gender (P>0.05); but there was a significant relationship between ending the discussion (conversation), summarizing the content, and using the word "cancer” during the conversation (P<0.05). Additionally, there was significant correlation between the time spent on informing the patient about the cancer diagnosis and concluding the discussion and summarizing the statements (P<0.05).

Guidelines which are introducing the most harmless methods for delivering bad news with minimal negative effects on the patients’ mental health can be helpful for the medical staff, so that they can perform this important task with less stress and minimum complications for the patients.

Occurrence of oxidative stress in uncontrolled diabetes mellitus affects spermatogenesis and the testicular functions. As the promising antioxidant activities of fullerene C60 nanomaterial have been demonstrated by previous reports, the current study aimed to determine the fullerene C60 effects on the markers of oxidative stress damage in testes of streptozotocin-induced diabetes in rats.

To perform the current study, 32 male Wistar rats were assigned to four groups (each group, n=8) as follows: two control (normal and diabetic) and two treated (normal and diabetic) groups. Streptozotocin at dose of 45 mg/kg (i.v. injection) was used to induce diabetes at the beginning of the test. Treated rats orally received fullerene C60 (1 mg/kg/day) for 8 weeks. The markers of oxidative stress damage were assessed in the testes at the end of the study, including malondialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH) contents as well as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities. One-way ANOVA and Tukey’s post-hoc test were used to analyze the data.

Blood glucose level was not altered in the fullerene-treated normal and diabetic animals. Diabetes induction increased MDA level, but decreased CAT activity in the testes of diabetic animals compared to the normal animals. Administering fullerene C60 significantly decreased MDA content and increased the activity of CAT in the testes of diabetic animals compared to the untreated diabetic rats. Fullerene C60 administration in normal animals also decreased the activity of SOD in the testes.  

According to our findings, fullerene C60 nanoparticle could reduce oxidative stress damage in diabetic condition in the rat testicular tissue probably through potentiating the antioxidant defense system.

SARS COV-2 is a worldwide pandemic disease. There is currently no effective cure for this virus, but some types of herbs can be a good choice for reducing its symptoms. There are some reports that Thymus Vulgaris has a high antioxidant compounds effective in strengthening the immune system, as well as anti-virus effects to reduce the respiratory symptoms. Therefore, we speculated that Thymus Vulgaris could be useful for reducing some of the symptoms in patients suffering from COVID- 19.

 First, thyme essential oil was prepared and a questionnaire regarding the patients’ symptoms was designed. Then, 83 patients with COVID-19 were randomly selected and divided into control group and thyme receiving group (TRG). The questionnaire was completed and emphasized to consume 5 mL of the syrup or essential oil three times per day. Finally, one week after the first visit, the questionnaire was completed again to determine the effects of thyme on the mentioned symptoms. Finally, the test results were reviewed and reported.

 The results one week after taking thyme showed that, the fever (p<0.027), dizziness (p<0.003), cough, dyspnea, muscular pain, headache, anorexia, weakness and lethargy, fatigue, and chest wall pain were significantly reduced (p<0.001). Also, BUN (p<0.004), neutrophil count (p<0.001), and calcium (p<0.034) decreased but, lymphocyte count was increased significantly (p<0.001).

 Thyme plant which has high antioxidant properties, strengthens the immune system, and induces the antiviral effect could reduce the symptoms of coronavirus; therefore, it is recommended for reducing the symptoms of COVID-19.

 Patient’s rights seem to be accepted theoretically, but often neglected in practice. Respect to patient’s rights by health care providers may optimize health outcomes and quality of life and create a perfect connection between health care services and patients needs as well as their expectations. This study was aimed to identify deficits in respect to patientschr('39') rights and find out if the better respect to patient’s rights is affected by an education-based program.

 This descriptive survey was conducted before and after an educational-based program. A structured interview was used to collect data from 204 participants. The categorized questions were reviewed and classified by using 6MP classification, according to the patient’s rights, and then an education-based program was undertaken. The structured interview was then used to recollect data from the participants. Outcome measures were the percentage of deficits pre and post the education-based program according to the patient’s rights.

 There were high deficiencies in “the right to receive the optimal health services” and “access to optimal and sufficient information” sections. Almost no compliant in the other rights of patient was observed. The results indicated that 187 deficits which was recorded in the pre-test phase were reduced to 57 in the post-test phase, and the number of declared deficits by participants was significantly (P<0.05) reduced in all dimensions of 6MP classification. This means that the identified deficits following the conducted education-based program were dramatically improved (three folds improvement).

 An education-based program plays an important role in promotion of the respect to patient’s rights. This suggests health care systems to have a practical and ethical (not merely legal and official) perspective to patient’s rights which in turn would optimize service quality delivered by health care providers.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent malignancies in the world. The early detection of CRC is not only a simple process, but it is also the key to its treatment. Given that data mining algorithms could be potentially useful in cancer prognosis, diagnosis, and treatment, the main focus of this study is to measure the performance of some data mining classifier algorithms in terms of predicting CRC and providing an early warning to the high-risk groups.

This study was performed in 468 subjects (194 CRC patients and 274 non-CRC cases). We used the CRC dataset from the Imam Hospital, Sari, Iran. The Chi-square feature selection method was utilized to analyze the risk factors. Then, four popular data mining algorithms were compared based on their performance in predicting CRC, and, finally, the best algorithm was identified.

The best outcome was obtained by J-48 (F-Measure = 0.826, ROC=0.881, precision= 0.826 and sensitivity =0.827), Bayesian Net was the second-best performer (F-Measure = 0.718, ROC=0.784, precision= 0.719 and sensitivity=0.722). Random-Forest performed the third-best (F-Measure= 0.705, ROC=0.758, precision= 0.719, and sensitivity=0.712). Finally, the MLP technique performed the worst (F-Measure = 0.702, ROC=0.76, precision = 0.701 and sensitivity=0.703).                                                                      

According to the results, we concluded that the J-48 could provide better insights than other proposed prediction models for clinical applications.

The clinical outcomes and treatment options for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients are highly dependent upon molecular markers. In this study, Wilms tumor (WT1) (exons 7 and 9) mutations, SNP rs16754, and WT1 expression levels in 130 random AML patients were screened; FMs-like tyrosine kinase-3 internal tandem duplication (FLT3-ITD), nucleophosmin (NPM1), and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein alpha (CEBPA) mutations were also evaluated.

Overall, 130 AML patients were recruited for our study. WT1 mutations were determined by Sanger sequencing, and expression levels were determined by real-time PCR. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS).

The frequency of WT1 mutations in the study population was 5.4%, and it did not affect overall survival (OS) (p=0.98), disease-free survival (DFS) (p=0.97), or complete remission (CR) rates in AML patients. The major allele of SNP rs16754 in the current study was A. No significant differences were found for OS (p=0.52), DFS (p=0.42), or complete remission rates among all SNP rs16754 genotypes. The overexpression of WT1 was observed in 83% of patients at diagnosis. No significant difference was found for OS (p=0.84), DFS (p=0.82), or complete remission rates between AML patients with high and low WT1 expression levels.

The results of the current study do not support WT1 mutation, SNP rs16754, or WT1 overexpression at diagnosis, as they were found to be poor prognostic markers in AML patients.

Autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) is a heterogeneous and relatively unknown disease caused by premature immune destruction of red blood cells. While its occurrence is uncommon among children, it is sometimes severe and resistant to treatment. The warm-reactive type contains 70% to 80% of all cases, in which the first-line treatment is considered to be a steroid. Moreover, splenectomy, rituximab (a monoclonal antibody), and immunosuppressive drugs are used in refractory cases, with unclear efficacy and deep suppression of the immune system, which consequently lead to various side effects. This study reports the successful treatment of a life-threatening case using a new method. In this regard, it was stated that using the capacity of Iranian traditional medicine (ITM) as one of the complementary therapies can help in the treatment of this disease.In this case report, we documented the successful treatment of a severe and refractory warm AIHA in a boy, who was resistant to the currently recommended treatments such as corticosteroids, rituximab, and cyclosporine at different time periods. Based on ITM, a novel treatment was performed, which was daily swallowing 4-6 live small freshwater fishes (from Cyprinidae family) for an eight-week period and later being tapered. As a result, this treatment had a rapid response time with no side effects. At the time of performing this study, the patient was in his 5th-year disease-free period. For future research, we recommend the researchers to study the use of this novel treatment in case of resistance to the current established therapies of warm AIHA disease.

Recently, some evidence has shown that the failure of iron homeostasis may occur in critically ill patients and can lead to iron overload. Elevated ferritin levels as a body iron burden index in critically ill patients may be associated with depressed level of consciousness and greater mortality. However, the necessity of using iron-chelating agents in clinical situation is still unknown for these cases.Theoretically, iron homeostasis can be preserved through checking the serum levels of ferritin, total iron binding capacity (TIBC), free iron and hepcidin as iron overload indices, and even the prescription of iron-chelating agents in critically ill cases in ICU. We suggest that studies to firmly delineate the safety and efficacy of iron-chelating agents such as deferasirox at a right dose in critically circumstances such as sepsis.