International Journal of Health Studies
Volume:1 Issue: 1, Apr-Jun 2015

Multiple sclerosis (MS) and Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) are inflammatory and demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). NK cells are supposed to play an important role in the pathophysiology of MS, but their role in the NMO remains unknown. The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of different subpopulations of NK cells in the patients with MS and NMO and healthy individuals. Treatment Naive MS and NMO patients, age, and sex matched controls were included in this study. PBMCs were isolated from peripheral blood and different phenotypes of circulating NK cells were compared with the flow cytometry analysis. There were no significant differences in the mean percentages of circulating NK cells expressing the CD56 bright molecule in patients with MS and NMO. However, the mean percentages of circulating NK cells expressing the CD56bright molecule were significantly lower in all patients groups, compared to controls. In addition, the mean percentages of circulating NK cells expressing the CD16dim molecule was significantly higher in the patients with MS, compared to controls/any other groups. The mean percentages of circulating NK cells expressing the CD56dim molecule were significantly higher in the patients with MS than the controls. There were significant differences in the mean percentages of circulating NK cells expressing the CD16bright molecule between the patients with MS, and NMO/controls. The results indicate that evaluation of NK cell subsets has an implication for the biomarker discovery and therapeutic targets in given diseases.

Standard cares in Substance Abuse Treatment Centers (SATC) have an important role in treatment success achievement. Patients’ views will provide valuable information to improve the performance of these centers. The purpose of current study was to determine patients’ comments on quality of addiction treatment at SATCs. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2013. The study population consisted of addicted patients receiving methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) in SATCs of Shahroud. Using stratified sampling method, a total of 250 individuals were randomly selected from the SATCs. The SERVQUAL service quality model was used to measure service quality in five dimensions of tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Using paired samples t-test the gap between patients’ expectations of a service offering and the patients’ perceptions of the service received was analyzed by 5-dimensional structure of service quality Overall, the score of patients’ expectations of service quality (4.45±0.67) was higher than that of their perceptions (4.24±0.0.76). For the dimensions of tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy, the mean difference between patients’ perceptions and expectations of the quality of addiction treatment services was -0.34, -0.17, -0.19, -0.14, and -0.24 respectively. All differences were statistically significant. Although the mean score of patients’ perceptions was good, the patients were not satisfied with the quality of addiction treatment services in the SATCs at Shahroud. The results showed that there is a gap between the current state and the desired state in terms of service quality in SATCs and this gap can be reduced by proper planning, management and training.

Today physicians and other health-related service providers are trying to provide information and training through cyberspace to their patients. The aim of the present study was to determine the quality of the Persian websites related to hypertension. To identify Persian hypertension related websites in a descriptive cross-sectional study, we started our search in cyberspace using the key words. The keywords that were used are the same as the words that patients or their families use to obtain information about hypertension. The First 50 Google and Yahoo search results, all related links and related websites are listed in the Ministry of Health and Medical Education were examined. Then, the quality of these sites were evaluated based on the scale of Discern and Silberg instruments. As a result, a total of 281 websites were retrieved. Analysis revealed that 62(22%) of these unique websites contained information relevant to hypertension. Seventy nine percent of health related websites had academic or governmental origin, however, only 9% of these websites contained information relevant to hypertension. “Heart center belonging to Tehran University of Medical Sciences” was ranked first based on the Silberg and DISCERN instruments, with scors 7 (from total 9) and 55 (from total 80), respectively. This study showed that, according to the data collecgted and analyzed via Silberg and DISCERN instruments, the quality of Persian websites related to HTN is “low”. According to evidence-based medicine, despite so many barriers to the internet information reaching its necessary to expand health-related Web sites.

A multidimensional approach to health which addresses the psychological features of health justifies the necessity of designing or validation of brief instruments for screening in general population. This study aims to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Persian version of the WHO-5-P as a brief scale of well-being. In this study 451 individuals, i.e., over-15-year old subjects completed the WHO-5-P and GHQ-28 questionnaires. Crombach’s alpha and factor analysis were used for internal consistency evaluation. For predictive validity we compared WHO-5-P with GHQ-28 scores using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The mean age, score of WHO-5-P and GHQ-28 were 32.3±11.5, 13.4±6.5, and 25.4±13.4 respectively. The WHO-5-P had an acceptable internal consistency (α= 0.94), and it showed adequate convergent validity with the GHQ-28 (r= -0.66; P<0.001). The optimal cut-off score of the WHO-5-P was <13 (12.13) with a sensitivity of 0.68 and a specificity of 0.85. The area under curve in this study was 0.82. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed one factor structure. WHO-5-P is a valid and reliable instrument for screening psychological state.

In recent years tissue engineering developed to replace or repair damaged tissues using cell and biomaterial. One of the most important fields of tissue engineering is simulation of in vivo micro environment of body tissues. This study aimed to develop culture chamber and cell biomaterial sheet engineering for the reconstruction of cartilage tissue. Stainless steel culture chamber was designed with mechanical factor affecting cartilage. Shear exerted on the wall of the chamber was predicted with computational fluid dynamic modeling with Fluent. The meshes were created with Gambit software.After isolation of chondrocytes from cartilage, cells mixed with natural biomaterial and hydrogel tissue construct cultured in chamber. Sections of resulted cell-biomaterial construct were examined with histological methods. The designed chamber mimicked synovial joint with perfusion flow. Maximum wall shear was predicted with fluent was 2.407× 10-3 Pa. Chondrocyte-scaffold was created as a thin sheet. Histological examination of chondrocyte biomaterial revealed morphology of native cartilage tissue with round cluster chondrocyte profile. Isogenic group of constract proliferated and expanded. According to simulation of in vivo environment of natural cartilage joint and simplification of tissue constructs production from chondrocyte and hydrogel scaffold, the novel strategy described here has great advantages to the improvement of cartilage tissue engineering.

The aim of this study was to evaluate risk of Needle stick and Sharp Injuries (NSI) and exposure to blood borne pathogens, among laboratory technicians. 213 self-reporting questionnaires were distributed among the laboratory technicians who were working at three educational hospitals in Tehran. A total of 193 laboratory personnel completed the questionnaire. 69.9% of participants were females. 94 (43.5%) of participants had a history of needle stick injury and 70 (36.3%) had splash injury during their work life. The prevalence of one year (last year) exposure was 25.4% and 17.1% respectively. In 58 out of 94 cases, recapping was the mechanism of injury. 151 laboratory personnel (78.2%) had been immunized against Hepatitis B Virus (HBV). 79.8% of the laboratory personnel usually eat, drink or smoke at workplace. 175 (91%) of the study sample used personal protective equipment such as glove in laboratory environment. In this study, a high frequency of NSI and splash were observed among laboratory technicians in the research context, which was not related to some variables such as age, sex, duration of employment, the HBV vaccination status, participating in workshop of education and training for injury prevention.

Despite the ever-increasing beneficial applications of magnetic nanoparticles in biological systems, few studies have been carried out on the combined effects of nanoparticles (Fe and Ni) on human health. In the present study the effects of Fe2NiO4 nanoparticle on inflammatory factors were assessed. Twenty-four Wistar rats were randomly divided into 3 groups: two groups were treated with Fe2NiO4 nanoparticle; (2,3) and the third group was taken as the control group (1). Group 2 and 3 received 0.5ml of solution containing 100 and 200 ppm Fe2NiO4 for 7 successive days, respectively. Inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 and Tumor necrosis factorα (TNFα) were measured at various time points (1, 2, 7 and 14 days) by ELISA kits. After 14 days, lung tissue was investigated. On day 7, IL-6 concentration significantly increased in-group2. Also during the 14 days, IL-6 concentration significantly increased in groups1and2 in comparison with control group. The concentration of TNFα on 7th day significantly increased in groups 2 and 3 and on day 14th, TNFα concentration significantly increased in groups 2 and 3compared to control group. There were no pathological changes between the control group and group 2 but in-group3, signals of fibrous and thickening of the air sacs were observed. In the present study we found that inflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and TNFα) increased in the groups treated with Fe2NiO4 and high dose of this nanoparticles caused drastic changes in lung tissue.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of water ozonation on disinfection by-product formation. Experiments were carried out on samples taken from Tajan River, Mazandaran province, Iran. Samples of the pre-filtered raw water and from the 3.5-L water tank reservoir (WT) were analyzed for UV-254 absorbance, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), HS and non-HS, chlorine residual, Simulated Distributed System Total Trihalomethanes (SDS TTHMs) and SDS halo acetic acids (SDS HAAs). The gaseous ozone concentration was varied between 1.5 and 10 g/m3. The study showed that use of the ozonation treatment system resulted in significant improvement in water quality compared to the filtered raw water and the levels of DOC, moreover UV absorbing compounds, SDS TTHMs and SDS HAAs were reduced. Ozonation treatment system can be used instead of other disinfection systems such as chlorination which have potential of Disinfection By-Products (DBPs) formation.