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  Background & Objectives: Cerebrovascular diseases are the most common disabiling neurologic disorders and the third cause of death in the population over 45 years of age. Most of the strokes in adults are ischemic and almost one-fifth of them are due to intra- or extracranial internal carotid artery stenosis. Ultrasonography is a noninvasive, cost-effective and safe technique for evaluation of intra or extracranial vessels that is available in two methods: TCD and carotid Duplex. The present research is an attempt to investigate the appropriatens and comprehensiveness of TCD in diagnosing symptomatic significant carotid stenosis.

  Methods : This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on fifty patients admitted to the neurology ward of Imam Hospital who underwent both carotid duplex and TCD examination. Variables of blood flow velocities, collateral flow evidences and degree of carotid stenosis were assessed with both methods. The data were analyzed by SPSS (ver.11.5) using T.test, Chi-square and Fisher test.

  Results : 34 patieuts were. Male mean age of the patients was 66.70% of the subjects were above 65 and 68% of them had a history of hypertension. No statistically significant difference was seen between systolic and diatolic blood flow velocity in internal carotid artery and pulsatile index obtnined from reported by TCD and carotid Duplex. There was no statistically significant difference between the percentage of stenosis TCD finding of the patients with carotid stenosis showed collateral flow in 78.57% of the cases.

  Conclusion: Acceptable correlation of the flow velocity parameters and the percentage of carotid stenosis between TCD and Carotid Duplex results showed that the primary performance of TCD to diagnose significant carotid stenosis (that causes hemodynamic disorder) and screen ischemic cerebrovascular accident is a reliable and effective method, but for precise determination of stenosis, plaque typing and for diagnosing stenisis below 50% the performance of carotid duplex study is also necessary and to complemantory TCD.

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 Background and Objectives: Familial Mediterranean fever which is the prototype of the hereditary periodic fever syndromes is common in the countries around the Mediterranean Sea. Regarding the geographical position of the northwest of Iran, having Turkish originality and its vicinity to the Mediterranean Sea , the incidence of this disease is significant in Ardabil. The goal of this study was to introduce Familial Mediterranean Fever as a disease with significant outbreak in this area.

 Methods: This research is a descriptive study which has been done during one year from October 2004 to October 2005. According to the Tel-Hashomer criteria, the patients suffering from Familial Mediterranean Fever were collected from private clinics and pediatric rheumatology clinics records. Then from 112 patients only 74 ones were studied. All of the patients were interviewed and filled out a questionnaire.

 Results: Familial Mediterranean fever is common among children under 18 (76%) and more common in male than female. Abdominal pain has been the most common complaint (74%) and abdominal pain and fever (95% and 84% respectively) were the main clinical symptoms. The most common period of pain was 12-72 hours and the common recovery (attack free) period was from 1 week to 1 month (63/5%). Majority of the patients had hospital admission for diagnostic work up (85%) and some of them (32%) had been under surgical operation mistakenly. On the whole 92% of the patients had taken medications as a result of wrong diagnosis and 20% had positive familial history. 50% of the patients' parents were first degree relatives and in 59.5% delay in diagnosis was more than 3 years.

 Conclusion: Results of this study and introduction of this group of patients in a one-year research indicate that: Familial Mediterranean Fever is more common in the Northwest of Iran although physicians are not familiar with that. The common age for manifestation of this disease is under 18 and its presentation after the age of 40 is very rare.

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  Background and objectives: High incidence of postoperative shivering leads to complications such as increased oxygen consumption, intracranial & intraocular pressure and pain. Some drugs including pethedine, dexamethasone and doxapram are used for prevention of shivering. The aim of this study is to compare the effect of dexamethasone and doxapram in prevention of post-anesthetic shivering.

  Methods: This study is a double blind clinical trial including 90 patients in ASA 1 and 2 classes. The patients were under general anesthesia for elective abdominal and chest surgery with same the anesthesia techniques. Samples were randomly divided into three groups (two drug received groups and one control group). First group received dexamethasone 0.1 mg/kg, the second group doxapram 0.75 mg/kg and the control group 3 ml of distilled water as injection. The visible shivering observed after each treatment. Collected data were analyzed using Chi-square, Fisher exact and ANOVA tests By SPSS 16 and p ≤ 0.05 was considered significant.

  Results: Our results showed a significant difference between shivering in drug received and control groups. Shivering was significantly decreased in drug received groups (p = 0 . 05) but there was no significant difference between them.

  Conclusion: This study showed that both drugs of dexamethasone and doxapram are effective in prevention of post-anesthetic shivering and can be substituted with pethedine. In addition to antishivering effect, doxapram has a respiratory stimulant effect that is, that is clinically important in postoperative stage.

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Background & objectives: Hip muscles insufficiency plays a significant role in deterioration of patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS), which can be manifested as myofascial trigger point (MTrPs) in hip muscles. Then, our purpose was to determine the prevalence of MTrPs in the gluteus medius (GMe) and quadratus lumborum (QL) muscles and to investigate the effect of a therapeutic intervention on pain intensity and hip abductor muscles isometric strength in patients with PFPS.

Methods: Forty volunteer subjects (20 patients and 20 healthy) participated in the study. Latent MTrPs in GMe and QL were evaluated and a handheld dynamometer was used to measure peak isometric strength test (PIST) for hip abductors. Patients with PFPS having MTrPs in GMe were randomly divided into either a treatment group (Mean age±SD: 23.2±4.3 years) or control (Mean age±SD: 24.4±4.6 years). The therapeutic intervention included trigger point pressure release (TrPPR) and Kinesio Taping^® (KT). Pain intensity and PIST for hip abductors were assessed at baseline and after intervention in both groups.

Results: There is more significant patients with PFPS having latent MTrPs in GMe and QL than the healthy counterparts (p<0.001). Using TrPPR and KT significantly decreases pain in such patients (p<0.001); however, no significant effect was observed on hip abductors peak isometric strength (p>0.05).

Conclusion: Concomitant using of TrPPR therapy and KT method can decrease pain intensity in individuals with PFPS. Further studies are required to understand the underlying mechanisms.

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Introduction & objectives: Application of traditional medicine and identification of herbs to treat cancer are being on the rise. Little information is available on the anticancer effects of Smyrnium cordifolium bioss species. For this purpose, the present study investigated the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of the alcoholic extract of S. cordifulium.
Methods: After preparing the plant and its alcoholic extract, different concentrations of the extract (0, 2, 10, 50 and 250 μg/ml) were added to the culture medium of MCF-7 cells. MTT assay was used to evaluate cytotoxicity of different extract concentrations. In addition, acridine orange-ethidium bromide staining was used to assess apoptosis rates. Data was analyzed by SPSS software at the significance level of 5%.
Results: the results of this study showed that S. cordifolium extract at 250μg/ml concentration had a more inhibitory effect on proliferation compared to other treatment groups. Moreover, this concentration (250μg/ml) had a significant effect on apoptosis in comparison with other concentrations.
Conclusion: In conclusion, it seems that alcoholic extract of S. cordifolium can partially reduce proliferation of cancer cells.
 

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Background & objectives: Preptin and adropine are peptide hormones that play an important role in the controlling of obesity by regulation of carbohydrate metabolism. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of aerobic training on preptin, adropine and insulin resistance in men with overweight.
Methods: In this clinical trial study, 18 overweight and obese men (age 58.39±3.92, body mass index 28.75±1.23) were selected and randomly divided into two groups (control and exercise). Exercise group participated in an aerobic exercise program for eight weeks, five sessions per week (with an intensity of 65 to 85% of maximum heart rate, 40 minutes). Two days before and after the protocol, fasting blood samples were taken. Preptin and adropine were measured by ELISA. Data were tested using independent t-test and ANCOVA at a significance level of p<0.05.
Results: The level of preptin in the experimental group was significantly reduced compared to the control group (p=0.001) and the pretest (p=0.000). Also, the adropine level in the experimental group increased significantly compared to the control group (p=0.000) and the pretest (p=0.000). Also, Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) values in the exercise group compared to the control group (p=0.000) and pretest (p=0.000) showed a significant decrease.
Conclusions: Exercise improved glycemic index in obese and overweight men by improving the levels of preptin and adropine. It seems that aerobic exercise can be an effective intervention method to control and prevent the occurrence of metabolic diseases in these people.

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