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  Background & Objectives : Coronary artery disease is one of the most important mortality causes in developed and developing countries. Many risk factors can influence coronary artery disease some of which can be controlled and prevented. Information should be given to people for controlling these factors and prior to this information – giving, the primary awareness of them about risk factors needs to be ascertained. This research is a study of the knowledge, attitude and practice of Ardabil people about CAD risk factors.

  Methods : This descriptive analytic study was done on 384 individuals (female and male) over 20 years old. These subjects were selected from five clusters. Synthetic questionnaire was used for data collection through direct interview at home. The collected data was then analyzed by SPSS software.

  Results : 50.5% of samples were females. 27.3 % of the subjects were high-school graduates. Most of them (70%) were aware of stress and lesion as risk factors. 66.9% of them were aware only of the effect of immobility on coronary artery disease but 13% of them had regular physical activity. 52.1% of them were aware of the harmful effect of salt on CAD, but 15% of them had low salt intake. 48.2% of people were aware of benefit of liquid oil on health, but only 25% of them consumed it. Results showed that, 48.2%, 51.3% and 40.9% of individual had moderate knowledge, positive attitude, and weak practice, respectively. The relationship among variables was significant (P<0.0001), and practice of people has been increased with increasing of knowledge and attitude.

  Conclusion : Regarding these results, regular programs are necessary for increasing awareness and practice of people as primary preventive steps for controlling CAD.

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 Background & Objective: Breast cancer is the most common cancer occurring among women and the second leading cause of death from cancer among them. The mortality rate of breast cancer is directly related to the stage of the disease when diagnosed, and is reduced by regular breast cancer screening program. This survey is carried out to identify the knowledge, attitude and practice of women in Ardabil about BSE.

 Methods: In this descriptive study, 150 women with 20-25 years of age, were selected through systematic cluster sampling. Knowledge, attitude and practice of them about BSE were investigated through face to face interview, and the obtained data were analyzed using descriptive and analytic statistics.

 Results: 44% of women had some information about breast cancer. 44.7% of them had average information about BSE. There was statistically significant relationship between knowledge of BSE on the one hand and age, marital status and history of previous breast examination on the other. 52% of them believed in BSE for early detection of breast cancer. Their attitude towards BSE was positive (51.3%) and there was a significant relationship between their knowledge and attitude. 18% of the subjects practiced BSE at least once, and their overall practice was in a weak level (46.7%).

 Conclusions: Qualitative researches could be recommended to recognize the factors effective in the improvement of acceptance of breast cancer screening methods among women.

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 Background & Objectives: Breast Cancer is among the most common types of cancer in women which in case of early diagnosis and treatment can increase women’s chance of survival. This study was performed in two case and control groups.

 Methods: This case-control study which was based on hospital records was conducted on 303 breast cancer patients and 303 control women. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS using Chi-square.

 Results: The study revealed that there were significant differences between the cases and controls with regard to knowledge (p<0.001) and practice (p<0.001) of breast self-examination. 61% of the cases and 32% of the controls mentioned BSE as a necessary measure for the early diagnosis of breast cancer. 76% of the cases and 47% of the controls were not aware of the proper time for BSE (p<0.001). More than two-third of the subjects in each group did not know the proper time and the necessity of BSE in menopause and pregnant women and these was a statistically significant difference between two groups in this regard (p<0.001). Women in case group had done more frequently than controls (p<0.04). Moreover, the BSE intervals in two groups was statistically significant (p<0.01). There was also a significant difference between the reasons of refusing to do BSE in two groups (p<0.05). Subjects in neither group had regularly referred to a physician for examination and early diagnosis.

 Conclusion:�Since the knowledge and practice of women and their referring to a physician for breast examination is inadequate, it seems necessary to devise educational program about doing monthly BSE and hold educational courses to promote women’s knowledge concerning the early diagnosis of breast cancer as well as its appropriate and regular performance.

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  Background & Objectives : Panel-reactive antibody (PRA) is a routine test to evaluate for sensitized human leukocyte antigens (HLA) before kidney transplantation. The present study evaluates the correlation of renin-angiotensin system (RAS) polymorphisms with the level of PRA in renal transplant candidates.

  Methods: This study included 108 renal transplant candidates. The current patients sera were screened by standard complement-dependent microlymphocytotoxicity technique. RAS polymorphisms were determined by polymerase chain reaction. PRA<10, 10-29, 30-49, and ≥50 considered as negative, mild, moderate, and highly positive PRA, respectively.

  Results: Twelve (11.1%) patients had positive PRA, among them 10 (83.3%) had mild and 2 (16.7%) of them had moderate PRA levels we had no highly positive PRA. Ninety-six of cases (88.9%) were negative for PRA. There was no significant correlation between discrete RAS polymorphisms (alone or together) and the degree of panel antibody reactivity (P>0.05).

 Conclusion: We suggest that none of the RAS polymorphisms could predict the positivity degree of PRA level.

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  Background & Objective: Mycobacterium leprae is the cause for leprosy which is a contagious disease in many developing countries. These diseases have always been a dreadful one for its unpleasant clinical symptoms and the disabilities it causes. It has the most prolonged cell division time of all bacteria (12-14 days). Its incubation period is long (3-5 years) even 40 years has been reported. The complications which it leaves are irreversible and it bears a heavy socio-mental burden on the individual and the society. WHO has listed 91 countries with leprosy. The goal of the present study was the early diagnosis of the disease before the emergence of unpleasant clinical symptoms and popularizing molecular method of PCR in place of the conventional method of slit skin smear which is not a precise or reliable method.

  Methods: In this study 40 slit skin smear and the same number of skin biopsies were taken from patients referring Bababaghi Hospital and samples from ear lobes and eyebrows were taken. Slit skin smears were stained with Zeihl-Neelsen method and examine microscopically. At the same timy biopsy specimens were extracted.

 Results: Of 40 samples, three slit-skin specimens (7.5%) had positive smear result, while 14 (35%) biopsies had PCR positive result. The rest (11 cases) probably had TT or borderline forms of BB, BT, BL).

 Conclusion: The results showed that SSS is not a precise and reliable method for diagnosing leprosy especially in TT form which is always negative direct smear. Also direct smear method and clinical symptoms are not accurate or reliable methods in estimating the rate of disease prevalence.

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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: Severely comminuted distal femur fractures are in association with the high complications and their treatment is so difficult. Supracondylar femur fractures usually occur as a result of low-energy trauma in osteoporotic bone in elderly persons or high-energy trauma in young patients. This study was aimed to assess the results of new treatment plan for comminuted intra-articular distal femur fractures with locking condylar buttress plate. The results of this strategy will help us to find the effective method of treatment for the distal femur fractures.

  Methods: In a prospective cross-sectional study, 47 patients with intra-articular distal femur fractures after two weeks fracture and treating with locking condylar buttress plate were selected. Then, they were examined for infection, range of knee motion and ::union:: at the first and second week and 1, 2 and 3 months after surgery. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and the level of significance was set as p<0.05.

  Results: 53.2% of the patients had closed fractures, 6.4% of them had open type I and the rest showed open type IIIA fracture. The overall ::union:: rate was seen in 80.9% of cases and infection was detected in 19/1% and mal::union:: was observed 21.3% of patients. The mean degree for range of motion was 105.74 ±24.47 and the maximum degree of extension was 20.

  Conclusion : Complete fixation for distal femur fracture type C3 was achieved by buttress plate and using this locking condylar plate was association with less complication such as infection, mal::union:: and non-::union::.

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  Background & Objectives: Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is one of the most common complications of anesthesia and without prophylactic intervention occurs in about one-third of patients under general anesthesia. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of ondansetron and metoclopramide in reducing PONV after laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

  Methods : In this study, 90 patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy were randomly allocated into three equal groups (n=30) and in the first group 10 mg metoclopramide, in the second group 4 mg ondansetron and for placebo group 2 cc normal saline preoperatively were injected. Anesthesia complications in recovery and nausea and vomiting in recovery and 6 hours and 24 hours after surgery were evaluated. Data were analyzed by SPSS software with chi-square test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). P<0.05 was considered significant.

  Results: The incidence of nausea in placebo group was 66.7 %, in metoclopramide group was 43.3 % and in ondansetron group was 33.3 %. The difference only between placebo and ondansetron groups was significant (p=0.019). The incidence of vomiting in placebo group was 56.7%, in metoclopramide group was 20% and in ondansetron group was 26.7% and there was significant difference between placebo and ondansetron groups (p=0.035) and between placebo and metoclopramide groups (p=0.007), whereas there was not any significant difference between intervention groups (p=0.12). Also anti-emetic drug administration in ondansetron group (40%) in comparison with metoclopramide (63.3%) and placebo (66.7%) was lower, but this difference was not statistically significant (p= 0.07).

  Conclusion: For prevention of vomiting after laparoscopic cholecystectomy, both metoclopramide and ondansetron are effective. In comparing these two drugs, in preventing of nausea ondansetron is more effective than metoclopramide, whereas there was not any significant difference between two drugs in preventing of vomiting.

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Background & objectives: One of the most proven trajectories for analyzing the drug consumption patterns in the community is to assess the prescriptions. Using the antibiotics for prevention and treatment of infectious diseases not only leads to the loss of pathogens but also causes various complications, the most important of which is the drug resistance. The aim of current study was investigating the different antibiotics prescript by general practitioners (GPs) for outpatients in Ardabil city.

Methods: This study is designed based on the cross-sectional method. The number of 2,000 copies (according to Morgan) from total of 526000 copies sent to Ardabil health insurance during the 4 seasons of 2013 were randomly evaluated. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, ANOVA and T-Test using spss software. The P ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: In this study the average drug per prescription was 3.6 and 54.9% of the prescriptions included antibiotics so that the cefixime, azithromycin, Co-amoxiclave and penicillin 6.3.3 were the most frequently prescribed antibiotics, respectively. The highest prescriptions belonged to penicillins (39.4%) cephalosporins (27.7%) and macrolides (18.3%). The most expensive antibiotic was cefixime tablet (32% of the total cost). The most of the antibiotics were prescribed to be taken orally (tablets or capsules). The mean price of each prescription was 74539±71050 Rials. The highest rate of antibiotic prescription was related to the autumn and then winter and there was a significant relationship between the the number of antibiotics in different seasons of the year (p = 0.005).

Conclusion: The average drugs of each prescription are in accordance with local statistics, but much higher than the global figures. The frequency of antibiotics prescription was higher than the global, several Middle Eastern and even African countries’ indices but was lower than the average level of some regions in the country. The pattern of prescribing antibiotics among the Ardabil GPs shows the more drugs in number and expensive broad-spectrum. The average price of prescripts was higher than the national average. These findings suggest that prescription and using antibiotics is not desirable in Ardabil.

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Background & objectives: Due to the increasing prevalence of bacterial resistance, there is a growing attention to application of auxiliary treatment of pharyngitis. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of honey throat spray in the auxiliary treatment of patients with a diagnosis of pharyngitis.
Methods: At the start, different physicochemical quality parameters of the honey sample were evaluated. Then, the bottles of honey and the placebo throat spray were prepared. The numbers of 70 patients with the diagnosis of pharyngitis were included in a one-step and double-blinded study. In addition to standard treatment, each patient received either one of the honey or placebo throat spray. The clinical symptoms of the patients were compared between the two groups at baseline and then at 24 hours, 48 hours, 5 days and 10 days after the starting the treatment procedure.
Results: As per results, the quality of honey sample was met to the standard honey criteria. The treatment and placebo groups were statistically similar in terms of demographic specifications or clinical symptoms at the time to enter the study. Pharyngitis recovery was better in treatment group than in the placebo group; this positive effect was statistically significant for symptoms of morning phlegm and painful swallowing, 24 hours after the starting treatment. In treatment group, after 48 hours, symptoms of fever and painful swallowing were resolved, while this indicator was 23% in placebo group. Also, throat pain of 85.71% of patients in treatment group and 17.14% of patients in placebo group was relieved. Overall, the mean recovery time in treatment group was shorter than placebo group.
Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that the use of honey throat spray as auxiliary treatment of pharyngitis can improve the clinical symptoms of pharyngitis and reduce recovery time.