Spiritual Experience of Heart Attack Patients: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: There are few studies on the spiritual experiences of myocardial infarction patients in the light of cultural context. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explain the spiritual experiences of patients during heart attack. Method: This was a qualitative study. Nine (4 women, 5 men) myocardial infarction patients were interviewed (in-depth interview) in the CCUs of three hospitals in Shiraz. In addition, seven nurses participated in a focus group. Data gathering and analysis were performed simultaneously and continued until data saturation. All the interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis method was used for data analysis. Results: The participants’ spiritual experiences were categorized into four themes and 11 subthemes. The main themes were trust in God, struggling with the heart, family (soothing and stress-inducing), and help-seeking. Conclusion: According to the results heart attack can bring spirituality in greater focus. Therefore, in order to deliver holistic care, health care providers must be concerned with their patients’ spiritual experiences and needs, especially in life-threatening events Keywords: Spiritual experience, Spirituality, Heart attack, Holistic care, Qualitative stud

Comparison of azithromycin and metronidazole in a quadruple-therapy regimen for <i>Helicobacter pylori</i> eradication in dyspepsia

Background/Aim: Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, and gastric neoplasms . Therefore, it is necessary to select an effective regimen for H pylori eradication . The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of two quadruple-therapy regimens-one with azithromycin and the other with metronidazole-for H pylori eradication in patients with dyspepsia. Materials and Methods: In this double-blind randomized clinical trial conducted in Rasoule-Akram Hospital in 2006, we included 60 patients (aged 15-70 years) who had dyspepsia and H pylori infection as diagnosed by upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and rapid urease test. Patients were randomly assigned to receive a quadruple-therapy regimen for 2 weeks: 1) the MAO-B group (n = 30) received metronidazole 500 mg b.i.d, amoxicillin 1g b.i.d, omeprazole 20 mg b.i.d, and bismuth 240 mg b.i.d and 2) the AAO-B group (n = 30) received azithromycin 500 mg once daily for 1 week and amoxicillin 1g b.i.d, omeprazole 20 mg b.i.d, and bismuth 240 mg b.i.d for 2 weeks). H pylori eradication was assessed by the rapid urease test (RUT) 2 months after the cessation of treatment . Results: H pylori was eradicated in 68&#x0025; and 69&#x0025; of patients in the MAO-B and AAO-B groups, respectively. There was no significant difference in H pylori eradication rates between the two groups (P = 0.939). Conclusion: No significant difference exists between the two quadruple-therapy regimens that were tested

Optimum low complexity filter bank for generalized orthogonal frequency division multiplexing

Abstract Generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) is one of the multicarrier modulation candidates proposed for the 5th generation of wireless networks. Among GFDM linear receivers, GFDM MMSE receiver achieves the best error performance for multipath fading channels at the cost of high numerical complexity. Hence, the combination of GFDM match filter (MF) receiver and double-side successive interference cancellation (DSIC) method is used instead. However, there is a significant gap between the error performance of GFDM MMSE and DSIC/MF receivers for the case of employing modern channel coding. Recently, we have proposed a new multicarrier scheme based on GFDM architecture called generalized orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (GOFDM). This study derives an optimized cyclic tree-structured perfect reconstruction-quadrature mirror filter (PR-QMF) bank for GOFDM transceiver and then introduces a novel method for implementation of the optimum filter bank in the frequency domain. Employing such a fast and optimum filter bank provides several advantages for GOFDM transceiver. GOFDM transmitter mitigates out-of-band spectrum leak to the level of that of GFDM. In addition, choosing an appropriate configuration of filter bank yields lower peak to average power ratio in transmit signal of GOFDM compared to that of OFDM. On the other hand, while GOFDM MMSE receiver has lower numerical complexity compared with GFDM DSIC/MF receiver, its coded bit error rate curve is close to that of GFDM MMSE receiver. The aforementioned advantages envision GOFDM as a competitive candidate to be employed in the physical layer of new wireless applications

Prescribing pattern of antibiotics by family physicians in primary health care

Abstract Purpose Irrational prescription of antibiotics is an ongoing global public health concern, leading to antibiotic resistance. Understanding the prescribing pattern of antibiotics is important to tackling mal-prescription and antibiotic resistance. We aimed to investigate the pattern and factors affecting outpatients’ antibiotic prescribing by family physicians in Primary Health Care (PHC). Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in 19 PHC facilities in Alborz province. Prescribing pattern of antibiotics was evaluated among 1068 prescriptions by family physicians. Prescribing pattern of antibiotics included prescriptions containing antibiotics, the number of antibiotics per prescription, type, name of antibiotic, and mal-prescription. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Results Overall, 57% of the prescriptions had ≥ 1 antibiotic and the average number of antibiotics per prescription was 1.27. Amoxicillin was the commonly prescribed antibiotic. There was a significant relationship between age, sex, type of health insurance, work experience of the physician, and seasons with antibiotic prescribing (P < 0.05). In 59.31% of antibiotic prescriptions at least one of the scientific criteria was not fulfilled. In the final analysis, after adjusting for the potential confounders, field experts of physicians (OR = 1.59; 95% CI: 1.08–6.17), female sex (OR = 2.23; 95% CI: 1.18–4.21), and winter season (OR = 3.34; 95% CI: 1.26–8.15) were found associated factors with antibiotic prescribing. Conclusion The average number of antibiotics per prescription and the percentage of irrational prescriptions were relatively high in this study. There is need to improve antibiotic prescribing patterns among family physicians working in primary health care

The Effect of Activating Early Warning System on Motahari Hospital Preparedness

Background: One of the important aspects of hospital preparedness in disasters is its rapid early warning system. In this study, the activation of early warning system was evaluated under the monitoring of disasters workgroup of the Ministry of Health based on the national program of “hospitals preparedness in disasters” in Shahid Motahari Hospital.  Materials and Methods: The sample was composed of 801 adults exposed to the earthquake. Two months after the earthquake, all subjects were surveyed with measures administrated in a standard order as follows: demographic data sheet, disaster experiences scale (DES), general health questionnaire (GHQ), and symptom checklist 90-revised (SCL-90-R). Results: The results revealed that 23% of the survivors in the exposed group had ASD, 10% had anxiety symptoms, 7.5% depression, 4% MADD, 5% psychosomatic disorders, 10% phobia, 7% aggressive behavior, and 10% insomnia. Conclusion: This article has summarized the current status of information on mental disorders caused by experiencing or witnessing a life threatening severe earthquake. The experience of fear, helplessness, and panic during the earthquake, and the appraisal by the victims of serious psychological, social, as well as demographical consequences after the earthquake, were positively related to the subscale scores and the total score of GHQ, SCL-90-R, and DES

The Effect of Activating Early Warning System on Motahari Hospital Preparedness A B S T R A C T

Materials and Methods: This is an interventional study, with a quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test design. This hospital was chosen by MOH as a benchmark for implementing the national disaster programs. The data collecting instrument was the hospital disaster preparedness checklist which evaluates 9 indexes of &quot;command and control,&quot; &quot;communications,&quot; &quot;safety and security,&quot; &quot;triage,&quot; &quot;increasing capacity,&quot; &quot;continuity of critical services,&quot; &quot;human resources,&quot; &quot;logistics and supply management,&quot; and &quot;recovery after disasters.&quot; Data of pretest and posttest were analyzed through nonparametric Wilcoxon test, using SPSS software, version 16. Results: The preparedness score before the intervention was 134, which represents the moderate level of hospital preparedness. The evaluation before and after the intervention indicated that &quot;recovery after disaster&quot; and &quot;triage&quot; had the least change with an increase of one score and the index of &quot;logistics and supply management&quot; had the maximum increase by 5 scores. The overall score of preparedness significantly increased from 134 to 159 (P&lt;0.05) after the intervention, which represents a change from moderate to high hospital preparedness. Conclusion: The preparedness of Shahid Motahari Hospital, which is the only specialized hospital of Tehran in burns, has significantly increased and reached a level of high preparedness to deal with disasters. This study indicates the importance of developing the activation of early warning system in hospitals for rapid and appropriate response to the disasters