The study of harmful and beneficial drug interactions in intensive care, Kerman, Iran

Since multidrug therapy is common in the intensive care unit (ICU), the risk of drug interactions is high. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of drug interactions and risk factors in patients who were admitted to ICUs. In a crosssectional study, the medication flow sheet of 101 patients was investigated in terms of the number and the type of drug interactions. The Drug Interaction Facts reference text book (2010 edition) was used to determine the type and the number of drug interactions. In total, 609 potential drug interactions were found. The mean number of drug interactions per patient was 6.1 (SD=5.6). Of all observed drug interactions, 66.9 were classified as harmful and 33.1 beneficial. In terms of the nature of interactions, delayed, moderate, and possible were the most common types. The most frequent harmful interaction was between phenytoin and omeprazole (63 occasions). Critically ill patients are at a higher risk of drug interactions. Although 33.1 of the drug interactions were considered beneficial, medical teams should be awarethat even beneficial interactions can have undesirable side-effects in the critically ill. © The Intensive Care Society 2013

Food and nutrition literacy status and its correlates in Iranian senior high-school students

Background: Planning interventions to promote food and nutrition literacy (FNL) require a better understanding of the FNL status of the target group and its correlates. Aims: This study aimed to examine the FNL status and its determinants in Iranian senior high-school students. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, FNL and its components (food and nutrition knowledge, functional skills, interactive skills, advocacy, critical analysis of information, and food label reading skill) were evaluated by a locally designed and validated, self-administered questionnaire. Besides, socioeconomic, demographic, anthropometric measures, as well as academic performance of 626 senior high-school students were assessed. Results: The mean ± SD of the total FNL score (within potential range of 0 to 100) was 52.1 ± 10.96, which is below the minimum adequate level of 60. The probability of high FNL knowledge score was significantly higher among students who majored in Natural Sciences (OR = 1.73, CI = 1.09�2.75), had better school performance (OR = 1.13, CI = 1.06�1.20) and higher SES score (OR = 1.20, CI = 1.01�1.44). The score for food label reading was significantly lower in girls (OR = 0.45, CI = 0.31�0.67), while those who had a family member with the nutrition-related disease were more likely to have a higher score of food label reading skill (OR = 1.48, CI = 1.01�1.64). Conclusion: The level of FNL in senior high-school students in Tehran was relatively low. These findings have key messages for the education system and curriculum designers to have more consideration for food and nutrition-related knowledge and skills in schools. © 2021, The Author(s)

The Prevalence of Salmonella and Staphylococcus Aureus in Industrial Olivier Salad in Yazd in 2013

Abstract Introduction: One of the problems that developing countries encountered with them is supplying the food for Growing population.These days consumption of fast foods is common due to the changing social and economical conditions and new eating habits. Olivier salad is one of the usual cold fast foods in our country that is nutritious ,so it is high risk for bacterial contamination especially of salmonella and staphylococcus aureus. For this reason, in this study, the microbial quality of Olivier salad evaluated the presence of salmonella and staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Methods: 200 samples of Olivier salad were prepared from the different markets and the temperature of markets were measured. Immediately after the transfering of samples to the laboratory, salmonella(Iran national standards to No. 1810) and staphylococcus(Iran national standards to No. 6806-1) were determined. Results: There was no Salmonella in samples. 40 samples were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus and 160 samples were not contaminated. 30% of samples contaminated with S. aureus at 4 to 6 ° C and 70% at 6 to 8 ° C were kept. The results showed that there is a statistically significant relation between the samples storage temperature and the level of contaminations (P<0.05 and P= 0.0001). Conclusion: Salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus have particular importance in food contaminations.Lack of hygiene during production, contamination of raw materials and elevation of storage temperature are important factors for the increased contamination. So control and monitoring of food centers by the health units is obvious

Clinical effects of Streptokinase in acute myocardial infarction

Background: With respect to the efficacy of thrombolytic agents in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction, the present study was conducted on CCU patients in Shaheed Beheshti hospital in Kashan in 1999-2000. We have determined the efficacy of streptokinase (Sk) based on anti-streptokinase before and after the treatment. Materials and Methods: For this clinical trial 45 patients with acute myocardial infarction were selected. Their diagnosis was made according to their clinical manifestations as well as EKG and paraclinical studies. Anti-streptokinase was measured by ELISA method. The efficacy of streptokinase was determined by Q wave in EKG.Results: Of 45 patients, 35 had low and 10 had high level of anti-streptokinase. In 35 patients (28 with low and 10 with high anti-streptokinase) the Q wave remained unchanged following the drug administration. Drug side effects were hypotension (15.5), bleeding (9) and allergic reactions (4.5). No mortality was reported. Conclusion: With respect to the high prevalence of streptococcal infections in our society, determining the anti-streptokinase level prior to the therapy is recommended. In case of low titer, we suggest streptokinase otherwise other thrombolytic agents should be administered

Evaluation of ascites and fluid composition in patients of Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Kashan during the years 1993-2000

History and Objectives: Ascites is defined as fluid accumulation in peritoneal space and is one of the critical symptoms for background disorders. Considering its causative factors and lack of information in this respect, this study was performed on hospitalized patients admitted to Shaheed Beheshti hospital during the years 1993-2000. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on existing data of patients with ascites. For this purpose, their medical records were extracted and studies. Then, the characteristics including age, gender, diagnosis, ascites/serum albumin gradient and protein concentration were determined and recorded. Results: A total of 17 cases out of 117 patients excluded from the study because of death prior to diagnosis, early leave and absence of coordination for paracentesis. The studied patients had an average age of 55.8±18.4. In addition, 44 of them were female and 56 of them were male and most of them had an age greater than 60 years. The major causative factors included cirrhosis (66 in total, 80.4 for males and 47.7 for females), malignancy (20), heart failure (9), Tuberculosis (1) and mixed factors (4). Furthermore, in 36 out of cases with ascites as a result of cirrhosis (97.1), the albumin gradient was greater than 1.1. This value was 100 in patients with ascites due to cardiac disorders and its sensitivity was 92.8. Conclusion: It is concluded that the most common cause of ascites is hepatic cirrhosis and it is recommended to evaluate cirrhosis and determine albumin gradient for diagnostic goals

Hybrid particle swarm optimization for rule discovery in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease

Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the major and important causes of mortality worldwide. The knowledge about the risk factors which increases the probability of developing CAD can help to understand the disease better and also its treatment. Nowadays, many computer-aided approaches have been used for the prediction and diagnosis of diseases. The swarm intelligence algorithms like particle swarm optimization (PSO) have demonstrated great performance in solving different optimization problems. As rule discovery can be modeled as an optimization problem, it can be mapped to an optimization problem and solved by means of an evolutionary algorithm like PSO. Methods: An approach for discovering classification rules of CAD is proposed. The work is based on the real-world CAD dataset and aims at the detection of this disease by producing the accurate and effective rules. An approach based on a hybrid binary-real PSO algorithm is proposed which includes the combination of binary and realvalued encoding of a particle and a different approach for calculating the velocity of particles. The rules were developed from randomly generated particles which take random values in the range of each attribute in the rule. Two different feature selection approaches based on multi-objective evolutionary search and PSO were applied on the dataset and the most relevant features were selected by the algorithms. Results: The accuracy of two different rule sets were evaluated. The rule set with 11 features obtained more accurate results than the rule set with 13 features. Our results show that the proposed approach has the ability to produce effective rules with highest accuracy for the detection of CAD

Corrigendum to “Performance Analysis of Classification Algorithms on early detection of Liver disease” (Expert Systems with Applications (2017) 67 (239–251), (S095741741630464X) (10.1016/j.eswa.2016.08.065))

The authors regret to inform that there is a mistake in Table 6 according to this table, Table 7 Figure 7 should be changed. In the following we present the correct Tables and Figure. Table 6 in the paper had two mistakes that we corrected here. It should be noted that the bold and italic values show the changed values compared with previous results. Moreover, in page 249 and the first column (line 13 of the first paragraph) will be corrected according to the corrections presented in Table 7. Add the corrections/changes of the article here: Since, the places of both FN and FP were changed, therefore, related values in Table 7 and Figure 7 have been modified accordingly. The average in reports of the first paper was 96.552 and for the second paper that the decision tree has been used the best accuracy was 69.40 percent while according to Table 7, best specificity, sensitivity, precision and accuracy (for testing) in our study were 82.05, 97.52, 94.40 and 93.75 percent, respectively. The authors would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused

Prevalence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase genes in Acinetobacter baumannii strains isolated from nosocomial infections in Tehran, Iran

Background and objectives: bla(SHV), bla(TEM) and bla(VEB) are a group of Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase enzymes (ESBLs) which are able to hydrolyze Penicillins and some cephalosporin antibiotics. The present study evaluated the frequency of ESBL genes bla(SHV), bla(TEM) and bla(VEB) in Acinetobacter baumannii strains isolated from nosocomial infections to outline the importance of these genes in antibiotic resistance. Methods: One hundred Acinetobacter baumannii strains were isolated from different nosocomial infections. After antibiotic resistance evaluation with the Kirby-Bauer disc-diffusion method, the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of Ciprofloxacin was measured using the E-test method. Then, the ESBL producing strains were identified employing Combined Disk Methods. Finally, all isolates were evaluated with the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technique to detect the ESBL genes of interest. Results: Out of 100 Acinetobacter baumannii isolates, 59 were ESBL positive according to the phenotypic method. The PCR assay could not detect the bla(SHV) and bla(VEB) genes in the studied isolates, but the presence of bla(TEM) gene was demonstrated in 42 of the strains. Conclusion: The high resistance to most antibiotics, the high prevalence of ESBLs-producing strains and also a high prevalence of bla(TEM) gene in A. baumannii strains found in the current study gives cause for major concern about nosocomial infections in Iran because of the treatment complexity of these strains. Our results highlight the need for infection control measures to prevent the spread of resistant isolates, especially in hospitals