Evaluation of health related quality of life in irritable bowel syndrome patients

Background: Quality of life (QOL) is an important measure in the management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Controversy exists in the findings of studies evaluating QOL in IBS subtypes, and little is known about this issue in Iranian patients. Determination of the factors affecting QOL in IBS patients may influence treatment outcomes. The aims of this study are to: 1) compare QOL between subtypes in a sample of Iranian IBS patients, 2) determine the factors associated with QOL in IBS. Methods: This cross sectional study included two hundred and fifty IBS patients with the mean age ( ± standard deviation) of 31.62 ( ± 11.93) years that were referred to outpatient gastroenterology clinic. IBS patients were diagnosed based on Rome-3 criteria by a gastroenterologist, and then they were categorized into three subtypes according to the predominant type of bowel habit. The “QOL specific for IBS”, “Stait-trait anxiety inventory”, and “Beck depression inventory-2 ” questioners were used to evaluate QOL, anxiety, and depression symptoms, respectively. Results: The mean QOL scores in IBS mixed subtype (71.7 ± 25.57), constipation predominant subtype (80.28 ± 25.57), and diarrhea predominant subtype (76.43 ± 19.13) were not different. (P value: 0.05) In multivariate linear regression analysis, anxiety symptom scores were inversely correlated with QOL scores. [Standardized beta:-0.43, (95 % confidence interval:-0.70,-0.39), P value: < 0.01] Conclusion: It seems reasonable to manage anxiety symptoms properly in IBS patients since this might increase their QOL

Design and construction of a novel measurement device for mechanical characterization of hydrogels: A case study.

Natural biopolymer-based hydrogels especially agarose and collagen gels, considering their biocompatibility with cells and their capacity to mimic biological tissues, have widely been used for in-vitro experiments and tissue engineering applications in recent years; nevertheless their mechanical properties are not always optimal for these purposes. Regarding the importance of the mechanical properties of hydrogels, many mechanical characterization studies have been carried out for such biopolymers. In this work, we have focused on understanding the mechanical role of agarose and collagen concentration on the hydrogel strength and elastic behavior. In this direction, Amirkabir Magnetic Bead Rheometry (AMBR) characterization device equipped with an optimized electromagnet, was designed and constructed for the measurement of hydrogel mechanical properties. The operation of AMBR set-up is based on applying a magnetic field to actuate magnetic beads in contact with the gel surface in order to actuate the gel itself. In simple terms the magnetic beads leads give rise to mechanical shear stress on the gel surface when under magnetic influence and together with the associated bead-gel displacement it is possible to calculate the hydrogel shear modulus. Agarose and Collagen gels with respectively 0.2-0.6 wt % and 0.2-0.5 wt % percent concentrations were prepared for mechanical characterization in terms of their shear modulus. The shear modulus values for the different percent concentrations of the agarose gel were obtained in the range 250-650 Pa, indicating the shear modulus increases by increasing in the agar gel concentration. In addition to this, the values of shear modulus for the collagen gel increase as function of concentration in the range 240-520 Pa in accordance with an approximately linear relationship between collagen concentration and gel strength

A Retrospective Study Of Gastric Cancers In Tehran

Background: Gastric cancer is one of the most common cancers in our country. Recent studies have shown that adenocarcinoma of the cardia and distal stomach has increased in the past 25 years. However demographic data is lacking in this regard. Methods: This study is a retrospective case series study. All records from 460 consecutive patients who were documented pathologically to have gastric cancer and had been referred for diagnosis and follow-up to a private clinic from 1992 to 2002 in Tehran were evaluated. Results: 71 records were dismissed due to incomprehensive data. Among 389 remaining records 68.5% were males; mean age was 59.4 years (range 13 to 92 years), 31.1% of patients were 40 years old or less (which is very high). Also 85% (331) of patients had adenocarcinoma and 5.9% (23) had lymphoma, 8.1% (31) had undifferentiated carcinoma while only 1% (4) of cases had gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST). 64% of tumors were located in the middle part of the stomach, 19% in the lower and 17% in the upper part. In our study the association between H. pylori and adenocarcinoma was 23.2% in cases younger than 40 years (P<0.001) and 56% in cases older than 40 years. Cases with lymphoma had the highest correlation with H. pylori. There was a significant difference between cancer pathology and sex (P< 0.001). Conclusion: Our data is somehow in conflict with the western data. We do not recommend blind H. pylori eradication based on positive serology (at least in Tehran) and we suggest conduction of larger multicenter studies in this field in our country