Epidemiological, Clinical and Radiological Characteristics of Patients with Head Trauma

Introduction: Head injury has been recognized as a major public health problem and is a frequent cause of death and disability in young people and makes considerable demands on health services. Motor vehicle accidents are the major causes of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that its occurrence has been increasing in our country in recent years.Objective: We decided to study head injury in our region to evaluate the Epidemiological, clinical and radiological features of this health problem.Materials and methods: We reviewed 200 TBI-patients records in Ali ebn abitaleb hospital of Rafsanjan from November 2012 – September 2013. A Questionnaire including Age, Sex, Job, Cause of trauma, GCS, Brain CT Scan findings and clinical symptoms for every head trauma patient; was completed. Data were analyzed by SPSS software. We used Chi-square test and P-Value less than 0.05 was considered significant.Results: From the total of 200 patients, 73.5% were males and 26.5% were females. The most common age group was 20-24 years. Majority of patients were students. Traffic accidents were the major cause of injuries (64.5%) and 35.5% of them were motorcyclist. The most frequent finding of Brain CT scan was skull fracture and subdural hematoma. 25% of patient had severe head injury. In clinical symptoms in conscious patients, headache, nausea, vomiting and vertigo was common.Conclusion: This study showed that we should pay more attention to traumatic brain injury young patients who are the most active potential forces of our society. Traffic accident s are the major reason for head injuries. Pay attention to prevention of this accident can perform important role in decreasing of head injuries

Biochemical properties and microbial analysis of honey from North-Western regions of Iran: Seasonal effects on physicochemical properties of honey

In the present study, physicochemical properties (pH, ash, commercial glucose, starch, reducing sugars and moisture) and microbial (yeast and enterobacterial) contaminations of 263 honey samples from North-western regions of Iran were evaluated in a 2 year period in different seasons of 2010 and 2011. Levels of reducing sugars and sucrose showed significant seasonal differences, with the highest levels observed in summer samples. No commercial glucose or starch was detected in any of the samples; but levels of reducing sugars and sucrose content of 1.52 and 6.84% samples were unacceptable, respectively. Moisture, ash content (0.4 ± 0.01%) and pH values (4.44 ± 0.02) of all samples were in the required standard range and did not significantly vary in different seasons. Of all the samples evaluated, only seven samples (2.66%) contained yeast, and two samples (0.76%) were contaminated with bacteria from family Enterobacteriaceae (2 samples with both contaminations). None of the isolates were found to be of major pathogenic importance.Keywords: Honey, physicochemical, microbial, north-western, Ira

Inhibitory Effect of Mentha Longifolia L. Essential Oil against Listeria Monocytogenes Using Transmission Electron Microscopy

Inevitable side effects of chemical food preservatives and drug resistance have increased interests on use of natural preservatives derived from plants. Therefore, in the present paper, the biological properties of Mentha longifolia L. essential oil were studied. Chemical analysis (GC/MS) and antibacterial properties of the Mentha longifolia L. essential oil (EO) was under different temperature and pH values were evaluated with special reference to the mechanism of inhibition Listeria monocytogenes growth at ultra-structural level by TEM.Minimum inhibition concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration values of the M. longifoli L. EO showed to be in the range of 150-9600 μg/ml. These MIC, MBC results and cell membrane damage observed in TEM evaluation indicate that this EO has a high potential of anti-Listeria effect.It is concluded that M. longifoli L. EO could be effectively used as a natural biopreservative against foodborne bacteria.</p

Chondroma of Falx: Case Report of a Rare Condition

Chondroma is a benign tumor which mostly occurs in extremities but also sometimes in brain. Most intracranial chondromas arise from skull base, but chondroma of falx origin is a rare circumstance. Indeed, the intracranial chondromas rise from falx is mostly in relation with syndromic disorders such as Mafuccis syndrome or Olliers syndrome. Here, we reported a rare case of falxian intracranial chondroma in a young man who has normal physical examination and no signs of any syndromic disorder. The goal of this paper was to raise awareness about chondromas and suggest that chondroma be ruled out in any patient with masses arising from falx

The effect of head cooling and remote ischemic conditioning on patients with traumatic brain injury

Summary: Cerebral impairment caused by an external force to the head is known as traumatic brain injury (TBI). The aim of this study was to determine the role of local hypothermia and remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) on oxidative stress, inflammatory response after TBI, and other involved variables. The present study is a clinical trial on 84 patients with TBI who were divided into 4 groups. The head cooling for 1.5 to 6 hr was performed in the first three days after TBI. RIC intervention was performed within the golden time after TBI in the form of four 5-min cycles with full cuff and 5 min of emptying of cuff. The group receiving the head cooling technique recovered better than the group receiving the RIC technique. Generally, combination of the two interventions of head cooling and RIC techniques is more effective on the improvement of clinical status of patients than each separate technique