The Prevalence of Hearing Loss in Patients with Hepatitis B Infection Compared with Healthy Volunteers

INTRODUCTION: Hepatitis B virus is a virus that creates significant hepatic and extra-hepatic complications, with widespread prevalence across the community and body systemic involvement, and can impact on hearing performance. This study aims to evaluate hearing loss among individuals with hepatitis B compared with healthy subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this case-control study, 83 HBsAg-positive patients with a 1-year history of disease were selected for pure tone audiometry (PTA) testing, while 108 HBsAg-negative patients were selected as the control group. Subjects in both groups were aged 20-40 years. The threshold was set at 25 db for hearing loss. Final data were analyzed using SPSS software. RESULTS: Significant differences were found between the case group and control group in average PTA and hearing loss. There was also a significant difference between the two groups in average PTA at frequencies of 250, 4,000, and 8,000 Hz, but not at speech frequencies of 500, 1,000 and 2,000 Hz, despite the difference in average PTA. CONCLUSION: According to significant differences in average PTA between patients with hepatitis B virus and healthy subjects in this study, hearing loss may be attributed to the presence HBV of in the patient group

Frequency and Molecular Identification of Leishmania Parasites in Smears Prepared from Skin Lesions of Patients Referred to Health Centers of Ilam Province by Digestion of the rDNA-ITS1 Gene

Objective: Ilam is a border province and a high risk zone for zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL). Identification of Leishmania parasite species in clinical infections is a prerequisite for planning appropriate control measures. This study investigates the demographic characteristics of patients and molecular epidemiology of Leishmania parasites in the skin lesions of patients from Ilam Province. Methods: A total of 106 cases of suspected cutaneous leishmaniasis were detected passively and microscopic slides prepared from their active skin lesions. We randomly selected 50 slides. A fragment of the rDNA-ITS1 gene was amplified after which the PCR products digested with HaeIII restriction enzyme. There were 18 samples sequenced and their phylogenetic relationships compared with sequences retrieved from GenBank. Results: Leishmania amastigotes were detected in 100 slides. The highest and lowest distribution of cases was from the Moosian and Dehloran districts, respectively. There were 68.9% males and 31.1% of cases were women. The RFLP pattern of all samples was similar to Leishmania major. Phylogenetic relationships displayed great similarity between our sequences and those of Leishmania major parasites from sandflies trapped in Ilam and South Khorasan Provinces and human hosts from Esfarayen, Mahshahr and Afghanistan plus Leishmania mexicana of Venezuelan origin classified together in the same clade. Conclusion: Due to homogeneous morphology, problems associated with the cultivation of Leishmania and the two-step molecular identification process, the rDNA-ITS1-RFLP method has gained considerable attention in recent years. This method could be used as a very sensitive, simple, rapid and inexpensive method to detect Leishmania parasites in a variety of clinical and non-clinical samples

CERUMEN AS A POTENTIAL RISK FOR TRANSMISSION OF HEPATITIS B VIRUS

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) transmission via blood and other body fluids from infected individuals to healthy people has been largely demonstrated. However, in the current literature, there is little information available on the potential role of cerumen in HBV transmission. Cerumen and blood were collected from 70 patients infected with HBV and 70 volunteer healthy people were selected as the control group, and the samples were evaluated by ELISA and Real-time PCR. All the patients proved positive for HBsAg and anti HBc total. Sixty-one of the 70 cerumen samples of cases (82.1) and 5 (7) of controls were positive for HBV DNA with ranges from 1.53 x 10(2) to 2.9 x 10(8) and 1.3 x 10(2) - 2.6 x 10(5)/ml, respectively. In three patients, the level of HBV DNA in cerumen was higher than that in the serums. The patients who were positive for HBeAg showed a higher rate of HBV DNA in the serum and cerumen. The results of this study showed the level of HBV DNA as a probably indicator of high risk transmission factor, which was present in the cerumen of chronic hepatitis B patients in west of Iran

OBSERVING PROFESSIONAL ETHICS, TREATMENT TEAM AND LIFE EXPECTANCY AMONG CANCER PATIENTS

Introduction: Professional ethics has turned into a special issue for many years. Physicians, nurses, medical staff, etc. are the most important individuals that their adherence to professional ethics not only increases their occupational health but it can also be considered as a therapy infrastructure. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The population included 100 cancer patients of Emam Reza and Taleqani hospitals of Kermanshah. The level of trust of patients in physicians and the medical staff was assessed with the Wake-Forest questionnaire. This questionnaire was evaluated by 3 faculty members of Tehran and Ilam medical sciences universities and content validity was analyzed. Results: The trust level of patients in physicians is more than their trust level in medical staff. The questionnaire had high reliability. The mean score of patients trust in physicians was 26.74 percent, while the mean score of patients trust in the medical staff was 22.52 percent. The data obtained from the questionnaire had a normal data distribution. A significant relationship was witnessed between some of the demographic variables and the score obtained from the questionnaire. Conclusion: The Wake-Forest questionnaire has high reliability to test trust level s in physicians and medical staff. The higher trust level meant more referring of cancer patients to the physicians. Thus, this questionnaire can be a highly important instrument in the evaluation of the professional ethics of physicians on specific patients

Investigation of oral health status (DMFT-index) among 3-6 years old children in ilam (Western Iran), 2015

Today, tooth decay is considered as one of the most common infectious diseases in developing countries such as Iran and considering this concept is among the World Health Organization programs in the field of prevention of chronic diseases and promoting health. The mean of primary tooth decay in children under 6 years is equal to 5 in Iran; however, the present study suggests this is 7, indicating an undesirable situation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the oral health status in terms of decayed missing filled teeth (DMFT) for 3-6 year-old children at health care centers of Ilam. In this cross-sectional study, 100 (female and male) children aged 3-6 years referring to urban health care centers were selected for the study. These children's background information was collected using a questionnaire. The DMFT index was used to determine the primary teeth health status. Data obtained was analyzed using independent t-test, Spearman correlation test, and chi-square test. The mean and standard deviation of the DMFT index for all children was 4.13±7.32. The results obtained by independent t-test showed no significant difference between both genders. Chi-square test was used to examine the DMFT index in both female and male children. Regarding the primary teeth for female and male genders, the highest and the lowest DMFT frequencies were associated with decayed teeth (94) and filled teeth (4), respectively. Ten percent of boys and 2 of girls have DMFT=0(caries free: CF); and 12 percent of boys and 22 percent of girls also have DMFT≥10 (Rampant caries), respectively. The DMFT index for the study participants was not approximately close to DMFT index reported by the World Health Organization. Hence, it seems that the promoting the knowledge of oral health care providers to inform parents of young children is of paramount importance. © RJPT All right reserved

Comparison of Immune Response in Mice Immunized with Recombinant PreS2/S-C18-27 Protein Derived from Hepatitis B Virus with Commercial Vaccine

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: The vaccine available to prevent Hepatitis B virus disease is ineffective in 5 of people due to the use of HBsAg as a weak immunogenic factor. In the present study, PreS2/S fused to C18-27 peptide fragment as an effective antigen and is proposed as a promising vaccine candidate compared with the conventional vaccine prescribed in the vaccination program. METHODS: After the synthesis of PreS2/S genes and C18-27 peptide fragment in pET28a, the recombinant protein was confirmed by Western blotting. The efficacy of the PreS2/S-C18-27 protein was compared with the conventional vaccine injected into five groups of rats. Finally, the cytokine level of IF-r, IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, TNF-a, IgG1, and IgG2a were measured using the ELISA method. RESULTS: This study showed no significant difference between the recombinant vaccine group and PBS control group in the IF-r test, but there was a significant difference between groups testing IL-2 and IL-10. In addition, the group receiving the recombinant vaccine with CPG adjuvant at a dilution of 1/10 in the IgG total test on days 14 and 45 after the first injection showed a significant difference in comparison with other groups. CONCLUSION: This study showed no statistically significant difference between the recombinant protein vaccine group and the conventional vaccine group. The Th1- mediated immune responses obtained from recombinant proteins with and without CPG performed better than conventional vaccines, possibly due to the functional deficiency of the available vaccines

Evaluation of Triple Fragment Vaccine HSPX (Rv2031c) + PPE44 (Rv2770c) + Mouse IgG1 (Fcgamma2a) with Auxiliary Adjuncts IL-22 in Comparison with BCG Vaccine

Background & Objective: Despite the vaccination with the BCG vaccine, tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the major health problems in the world. The aim of this study was to evaluate our newly designed vaccine using IL-22 as an adjuvant in comparison with the common BCG vaccine. Methods: The gene constructs were cloned into the expression vector of pET28a and then into the recombinant vector of PET28a - HSPX, and PPE44 was transformed into Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). Finally, the immunogenicity of recombinant proteins with and without BCG and IL-22 in BALB/c mice was investigated. Results: The key cytokines INF-gamma and TNF-alpha were elevated more greatly in BCG immunized group than in PHF immunized group. Immunization with PHF showed a significant increase in IL-4 levels versus the BCG group. Adding IL-22 to the vaccine formulations indicated a tiny increase in IL-4 levels compared to their related vaccine groups.Specific total IgG1 in the experimental groups showed an increase in comparison with control groups, but in the vaccinated groups, no significant differences were observed, and the presence of IL-22 in the vaccine formulations indicated a slight decrease compared with the related mere vaccine groups. Results of specific total IgG2a in the experimental groups revealed that only in the PHF group formulated with IL-22 a significant increase occurs compared with all other experimental groups. Conclusion: It seems that BCG, as the only licensed vaccine for TB infection, could be more potent than a recombinant vaccine in the induction of cellular and humoral immune responses