Malaria or flu? A case report of misdiagnosis

We present and discuss elaborately a case of malaria misdiagnosis in a 27-year-old woman in Chalus, Mazandaran Province, North Iran in 2013. The patient has been complaining of fever, shivering and myalgia for three months. Although she visited two physicians during this time, the problem still remained owing to misdiagnose. Eventually in hospital after a precise examination on her thick and thin blood film, the causative agent of disease was diagnosed as plasmodium vivax. The patient received treatment accordingly and all clinical manifestations were vanished

Psychometric Properties of Persian Version of the Mobile-Health Technology Engagement Index

Background and Aim: The use of Mobile-Health is helpful in facilitating therapeutic communication between students and healthcare providers. Considering the benefits of the Mobile-Health, it is very important to have a tool that can check the motivation to use Mobile-Health. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of Psychometric properties of mHealth Technology Engagement Index. Materials and Methods: The present study is psychometric research that was conducted in Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 1401. The participants of this study were 450 students of medical sciences in Tehran in undergraduate, master’s and doctorate levels who were included in the study through convenience sampling. The psychometric characteristics of the questionnaire were examined through face, content and construct validity respectively. Principal component analysis was performed using varimax rotation in order to check the factorial structure of the questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire was checked with the help of Cronbach’s alpha and intra- class correlation (ICC). Results: The questionnaire’s content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI) were 0.91 and 0.86, respectively. In the formal validity check, minor changes were made in the words of most of the items. Based on the results of face validity, some minor changes were made to the vocabulary of most items. The ICC coefficient was more than 0.80 in all dimensions. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis extracted five factors, autonomy, competence, relatedness, goal setting and goal attainment, and their cumulative variance was %71.48.  The fit of the five-factor model was optimal based on standard goodness of fit indices such as CFI=0.978, GFI=0.930, RMSEA=0.040, CMIN/DF=1.307. Convergent and divergent validity was accepted for all factors. The reliability of the questionnaire was obtained using Cronbach’s alpha test of 0.71. Conclusion: The five factor structure of the questionnaire of interaction with mobile health technology has good validity and reliability. Therefore, this questionnaire can be used to check the level of interaction of users of medical science students with mobile health technology

High Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii Antibody in HIV/AIDS Individuals from North of Iran

Background: Toxoplasmosis in immunocompetent people is generally asympto­matic but in immunocompromised patients including HIV/AIDS, can­cer pa­tients, and organ transplant recipients, etc. it can lead to serious pathological problems. The objective of current study was to determine the seroprevalence of T. gondii IgG and IgM antibodies in HIV/AIDS patients using ELISA technique in Mazanda­ran Province, northern Iran. Methods: Overall, 82 serum samples (61 males and 21 females) were collected from HIV/AIDS patients in Mazandaran Provinces, in 2013. Sera were surveyed employing ELISA assay. Data were analyzed using Chi-Square or Fisher exact test. In addition, before sampling a questionnaire was filled out for each subject. Results: Overall seroprevalence of examined sera was 96.3% for IgG antibody but none of the sera shown IgM antibody against T. gondii. The seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis in males and females was 96.7% and 95.2%, respectively. An antibody titer of >1 IU/ml was considered as positive. Furthermore, none of the included variables statistically was significant. Conclusions: Seroprevalence of chronic (latent) toxoplasmosis in HIV/AIDS patients in Mazandaran Province is high compared to toxoplasmosis in general population. Consequently, the risk of acquiring Toxoplasma encephalitis in exam­ined seropositive HIV/AIDS patients of Toxoplasma is high