Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with hydatid cysts in Khorasan Razavi Province, from 2011 to 2014

Background: This study aimed to investigate the epidemiological and clinical aspects of patients with hydatid cyst during 2011 to 2014. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Khorasan Razavi Prov-ince, the Northeast of Iran, from 2011 to 2014. The study population was all cases with hydatid cyst who diagnosed in governmental and private laboratories, hospitals and health centers (HC) in Khorasan Razavi Province during 2011-14. Results: The prevalence rate of hydatidosis was 1.44 per 100000 individuals. Of 357 cases, 54.9 were women, 40.3 rural, 45.8 housewives, and 3.4 were Afghan. The mean age of women was higher than that of men (39.13�18.9 compared to 34.7�17.9 yr, respectively, P-value=0.025). The highest proportion of cases (39.2) was in the age group of 21-40 yr old. Abdominal pain was re-ported in 42.3 of cases. Liver involvement was the most common localization of hydatid cyst reported in 59.4 of patients, and 8.4 had multiple organ in-volvement. The common diagnosis methods of the disease were radiology (42.3) followed by CT scan (37.8). 45.9 of patients had domestic dog and hygiene principles of washing the vegetables was adhered by 6.7 of patients. Conclusion: The prevalence of human hydatidosis, as a most important neglected disease, should be considered by health policy-makers in public health domain. In addition, educational programs to better recognition of the disease symptoms, and to identify the infection sources are needed in high risk group of population. � 2016, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS). All rights reserved

Study on the percent of frequency of ACME-Arca in clinical isolates resistant to methicillin- staphylococcus epidermidis in Isfahan, Iran

ACME is a mobile element of Arginine catabolic in Staphylococcus epidermidis that codes specific virulence factors. The purpose of this study was to examine the specific features and prevalence of ACME-arcA in the isolates of Staphylococcus epidermidis resistant to Methicillin isolated by clinical samples in Isfahan. In a time interval of 9 months, 120 clinical samples were gathered through Asgariyeh Hospital. After identification of the isolates, their antibiotic susceptibility was determined by disk diffusion method. Resistance to cefoxitin was measured using agar screening method and MIC values was measured using Espilometer Test (E Test). MecA and ACME-arcA genes were detected by PCR technique. Out of120 clinical samples, 68 Staphylococcus epidermidis strains were isolated. Most isolates were obtained from urine samples. In this study, 51 isolates (75%) were resistant to cefoxitin and multiple drug resistance was observed in 50 isolates (73.53%).Studies show that this is the first study on gene detection of ACME-arcA in isolates of Staphylococcus epidermidis in Iran. It was found that Staphylococcus epidermidis with ACMEarcA reservoirs is highly correlated to virulence and antimicrobial resistance genes.Keywords: PCR, Etest, mecA, ACME-arc

Global prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates according to the human development index

Background: Prostate cancer (PC) is one of the leading causes of death, especially in developed countries. The human development index (HDI) and its dimensions seem correlated with incidence and mortality rates of PC. This study aimed to assess the association of the specific components of HDI (life expectancy at birth, education, gross national income per 1000 capita, health, and living standards) with burden indicators of PC worldwide. Materials and Methods: Information of the incidence and mortality rates of PC was obtained from the GLOBOCAN cancer project in year 2012 and data about the HDI 2013 were obtained from the World Bank database. The correlation between incidence, mortality rates, and the HDI parameters were assessed using STATA software. Results: A significant inequality of PC incidence rates was observed according to concentration indexes=0.25 with 95 CI (0.22, 0.34) and a negative mortality concentration index of -0.04 with 95 CI (-0.09, 0.01) was observed. Conclusions: A positive significant correlation was detected between the incidence rates of PC and the HDI and its dimensions including life expectancy at birth, education, income, urbanization level and obesity. However, there was a negative significant correlation between the standardized mortality rates and the life expectancy, income and HDI

Impact of loss on the wave dynamics in photonic waveguide lattices

We analyze the impact of loss in lattices of coupled optical waveguides and find that in such case, the hopping between adjacent waveguides is necessarily complex. This results not only in a transition of the light spreading from ballistic to diffusive, but also in a new kind of diffraction that is caused by loss dispersion. We prove our theoretical results with experimental observations.Comment: Accepted for publication in PRL, 5+8 pages (Paper + Supplemental material), 4 figure

Effect of Music on Postoperative Pain in Patients Under Open Heart Surgery

Background: Music, as a non-pharmacological and inexpensive nursing intervention, can be used easily as a complementary technique in reducing pain along with other methods. While some studies have demonstrated pain to decrease after music, others found music to be ineffective on pain. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of music on postoperative pain in patients under open heart surgery. Patients and Methods: A quasi-experimental study was performed on 60 patients under open heart surgery referred to ICU of Shahid Beheshti hospital in Kashan city. Patients were randomly divided into two groups including experimental and control groups. Patients in music group listened to nonverbal music for 30 minutes after surgery by headphones. The control group did not receive any intervention other than routine care. Before and after intervention, pain intensity was measured and recorded by visual analog scale in two groups. Data was analyzed using Chi-Square and t-tests. Results: Before intervention, the mean of pain intensity was 6.32 ± 0.21 and 6.10 ± 0.21 for experimental and control groups, respectively; and the difference was not significant (P = 0.21). After intervention, the mean of pain intensity was 3.11 ± 0.12 and 5.81 ± 0.38 for experimental and control groups, respectively; and the difference was significant (P = 0.04). Conclusions: Listening to the relaxant music can reduce postoperative pain. It is suggested that relaxant music be used as a complementary method in patients in order to reduce prospective pain