The study of harmful and beneficial drug interactions in intensive care, Kerman, Iran

Since multidrug therapy is common in the intensive care unit (ICU), the risk of drug interactions is high. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of drug interactions and risk factors in patients who were admitted to ICUs. In a crosssectional study, the medication flow sheet of 101 patients was investigated in terms of the number and the type of drug interactions. The Drug Interaction Facts reference text book (2010 edition) was used to determine the type and the number of drug interactions. In total, 609 potential drug interactions were found. The mean number of drug interactions per patient was 6.1 (SD=5.6). Of all observed drug interactions, 66.9 were classified as harmful and 33.1 beneficial. In terms of the nature of interactions, delayed, moderate, and possible were the most common types. The most frequent harmful interaction was between phenytoin and omeprazole (63 occasions). Critically ill patients are at a higher risk of drug interactions. Although 33.1 of the drug interactions were considered beneficial, medical teams should be awarethat even beneficial interactions can have undesirable side-effects in the critically ill. © The Intensive Care Society 2013

Impact of Patients’ Gender on Parkinson’s disease using Classification Algorithms

In this paper the accuracy of two machine learning algorithms including SVM and Bayesian Network are investigated as two important algorithms in diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. We use Parkinson's disease data in the University of California, Irvine (UCI). In order to optimize the SVM algorithm, different kernel functions and C parameters have been used and our results show that SVM with C parameter (C-SVM) with average of 99.18% accuracy with Polynomial Kernel function in testing step, has better performance compared to the other Kernel functions such as RBF and Sigmoid as well as Bayesian Network algorithm. It is also shown that ten important factors in SVM algorithm are Jitter (Abs), Subject #, RPDE, PPE, Age, NHR, Shimmer APQ 11, NHR, Total-UPDRS, Shimmer (dB) and Shimmer. We also prove that the accuracy of our proposed C-SVM and RBF approaches is in direct proportion to the value of C parameter such that with increasing the amount of C, accuracy in both Kernel functions is increased. But unlike Polynomial and RBF, Sigmoid has an inverse relation with the amount of C. Indeed, by using these methods, we can find the most effective factors common in both genders (male and female). To the best of our knowledge there is no study on Parkinson's disease for identifying the most effective factors which are common in both genders

Food and nutrition literacy status and its correlates in Iranian senior high-school students

Background: Planning interventions to promote food and nutrition literacy (FNL) require a better understanding of the FNL status of the target group and its correlates. Aims: This study aimed to examine the FNL status and its determinants in Iranian senior high-school students. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, FNL and its components (food and nutrition knowledge, functional skills, interactive skills, advocacy, critical analysis of information, and food label reading skill) were evaluated by a locally designed and validated, self-administered questionnaire. Besides, socioeconomic, demographic, anthropometric measures, as well as academic performance of 626 senior high-school students were assessed. Results: The mean ± SD of the total FNL score (within potential range of 0 to 100) was 52.1 ± 10.96, which is below the minimum adequate level of 60. The probability of high FNL knowledge score was significantly higher among students who majored in Natural Sciences (OR = 1.73, CI = 1.09�2.75), had better school performance (OR = 1.13, CI = 1.06�1.20) and higher SES score (OR = 1.20, CI = 1.01�1.44). The score for food label reading was significantly lower in girls (OR = 0.45, CI = 0.31�0.67), while those who had a family member with the nutrition-related disease were more likely to have a higher score of food label reading skill (OR = 1.48, CI = 1.01�1.64). Conclusion: The level of FNL in senior high-school students in Tehran was relatively low. These findings have key messages for the education system and curriculum designers to have more consideration for food and nutrition-related knowledge and skills in schools. © 2021, The Author(s)

One decade "narcotic addicted patients with deep vein thrombosis" in st. Alzahra hospital of isfahan, iran

BACKGROUND: Behavior and substance addiction is one of the risk factors for deep vein thrombosis (DVT). The aim of this study investigating the relationship between the different clinical manifestations pattern of DVT with the way, the amount and duration of narcotic drugs in patients admitted to St. Alzahra Hospital in Isfahan, Iran, during 10 years. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study we studied all of the patients with DVT in St. Alzahra Hospital since 2003-2013 were studied. FINDINGS: A total of 238 (59.1) of the patients were male and 165 (40.9) female. The mean age of men and women were 18.80 +/- 48 and 19.60 +/- 3.48 years old. The mean length of staying in the hospital was 5.40 +/- 7.20 days. Addiction among patients with DVT was 19.1. 28.2 of men suffered from DVT and 6 of the women were drug addicts (P < 0.001). Among the 77 patients taking the drug, 53.2 were heroin, 35.1opium, and 11.7 used other injectable drugs. The results showed that 19 patients (28.6) were taking the drug once daily, 27.3 twice a day, 6.5 three times a day, 15.6 once a week, and 26 taking the drug twice a week. From 403 patients, 2.2 had a problem in the upper limb, 44.4 in the left hand, and 55.6 in the right hand. The results showed that none of the 77 studied patients had involvement of upper limbs, but all of them in the lower limb. About 11.2 of studied patients were addicted to injective drugs. Also, 6 were addicted to non-injectable drugs and 2 to both injectable and non-injectable drugs. CONCLUSION: DVT has many risk factors and addiction and intravenously (IV) drug abuse one of the most important for this illness and this problem mast be noticed by health worker and physicians

Difficulties of Patients With Replaced Heart Valve in Kashan, 2001

Background: A great number of patients in our country have had valve replacement operation. Considering much problems and not being clear the rate of them in valve replaced patients in this area, this study was done in order to determine the difficulties of these people in Kashan in 2001.Materials and Methods: In a descriptive study patients with replaced heart valve were examined. For each patient a questionnaire was completed consisting variables such as: age, sex, occupation, valve type, place and duration of valve replacement, dyspnea, hemoptysis, continuous cough, wheezing, palpitation, edema, blood pressure under 95 mm Hg, diet and nutritional habits like salt consumption, abnormal hemorrhage, contraception status, altered daily activities, and sleep difficulties like difficulty in onset of sleep, frequently and unwanted waking up during the sleep and insomnia. Using descriptive statistics, data were classified and presented. Chi square and Fischer exact tests were used for analysis.Results: Of 140 patients with replaced heart valve, 20 cases had died and 20 people had migrated. The others were 60 women and 40 men. Seventy-five patients ranged 21 - 50 years old. Mean age was 36 years old. Two patients had biologic and 98 patients had mechanical valve. Of participants, 70 cases had at least one respiratory problem. Most common respiratory problems including dyspnea and hemoptysis were associated with Biork Shaily valve (46.6 and 36.7 respectively). Wheezing was mostly related to Sent Jude valve (28.5). Highest rates of palpitation, edema and atrial fibrillation were observed in patients over 51(85.7, 14.3 and 90.4 respectively). Rates of sleep problems and altered daily activities were 60 and 70 respectively. Fifty-five percent of patients were not educated about care plan after surgery.Conclusion : dyspnea, hemorrhage, hemoptysis, decreased tolerance to activity, sleep disorders, atrial fibrillation and low blood pressure were the most common problems of patients with heart valve. On the other hand, rate of these problems were higher in uneducated patients than educated ones. Therefore, paying more attention to education of patients after cardiac valve surgery, and also more studies in this field are recommended

Hybrid particle swarm optimization for rule discovery in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease

Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the major and important causes of mortality worldwide. The knowledge about the risk factors which increases the probability of developing CAD can help to understand the disease better and also its treatment. Nowadays, many computer-aided approaches have been used for the prediction and diagnosis of diseases. The swarm intelligence algorithms like particle swarm optimization (PSO) have demonstrated great performance in solving different optimization problems. As rule discovery can be modeled as an optimization problem, it can be mapped to an optimization problem and solved by means of an evolutionary algorithm like PSO. Methods: An approach for discovering classification rules of CAD is proposed. The work is based on the real-world CAD dataset and aims at the detection of this disease by producing the accurate and effective rules. An approach based on a hybrid binary-real PSO algorithm is proposed which includes the combination of binary and realvalued encoding of a particle and a different approach for calculating the velocity of particles. The rules were developed from randomly generated particles which take random values in the range of each attribute in the rule. Two different feature selection approaches based on multi-objective evolutionary search and PSO were applied on the dataset and the most relevant features were selected by the algorithms. Results: The accuracy of two different rule sets were evaluated. The rule set with 11 features obtained more accurate results than the rule set with 13 features. Our results show that the proposed approach has the ability to produce effective rules with highest accuracy for the detection of CAD

Clinical effects of Streptokinase in acute myocardial infarction

Background: With respect to the efficacy of thrombolytic agents in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction, the present study was conducted on CCU patients in Shaheed Beheshti hospital in Kashan in 1999-2000. We have determined the efficacy of streptokinase (Sk) based on anti-streptokinase before and after the treatment. Materials and Methods: For this clinical trial 45 patients with acute myocardial infarction were selected. Their diagnosis was made according to their clinical manifestations as well as EKG and paraclinical studies. Anti-streptokinase was measured by ELISA method. The efficacy of streptokinase was determined by Q wave in EKG.Results: Of 45 patients, 35 had low and 10 had high level of anti-streptokinase. In 35 patients (28 with low and 10 with high anti-streptokinase) the Q wave remained unchanged following the drug administration. Drug side effects were hypotension (15.5), bleeding (9) and allergic reactions (4.5). No mortality was reported. Conclusion: With respect to the high prevalence of streptococcal infections in our society, determining the anti-streptokinase level prior to the therapy is recommended. In case of low titer, we suggest streptokinase otherwise other thrombolytic agents should be administered

The Prevalence of Salmonella and Staphylococcus Aureus in Industrial Olivier Salad in Yazd in 2013

Abstract Introduction: One of the problems that developing countries encountered with them is supplying the food for Growing population.These days consumption of fast foods is common due to the changing social and economical conditions and new eating habits. Olivier salad is one of the usual cold fast foods in our country that is nutritious ,so it is high risk for bacterial contamination especially of salmonella and staphylococcus aureus. For this reason, in this study, the microbial quality of Olivier salad evaluated the presence of salmonella and staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Methods: 200 samples of Olivier salad were prepared from the different markets and the temperature of markets were measured. Immediately after the transfering of samples to the laboratory, salmonella(Iran national standards to No. 1810) and staphylococcus(Iran national standards to No. 6806-1) were determined. Results: There was no Salmonella in samples. 40 samples were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus and 160 samples were not contaminated. 30% of samples contaminated with S. aureus at 4 to 6 ° C and 70% at 6 to 8 ° C were kept. The results showed that there is a statistically significant relation between the samples storage temperature and the level of contaminations (P<0.05 and P= 0.0001). Conclusion: Salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus have particular importance in food contaminations.Lack of hygiene during production, contamination of raw materials and elevation of storage temperature are important factors for the increased contamination. So control and monitoring of food centers by the health units is obvious