Educational needs of general practitioness about brucellosis (Khorramabad–Iran)

Background: Brucellosis imposes considerable economical, veterinary and public health devastating effects on society. Considering the high prevalence of brucellosis in Lorestan province in Iran, this study aimed to determine the educational needs of general practitioners about brucellosis in Khorramabad- Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2013, Khorramabad- Iran. 140 general practitioners recruited using census sampling method. A researcher made questionnaire of 42 questions having four domains including prevention, diagnosis, treatment and follow up of brucellosis. Data were analyzed using SPSS16 with Pearson, Chi-square and Mann-withny tests. P value was considered statistically significant ˂ 0.05. Results: The results showed that 28.6% of the general practitioners had educational needs. The highest educational need was in diagnosis domain (78.6%) and the lowest educational need was in prevention area (17.1%). Assessment scores between male and female general practitioners had no statistical significant difference, but physicians, who were working in the village centers, had higher educational needs. Conclusion: Educational needs of general practitioners about brucellosis are moderate. Regarding the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of this disease, it is suggested to pay more attention to this issue in continuing medical education

Oral microbial community composition is associated with pancreatic cancer: A case-control study in Iran

Background Oral microbiota may be related to pancreatic cancer risk because periodontal disease, a condition linked to multiple specific microbes, has been associated with increased risk of pancreatic cancer. We evaluated the association between oral microbiota and pancreatic cancer in Iran. Methods A total of 273 pancreatic adenocarcinoma cases and 285 controls recruited from tertiary hospitals and a specialty clinic in Tehran, Iran provided saliva samples and filled out a questionnaire regarding demographics and lifestyle characteristics. DNA was extracted from saliva and the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was PCR amplified and sequenced on the MiSeq. The sequencing data were processed using the DADA2 plugin in QIIME 2 and taxonomy was assigned against the Human Oral Microbiome Database. Logistic regression and MiRKAT models were calculated with adjustment for potential confounders. Results No association was observed for alpha diversity with an average of 91.11 (standard deviation [SD] 2.59) sequence variants for cases and 89.42 (SD 2.58) for controls. However, there was evidence for an association between beta diversity and case status. The association between the Bray‐Curtis dissimilarity and pancreatic cancer was particularly strong with a MiRKAT P‐value of .000142 and specific principal coordinate vectors had strong associations with cancer risk. Several specific taxa were also associated with case status after adjustment for multiple comparisons. Conclusion The overall microbial community appeared to differ between pancreatic cancer cases and controls. Whether these reflect differences evident before development of pancreatic cancer will need to be evaluated in prospective studies.ISSN:2045-763