Background & Objective: Aromatic hydrocarbons are produced by incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and pollute the soil following the emission into the atmosphere by precipitation. Numerous studies suggest that microbial inoculation has contributed to biodegradation of aromatic hydrocarbons. However, other studies have not confirmed the efficacy of this procedure in biodegradation. Regarding the contradictory findings, this study was conducted to evaluate capability of microorganisms isolated from oil-polluted soils in biodegrading aromatic hydrocarbons through separate or mix culture in Zanjan in 2004.
Materials & Methods: In this experimental study naphthalene, toluene and ethyl benzene were used as aromatic hydrocarbons indexes. These substance, as the sole source of carbon were added to the soils which had been inoculated with microbial colonies isolated from polluted areas and four months later microbial count was performed as microbial activity index. The extent of biological and non-biological removal of substances was assessed through gas chromatography procedure and the results were analysed by Mann-Whitney test.
Results: Mean colony counts in which toluene, ethyl benzene and naphthalene had been used as the sole carbon source were 19.7×106, 69.4× 105 and 41.2×106 colony/gr. soil respectively. In the culture containing a mixture of three hydrocarbons the number of colonies was 34×106 in one gram soil. The percentages of biodegradation for three studied hydrocarbons which had been exposed to microorganisms separately were 51, 45 and 69 for toluene, ethyl benzene and naphthalene respectively and when the mixture of the substances was added to the media culture the percentages of removal were 80.1, 65.7 and 63.6 for naphthalene, ethyl benzene and toluene respectively.
Conclusion: Aromatic hydrocarbons are biodegradable by isolating microbial population from oil-polluted soils and preparation of inoculation liquid. Since evaporation is an appropriate method in removal of hydrocarbons, soil rehabilitation through aeration together with microbial inoculation seems a proper method for removal of soil aromatic hydrocarbons.

Background and Objective: Hyperbilirubinemia is a common neonatal abnormality. Severe hyperbilirubinemia is a risk factor for auditory system injury. Auditory brainstem responses (ABR) are important in early diagnosis of hearing impairments in healthy term infants with elevated bilirubin levels requiring exchange transfusion.
Materials and Methods: During a two- year- period (2007 – 2009), in a prospective descriptive analytical study, in Tehran Milad Hospital, 64 (32 female, 32 male), healthy term (> 37 weeks) infants, who required treatment or were treated with phototherapy or received exchange transfusion for elevated bilirubin levels or jaundice, were studied. After obtaining a written consent from their parents, the infants were tested with auditory brain responses and results were analyzed using SPSS 16 software.
Results: No significant correlation was found between ABR and age, weight, bilirubin level or ABO blood group. Nineteen out of 64 infants received exchange transfusion. Three out of 19 infants (16%) exhibited abnormal ABR and 16 infants (84%) had normal ABR. There was no significant correlation between exchange transfusions and ABR (P>0.05).  
Conclusion: The results pointed out that 14% of the infants with elevated bilirubin who required exchange transfusion had abnormal ABR. This indicates that elevated bilirubin levels even without inducing kernicterus should be considered as risk factors for hearing impairments. Further studies are needed on how long these tests may remain abnormal.

Background and Objective: The Bispectral Index (BIS) is a neurophysiologic monitoring system, which continuously analyzes the electroencephalogram recording of a patient during general anesthesia to assess the patient's level of consciousness. When one is awake, the brain cortex is very active, with marked EEG signals. However, during sleep or under general anesthesia, the signal patterns change. This is used as a method for determining depth of anesthesia in patient, in order to facilitate their awakening and discharge from the recovery room. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of BIS monitoring on control of the depth of anesthesia for accelerating the awakening process and minimizing the recovery time in elderly patients. Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial, 68 patients (over the age of 60) participated who had the American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status of I or III and were scheduled for elective abdominal surgery. The patients were randomly allocated to two groups either receiving general anesthesia with BIS monitoring or without it. Result: Data were compared between groups by using the Kaplan-Meier Tests. The time to orientation was faster in the BIS group compared to the control group. There were significant differences regarding the post-operative orientation time between the two groups (P =0.0001). Conclusion: Both the recovery time and discharge from recovery were significantly faster in the BIS group compared with the control group.

Background & Objective: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a common chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. Postural control and motor function disorders are the most common MS related symptoms. Currently, exercise therapy seems to be the most effective non-pharmacological approach in controlling and improving these disorders. Thus, the present study intends to study the effect of combined training protocol on postural control and motor functions of individuals with MS.
Materials & Methods: After selecting 60 women with MS as the study sample, they were randomly assigned to two training intervention and control groups, each comprised of 30 subjects. The training intervention group performed the combined training protocol for eight weeks.
Results: The results of the covariance analysis showed that the combined training protocol had a significant effect on all postural control (postural sway indexes and Berg Balance Scale) and motor function (Timed 25 Feet Walk test and Timed Up and Go test) variables in individuals with MS (P≤0.05).
Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that the combined training protocol improved postural control and motor functions of individuals with MS. Therefore, these results may be recommended to all individuals who are making an effort to treat and improve individuals with MS.

Background & Objective: Nosocomial infection is one of the most daunting challenges to the global health care system. The current study aimed to compare the antimicrobial resistance pattern in hospital versus community-acquired infections in pediatric patients in Besat Hospital, Hamadan, Iran.
Materials & Methods: The current study was carried out on all patients with a hospital-acquired infection (HAI) who were hospitalized in Besat Hospital, Hamadan, Iran, for 48 hours. Moreover, patients with community-acquired infections (who had an infection before hospitalization) were also included in the current study. E-test and Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion test were utilized to determine antimicrobial susceptibility patterns according to the report test/CLSI M100/S27 guidelines. Antibiotic resistance patterns in both patients with hospital and community-acquired infections were separately recorded. Subsequently, the obtained data were analyzed by SPSS 16.
Results: A number of 43 and 68 patients showed HAI and CAI, respectively. The most common HAI and CAI were blood-stream infection and urinary tract infection (UTI) with a prevalence of 69.8%, and 73.5%, respectively. The most frequent organisms isolated from CA and HA-infections were E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus with a prevalence of 67.9%, and 30.2%, respectively. The highest level of resistance in Gram-negative bacteria was observed against cotrimoxazole and ceftriaxone. Furthermore, the highest resistance in Gram-positive organisms was against clindamycin. The prevalence rates of MRSA isolates in HAI and CAI were reported as 46.2% and 36.9%, respectively.
Conclusion: The obtained results indicated the high resistance to several antibiotics that can be used as promising choices in the treatment of both CA and HA-infections. It is recommended that region-specific monitoring studies be carried out in order to assist the clinician to select the accurate empirical therapy.

Background & Objective: Although Pinus eldarica is considered as a pine with many valuable phytochemical constituents, little is known about the pharmacological effects of its bark extract. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate in vivo antioxidant activity and also the possible beneficial effects of the bark extract of P. eldarica on dexamethasone-induced dyslipidemia in rats.
Materials & Methods: Total phenolic content was determined using Folin-Ciocalteu method. The in vivo antioxidant assays included the measurement of hydroperoxides level and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) value in plasma samples of rats receiving intraperitoneal injections (IP) injections of plant extract (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) for 28 days. For induction of dyslipidemia, dexamethasone (10 mg/kg) was subcutaneously administered during 8 days. Different doses of extract were given orally plus dexamethasone in three groups of animals. Serum lipids, blood glucose and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels and liver histopathology were assessed.
Results: High total phenolic content was determined as 375±1.2 mg gallic acid equivalent/ g of dried bark extract. The extract significantly decreased plasma hydroperoxides level at all doses and increased FRAP value at the dose of 400 mg/kg during in vivo antioxidant analysis. P. eldarica led to a significant reduction in serum levels of blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglyceride and MDA and improved liver histopathological changes at the doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg in dyslipidemic rats.
Conclusion: These findings suggest the potential antioxidant, antihyperlipidemic and antihyperglycemic activities for the bark extract of P. eldarica which may be due to the high amounts of phenolic compounds.

   Background & Objective:  It has been postulated that depressed individuals with low total cholesterol levels may be more likely to die prematurely from suicide. This study aimed to examine the association between low serum cholesterol and suicide in depressed attempters.
 Materials & Methods:  In this cross-sectional study, 180 suicide attempters, who met the inclusion criteria and were willing to participate in the study, were recruited in 2017. The data was collected using a demographic questionnaire and the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II). The blood cholesterol level was measured via an auto-analyzer.
 Results:  The mean age was 26.39±10.75 years. The average cholesterol level in the moderate, severe, and serious depression groups was 151.30±35.23, 145.89±36.32, and 145.15±33.33, respectively. The mean age was higher in the group with a higher depression level, though the difference was not significant (P=0.06). The percentage of suicide attempts in single individuals was significantly higher (P=0.02). The mean cholesterol level in the group with the highest level of depression was the lowest, but the difference was insignificant (r=-.01, P=0.85). Only in females, the level of blood cholesterol showed a nearly significant difference between groups with different severities of depression (P=0.05). Cholesterol had a significant correlation with suicide frequency (P=0.008, r=0.28).
 Conclusion:  Our results revealed no significant association between low serum cholesterol and suicide in attempters with depression; but low total serum cholesterol may be associated with depression and suicide in depressed subjects. Yet, more studies are required for verification of this causality.

 Background and Objective: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent malignancies in the world. The early detection of CRC is not only a simple process, but it is also the key to its treatment. Given that data mining algorithms could be potentially useful in cancer prognosis, diagnosis, and treatment, the main focus of this study is to measure the performance of some data mining classifier algorithms in terms of predicting CRC and providing an early warning to the high-risk groups.
 Materials and Methods: This study was performed in 468 subjects (194 CRC patients and 274 non-CRC cases). We used the CRC dataset from the Imam Hospital, Sari, Iran. The Chi-square feature selection method was utilized to analyze the risk factors. Then, four popular data mining algorithms were compared based on their performance in predicting CRC, and, finally, the best algorithm was identified.
 Results: The best outcome was obtained by J-48 (F-Measure = 0.826, ROC=0.881, precision= 0.826 and sensitivity =0.827), Bayesian Net was the second-best performer (F-Measure = 0.718, ROC=0.784, precision= 0.719 and sensitivity=0.722). Random-Forest performed the third-best (F-Measure= 0.705, ROC=0.758, precision= 0.719, and sensitivity=0.712). Finally, the MLP technique performed the worst (F-Measure = 0.702, ROC=0.76, precision = 0.701 and sensitivity=0.703).                                                                      
 Conclusion: According to the results, we concluded that the J-48 could provide better insights than other proposed prediction models for clinical applications.

   Background & Objective: Since the clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is not well known yet, investigating its origin, etiology, diagnostic criteria, clinical manifestations, risk factors, treatments, and other related aspects is extremely important. In this situation, clinical experts face many uncertainties to make decision about COVID-19 prognosis based on their judgment. Accordingly, this study aimed to determine the diagnostic criteria for COVID-19 as a prerequisite to develop clinical diagnostic models.
 Materials & Methods: In this retrospective study, the Enter method of the binary logistic regression (BLR) and the Forward Wald method were used to measure the odds ratio (OR) and the strength of each criterion, respectively. P-value<0.05 was considered as statistically significant for bivariate correlation coefficient.
 Results:  Phi-Crammer’s examination test showed that 12 diagnostic criteria were statistically important; measuring OR revealed that six criteria had the best diagnostic power. Finally, true classification rate and the area under receiver operative characteristics curve (AUC) were calculated as 90.25% and 0.835, respectively.
 Conclusion:  Identification of diagnostic criteria has become the standard approach for disease modeling; it helps to design decision support tools. After analyzing and comparing six diagnostic performance measures, we observed that these variables have a high diagnostic power for COVID-19 detection.

Background and Objective: Hospital readmissions are common and expensive. Identifying the patients who are at high risk of readmission can decrease readmission. Hence, in the present study, the clinical characteristics, biomarker results, and Computed Tomography (CT) criteria of all the readmitted patients were assessed.
Materials and Methods: Data of 98 readmitted patients to the Baqiyatallah Hospital in Tehran reviewed from December 22, 2019 through June 20, 2020. We classified the readmitted patients into three groups: patients (1) without COVID-19 symptoms, (2) with suspected COVID-19, and (3) with confirmed COVID-19 infection.
Results: Our data revealed that the frequency of gender was significantly different between groups (with higher frequency for men). The duration between two admissions were significantly low in the confirmed COVID-19 group. Ischemic heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus were more common in confirmed COVID-19 group. High levels of CRP, and ESR detected in the confirmed COVID-19 group. During the first admission, the count of WBC was significantly lower in the confirmed COVID-19 group, the RBC count and hemoglobin level was significantly higher in both the first and second admission in the confirmed COVID-19 group. Most of the patient’s had bilateral lung lesions and ground glass opacities (GGO) in their CT Scans in the second admission.
Conclusion: Our data suggested that the older men and ischemic heart disease, hypertension and diabetes mellitus had a high risk of hospital readmission in COVID-19. The confirmed COVID-19 group showed a shorten time to be readmitted.

Background and Objective: Patients suffering from cardiac arrest (CA) have poor prognosis and survival. The association of pre-arrest comorbidity with unsuccessful resuscitation in patients with CA is far from clear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between pre-existing comorbidity and unsuccessful resuscitation following CA in Iranian patients.
Materials and Methods: Data of all the patients with CA (1320 patients) who were admitted to Baqiyatallah Hospital (Tehran, Iran), and underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from 2018 to 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. We analyzed the association of comorbidity data with the mortality rate and unsuccessful CPR.
Results: In the present study, 794 (60.2%) patients were female. Most CAs occurred in the hospital (1289). The case fatality rate (CFR) of CA was 69.92%. Additionally, of the 1320 patients, CPR was unsuccessful in 1271 (96.3%) patients. Our data analysis revealed that gender had no significant relationship with the mortality rate and unsuccessful CPR. However, age was significantly associated with mortality, but not with unsuccessful CPR. CA, respiratory distress, and impaired consciousness were significantly associated with mortality. Furthermore, cardiomyopathy, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), renal disease (P=0.032), and poisoning had a significant correlation with mortality. In addition, CABG and congestive heart failure (CHF) were significantly correlated with the unsuccessful CPR.
Conclusion: The present study suggested that CABG and CHF had a significant relationship with unsuccessful resuscitation. Furthermore, cardiomyopathy, CABG, renal disease, and poisoning were significantly associated with mortality.

Background and Objective: Although the pain severity following laparoscopic cholecystectomy is generally lower compared to the open method, but some patients may still experience abdominal and shoulder pain for several days after the laparoscopic procedure. Based on recent evidences, pneumoperitoneum using low-pressure carbon dioxide gas can reduce the pain. This study evaluated the feedback on shoulder pain severity from laparoscopic cholecystectomy patients experiencing CO2-pneumoperitoneum.
Materials and Methods: 80 laparoscopic cholecystectomy cases were allocated for intervention (n = 40) and control groups (n = 40) randomly. Pneumoperitoneum was done by a direct trocar. Patients’ pain feedback was assessed using the visual pain scale after the surgery. SPSS 21 was used to analyze the collected data.
Results: Shoulder pain frequency significantly differed between the two groups at 12 hours (P = 0.048) and 24 hours (P = 0.001) after the surgery. Regarding average shoulder pain severity, the groups showed significant differences after 2, 6, and 24 hours of surgery (P < 0.05). Moreover, pneumoperitoneum duration was different in the groups (P = 0.001).
Conclusion: Based on these findings, low pressure of pneumoperitoneum with active evacuation compared to the standard pressure, efficiently reduced shoulder pain intensity. Thus, using low-pressure pneumoperitoneum in laparoscopic cholecystectomy is recommended to relieve postoperative pain.