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Background and Objectives: Nosocomial infections as a major present-century health problem inflicts great loss of life and high costs on the inpatients. With regard to high frequency of nosocomial infections and their importance this study was conducted with the aim of determining the incidence of nosocomial infections in intensive care unit (ICU) of Shafiieh hospital in zanjan during the years 2003 to 2004.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was carried out on 150 ICU patients who had urethral catheter and were qualified to enter the research (no infection at hospitalization time and the need for Foley catheter). For all research cases urine culture was performed on arrival at the unit and every 48 – 72 hours until discharge, and demographic characteristics questionnaire and disease severity evaluation questionnaire (APACHE II) were completed. To evaluate the validity of data collecting tool content validity method and to evaluate the reliability of APACHE II inter observer reliability were used. For reliability of urine culture results all specimens were tested in the same laboratory by the same person through the same technique. The data were analysed with the help of descrptive and analytical statistics (2 test and t-test). The incidence frequency rate of nosocomial UTI, common microorganisms, and the association of disease severity, bed time, gender, and age with infection incidence were determined.
Results: The incidence frequency rate of nosocomial UTI in hospital’s ICU was found to be 25%. The most common microorganisms causing nosocomial UTI were: E.coli (50%) staphylococcus (17.5%), Klebsiella (7.5%), fungal infections (5%) and Entrobacter (2.5%). There was a significant difference in females between period of urethral catheter use, period of bedtime and occurance of urinary infection (p=0.05). No significant difference was observed between age and nosocomial UTI.
Conclusion: According to research findings there was a significant association between females bed time and the length of urethral catheter use with infection incidence. Implementation of preventive policy such as application of catheter only in urgent cases, using aseptic methods in treatment and nursing, separation of the patients having catheter, and employment of infection control plan are recommended.

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Background and Objectives: Propofol is the most frequently used intravenous anesthetic today. One of its side effects is the pain on injection. Various methods such as adding lidocaine, cooling or warming and dilution of the propofol solution have been used for reducing the pain. However, each of these methods comes with a degree of failure. We designed this double-blinded randomized clinical trial to evaluate the effects of ephedrine of the injection pain caused by propofol. Materials and Methods: Fifty patients, between 20-60 years old and in the ASA physical status I and II, were enrolled in this experimental study and randomly divided into two equal groups. The basal vital signs for all patients were recorded, and 30 seconds prior to the induction of anesthesia, either 70µg/kg of ephedrine (study group) or an equal volume of normal saline (control group) was administered without premedication. Then, 20% of propofol was administered to each patient, and the pain intensity was measured and recorded by both the Verbal Rating Scale (VRS grading 0-3) and Face Pain Scale (FPS grading 1-6). The remaining dose of propofol and atracurium were administered. Results: Patients of two groups were similar with respect to age, sex, ASA status, and basal vital signs (P>0.05). The mean degrees of pain severity, in the study and control group were 0.48 ± 0.51 and 1.08 ± 759 by VRS (P = 0.002), and 1.48 ± 0.586 and 2.04 ± 0.841 by FPS (P=0.009), respectively. Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, also supported by other studies, it seems that administration of ephedrine prior to propofol is a suitable method for reduction of pain from propofol injection.

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Background and Objective: Antioxidants along with other active biological effects of Green Tea and Zataria multiflora boiss deserve paramount consideration. This study was an attempt to evaluate the effects of Green Tea and Zataria multiflora boiss on passive avoidance learning and hippocampus neurogenesis in Wister male rats.

Materials and Methods: Upon assigning the rats to three groups of control (intact), sham and experimental, the sham group received 1 cc of distilled water by infusion for 8 weeks, whereas the experimental group received 0.5 cc of green tea and 0.5 cc of Zataria multiflora boiss infusion, with concentration of 0.04 g/ml via oral gavage daily for 8 weeks. Subsequent to administration of behavioral test (Passive avoidance learning), density of neurons in the rats’ hippocampus was microscopically assessed and one-way ANOVA test was implemented for data analysis.

Results: Green tea and Zataria multiflora boiss significantly enhanced memory recall in animals. In the meantime, over histologic analysis, augmentation in the number of neurons in the hippocampus regions was observed.

Conclusion: These findings verify the beneficial remedial effects of green tea and Zataria multiflora boiss on improvement of memory, neurogenesis of CA3 regions and dentate gyrus in rat hippocampus. 

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Background and Objective: Based on the important role of nasal carriers of Staphylococcus aureus in hospital settings and their importance in the transmission of bacterium to patients and other personnel, the aim of the present study was to determine the frequency of nasal carriers, antibiotic resistance patterns and genotyping of S. aureus isolated from personnel of Shahid Beheshti hospital in Yasuj city (Iran) using the agr typing method.
Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 347 nasal samples were collected from the healthcare workers of Shahid Beheshti Hospital in order to identify S. aureus. Cefoxitin containing disks and detection of the mecA gene were used for the identification of methicillin resistant isolates. The antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of isolates were tested against 15 different antibiotics using the Disc Agar Diffusion method. The Multiplex-PCR method was used for the agr typing of S. aureus isolates.
Results: Ninety-three (26.8%) of personnel were nasal carriers of S. aureus, among them 9 isolates were identified as MRSA. Among agr groups, agrI (40.9%) and agrIII (40.9%) were the prominent genotypes. All of the isolates (100%) were resistant to Penicillin. The resistance rate to erythromycin and co-trimoxazole were 12.9% and 5.38% respectively. Most of the isolates were sensitive to other antibiotics.
Conclusion: Based on the low resistance rate of S. aureus, it appears that the eradication of nasal carrier states could be possible. S. aureus agr types I and III have an important role in nasal colonization in comparison to other agr types.
 
 

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Background and Objective: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most common metabolic disorders that cause a high annual cost of patients care and health services in a society.  Given the fact that DM management is very important, the present study aims to investigate the effect of combined therapy with fenugreek and nutrition training based on Iranian traditional medicine on FBS, HgA1c, BMI, and waist circumference in type 2 diabetic patients.
Materials and Methods: This randomized double blinded clinical trial was conducted on patients with type 2 diabetes in Tehran (Iran) during 2017. Patients were randomly divided into four groups, including: G1 [fenugreek powder (10g/two times per day) with nutrition training), G2 [wheat flour (placebo) with nutrition training), G3 [fenugreek powder (10g/two times per day) without nutrition training], and G4 [wheat flour (placebo) without nutrition training]. 
Results: This study was done on 125 patients (43% male and 57% female). There was no significant difference in demographic characteristics of all groups. The mean of FBS in G1, G2, G3 and G4 significantly decreased by 62, 12, and 23 units, respectively (P<0.001). The mean of HbA1c in groups G1, G2, and G3 declined by 0.77, 0.31 and 0.5 units, respectively. The mean of BMI in groups G1, G2, and G3 decreased by 1.38, 0.82 and 0.89 units, respectively. Furthermore, waist circumference reduced in all of three groups by 7.11, 3.8 and 3.18 units, respectively. There was no significant change in mean value of these parameters in G4 group.  
Conclusion: Given the positive effect of fenugreek and nutrition training on FBS, HbA1c, BMI, and waist circumference, it can be suggested for blood glucose control in diabetic patients. Interestingly, combined therapy with fenugreek and nutrition training was more effective in reducing blood glucose, indicating the importance of this combined therapy for blood glucose control in DM patients. 

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