The effect of motivational strategy on voluntary plasma donation, a field trial.

BACKGROUND: Plasma protein therapies (PPTs) are a group of medicines extracted from human plasma through fractionation. The manufacture of adequate amounts of PPTs requires a large volume of human plasma. WHO emphasized that whole blood and blood component donations should be voluntary and non-remunerated. So, motivating people to donate plasma is crucial. In this study, we evaluated the impact of social media on motivating blood donors to donate plasma without any compensation and the moderating effects of blood donation history on plasma donation. METHODS AND MATERIALS: we allocated blood donors (n = 501) to intervention and control groups randomly. Participants in the intervention group got educational and motivational messages through a WhatsApp channel. Then, we followed up all participants for six months and registered the information of the plasma donation during this period. RESULT: In the intervention group, 6.8% had returned to donate plasma, while this was 2% in the control group (p = 0.016, OR:3.59, 95%CI:1.3-9.89). Among regular blood donors in the intervention group, 17.86% had returned to donate plasma but, no regular donor returned to donate plasma in the control group (p = 0.055). In addition, 10.8% of donors who had academic education in the intervention group returned to donate plasma, although this was 2.54% in the control group (P = 0.0485). CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that the educational interventions have more effects on academically educated donors to motivate them to donate plasma.

Physician burnout, a new term, a well-known concept in the medieval era: a thematic review of Ruhawi's Adab al-Tabib.

In 1974, Herbert Freudenberger introduced the phrase 'Burnout in Healing Professional Workers'. Despite the existence of numerous investigations on physician burnout, only a few studies on its historical aspects can be found. This is the first research to present historical evidence on 'physician burnout' as pointed out in the book 'Adab al-Tabib' written by Ruhawi (9th century AD). He is shown to have an understanding of this concept by talking about job stress in his book, although he offers no exact equivalent definition for this state. In fact, finding an equivalent term to 20th century burnout in a book written a thousand years ago is almost impossible. Most interestingly, the same preventive strategies for physician burnout and its causes as those scientifically discovered in recent years can be evidenced to have been introduced by Ruhawi. Hence, 'Adab al-Tabib' is an outstanding work on physician burnout in the medieval era.

Hypoallergenic diet may control refractory epilepsy in allergic children: A quasi experimental study.

Recent data has suggested a definitive role for inflammatory processes in the pathophysiology of epilepsy. In this study we hypothesized that food allergies, as chronic inflammatory processes, underlie the pathophysiology of refractory idiopathic epilepsy and investigated whether food elimination diets may assist in managing refractory epilepsy. The study was conducted on 34 patients up to 16 years of age with refractory convulsions who attended the Allergy Outpatient Clinic, Mofid Children Hospital between 2015 and 2016 with youngest and oldest participants at ages of 3 months and 16 years old, respectively. The participants were categorized into three groups according to the results of skin prick test and serum specific IgE measurements. Elimination diets were instituted for the patients with non IgE-mediated and mixed food allergies. The study was conducted for a period of 12 weeks. The participants were assessed for at least 50% reduction in number of seizures following the intervention. There was a significant reduction in number of seizures (p < 0.001) following the intervention. Seventeen patients (50%) did not experience any seizures after 8 weeks of treatment and 12 patients (35%) had a significant (51-99%) decrease in the number of their seizures. Five patients did not show any changes in their daily seizure frequency. The obtained data suggest that food allergy may play a role in triggering refractory epilepsies and their adequate response to treatment. A trial of elimination diet showed more than 50% seizure reduction in more than 85% of the children studied. However, we believe these results are preliminary and they motivate a fully controlled study in the future.

Discriminatory Ability of Visceral Adiposity Index (VAI) in Diagnosis of Metabolic Syndrome: A Population Based Study.

Background Visceral adiposity index (VAI) has been suggested as an index of visceral adiposity. This study was conducted to determine the discriminatory ability of VAI in diagnosis of metabolic syndrome (MetS). Methods and materials We used the data of 5 312 subjects aged 18-74 years of a cohort study conducted among 6 140 individuals aged 10-90 years in Amol, northern Iran. The city population was divided into 16 strata based on gender and age groups in 10-year intervals. The subjects were randomly selected from each stratum. MetS was defined based on National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP/ATPIII), American Heart Association/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (AHA/NHLBI) update of Adult Treatment Panel III (ATPIII), International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and joint interim statement (JIS) definitions. The discriminatory ability of VAI and other obesity measures were evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results While waist circumference (WC) showed the highest discriminatory ability for MetS in IDF definition in men (AUC=0.899 [CI=0.888-0.910]), VAI had the greatest discriminatory ability according to other definitions in men and women. The related AUCs of VAI were 0.866 (95%CI: 0.850-0.881), 0.829 (95%CI: 0.813-0.846), 0.859 (95%CI: 0.844-0.873) and 0.876 (95%CI: 0.863-0.889) based on NCEP/ATPIII, AHA/NHLBI update of ATPIII, IDF and JIS definition in men, and also 0.888 (95%CI: 0.875-0.902), 0.894 (95%CI: 0.881-0.907), 0.883 (95%CI: 0.869-0.897) and 0.879 (95%CI: 0.864-0.894) in women, respectively. Conclusion VAI showed an excellent discriminatory ability in diagnosis of MetS. Considering its relatively simple calculation, this index could be suggested as a reliable tool in medical practice.

Relation of intelligence quotient and body mass index in preschool children: a community-based cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: Overweight and obesity in children is a global problem. Besides physical effects, obesity has harmful psychological effects on children. METHODS: We carried out cross-sectional community-based study to investigate the relation between body mass index (BMI) and cognitive functioning in preschool children. Thirteen socioeconomical elements of 1151 children were measured and analyzed based on their intelligence quotient (IQ) test results. Thirteen out of 33 provinces were selected randomly, and schools were selected as clusters in rural and urban areas. Descriptive statistics, t-test, analysis of variance and regression were used when appropriate. RESULTS: Our analysis showed that IQ was associated with household income, place of residence, delivery type, type of infant feeding and father's and mother's education level (P<0.001 for all). Using penalized linear regression for eliminating the impact of confounding factor, our study shows that, living in metropolitan (ß=2.411) and urban areas (ß=2.761), the level of participants' father's education (ß=5.251) was positively and BMI (ß=-0.594) was negatively related with IQ test results.ConclusionsThe findings of the present study showed that a lower IQ score is associated with higher BMI. However, this relation appears to be largely mediated when the socioeconomic status was considered.

Photocatalytic degradation of Direct Red 23 dye using UV/TiO2: Effect of operational parameters.

In this study, the photocatalytic degradation of Direct Red 23 (Scarlet F-4BS) was investigated in UV/TiO2 system. The effect of catalyst loading and pH on the reaction rate was ascertained and optimum conditions for maximum degradation were determined. The results obtained showed that acidic pH is proper for the photocatalytic removal of Direct Red 23. In addition, the effects of several cations (Cu2+, Al3+, Cr3+, and Sn4+) and anions (BiO3(-), SO4(2-), and CN(-)) and C2H5OH were examined in this photocatalytic process. On the order hand, three types of catalysts (Fe2O3, SnO2, and ZnO) were compared with TiO2. After 90 min reaction, the relative decomposition order established was UV/TiO2>UV/SnO2>UV/Fe2O3>UV/ZnO.

Antimicrobial effectiveness of furazolidone against metronidazole-resistant strains of Helicobacter pylori.

The occurrence of strains resistant to metronidazole is causing failure of the 4-drug regimen for eradication of Helicobacter pylori in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This study compared the in vitro efficacy of furazolidone with metronidazole, clarithromycin, amoxicillin and tetracycline in 70 H. pylori isolates from dyspeptic patients. Of the isolates, 33% were resistant to metronidazole but all were susceptible to furazolidone. Furazolidone could be considered as an appropriate substitute for metronidazole for H. pylori infections.

Antimicrobial effectiveness of furazolidone against metronidazole-resistant strains of Helicobacter pylori

The occurrence of strains resistant to metronidazole is causing failure of the 4-drug regimen for eradication of Helicobacter pylori in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This study compared the in vitro efficacy of furazolidone with metronidazole, clarithromycin, amoxicillin and tetracycline in 70 H. pylori isolates from dyspeptic patients. Of the isolates, 33% were resistant to metronidazole but all were susceptible to furazolidone. Furazolidone could be considered as an appropriate substitute for metronidazole for H. pylori infections