2024 Impact Factor: 1.6
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pISSN: 2251-6085
eISSN: 2251-6093
Chairman & Editor-in-Chief:
Dariush D. Farhud, MD, Ph.D., MG.
This journal is a member of, and subscribes to the principles of, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). 
Vol 27 No 1-2 (1998)
Articles
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A pilot anaerobic filter was used to remove COD from Babolsar fiberboard production wastewater. The anaerobic filter was packed with ceramic packings and operated at different organic loading rates of 2.4 and 8 kg COD/m3 /day, in 20, 10 and 5 days hydraulic retention time (HRTI), respectively. The reactor achieved COD removal of 80.3%, 81% and 79% for HRT 20, 10 and 5 days, respectively. In addition BOD and oil removal efficiencies were shown to be 80% and 60%, respectively. The results of this study suggest that using anaerobic filter is a reliable process for removal of COD from fiberboard manufacturing effluent.
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Aging coefficient (AC) or aged-child ratio or age composition; takes into account the numbers and areas at both ends of the age distribution simultaneously. AC is the total number of individuals aged 65 years and more, divided by the total number of individuals aged 14 years, multiplied by 100. Herein, age composition in Iranian popu1ations, according to different provinces, place of residence (urban and rural) and sex was investigated. General AC in Iran was found to be 7.64 percent. The lowest A.C. was in Kohkiloye-BoyerAhmad 3.83%), and the highest A.C. in Semnan province (12.25%). On the whole, the ACs of men (urban and rural) was more than that of the urbanites.
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Nosocomial infection and its heavy financial cost is a well recognized problem. A variety of sources of organisms involved in nosocomial infection have been identified in recent years. One potential route of bacterial infection is contamination. In order to assess the importance of food contamination, we carried out a survey of bacterial examination of food and the kitchen environment of 14 hospitals. 456 samples were examined. Bacterial growth was observed in 40% and salad yielded the highest frequencies of isolation of bacteria (P<0.001). Our results strongly suggest that some foods and hospital kitchens are contaminated, and can be sources of endemic infection for hospitalized patients. So we emphasize on increasing awareness, and efforts should be made for improvement of hospital hygiene to control infections.
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Iodine deficiency disorders are among the most important health problems in Iran. Use of iodized salt is one of the oldest, most convenient and cheapest ways of IDD control, although not very easy to implement. Factors such as the chemical form of iodine, heat moisture, light and storage affect its stability. In this survey, salt iodine content at production site and the effect of heat, moisture and light on salt produced in 6 factories in Tehran were measured in May 1994. The results showed that salt iodized with potassium iodated at 40 ppm and stored for 15 days in favorable conditions, kept over 90% of its iodine content. Keeping the salt in solution form for 3.5 h resulted in 5% reduction of the iodine (P<0.0l). Storage at 50% relative humidity, sunlight and low ordinary lamp for 15 days did not affect the salt content appreciably. Boiling in uncovered pot for 3.5 h caused a 10% reduction of iodine. Only 61% of the surveyed families (84% in the north and 42% in the south) consumed iodized salt which pointed to the need for further education of the public. The iodine content of the factories was between 29 to 50 ug/kg. In view of negligible loss of iodine during cooking, it seems the recommendation of adding salt at the end of cooking process is unnecessary and may cause hesitation on the part of the housewives to use iodized salt.
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Chlorination of natural water containing humic compounds, produce significant amount of disinfectant by - products. The most important of such compounds are THlvIs and halo acetic acids, suspected to cause cancer in animals and human. Studies showed that under usual processes of water treatment plants, THMs can not be removed effectively. Since chlorination is the final process of treatment, it is necessary to suggest a method for removing such compounds. The primary goal of this research was to study the possibility of the presence of THMs in the drinking water and the procedures for its removal. In the first phase of this study which was done in 1996, the quality of raw and fmished water in the case of total THMs were studied for Ahwaz, Isfahan, Bandar- Abbas, Shiraz, Mashhad and Tehran. The THMs determination was done for three months in all cities, but for Tehran, fulfilled ten months for raw and seven months for the tap waters. Total THM concentrations were determined by liquid-liquid extraction and gas chromatography. Results varied from less than 5µgr/lit (the lowest concentration detectable by the method) to 732 µgr/lit (THM.F.P. In for BandarAbbass tap water). Four samples out of 185, showed that total THM concentrations were above the 100 µgr/lit (MCL). In the second phase of the study, Granular Activated Carbon was used to determine its ability to remove the THM, from the water. Tap water was spiked to 500 µgr/lit using bromoform and chloroform, and then passed through the activated carbon filter. The effluent and influent of the filter were analyzed periodically to determine the concentration of THMs. After 1360 liter of spiked water was passed through, breakthrough was measured. GAC absorption follows Frendlich isotherm. K and n parameters were determined.
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The production of experimentally induced drug resistance in the laboratory provides valuable opportunities for investigators to study the nature and genetics of drug resistance mechanisms to a given agent, patterns of cross resistance and the mode of action of drugs. At the beginning the continuous drug exposure was chosen as a standard procedure to produce drug— resistant strains of P. falciparum,.but later on some other methods were also applied. An intermittent drug exposure method as a novel procedure has been introduced in this study. Intermittent exposure of chloroquine resistant Kl and chloroquine sensitive T9.96 strains of P. falciparum to halofantrine culminated in a relatively rapid reduction in sensitivity to the drug. The response of halofantrifle - resistnat K1HF and T9.96 strains and parent parasites to halofantrifle, inefloquine, quinine and chloroquine was determined. The results indicated that the effectiveness of halofantrine to K1HF and T9.96HF strains decreased 9 and 3 folds respectively, compared to the parent parasites. Cross -resistance occurred among halofantrine. mefloquine and quinine. Halofantrine resistance was associated with enhanced chloroquine sensitivity in the strain derived from chloroquine - resistant K1 strain, hut not in the strain derived from chloroquine - sensitive T9.96 parasites.
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Second to the cardiovascular disease, cancer is the main cause of death in Iran. In this study some of the risk factors of breast cancer; especially the ones related to breastfeeding have been assessed. The study was a retrospective study of 100 women with breast cancer. The most important risk factors in breast cancer were number of children, age of mother on the first pregnancy. The result showed that the increase of breast cancer was related to women who stopped breastfeeding before age 24 months. Breastfeeding for more than 12 months will reduce the incidence of breast cancer by 25%. In general there was a reverse relationship between duration of breastfeeding and risk of cancer in premonopausal, but not in postmenopausal women.
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Fifty six episodes of DKA occurred in 33 patients during the period between 1998 -96. These patients were admitted and treated in Bahrami children hospital, a Tehran University teaching medical center. The most frequent clinical manifestations consisted of polyuria and polydipsia (66%), nausea and vomiting (64%), reduction in consciousness (53%), and Kussmaul respiration (53.5%). 54.6% of DKA episodes showed a pH below 7.1. There was a relationship between the severity of acidosis and the time needed for its correction. Complications during treatment appeared in 47.5% of DKA attacks, hypokalemia (18.8%), hyperkalemia (16%) , hypoglycemia (10%) were the most common. No brain edema or death occurred in our patients. The most common precipitating factors of DKA include unavailability of insulin or syringes (39.4%), infections (32%), and unknown causes (28.6%). The patients were divided in two different groups. The first group experienced 31 episodes of DKA in known patients suffering from diabetes mellitus and receiving insulin treatment. 25 episodes of DKA occurred in the second group with no previous history of diabetes; of interest is the finding that in 75% of recurrent attacks in group 1, the unavailability of insulin or syringes was the precipitating factor. The clinical, laboratory and complications of these two groups of patients were studied and the results obtained were compared with similar studies in other countries.
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The main aim of this project was the assessment, for the first time, anthropometrically, the nutritional status in school girls' population aging from 7 to 10 years in Ahwaz city and ultimately compare their growth rate with other findings obtained from different part of Iran and also with the proposed standards of NCHS in this respect. This study was conducted on 1200 apparently healthy school girls at the ages of 7, 8, 9 and 10 years chosen from 30 schools of Ahwaz city by two - stage cluster random sampling procedure. The mean ± I SD of 8.5 ± 1, 2 year, 24.5 ± 3.5 Kg and 128 ± 7.9 cm were calculated for age, weight and height respectively. The results clearly showed that weight and height were under the 5th percentile of the NCHS standards in 14.6 and 14 percent of the total investigated cases respectively. The deviation from the 5th percentile of the proposed NCHS standards was 17, 15.5, 17 and 9 percent for weight and 20, 12.6,12.6 and 11 percent for height observed at ages of 7, 8, 9 and 10 years ,respectively. Also the calculated average weight and height for age in this study were significantly lower than the NCHS standards (P<0.001 & p
