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Background & Objective: Few studies concerning the effects of Opioid drugs on the function of immune system have been conducted and conflicting results have been reported. This study evaluates the in-vitro immune responses of drug abusers and investigates the pattern of production of IFN-? and IL-10, which represents the subsets of CD4+T-helper cells. Materials & Methods: Blood samples were taken from healthy drug addicted volunteers. Blood samples were also taken from healthy individuals with no history of drug abuse as control. Cell culture was performed in whole blood culture assay. Diluted blood samples were stimulated with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and the supernatants were collected to measure the Cytokine production. Results: The results demonstrated that a significant decrease in IFN-? production and increase in IL-10 production in Heroin addicts, whereas the production of these Cytokines in Opium addicts was not significant different from those in control group. Conclusion: The results indicated a significant decrease in mitogenic responsiveness of T-cells in Heroin addicts relative to control group, whereas mitogenic responsiveness of T-cells in Opium addicts was not significantly different from control group.

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Background&Objective: Decrease in production of erythropoietin has been noted as one of the main factors causing anemia in ESRD patients, and administration of recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) has been used to correct the anemia. Iron deficiency, including functional iron deficiency, limits the efficacy of rhEPO therapy in ESRD patients. This study examined the effects of maintenance intravenous iron sucrose (Venofer) on haemoglobin level and, optimization of erythropoietin therapy. Materials&Methods: Forty eight haemodialysis patients with haemoglobin level<9 gr/dl who were dialyzed three times weekly went under the study. Two thousands units of rhEPO were given subcutaneously at the end of each dialysis for seven weeks. At the end of the seventh week, those with haemoglobin level<9 gr/dl and with ferritin level <200 ng/dl (29 patients) were chosen for intravenous administration of 100 mg Venfor during the next five consecutive haemodialysis while maintaining the rhEPO dose at 2000 units with each dialysis. A week after the last dose of Venofer, haemoglobin and serum ferritin were determined. Results: Average haemoglobin level among the patients before administration of rhEPO was 7.5 gr/dl. After seven weeks of subcutaneous rhEPO at 2000 units with each haemodialysis, the average haemoglobin level raised to 8.5 gr/dl. The effect of maintenance IV Venofer was an increase in average haemoglobin level to 10.4 gr/dl. The same effect was seen on the ferritin level. The ferritin level of 131 ng/dl increased to 237 ng/dl a week after last dose of IV venofer. Conclusion: Intravenous (IV) iron improves haemoglobin response and, thus, optimizes rhEPO therapy.

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Background & Objective: Burnout is a syndrom that emerges by mental fatigue and loss of competency. Inappropriate pysical Environment and Professional Equipment may be caused Burnout in nursing. Therefore this study accomplished by object of determination of relationship between Burnout and physical Environment and professional equipments. Materials & Methods: This is a descriptive –analytical corrolational study. The environment of study was medical sciences hospitals and samples were nursing emploees in 1383-84. The research tools were two questionnaire including Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) consisted of three partsincluding: Emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal achivement. the next, was pysical Environment and Professional Equipments questionnaire. Results: Total participants were 272 nurses that43.8% of them had high level of emotional exhaustion, also there were a significant relationship between emotional exhaustion, dpersonalization and physical environment (p ? 0.05). In adition, there were a significant relationship between severity of emotional exhaustion and dpersonalization with professional equipments (p?0.05). There were a reversed relationship between burnout and professional equipments desirability. Conclusion: This study indicated that most of the samples had high emotional exhaustion and there were relationship with physical environment and professional equipments. Also there were a reversed relationship between burnout and professional equipments desirability.

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Background and Objective: Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men and it is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men after lung cancer. Therefore, this study was done to assess of risk factors for prostate cancer in Mazandaran province, Iran. Materials and Methods: A matched case-control study was conducted on 104 prostate cancer patients and 104 controls in Mazandaran province during 2005. The addresses of the patients were obtained using the cancer registry information existed in Babol research center in Iran. The data were collected using a questionnaire by in-person interview of cases and their controls and were analyzed using STATA (8.0). Results: Univariate condition logistic regression showed that age, prostatitis, drinking alcohol, using chopoghe, family history of prostate cancer, having other cancer, intensity of activity, time of job activity were found to be the risk factors although higher BMI and execreise were protective for prostate cancer (P<0.20). In multivariate analysis, after adjusting for the effect of the confounders, prostatitis, age, alcohol consumption and family history of prostate cancer were found to the most important risk factors. Conclusion: This study identified prostatitis, age, alcohol consumption and family history of prostate as the independent risk factors for prostate cancer. We suggest that men after the age of 60 should be screened for prostate cancer annually.

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Background and Objective: Life saving with a high quality health care programs in the shortest duration is the mainstay of emergency department system. Frequent monitoring and quality control of this process and the satisfaction of patients are among the very important indices in hospital quality. This study was designed to evaluate the clients satisfaction in the hospitals affiliated to Golestan University of medical sciences. Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was done on 2400 referred patients in emergency departments of different hospitals in Golestan province, northern Iran during 2006. Data were gathered by questionnaire included demographic data and questions about satisfaction of outpatients and emergencies. The Data analyzed by SPSS-15 software and chi-square test. Results: Level of satisfaction in emergency department, was reported as follow: physician attention and behaviors (86%), nursing behaviors (85%) responsibility to patients (84.1%) status of the environmental temperature (83.9%) and cleaning (81.9%). The lowest satisfaction was related to behavior of guardsman (33.8%). In emergency ward, levels of patient's satisfaction were as following: Access to telephone (49.7%) quality of the meals (47.4%) quantity of meals (44.1%) and the lowest level of satisfaction of patient was neglecting the patient's right (8.2%). Conclusion: This study indicated that more educational programs, should be arranged for the emergency units employees to observe patients right.

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Background and Objective: An increased risk of invasive infections with encapsulated bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae has been described among splenectomized patients. Pneumococcal vaccination has been recommended in these patients. In this study, the serum antibody response to pneumococcal polysaccharide antigens in splenectomized patients with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) or trauma who immunized with Pneumovax 23 was evaluated. Materials and Methods: This case - control study was performed on two groups of patients including fifteen cases of trauma patients (11 male, 4 female) and twenty patients with ITP (10 male, 10 female) along with 40 healthy volunteers as controls who were immunized with Pneumovax 23 to prevent pneumococcal infections. All patients received the pneumococcal vaccine before splenectomy. The serum antibody response (IgG and IgG2) to pneumococcal antigens was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique prior to vaccination and 4 weeks post-vaccination. Analyzing of data was performed using student t-test and linear regression test. Results: The mean of post-vaccination IgG or IgG2 titer to the pneumococcal antigens in ITP patient group was significantly lower than those in controls or in trauma group (P<0.05). No significant differences in IgG or IgG2 antibody titer increase were found between trauma group and healthy control group. Response to immunization was poor in 9 of 20 ITP patients. Conclusion: This study indicated that 45 percent of patients suffered from ITP who have undergone splenectomy responded poorly to pneumococcal antigens.

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Background and Objective: Drug resistance to tuberculosis and especially multiple drug resistance tuberculosis (MDR-TB) variants are a serious problem in tuberculosis patients and make difficulties in controlling the disease. This study was coducted for detection of common mutations causing drug resistance of mycobacterium tuberculosis strains among tuberculosis patients using line probe assay method. Method: In this descriptive study, fifty four sputum samples of tuberculosis patients were randomly selected in health centers of Mazandaran, northern Iran during 2012. After culturing of sputum samples on Lowenstein–Jensen medium, genomic DNA was extracted from colonies using CTAB method. Molecular analysis of mutations causing resistance to five different antibiotics including Isiniazide, Rifampin, Sterptomycine, Amicasin / Canamycine, Kinolon were performed using long probe assay (LPA) method. Results: Out of 54 sputum samples, three (5.5%), three (5.5%), four (7.4%) were resistance to Kinolon, Amicasin / Canamycine and Sterptomycine, respectively. Mutation in KATG was seen in 2 samples resistant to Isiniazide. Mutation in rpoB 516 was seen in 3 samples resistant to Rifampin. Four samples (7.4%) were resistant to the two anti-tuberculosis antibiotics, while three samples were resistant to Sterptomycine and Kinolon and one sample was resistant to Rifampin and Canamycine. Conclusion: 7.4% of sputum samples were resistant to the two anti- tuberculosis antibiotics. Line probe assay is a rapid and suitable method for detecting tuberculosis drug resistance.

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Background and Objective: Breast cancer and related treatments induce various physical symptoms. One of suggested method for preventing or reducing physical symptoms is exercise training. This study was done to evaluate the effect of 8 weeks Pilates exercises physical fitness indices in breast cancer patients.
Methods: In this randomized clinical trial study 30 female breast cancer patients were divided into intervention (n=15) and control (n=15) groups by block randomization method. Pilates exercise for 8 weeks, 3 days a week for 60 min in every session was performed in Patients in interventional group but patients in control group did not participate in any regular physical activity. Flexibility, coordination, back and hand strength and muscular strength were determined using Wells, alternate hand wall toss, one leg –stance, back and handgrip dynamometer, sit up tests, respectively.
Results: Pilates exercises significantly increased flexibility, balance, coordination, back and hand strength, muscular endurance and sit up in interventional group in compared to controls (P<0.05).
Conclusion: Pilates exercise improves physical fitness indices in women with breast cancer.

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Background and Objective: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common systemic inflammatory disease. The FOXP3 gene is an agent that activates during the course of the disease and accumulates in the sinus arthritis of the inflamed joints, resulting in persistent inflammation and ultimately tissue damage. Regarding the role of polymorphism in promoter regions in gene expression, this study was conducted to determine the association of rs2232365 polymorphism in promoter of FOXP3 gene with the incidence of rheumatoid arthritis in Iranian population.
Methods: In this case-control study, in order to investigate the relationship between FOXP3 gene rs2232365 polymorphism and rheumatoid arthritis, 77 patients and 67 healthy subjects were evaluated. The genotype of individuals for polymorphism rs2232365 was determined by PCR-RFLP method.
Results: The highest genotypic frequency was related to CC genotype with 89% frequency in two healthy and diseased populations and no difference was observed in genotypic and allelic abundance in healthy and patient populations. Different genotypes of this polymorphism did not have a significant relation with the risk of RA, while it had a significant correlation with the level of CCP factor and CC genotype was associated with the progression of RA disease by increasing the level of CCP (P<0.05).
Conclusion: This study showed that there is no correlation between polymorphism rs2232365 in promoter of FOXP3 gene with Rheumatoid arthritis in Iranian population.