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Background & Objective: Monitoring the depth of anesthesia is very important to prevent undesirable events during surgery, such as intra operative awareness and overdosing. It is shown that anesthetic agents have direct effects on synaptic activity of brain neurons. So there is a great interest on electroencephalogram analysis as a depth of anesthesia estimator. Due to difficulties in visual explanation of EEG, automatic and computer based signal processing methods have been used to assess the depth of anesthesia. Investigating the relationship between conscious level of patients and electrical activity of brain neurons was the main aim of this study. Materials & Methods: In this study, EEG signals of six patients undergoing aortic valve replacement surgery have been acquired and recorded in a computer. After applying signal processing methods to these data, 3 different measures included temporal, spectral and bispectral parameters have been extracted. Mean values of mentioned parameters in different anesthetic regimens and levels have been analyzed by ANOVA in SPSS software. Results: Extracted temporal parameter is correlated with depth of anesthesia in deep anesthetic levels and spectral one is correlated with depth of anesthesia in moderate and light levels (P<0.05). Bispectral parameter is correlated with the depth of anesthesia only in ICU (P<0.05). Conclusion: Findings of this study confirm the relationship between consciousness and electrical activity of brain neurons and recommend the use of EEG processing techniques to monitor, control and estimate the depth of anesthesia in operating room and ICU ward.

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Background and Objective: The relation between stress and gastrointestinal diseases, particularly irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), has received consideration for years. This research was conducted to compare the attachment styles and coping strategies in IBS and healthy female students. Materials and Methods: This case – control study was conducted on 50 female students with irritable bowel syndrome and 50 healthy students in Gorgan, Iran druring 2011. Age, grade and major were similar in both cases and controls. ROME III criteria questionnaire, together with a physician report confirmation were used to diagnose IBS. All attendants in the study filled in Rass adult attachment scale questionnaire and Lazarus coping strategies questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS-17 and student t-test. Results: In the IBS group the level of ambivalent (9.78±2.72) and avoidance (7.68±1.76) attachments were higher than the control group (8.1±2.65 and 6.56±1.82 respectively) (P<0.05). The most prevalent attachment style in control group was the secure style (11±3.89). There was a significant statistical difference between female of IBS group and control group regarding the mean±SD of coping strategies including: isolation (7.04±2.44, 5.9±1.95), self-control (9.62±2.39, 8.32±1.6), demanding social support (5.54±1.6, 6.92±2.42), evasion – avoidance (9.64±2.81, 6.8±1.37), solving the problem (8.2±1.85, 6.66±1.7), re-evaluation (16.2±1.81, 14.3±1.61) and taking responsibility (5.67±1.41, 4.5±1.58) (P<0.05). the direct coping strategy in IBS and control groups was 63.76±9.76 and 67.58±10.78. This difference was not significant. Conclusion: This study showed that in comparison to healthy female students, subjects with IBS use more ambivalent and avoidant attachment styles.

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Background and Objective: Aging is associated with increased free radical production. On the other hand, sports activities with the improvement of antioxidant system can reduce the damage caused by aging. This study was performed to determine the effect of the coantinus training (MCT) and high intensity interval training (HIIT) on antioxidant enzymes in the heart of old rats.

Methods: This experimental study was performed on 24 male Wistar rats aged 22-24 months. After two weeks of adaptation, animals were allocated into three groups including HIIT (8 rats: 100-80% maximum speed), MCT (8 rats: 65-70% maximum speed) and control group (8 rats the control group did not receive any intervention during the study. The training protocol was performed 5 days in week for 6 weeks. The heart tissues of rats were extracted 48 hours after the last training session. Gene Expression of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) was analyzed by the ELISA test.

Results: SOD was significantly increase in MCT (41.26±3) and HIIT (48.8±6) groups in compare to control (22.62±2) (P<0.05). GPX was significantly increased in MCT (1.96±0.07) and HIIT (2.28±0.03) groups in comparision with controls (1.37±0.04) (P<0.05) and this increase was higher in the HIIT group than in continuous training group.

Conclusion: Continues training and high intensity interval training increase the amount of antioxidant enzymes in heart tissue of aging rats.

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Background and Objective: Considering the increasing use of silver nanoparticles in various products, including industrial and medical products, serious worries have been created regarding the potential dangers of silver nanoparticles. This study was conducted to determine the effect of silver nanoparticles on the kidney tissues of quercetin-treated NMRI rats.
Methods: In this experimental study, 24 adult male NMRI rats were randomly divided into 4 groups of 6. The groups included the control group, the silver nanoparticles group (500 mg/kg/bw), the quercetin group (50 mg/kg/bw), and the silver nanoparticles (500 mg/kg/bw) + quercetin (50 mg/kg/bw) group. Silver nanoparticles were fed orally on a daily basis for 35 days. Quercetin was injected intraperitoneally on a daily basis for 42 days. At the end of the study, after taking blood from the rats, the dissection, tissue passaging, and Heidenhain’s Azan staining stages were carried out. The total volumes of the kidney, cortex and medulla, renal corpuscle, and glomerulus were evaluated by a stereological method. A qualitative assessment of apoptotic cells was performed using the tunnel method. The amount of malondialdehyde (MDA) in blood serum was specified as an indicator of lipid peroxidation by the Buege and Aust method.
Results: Comparing the body weight and kidneys, and the total kidney, cortex, and medulla volumes showed no statistically significant difference between the silver nanoparticles group and the control group. The silver nanoparticles group showed a significant increase in the total mean renal corpuscle volume, glomerular volume, tuft volume, Bowman’s capsule membrane volume, and the amount of MDA compared to the control group (P<0.05). Also, a statistically significant reduction was observed in the silver nanoparticles group in the total mean volume of Bowman’s capsule and capillary spaces compared to the control group (P<0.05). Quercetin could reduce the detrimental effects of silver nanoparticles on kidney cells as much as the control group; however, apoptosis was not shown in kidney cells in the group treated with quercetin. Assessing the cells in the silver nanoparticles group indicated the creation of apoptosis. The amount of serum MDA in the silver nanoparticles group showed a statistically significant increase compared to other groups (P<0.05).
Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that quercetin could reduce the detrimental effects of silver nanoparticles on kidney cells as much as the control group.