Background: Stress affects brain functions and induces psychological disorders. Previous studies have indicated different effects of crocin and exercise on the improvement of memory in some types of stress. The present study investigated the effect of crocin, exercise, and crocin-accompanied exercise on learning, memory, and memory consolidation in rats under chronic unpredictable stress (CUS). Materials and Methods: Male rats were randomly allocated to different groups: control, sham, stress, stress-exercise, stress-crocin, and stress-crocin-accompanied exercise groups. The CUS and treadmill running were applied 2 h/day and 1 h/day, respectively, for 21 days. Crocin (30 mg/kg) was daily intraperitoneally injected to the rats and their behavioral variables were evaluated as a brain function using the passive avoidance test. Results: Results showed that the CUS significantly decreased learning and memory compared to the control group, while crocin alone and crocin-accompanied exercise significantly improved learning and memory compared to the stressed group. It was found that exercise alone caused learning but did not improve memory in unpredictable stress rats. Conclusion: The data indicated that unpredictable stress had very destructive effects on the brain functions. Furthermore, unlike exercise, crocin improved memory under unpredictable stress conditions. Overall, it seems that the beneficial effects of crocin-accompanied exercise on learning and memory were probably because of crocin, but not exercise.

Background: There have been studies on the outcome of acute intoxication with antidepressants or antipsychotics. We performed outcome prediction analysis in acute poisoning patients with antidepressants/antipsychotics with or without combination with other drugs. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed in Khorshid (PBUH) University Hospital affiliated with Isfahan University of Medical Sciences from March 2016 to May 2017. Patients with acute poisoning ingested antidepressants and antipsychotics with or without other drugs were included in the study. The outcome was categorized as survived without complications and complications/death. Binary regression analysis was performed for outcome prediction. Results: The data from 239 patients were analyzed. Most of the patients were female (68.2%), 5.9% of patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. About 94.99% of patients survived without complications. There was a significant difference between patients with and without complications with respect to the level of consciousness, hypotension, seizure, electrocardiography findings, pulse rate after 24 hours (h) of admission, and need to endotracheal intubation (P < 0.0001). Binary logistic regression analysis showed admission level of consciousness (stupor/coma) (odds ratio [OR] =8.07; P = 0,005), hypotension (OR = 12.16; P = 0.001), seizure (OR = 11.15; P = 0.009), tachycardia after 24 h of admission (OR = 22.50; P = 0.003), and need for endotracheal intubation (OR = 10.47; P = 0.002) were determinant factors in outcome prediction. Conclusions: Stupor/coma and hypotension were the predictive factors for outcome. Patients with seizure and tachycardia after 24 h of admission; and those intubated and received mechanical ventilation had a higher chance of complications.

Background: At workplaces, the workers exposed to several harmful agents such as physical, chemical, and biological pollutant that cause occupational diseases. There are a lot of jobs that not allow a certain pattern of exposure to this agent. In this article, we introduce a technology named radio-frequency identification (RFID) to estimate the exposure time of workers to harmful agent. Materials and Methods: This applied study was carried out experimentally in an industry in Isfahan province, Iran. Twenty-nine participants selected from the workers without a fixed pattern of exposure. Two methods used to measure the exposure time of them. The first method was based on a self-made RFID device and conducted by the workers. The second method performed by stopwatch, which was carried out by the occupational hygienist. The results were analyzed using SPSS 20 and descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation coefficient, and paired samples t-test. Results: The mean age of the participants was 36.48 ± 5.889 and job experience was 9.06 ± 6.316 years. Spearman correlation coefficient shows that there is a significant correlation between the exposure times measured by the workers and occupational hygienist (R in all zones was higher than 0.9, P < 0.05). Paired samples t-test shows that there are no significant differences between the mean exposure times measured by the workers and occupational hygienist in each zone and in all the zones (P > 0.05). Conclusion: RFID technology is an appropriate method to evaluate the exposure time of workers without fixed pattern of exposure to causative factors of occupational diseases. It can also be used in other fields of occupational health engineering.

Background: Breast lumpectomy is an integral part of the treatment of mammary masses in women. This study was conducted to evaluate and compare two-drug combinations of propofol–ketamine (PK) (ketofol) and propofol–fentanyl (PF) (fenofol) on quality of sedation and analgesia in lumpectomy. Materials and Methods: This was a randomized, double-blind, clinical trial performed on 64 patients aged 15–70 years with breast cancer lumpectomy referred to Isfahan's Seyed Al-Shohada Hospital. Consequently, patients were divided into two groups of 32 patients, each group receiving PF combination or PK combination during anesthesia. Results: The patients in two groups, PF and PK, were compared in their sedation levels, severity of pain, and other variables. The mean arterial blood pressure, systolic blood pressure, and heart rate (HR) did not show any significant difference at the beginning of the study in the two groups, but the fenofol (PF) group had a significantly lower oxygen saturation than the ketofol (PK) group. The sedation level was significantly lower in the fenofol group than the ketofol group (P < 0.001). The mean pain intensity was significantly lower in the PF group than the PK group (P < 0.001). Conclusion: The two combinations of ketofol and fenofol cause rapid, favorable, safe anesthetic with minimal side effects and hemodynamic effects but it may be a superior alternative to fenofol combination, in terms of respiratory depression.

Background: Preeclampsia (PE) is one of the main causes of maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity. Evidence shows that oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathophysiology of the PE. As catalase is a key enzyme in antioxidant enzymatic defense which protects cell from oxidative damage, in this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between CAT-21A/T (rs7943316) polymorphism and PE susceptibility. Materials and Methods: This case–control study was conducted on 155 PE women and 159 normotensive pregnant women. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method was used for genotyping. Results: There was no association between CAT-21AT and TT genotypes and PE susceptibility. However, the CAT-21A/T polymorphism was associated with 1.6-fold higher risk of PE in dominant model (AA vs. AT + TT) (odds ratio [OR] 1.6 [95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.9–2.9]; P = 0.04). However, the CAT-21A/T polymorphism was not associated with PE in recessive model (TT vs. AA + AT) (OR 1.3 [95% CI: 0.8–2.1]; P = 0.4). Conclusions: The CAT-21A/T polymorphism could be a risk factor for PE susceptibility in dominant model.

Background: Seidlitzia rosmarinus which is commonly called “Oshnan” or “Eshnan” in Persian belongs to Chenopodiaceae family. Conventionally, it is believed that this plant is toxic. This study was aimed to evaluate the cytotoxic effect of S. rosmarinus against HeLa and HepG₂ cell lines. Materials and Methods: S. rosmarinus was collected from the desert near Yazd, Iran. Hexane, chloroform, chloroform/methanol (9:1), and butanol extracts of aerial parts of S. rosmarinus were prepared. Doxorubicin and dimethyl sulfoxide 10% were used as positive and negative control, respectively. The cytotoxic activity was measured using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. Results: All extracts significantly and concentration dependently reduced viability of HeLa and HepG2 cells. Hexane, chloroform, and butanol extracts at doses of 200, 500, 750, and 1000 μg/ml significantly reduced HeLa cell viability (P < 0.05). Chloroform/methanol extract at doses of 100–500 μg/ml significantly reduced HeLa cell viability (P < 0.05). Hexane, chloroform, and butanol extracts at doses of 500, 750, and 1000 μg/ml significantly reduced HepG2 cell viability (P < 0.05). Chloroform/methanol extract at doses of 200, 300, 400, and 500 μg/ml significantly reduced HepG cell viability (P < 0.05). The most cytotoxic extract was chloroform/methanol extract in both cell lines. Furthermore, in the both cell lines, the second potent extract was chloroform extract. Conclusions: It can be concluded from the findings of this study that S. rosmarinus is a good candidate for further study to find new cytotoxic agents. Phytochemical investigation on chloroform/methanol extract and their structures is recommended.

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a recent increase in prevalence. A timely appropriate treatment for the disorder may play a crucial role in improvements in behaviors, interactions, and communications in an individual's life. It appears that evaluation of therapeutic approaches to the patients is essential and of importance. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of memantine as adjunct therapy in children with ASD. Materials and Methods: This randomized single-blind clinical trial included 60 children with ASD aged <14. The children undergoing applied behavior analysis (ABA) were divided into two groups of placebo and memantine (5 mg/day: a half of tablet in the morning and a half in the evening). After a 3-month course, improvements in symptoms of ASD were evaluated in both groups based on Gilliam autism rating scale. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS (version 20) using independent samples t-test, paired samples t-test, Chi-squared test and Fisher's exact test. Results: Both groups were similar in baseline characteristics including age, gender, and ASD symptoms (P > 0.05) but post intervention, total scores of ASD symptoms in both groups of memantine (mean score₁ =95.20 ± 14.49; mean score₂=73.50 ± 9.81) and control group (mean score_before = 91.50 ± 14.35; mean score_after = 89.63 ± 13.95) showed a decrease which was only significant in intervention group (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Accordingly, memantine administration as adjunct therapy can be more effective in improvement of ASD symptoms in children than ABA alone. Thus, it can be considered as a new selective adjunct therapy.