Background: Rapid rise in petrol pump filling station is seen in the last decade, and air pollution had increased drastically. Air pollutants and components in petrol may have delirious effect on respiratory health. Petrol pump workers are exposed to both factors, whereas auto-rickshaw drivers are exposed mainly to air pollutants. In the present study, respiratory function in petrol pump workers was compared with auto-rickshaw driver and healthy controls. Materials and Methods: This was the cross-sectional study done on petrol pump workers, auto-rickshaw drivers, and healthy volunteers. ndd Large TrueFlow™ (EasyOne) spirometer was used to assess pulmonary function. One-way ANOVA and Chi-square test were used using statistical software. Results: No significant difference was seen in various spirometry parameters studied. Furthermore, no significant difference was observed the pattern of the lung function in three groups. Conclusions: Nine years of occupation as petrol pump worker and auto-rickshaw drivers are not having any significant effect on lung function; however, large multicentric trials are recommended, whereby the role of various factors controlling pollution would be studied.

Background: Knowledge and skill about sedation of aggressive patients is necessary for each psychiatrist. The purpose of this study was comparing the velocity and durability of sedation induced by the haloperidol, trifluoperazine, promethazine, and chlorpromazine in aggressive patients. Materials and Methods: This randomized clinical trial was done on 76 aggressive patients referred to Psychiatry Emergency Service of Noor Hospital of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences that were randomly divided into four groups of haloperidol, promethazine, chlorpromazine, and trifluoperazine. Patients were evaluated at 30 min intervals for aggressive symptoms, and if they did not respond to intervention after the first 30 min or if they showed aggression again, a same dose of the injected drug was prescribed. The length of sedation time was recorded for each patient. Results: Seventy-six patients with the mean age of 31.89 ± 8.73 years were participated and 63.2% of them were male. Response to intervention after the first injection was seen in 40.8% and 59.2% needed the second injection. The mean time needed for obtaining sedation was 17.38 ± 8.23 and 19.66 ± 4.64 min after the first and second injection, respectively. The mean times of sedation induction were not significantly related to age, gender, type of substance used, type of aggression, and type of psychiatric disorder. Considering the type of drugs, there was no significant difference between velocity and durability effect of sedation after the first and second injection. Conclusion: Comparing the velocity and durability of sedative effect of the four studied drugs on acute aggressive patients, did not show any significant difference between them.

Background: Increased ankle movement variability has been reported in people with functional ankle instability (FAI). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of textured insole, lateral wedge, and textured lateral wedge insole on ankle movement variability during walking in athletes with FAI. Materials and Methods: Twenty-one athletes diagnosed with FAI participated in this before-after study. Kinematic data were collected during four conditions (5 repeated trials per condition): (1) flat ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) insole, (2) textured flat EVA insole, (3) prefabricated lateral heel and sole wedge insole, and (4) textured lateral heel and sole wedge. The analysis of ankle movement variability was conducted during stance phase and 200 ms before initial contact to 200 ms after initial contact. The coefficient of multiple correlations (CMC) was calculated to investigate pattern variability and intraclass correlation (ICC) was used to investigate variability at the points of interest. Results: In terms of pattern variability, wearing textured lateral wedge increased CMC compared to other insoles. However, statistically significant differences were observed only in the frontal plane during stance phase (P < 0.05). In terms of variability at the points of interest, in the frontal plane and in all points of interest, wearing textured lateral wedge increased ICC compared to other insoles. The effects of other insoles on ankle movement variability were inconsistent. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that textured insole has the potential to decrease variability and the use of texture with lateral wedge may more improve variability in athletes with FAI.

Background: Diabetic nephropathy is a complex and multifactorial adverse effect of diabetes mellitus (DM). Crab shell as a natural product is supposed to have antioxidant effect which is one of the important mechanisms to improve DM. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of crab shell extract (CSE) on the histopathology and antioxidant status of kidney in diabetic rats. Materials and Methods: Forty-two adult Wistar rats (210 ± 10 g) were divided into six groups (n = 7). Streptozotocin (50 mg/kg) was administered interaperitonealy (IP) for inducing diabetes. Rats were treated for 14 days by CSE with 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg doses IP. Fasting blood glucose, body, and renal weight were evaluated. The antioxidant status of kidney's tissue was evaluated by determining the level of ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP). Furthermore, urine samples were used to determine nitric oxide (NO) levels. Microscopic slides were prepared to compare kidney histology between groups. Data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance with post hoc Tukey's test, and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: CSE induced a significant reduction in blood glucose (P = 0.01) and a significant increase in total antioxidant capacity (FRAP) (P = 0.004). Furthermore, urine NO was decreased significantly (P = 0.000). The extract improved renal tissue changes caused by diabetes. Conclusion: CSE improved antioxidant status and diabetic histological changes of rat kidney, and it could be an alternative complementary therapy in diabetic-associated disorders.

Background: The key point in the production procedure of inbred animals is checking the genetic purity. Skin grafting and coat color test are used traditionally to prove genetic purity, but they have some disadvantages. Recent advances in DNA profiling have enabled scientists to check easily the genetic purity of laboratory animals. In the current study, a set of microsatellite markers was designed to check the purity of inbred laboratory mice. Materials and Methods: Twenty microsatellites located on 20 chromosomes were employed to create a distinctive genetic profile for parentage analysis. Each individual primer was designed based on distinguishable colors and separable sizes. Results: Twenty specific microsatellite markers were used in the polymerase chain reaction mixture to identify inbred BALB/cJ strains. Our results confirmed that the designed microsatellites are excellent genetic markers for testing inbred BALB/cJ strain in laboratories. Conclusion: Our study showed that genetic profiling using microsatellite markers allows us to detect the genetic differences of laboratory mouse species in quality control tests and validation steps.

Background: Peripheral inflammation is effective in the development of neurodegenerative diseases. Pentoxifylline (PTX) has an inhibitory effect on inflammatory cytokines; therefore, we aimed to evaluate the effect of PTX on passive avoidance learning and the expression of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and caspase-3 in the rat hippocampus, following systemic lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection. Materials and Methods: Male Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups: control, LPS, and LPS + PTX, receiving doses of 10, 25, and 50 mg/kg of PTX, respectively. The animals received daily injections of PTX (i.p.) 1 week before and 2 weeks after the LPS injection (5 mg/kg; i.p.). Learning and memory were evaluated by passive avoidance learning. Then, the expression of the associated genes was measured in the hippocampus. Results: The results showed that the peripheral LPS injection had no significant effect on learning and memory. PTX only with a dose of 10 mg/kg shows an improvement (P < 0.05). Results from reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction showed that LPS had no significant effect on the expression of caspase-3 and TNF-α. PTX with a dose of 10 mg/kg decreased the caspase-3 expression in the LPS + PTX group (P < 0.001), but the expression of both genes increased, using other concentrations. Conclusions: Findings showed that systemic application of LPS after 2 weeks had no effect on learning and memory and the expression of inflammatory genes in the hippocampus, but PTX led to an increase in the expression of these genes, which could be due to its direct effects or possible exacerbation of LPS effects.

Background: Dermatophytes are one of the most important etiologic agents of cutaneous infections in humans and animals. The present study aimed to study the frequency distribution of keratinophilic dermatophyte fungi using conventional and molecular methods in soil of Isfahan city. Materials and Methods: In this study, 200 soil samples were randomly selected in three northern, southern, and central parts of Isfahan using hair-baiting technique. The fungi were identified by morphology based on macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of fungi. Furthermore, the sequencing of ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region of the ribosomal DNA of the 60 randomly isolated fungi was investigated. Results: The results of conventional method showed that from a total of 371 fungal colonies, the highest amount of detected colonies was in the central zone (151, 40.26%). Furthermore, in all three areas, the most common detected dermatophyte was Microsporum gypseum (38.3%). The results of the molecular analysis showed that M. gypseum identified by the morphology method was Nannizzia fulva, and also, Chrysosporium sp. with the frequency of 30% in morphology method was the second dominated fungus including Chrysosporium keratinophilum (42.6%) and Chrysosporium shanxiense (21.4%) which confirmed by sequencing method. Conclusion: The results showed that keratinophilic dermatophyte fungi including Nannizzia fulva, Chrysosporium sp., and Trichophyton mentagrophytes are found in the children playgrounds in Isfahan. Therefore, health-care officials should pay more attention to these hygienic issues. C. shanxiense, which is found here for the first time in Iran, has been reported only from China.