Laboratories performance after outsourcing in the hospitals of shahid beheshti university of medical sciences

Nowadays, downsizing the government to have an effective and flexible organization is considered to be government's top priority in the world and outsourcing is one of the ways to achieve this goal. Accordingly, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences has delegated some of its hospitals' duties to the private sectors. The present study has been carried out to assess the performance of outsourced clinical laboratories. This Descriptive Evaluation study was carried out during 6 month [May 2011 till February 2012]. The data was collected by two questionnaires with close-ended questions and one with open-ended questions, and analyzed by Wilcoxon, using SPSS software. There is an improvement in outsourcing laboratory services. For example, increase in the number of tests [32%] and in the type of tests [37%]. Consequently, increase of hospital income [51%]. The number of personnel is decreased and their responsibility and behavior are improved. Overall, it seems that outsourcing laboratory program could achieve its major goals such as: Absorbing non-governmental resources in both administrative and financial aspects, omitting extra expenditure, acquiring benefits, and upgrading productivity of laboratories

[Plasmid profile of pseudomonas aeruginosa and its relation with antibiotic resistance in hospital isolates]

P. aeruginosa is one of the causes of nosocomial infections with an unusual resistance to antibiotics. The source of resistance in this bacterium may be chromosomal or plasmid. The aim of the present study was to investigate the antibacterial susceptibility patterns with the presence of plasmids in P. aeruginosa isolates. In this study, 140 P. aeruginosa isolates were collected from hospitals in Urmia/Iran. The susceptibility patterns were determined against antibiotics. Plasmids were extracted by alkaline lysis method, electrophoresed and investigated by a UV transilluminator. Single digestion of plasmids with EcoR1 and HincII were performed and the restriction patterns were compared using a ladder. The rates of resistances to antibiotics were as follows: gentamicin 49.3%, cephalothin 99.3%, ticarcillin 100%, ceftizoxime 79.3%, co-trimoxazole 97.7%, amikacin 35%, carbenicillin 67.1%, ceftriaxone 65.7%, ciprofloxacin 58.6%, piperacillin 52.8%, imipenem 1.4%, kanamycin 65.7%, ofloxacin 72.1% and ampicillin 100%. In Whole, 65.7% of isolates harbored plasmids. Restriction enzyme analysis of plasmids showed unique pattern for all of plasmid positive isolates. All the plasmid positive isolates were resistant to ceftriaxone and kanamycin. The plasmid source of resistance to ceftriaxone was proved by plasmid elimination and transformation in E. coli DHS alpha and the plastid source of resistance to kanamycin was proved by plasmid elimination. Also there was a significant correlation between the presence of plasmid in isolates and resistance to some of antibiotics. There was a high frequency of plasmids in P. aeruginosa isolates, indicating that plasmids have an important role in transferring of resistance genes in this bacterium

Is there any association between FRB gene polymorphism and infertility in Iranian men?

A significant proportion of infertile men with azoospermia and severe oligoazoospermia have a genetic etiology for their reproductive failure. Genetic analysis has major effects on finding the causes of infertility in last decade, but still in some cases, we still do not have clear answer for our patients. During last years it has become evident that endogenous estrogens and estrogen receptors [ER] play role in the regulation of testicular function. Present study was performed to evaluate the significance of RsaI and AluI single nucleotide polymorphism in the ERƒ gene in infertile patients in comparison with normal fertile male control. From 120 infertile men referred to our center after ruling out all the known causes of the infertility such as chromosomal abnormalities, Y-chromosome microdeletion, and other pathologic disorders, 5 ml peripheral blood were obtained for DNA extraction. PCR amplification of the polymorphic region was carried out and after running the PCR products on 1.5% agarose gel, the frequency of the polymorphism were calculated. A 3 times higher frequency of the heterozygous RsaI genotype was found in men with low sperm concentration compared to control [P=0.003]. In contrast, the proportion of homozygous AluI genotype was only 1/3 in severely oligoazoospermic men in comparison with control [P=0.03]. Our results could suggest that ERƒ and RsaI and AluI single nucleotide polymorphisms on this gene are important for spermatogenesis in humans, and could play an important role in the spermatogenesis process in males. Also it is possible to conclude that different conditions of infertility may not have genetic predisposition in common