ABSTRACT
Background: Clinical measurement of quality of life [QoL] for assessing reproductive problems should be considered as a standard investigation at the initial and continuing medical consultations with infertile people
Objective: The purpose of this study was comprehensive testing the psychometric properties of the Iranian version of fertility quality of life [FertiQoL]
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on300 women referred to infertility clinic. After linguistic validation, a semi-structured interview was conducted to assess face validity. Consequently exploratory factor analysis was performed to indicate the scale constructs. Discriminate validity was assessed using the known groups comparison. Convergent validity was evaluated by assessing the correlation between similar content on the 12-Item Short Form Health Survey [SF12], Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and FertiQol. In addition, reliability analysis was carried out with internal consistency
Results: The reliability of the Iranian version of the FertiQoL was satisfactory in all dimensions [0.77-0.83]. Six factors [emotional, mind/body, relational, social, environmental, and tolerability] were extracted from the results of exploratory factor analysis. Discrimination validity showed that FertiQoL can differentiate between female patients with differing duration of infertility and number of children. Moreover, the results of convergent validity showed a favorable correlation between the related dimensions of SF12 [0.43-0.68], Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale [0.47-0.52] and FertiQoL
Conclusion: The Iranian version of FertiQoL is valid and reliable for assessing infertility problems and the effects of treatment on QoL of infertile patients referred for diagnosis and treatment at infertility clinic
ABSTRACT
Background: Adherence issues in polycystic ovary syndrome [PCOS] patients have not been examined thoroughly. Patients report prolonged periods of treatment and side effects of the drug as the most common reason for withdrawal from treatment. To improve the effective management of PCOS patients, it is fundamental to understand facilitating and inhibiting factors to treatment adherence
Objective: To explore facilitating/inhibiting factors related to treatment adherence among PCOS patients
Materials and Methods: This was a qualitative study with a purposive sample of women with confirmed diagnosis of PCOS. The data were collected via 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with women aged between 21-34 yr. A qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data
Results: Five themes were identified which described different types of facilitating/ inhibiting factors to treatment adherence. Inhibiting factors included financial issues, patient-related, disease-related, and health care provider-related factors; while social factors were found to be both facilitating and inhibiting
Conclusion: The findings suggest that successful adherence to PCOS treatment is highly dependent on patients recognizing and adapting to financial, social, and health care related inhibiting factors. It is also crucial for clinicians and policy makers to recognize these key inhibiting factors in order to improve treatment outcomes
ABSTRACT
Background: Anatomical variations in the biliary system have been proven to be of clinical importance. Awareness of the pattern of these variations in a specific population may help to prevent and manage biliary injuries during surgical and endoscopic procedures. Knowledge of the biliary anatomy will be also of great help in planning the drainage of adequate percentage of liver parenchyma in endoscopic or radiological procedures
Methods: All consecutive patients undergoing endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography [ERCP] from April 2013 to April 2015 at Nemazee Hospital, a referral center in the south of Iran, were included in this cross-sectional study. The patients with previous hepatic or biliary surgery, liver injury or destructive biliary disease were excluded from the study. All ERCPs were reviewed by two expert gastroenterologists in this field. The disagreed images by the two gastroenterologists were excluded. Huang classification was used for categorizing the different structural variants of the biliary tree, and the frequency of each variant was recorded
Results: Totally, 362 patients [181 men and 181 women] were included in the study. 163 patients [45%] had type Al Huang classification [right dominant], which was the most prevalent type among our patients. 55% of them had non-right dominant anatomy. The result of the Chi-square test revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between the men and women regarding the anatomical variations [p = 0.413]
Conclusion: The anatomical variation in the biliary system among Iranian patients is comparable to other regions of the world. Significant proportions of our patients are non-right dominant and may need bilateral biliary drainage
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Cholangiopancreatography, Endoscopic Retrograde , Anatomic Variation , Cross-Sectional StudiesABSTRACT
Background: Poor ovarian response [POR] to gonadotropin stimulation has led to a significant decline in success rate of fertility treatment. The immune system may play an important role in pathophysiology of POR by dysfunctions of cytokines and the growth factor network, and the presence of ovarian auto-antibodies. The aim of this study is to investigate the expression of toll-like receptors [TLR] 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and cyclooxygenase [COX] 2 genes in follicular cells and concentration of interleukin [IL]-6, IL-8 and macrophage migration inhibitory factor [MIF], as major parts of innate immunity, in follicular fluid [FF] obtained from POR women in comparison with normal women
Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, 20 infertile POR patients and 20 normal women took part in this study and underwent controlled ovarian stimulation. The FF was obtained from the largest follicle [>18 mm]. The FF was centrifuged and cellular pellet was then used for evaluation of expression of TLRs and COX2 genes by real-time PCR. FF was used for quantitative analysis for IL-6, IL-8 and MIF by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA]
Results: TLR1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and COX2 gene expression were significantly higher in POR [p<0.05]. Concentration of IL-6, IL-8 and MIF proteins was significantly increased in POR compared with normal women [p<0.05]
Conclusion: These findings support the hypothesis that the immune system may be involved in pathophysiology of POR through TLRs