Spatial accessibility of the population to urban health centres in Kermanshah, Islamic Republic of Iran: a geographic information systems analysis

Geographic information systems [GIS] analysis has not been widely used in underdeveloped countries to ensure that vulnerable populations have accessibility to primary health-care services. This study applied GIS methods to analyse the spatial accessibility to urban primary-care centres of the population in Kermanshah city, Islamic Republic of Iran, by age and sex groups. In a descriptive-analytical study over 3 time periods, network analysis, mean centre and standard distance methods were applied using ArcGIS 9.3. The analysis was based on a standard radius of 750 m distance from health centres, walking speed of 1 m/s and desired access time to health centres of 12.5 mins. The proportion of the population with inadequate geographical access to health centres rose from 47.3% in 1997 to 58.4% in 2012. The mean centre and standard distance mapping showed that the spatial distribution of health centres in Kermanshah needed to be adjusted to changes in population distribution

[Achieving the goals of integration of medical education and health service delivery systems from the viewpoint of the faculty members of Kermanshah university of medical sciences]

Plan of integration of the schools of medicine and health systems was approved in 1985. Considering the importance of the opinion the faculty members on achieving success on this issue, we decided to perform this study. We used a questionnaire consisted of 27 questions in various fields. Also the questions were categorized in the education, research, treatment, health and social fields. After completing the questionnaire, score of every question was determined. According to demographic information of the participants, scores of the different fields and also between different fields were analyzed by means of ANOVA, Friedman and paired T test. From the viewpoint of the faculty members, achievement of the goals of integration on the average was 52.37 +/- 1.07 [Mean +/- SEM] percent of the maximum scores. The highest scores belonged to health services and health indicators [59.87% +/- 1.21] and the least scores were related to research facilities and activities and social purposes of integration plan [49.19% +/- 1.20] [P=0.0001]. From the viewpoint of the faculty members, success in achieving integration plan goals is still far from ideal state. Success of this plan in the health field was significantly higher than that of education and treatment fields. Also the success of this plan in the research and social fields [such as changing the sociological insight of the graduates and faculty members] was significantly lower, compared with the other fields. These differences may be due to a failure in the current system to achieve some of its goals. Similar studies on this subject, in other centers are recommended

Cardioprotective effect of garlic juice on the isolated rat heart in ischemia-reperfusion

It has been reported that the chronic oral administration of garlic homogenate protected the rat heart from in vitro ischemic reperfusion injury. However, the biological effects of garlic juice on the heart are expected to be different from oral administration of it. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of garlic juice on the isolated rat heart in ischemia- reperfusion. Rat isolated, perfused hearts were subjected to 30 min baseline measurement followed by 40 min normothermic global ischemia and 45 min reperfusion. Garlic juice [0.01 mg/ml] was added to the perfusion solution 20 min before ischemia in the test 1 and 5 min before and 10 min after ischemia in test 2. Different cardiac variables including left ventricular developed pressure [LVDP], heart rate [HR] and coronary flow [CF] were measured. Rate pressure product [RPP] was calculated, and released lactate dehydrogenase [LDH] enzyme in effluent was measured in reperfusion. Garlic juice significantly increased CF before ischemia in both test groups. The released LDH enzyme at the first minute and the recovery of RPP and LVDP on the 45[th] minute of reperfusion were significantly better in the test group 2 in comparison to the control. The result of the present study shows that garlic juice has a vasodilator activity and protects the isolated ischemic rat heart when it was administrated in reperfusion. It is probably mediated by antioxidant activity of allicin as a principal bioactive compound of garlic juice

Case report: agenesis of corpus callousum

Corpus callosum is the biggest comisure of interventricula. The main etiology of agenesis of corpus callousum is the failure of programmed cellular death. This disease comprises a heterogenic group of disorders which has a wide range of presentations from medical and neurological symptoms to asymptomatic patients with normal intelligence. Diagnosis of this disease can be made by use of CT and MRI. The disease can be transmitted via autosomal dominant or X-linked genes and can be associated with chromosomal disorders such as trisomy of 8 and 18 and different metabolic disorders. There is no standard therapy for this disorder. Prognoses of the patients are variable and usually the disorder does not lead to death. The patient was admitted, for the first time, to the hospital when he was 3 day old because his mother had a sonography at the 28th week of pregnancy which was compatible with a cyst in the brain of her fetus. After delivery the parents of the patient referred to the pediatric clinic for further evaluation of their neonate. After examination of the patient and paraclinical studies, the patient was diagnosed as a case of agenesis of corpus callousum. Neurological examination of the patients was within normal limits. The growth indices of the patient were normal and there was no evidence of any neurological, metabolic or chromosomal disorders on clinical and paraclinical grounds. Agenesis of corpus callosum is a rare disorder which can be associated with hypotonia, seizure, hydrocephalus, acidosis, hypoglycemia, hepatomegaly, increased serum ammonia, chromosomal disorders and ophthalmologic diseases such as cataract, optic nerve atrophy and But no evidence of any above- mentioned disorders was found in our patient on clinical and paraclineal grounds, which indicates a wide range of clinical signs and symptoms in this disorder