[Comparing the effect of acupuncture and oral piroxicam in reduced pain and improved function of patient with chronic mechanical low back pain]

Low Back pain [LBP] is extremely common. Studies have shown life time prevalence as high as 84%. Mechanical chronic LBP [mechanical CLBP] is the leading cause of LBP that have a multifactorial cause, which includes functional instability, abnormal posture and emotional stress. Treatment of these patients is aimed to reduced pain, maintaining mobility, and minimizing disability. This study compares acupuncture vs. oral prioxicam in the reduced pain and Active Daily living [ADL] improvement in mechanical CLBP. In a randomized trial, 52 patients with mechanical CLBP were recruited using strict inclusion and exclusion criteria from Shiraz medical university clinics. All patients classified two groups: A group received acupuncture [2 sessions per week] and B group received Oral piroxicam [30 mg/day] for 2 weeks respectively. Evaluation tools were pain intensity [VAS] and ADLs at baseline, after and 4 weeks after treatment. The analyses of variance showed that means VAS of group A was 7.39 +/- 0.42, 3.88 +/- 0.96 and 3.02 +/- 0.52, and group B was 7.12 +/- 0.61, 4.55 +/- 0.93 and 3.91 +/- 0.28 at baseline, after and 4 weeks after treatment, respectively [p<0.005]. Acupuncture was more effective than oral piroxicam in the reduced pain intensity and ADLs improvement of patients. However, preliminary results suggest that Long- term continuous treatment with acupuncture sustains the effectiveness in pain reduction

[Evaluation of bacteremia following percutaneous coronary intervention in Rajaei hospital in 2007]

Cardiovascular disease are the most common chronic disease and the leading cause of disease related disability and fatality around the world. Among the therapeutic strategies of coronary artery disease, [CAO]. Percutaneous coronary intervention [PCI] has achieved an increasing importance. The infectious complication of PCI although uncommon, may lead to hazardous outcome. The study was done on 230 participants, with nopreprocedural infection, fever and antibiotic receipt. The PCI was done via femoral artery access. After PCI, 3 sets of blood culture were taken in eight hours time interval. Our data comprised of demographic, risk factors, procedural information and blood culture results were obtained and analysed consequently. The study demonstrated that, prevalence of bacteremia was 5.7%, although none of the patient did manifest clinical aspects of infection. Hence, the bacteremia was transient in all patients, with positive blood culture result. The most common organism was staphylococcus epidermidis [76.9%]. There was association between bacteremia and duration of procedure, type of procedure, and number of vessels on with PCI was done. Our study demonstrated that, post PCI bacteremia is clinically insignificant. According to the study result, preprocedural prophylactic antibiotic therapy is not recommended