Predictors of treatment retention in a major methadone maintenance treatment program in Iran: a survival analysis

To identify correlates related to retention time of a cohort study of the opioid-dependent patients participating in the Methadone Maintenance Treatment [MMT] program offered by a major addiction treatment clinic in Tehran, Iran between April 2007 and March 2011. Several parametric Survival models assuming Weibull, Log-normal and Log-logistic distributions were compared to search for association between covariates and risk of relapse and dropping out of treatment among 198 patient participants. According to Akaike Information Criterion [AIC], Log-normal model had the best fitting. Estimates of this model indicated that increase in average methadone dosage was associated with longer retention time. Correlates associated with shorter retention time were suffering from mental disorders, using stimulant drugs, being poly-substance dependents and having prior treatments. Findings of this study provide support for giving more attention to patients who are poly-substance or stimulant-drug dependents, have non-substance psychiatric comorbidity and the ones with addiction treatment history. Independent of patient characteristics, retention improved as the dose of methadone increased

[Evaluation short and long term graft and survival rates in kidney transplanted patients between 1995-2011]

Renal transplantation is a treatment of choice in most of the patients with end-stage of renal disease. Graft and patients survival rates are important issues for these patients and results are different in many centers throughout the world. Renal transplantation has been done in more than 25 centers till now in Iran. In this study, the short-term and the long-term graft survival rates of patients undergoing kidney transplants from living or deceased donor was evaluated in a cohort study and compared with other kidney transplants centers. In this cohort study, 353 consecutive patients [age from 11 to 65 years] with end stage renal disease [ESRD] between March 1995 and March 2011 attending to Shohada-Tajrish Hospital, Tehran, Iran, were recruited. SPSS software version 16 and Kaplan-Meier method were used to determine the survival rate. The one-month graft and patients survival rates were 93.2% and 99%, the one-year graft respectively. The patients survival rates were 89% and 97.4% and five-year graft and patients survival rates were 82.5 and 89.1% respectively. The serum creatinine level one month after transplantation [P=0.016], the age [P=0.12] and sex [P=0.012] of donor were showed to be the most important factors affecting the graft survival rate. Totally, according to the obtained results in this study, it could be conclude that the patients under evaluation in this study had a satisfactory short and long term graft survival rate compared with other large centers in the world. The most important factors for good graft survival were creatinine level at discharge, age and sex of donor

Effect of sorbitol jelly jam on glycemic index of diabetes type II patients

Diabetic mellitus is the most common metabolic disorder. Intake of glucose or any disaccharides containing glucose is prohibited in these patients. In this study changes in blood glucose of diabetic patients were determined after eating jelly jams with sorbitol as the sweetener and white bread as a reference. A total of 30 diabetes type II patients were studied and the effects of the jams on their blood glucose levels were evaluated. To determine the glycemic index of these jams, we used white bread as the reference and blood glucose levels were measured after eating each of them at different time intervals of 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120 minutes. Increased values for white bread compared to fructose jam at 120, 90, 60, and 45 minutes were as follows: 36/6% [P < 0.001], 50/6% [P < 0.001], 37/4% [P < 0.02], and 21/7% [P < 0.02], respectively. Blood glucose response evaluation in patients showed that glycemic index of white bread and sorbitol jam was 100 and 27/9 respectively. According to the results of our study, the glycemic index of this kind of jams is low and considering the positive clinical effects of the foods with low glycemic index, using this kind of jams in the diet of diabetic patients is recommended