The middle ages contributions to cardiovascular medicine

Abstract The historical period called the Middle Ages, a long interval between the 5th and the 15th centuries, is still commonly known as the Dark Ages, especially in the area of health sciences. In the last decades, this "classic" view of the Middle Ages has been gradually modified with advances in historiographical studies and the history of science. During that period in Western Europe, knowledge about the human body suffered a regression in terms of anatomy and physiology, with the predominance of religious conceptions mainly about diseases and their treatments. Knowledge on the cardiovascular system and heart diseases has been classically described as a repetition of the concepts developed by Galen from the dissection of animals and his keen sense of observation. However, the Middle East, especially Persia, was the birth place of a lot of intellectuals who preserved the ancient knowledge of the Greeks while building new knowledge and practices, especially from the 8th to the 13th century. The invasion of the Arabs in North of Africa and the Iberian Peninsula and the eclosion of the Crusades resulted in a greater contact between the East and the West, which in turn brought on the arrival of the Arab medical knowledge, among others, to 12th century Europe. Such fact contributed to an extremely important change in the scientific medical knowledge in the West, leading to the incorporation of different concepts and practices in the field of cardiovascular Medicine. The new way of teaching and practicing Medicine of the great Arab doctors, together with the teaching hospitals and foundations in the Koran, transformed the Medicine practiced in Europe definitely. The objective of this paper is to describe the knowledge drawn up from the Middle Ages about the cardiovascular system, its understanding and therapeutic approach to cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons.

Plague in Iran: its history and current status / 한국역학회지

OBJECTIVES: Plague remains a public health concern worldwide, particularly in old foci. Multiple epidemics of this disease have been recorded throughout the history of Iran. Despite the long-standing history of human plague in Iran, it remains difficult to obtain an accurate overview of the history and current status of plague in Iran. METHODS: In this review, available data and reports on cases and outbreaks of human plague in the past and present in Iran and in neighboring countries were collected, and information was compiled regarding when, where, and how many cases occurred. RESULTS: This paper considers the history of plague in Persia (the predecessor of today’s Iran) and has a brief review of plague in countries in the World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Region, including a range of countries in the Middle East and North Africa. CONCLUSIONS: Since Iran has experienced outbreaks of plague for several centuries, neighboring countries have reported the disease in recent years, the disease can be silent for decades, and the circulation of Yersinia pestis has been reported among rodents and dogs in western Iran, more attention should be paid to disease monitoring in areas with previously reported human cases and in high-risk regions with previous epizootic and enzootic activity.

An early history of human breast cancer: West meets East / 癌症

Cancer has been increasingly recognized as a global issue. This is especially true in countries like China, where cancer incidence has increased likely because of changes in environment and lifestyle. However, cancer is not a modern disease; early cases have been recorded in ancient medical books in the West and in China. Here, we provide a brief history of cancer, focusing on cancer of the breast, and review the etymology of ai, the Chinese character for cancer. Notable findings from both Western and Chinese traditional medicine are presented to give an overview of the most important, early contributors to our evolving understanding of human breast cancer. We also discuss the earliest historical documents to record patients with breast cancer.

Science of breeding and heredity from ancient Persia to modern Iran.

About 1700 years BC, the prophet Zoroaster declared equal right for women and men to choose their “own ways.” There is much evidence that ancient Persians believed in the equal contribution of women and men toward producing a child, and all its hereditary characteristics. Even more surprising are the phrases in Vandidad book, which were gathered by Mobedans in the Mad dynasty about egg extraction (gametes) from animal reproductive organs (gonads) and their storage for future conception. Centuries later, Western philosopher beliefs in regard to reproduction were contrary to Persian knowledge. The Greek philosophers believed that man's water (semen) contains all human characteristics, and the female uterus is only responsible for nurturing and development of fetus. After detection of the ovum (de Graaf 2nd half 17 century) Malpigy proposed the preformation theory (ovist) which means there is a miniature human inside ovum, that grows after Semen has entered the uterus and grow into a well-developed fetus. This hypothesis was later delegated to spermatozoa. These contradictory and inappropriate beliefs were subject to discussions and dispute, until C.E. Wolf demonstrated that the embryo is a product of the fertilization of ovum by spermatozoa. 800 years prior this the sage Ferdowsi “The Great Iranian Poet” explains nicely the equal participation of man and woman in the production of the fetus and transmission of characters. After the renaissance and especially in recent years, tremendous achievements have been made in unraveling biological secrets of reproduction. There was no work o n genetics in Iran until 1936, when a genetic course was added to the biology curriculum in related colleges and universities; Iranian Genetics Society was founded in 1966, initiating a steady movement in this field. Although there was an inevitable gap during the revolution and war in our country, now there is great effort by researchers to eliminate the gap and bring us into the mainstream of world science, and development in biomedical sciences in the third millennium.

[Ancient health manuscripts in Persian language]

To review literature for ancient medical text in Persian language. 350 medical books and texts in Persian language were identified and reviewed. Of these, 40 manuscripts were about general health and safety affairs. These further examined to explore the topic. In general there were two categories of manuscripts: 1.Manuscripts that authors' name or the date of its publication were known. Topics included individual health, brushing, umblical cord cutting, breast feeding, etc. 2. Manuscripts that authors' name or the date of its publication were unknown. Topics included eating and drinking, food water, sence and move, weather, etc. The Old Iranian literature is a very rich source for topics in health and medicine and it deserves further examin

[Investigation of Persian speech interaural attenuation in adults]

As clinical audiometry assessment of each ear needs to know interaural attenutation [IA], the aim of this study was to investigate Persian speech IA in adults. This cross-sectional, analytic study was performed on 50 normal hearing students [25 males, 25 females], aged 18-25 years old in Faculty of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Speech reception threshold [SRT] was determined with descending method with and without noise. Then speech IA for Persian spondaic words was calculated with TDH-39 earphones. Mean speech IA was 53.06 +/- 3.25 dB. There was no significant difference between mean IA in males [53.88 +/- 2.93 dB] and females [52.24 +/- 3.40 dB] [p>0.05]. The lowest IA was in females [45dB] and the highest IA was in males [60 dB]. Mother's language has no significant effect on speech IA. We may consider 45 dB as the lowest IA for Persian speech assessment, however generalization needs more study on a larger samples

[Effective factors on writing of Persian and non Persian articles in Arak University of Medical Sciences faculty members' point of view in 2008]

Since of the importance of publishing medical articles in evaluation of faculty members' activity and ranking of universities, this study was designed investigate faculty members' opinion about intendancy in writing Persian and non Persian articles. This cross-sectional analytical study is carried out by census method. Data were gathered by a questionnaire which its validity and reliability were confirmed. Data was analyzed by ANOVA, T-test, Chi square and correlation coefficient. The most important barriers in academic members' intendancy to articles were too busy in education or clinical treatment with the mean of 4.28 +/- 1.06, lack of experienced persons fro writing non Persian articles as counselor with the mean of 3.98 +/- 1.00, lack of research teams with the man of 3.95 +/- 0.98, long time in proposal approval with the man of 3.96 +/- 1.02, lack of journal editorial board supporting in accepting of descriptive articles with the mean of 3.95 +/- 1.02 and long time from receiving articles until their approval and publishing with the mean of 3.95 +/- 1.07. By decreasing education hours, shortening the process of proposal approval, introducing expert persons in writing non Persian articles as counselor, shortening the process of evaluating and publishing or rejecting articles can increase academic members' tendency in writing articles

Persian contribution to Unani medicine a review

The Middle Ages of European history roughly correspond to the [Golden age] of Arab civilization. When Europe was passing through Dark Ages, the Arabs contributed significantly to the rest of the civilization. They translated the Greco-Roman medical literature into Arabic and helped to preserve the ancient knowledge and developed their own system of medicine known as Unani system of medicine. Leaders in the Arabic Medicine were the Persians. Persia encouraged and developed physicians and philosophers of Unani medicine. They further developed this medicine into a complete science and it got deep root in the masses. Persian city of Jundishapur served as an intellectual magnet for Muslim scholars and provided a uniquely tolerant and peaceful meeting point for the philosophical and medical traditions of the Persian, Greek, Indian, Zoroastrian and Nestorian. The hospital at Jundishapur seems to have functioned as a medical school. The scholars at Jundishapur carried out the monumental task of assembling and translating Greek texts including those of Hippocrates and Galen into Syriac, which was then the language of university. Many of the Greek texts were eventually translated into Arabic from these Syrian editions. Eminent physicians of this period are: - Ibn Raban Tabari [810-895 A.D.], Abu Bakr Zakariya al-Razi [865-925 A.D.], Ibn Sina [980-1037 A.D.] etc. They were eminent scholars, great philosophers, physicians and intellectual prodigies of this period. Avicenna gave a final shape to Unani system of medicine and redefined many concepts based on his clinical experiences. Ibn Sina wrote books in Persian later in his life like Risala-e-joodia, Al-Biruni, the great propounder of Arabic language had to turn to Persian often, Omar Khayyam, a great mathematician, Firdausi, writer -of Shahnama, Arzani, Gilani, Mohammed Azam Khan and Sharif Khan, all made real contribution to Tibb via Persian

Evaluation of piascledine 300 in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis clinical, biochemical and radiological study

In this work, the efficacy of piascledine 300 mg in the treatment of knee OA by clinical, biochemical and radiological study was evaluated. Forty patients with primary knee OA fulfill the ACR criteria for classification and reporting of knee OA were included and classified into two groups according to the presence or absence of effusion. The results have shown an improvement in the parameters measured, either clinically or biochemically, and a success rate of 65% of the drug as detected by clinical evaluation in this study after 6 months of drug intake, but the radiological study did not detect any signification changes

Abul Fatah - a commentator of "Al-Qanoon".

The Commentator of "Al-Qanoon" (Canon of Avicenna) Abul Fatah known as "Maseehuddin" also was a native of Gilan. He migrated to India during Akbar's period (1556-1605 A.D.). The emperor honoured him by confering Sadarat of Delhi, Malwa and Gujarat and bestowed upon him the title of Hasht Sadi. His commentary on the Canon is known as "Fatahi", in which he explained various problems elaborately. He was well versed in anatomy and connoisseur of Prose and Poetry. He had made a good change in Huble-Buble and he was the first who had made the inhailing of smoke less harmful. He died on 20th June, 1580 A.D.

Al-Adwiyah Al-Qalbiyah: introduction and commentary.

Avicenna was a great scientist and philosopher of the 10th century A.D. He wrote about 456 books in various fields of learning. Al-Adwiyah Al-Qalbiyah is perhaps the most important work of Avicenna after Al-Qanun fil Tibb or canon of medicine. Like Al-Qanun, it was also very popular in Europe and was translated into Latin. It has also been translated in Turkish, Uzbbek, and later on in Persian and Urdu.

Avicenna's contribution to the development and progress of medical sciences.

Avicenna was born in the village of Belkh near Bukhara in Persia. He was a very famous philosopher, wiseman and an efficient physician. He wrote more than one hundred books on all aspects and sciences known in his time i.e. philosophy, wisdom, religion, mathematics, sophism, literature, poetry and medicine. In medicine, the most celebrated of them is "Al-Qanun fil Tibb", which surpassed other similar books on medicine and considered the biggest medical encyclopaedia of his time. Those orientalists who believe in Greek medicine consider this book as the only textbook on the art of curing and recovery.