Association of pain, social support and socioeconomic indicators in patients with spinal cord injury in Iran.

STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive cross-sectional study. OBJECTIVES: Pain is a prevalent complication of individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). Our objective was to examine the association between social support, socioeconomic factors and psychosocial factors and pain to develop more effective management strategies. SETTING: Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Research (BASIR) Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. METHODS: The Persian version of the Brief Pain Inventory was used to measure the pain, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support was used to measure social support through structured face-to-face interviews in SCI individuals. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of pain was 50.7%; 79.3% of individuals had bilateral pain, with lower limbs and back being the most common location. The quality of pain was described as aching (41.4%), tingling (32.9%), pressure (15.7%), coldness (5.7%) and feeling electric shock sensations (4.3%). The frequency of pain in individuals with paraplegia (60.9% vs 45.7%) and incomplete (53.5% vs 52.5%) SCI was higher than with other types of neurological injuries. Patients with a medium level of education had the least pain and those with good economic situation reported higher frequency of having pain (P=0.034). There was no significant relationship between pain and social support. There was a positive correlation between pain and impairment of mood, normal work, relations with other people and lack of sleep (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: These novel findings will inform the development of strategies to manage pain by improving access to health-care facilities and supplies.

Green synthesis of gold nanoparticles using Stevia rebaudiana leaf extracts: Characterization and their stability.

Various methods invented and developed for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles that increases daily consumed. According to this method, including potential environmental pollution problems and the complexity of the synthesis, in this study, the feasibility of using the leaves extract of Stevia rebaudiana (SR) for the reduction of gold ions to nanoparticles form have been studied. Stevia leaves were used to prepare the aqueous extract for this study. Gold nanoparticles were characterized with different techniques such as UV-vis spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Transmission electron microscopy experiments showed that these nanoparticles are spherical and uniformly distributed and its size is from 5 to 20 nm. FT-IR spectroscopy revealed that gold nanoparticles were functionalized with biomolecules that have primary amine group (NH2), carbonyl group, OH groups and other stabilizing functional groups. X-ray diffraction pattern showed high purity and face centered cubic structure of gold nanoparticles with size of 17 nm. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) implies the right of forming gold nanoparticles. The results, confirm that gold nanoparticles have synthesized by the leaves extract of S. rebaudiana (SR).

Non-genetic factors associated with the risk of Parkinson's disease in Iranian patients.

The aim of this study was to investigate some of nongenetic factors associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) in a sample of Iranian patients. This case-control study included 75 patients with idiopathic PD and 75 control patients. The patients in the control group were found to have drunk more glasses of tea per day than the case group before the onset of their problem (p=0.019). Every extra glass of tea per day decreased the risk of PD by 0.8 times (OR=0.8, 95%CI=0.73-0.97, p=0.02). Each cup of coffee per week decreased the chance of developing PD by 0.5 times (OR=0.5, 95%CI=0.28-0.9, p=0.021). A previous history of evening work increased PD risk by 4.6 times (OR=4.6, 95%CI=1.29-16.86, p=0.019) while major stressful events increased it by 13.5 times (OR=13.5, 95%CI=4.7-38.1, p=0.0001). In conclusion, coffee and tea consumption may exert a protective effect against PD, while evening work and stress may be risk factors for the development of the disease.