Yalda Ravanshad; Mohadese Golsorkhi; Sahar Ravanshad; Zahra sadat Mohajeri; Anoush Azarfar
Abstract
Introduction: Nowadays, fake doctors, known as “Bandis” in our country Iran, represent themselves as traditional healers and use superstitious ideas for the healing of the ill, especially children. Their activities do not comply with any scientific methods. No research has been focused on ...
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Introduction: Nowadays, fake doctors, known as “Bandis” in our country Iran, represent themselves as traditional healers and use superstitious ideas for the healing of the ill, especially children. Their activities do not comply with any scientific methods. No research has been focused on this issue. The present study aimed to evaluate the education and social levels of the patients and their reasons for referring to these quackeries.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 1,300 children who were managed in the pediatric clinics of Dr. Sheikh Hospital for children, which is a tertiary care center in Mashhad, Iran. Informed consent was obtained from the guardians and patients. Upon examination, the parents of the children were asked to complete a checklist for data collection. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16, and the P-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: In total, 1,300 children (621 females and 679 male) aged 2.5-12 years (mean age: 5.3±2.9 years) were enrolled in the study. Among the guardians, 62.5% were familiar with traditional healers, and 457 (37.2%) of the respondents had visited these individuals at least once. In addition, 106 of these cases had visited traditional healers more than three times. The parents were enquired about the reasons for visiting traditional healers instead of physicians, and 46.7% believed the applied methods by these individuals to be more effective. Moreover, 3.1% mentioned the lower treatment costs compared to physician visits, 2.9% reported the acute diseases of their children that did not respond to medical treatments, and 47.3% acknowledged those methods as real traditional practices.Conclusion: According to the results traditional healers, are a major public health concern. For unjustified reasons, many people prefer their methods to conventional medicine. Therefore, healthcare authorities must raise public awareness in this regarding through systematic plans in order to prevent future complications.
Yalda Ravanshad; Abbasali Zeraati; Mohadese Golsorkhi; Sahar Ravanshad; Anoush Azarfar; Hanieh Jafari
Abstract
Introduction: To date, several randomized trials have compared calcineurin inhibitors, especially tacrolimus, with cyclosporine in patients with steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome, proposing conflicting results. Use of immunosuppressive therapy for the treatment of resistant nephrotic syndrome ...
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Introduction: To date, several randomized trials have compared calcineurin inhibitors, especially tacrolimus, with cyclosporine in patients with steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome, proposing conflicting results. Use of immunosuppressive therapy for the treatment of resistant nephrotic syndrome remains a matter of debate, and the evidence on its efficacy and safety is inconclusive.The present study aimed to compare the benefits and limitations of tacrolimus and cyclosporine in the treatment of steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome. Methods: This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted via searching for the relevant trials performed until January 2018 in electronic databases such as PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science. In total, 285 potentially relevant articles were identified, and four articles were selected for the review. A random effects model was used to analyze data, and the heterogeneity of the articles was assessed using Chi-square-based Cochran’s Q and I2 statistics, and heterogeneity was considered statistically significant with I2>50%. The outcomes were presented as relative risk with 95% confidence interval, and P-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. In addition, meta-analysis was used for further data analysis. Result: Four eligible randomized controlled trials were evaluated in this systematic review. In terms of partial and complete remission, no significant differences were observed between tacrolimus and cyclosporine. However, lack of response to therapy was significantly lower with tacrolimus (RR=0.289; P=0.02) compared to cyclosporine. No significant differences were observed between the drugs in terms of the infection rate, hypertension, ALT/AST elevation, and gastrointestinal symptoms, while nephrotoxicity (RR=0.395; P=0.004) and hypertrichosis (RR=0.018; P<0.001) were significantly lower with tacrolimus. Conclusions: In conclusion, Tacrolimus is superior to Cyclosporine in treating in patients with steroid resistance nephrotic syndrome in terms of no response to therapy, nephrotoxicity and hypertrichosis
Hassan Mehrad-Majd; Javad Akhtari; Yalda Ravanshad
Abstract
Metabolic syndrome and its various manifestations are considered to be a significant health epidemic in the developed and developing countries across the world. Metabolic syndrome is characterized by a series of metabolic abnormalities, such as central adiposity, insulin resistance, hypertension, glucose ...
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Metabolic syndrome and its various manifestations are considered to be a significant health epidemic in the developed and developing countries across the world. Metabolic syndrome is characterized by a series of metabolic abnormalities, such as central adiposity, insulin resistance, hypertension, glucose intolerance, and dyslipidemia. Patients with metabolic syndrome are at a higher risk of major complications, including fatty liver, type II diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular diseases. Nuclear receptors are the key regulators of gene transcription, as well as several metabolic pathways. Among these receptors, LXRα and β play a major role in the regulation of lipogenesis, cholesterol/glucose homoeostasis, and inflammatory pathways through the induction or repression of target genes. In addition to metabolic homeostasis and diseases, lipogenesis and hypertriglyceridemia are regarded as the most significant adverse effects of liver X receptor (LXR) activation. Given the importance of lipid and carbohydrate metabolism and inflammation in the development of metabolic disorders, the present study aimed to review the impact of LXR signaling on the risk of metabolic syndrome and its phenotypes, with an emphasis on their potential therapeutic applications in the treatment of metabolic syndrome. In general, growing evidence supports the notion that LXRs may represent the potential drug targets for the treatment of metabolic syndrome.