Hamidreza Tabatabaee; Parvin Afsar-kazerooni; Yousef Alimohamadi; Alireza Hasanabadi; Fatemeh Khavandegaran; Katayoun Tayeri; Abbas Rezaianzadeh; Jafar Hasanzadeh
Volume 3, Issue 1 , January 2015, , Pages 13-19
Abstract
Background: Intensified strategy includes special attention to the symptoms such as cough (more than two weeks), fever (more than three weeks), night sweats (more than three weeks), and weight loss (more than 3 kg per month). If any of the above symptoms was positive, in suspected individuals for TB, ...
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Background: Intensified strategy includes special attention to the symptoms such as cough (more than two weeks), fever (more than three weeks), night sweats (more than three weeks), and weight loss (more than 3 kg per month). If any of the above symptoms was positive, in suspected individuals for TB, more assessment should be done. The aim of this study was to compare between intensified and routine case finding for a better case selection method for diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis among HIV-Infected Persons.Methods: The sample size was calculated 237 patients (474 for the two groups). In the current study, the patients were divided randomly into two groups: A) intensified case finding group and B) routine case finding group. Considering the sputum culture as the gold standard, we calculated the sensitivity and specificity, Positive predictive value (PPV), Negative predictive value (NPV) for fever, weight loss, coughing more than two week, night sweats, and PPD test.Result: A total of eight positive cases of tuberculosis were detected in the intensified while four were found in the routine case finding group. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV for cough in diagnosis of TB were 25%, 87%, 6%, and 97%, respectively. For weight loss, they were 62.5%, 83%, 10.8%, and 98.5% respectively while these amounts were, 7%, 85%, 97.6, 37.5 for night sweats. For fever, they were, 25%, 92.9%, 10.5%, and 97% respectively, and for PPD they were 87.5%, 40%, 4.6%, and 98.9%, respectively.Conclusion: Key symptom screening, such as cough, fever, weight loss and night sweats, has an important role in detecting TB among HIV-infected patients.
masoud neghab; ahmad soltanzadeh; roghayeh abedini; jafar hasanzadeh; saeed sarvestani
Volume 2, Issue 2 , April 2014, , Pages 42-48
Abstract
Background: Noise pollution has a particular importance in quiet environments such as hospitals. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of noise exposure on the auditory system, blood pressure and precision, concentration and other psycho-neural components.Methods: This cross-sectional ...
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Background: Noise pollution has a particular importance in quiet environments such as hospitals. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of noise exposure on the auditory system, blood pressure and precision, concentration and other psycho-neural components.Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in three large hospitals of Shiraz, during the period of 2012 to 2013. The study population consisted of 81 health care personnel (the exposed group) and 79 non-exposed individuals (the referent group). Day and night time sound levels were measured at different wards of the hospitals by a sound level meter (B&K 7110). Hearing status was assessed by pure tone audiometry of subjects by an Interacoustic AD27 audiometer. Blood pressure was measured with a mercury sphygmomanometer at resting time and psycho-neural components including sleep disturbances, headache, irritability and … were evaluated by a questionnaire devised and validated for this purpose. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16 software.Results: Average sound pressure level for the exposed group (65.32±5.23 dB) was significantly higher than that of the referent group (53.26±2.46 dB) (P<0.05). Similarly, the mean values of permanent threshold shift (dB) as well as systolic and diastolic blood pressure were significantly higher in the exposed group than in their counterpart individuals (P<0.05). Likewise, symptoms such as headache and irritability were significantly more common among the exposed subjects. Conclusion: The findings suggest that exposure to sub-TLV levels of noise (recommended by ACGIH) in hospital environments is also associated with decreased hearing threshold, increased blood pressure, and prevalence of psycho-neural disorders.
