Search

Background and Aim: Early communication skills in children with hearing loss depend on the quantity and quality of information received from parents. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of early communication skills training in developing the communication skills of infants and toddlers with cochlear implants. Methods: To this end, 54 infants and toddlers at the age range of 8–24 months with sever to profound hearing loss fitted by Cochlear Implant (CI) with their mothers participated in this study. The experimental and wait list control groups had auditory verbal therapy as the main intervention after the CI; however, the experimental group received a systematic early communication skills program. All subjects were assessed using the Communication and Symbolic Behaviour Scales Developmental Profile as the pre-and post-tests. Results: Multivariate analysis of covariance indicated the effect of systematic training on the early communication development of subjects in intervention group. Conclusion: Teaching the parents how to interact with infants and toddlers with CI could improve the communication skills of the infants and therefore it’s recommended to be included in the auditory rehabilitation programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim: Clinicians and researchers always need standard measures for the evaluation of auditory perception and speech production in deaf children, particularly those with cochlear implants. This study addresses the reliability and validity of the Persian version of categorization of auditory performance (CAP) scale and speech intelligibility rating (SIR) in cochlear-implanted prelingual deaf children. Methods: A total of 92 cochlear-implanted deaf children aged 1.3-15.7 years participated in the study. Test-retest reliability, inter-rater reliability, and criterion and construct validity of the scales were investigated. Results: The obtained test-retest reliability for categorization of the auditory performance scale and speech intelligibility rating was 0.82 and 0.99 (p<0.01), respectively, whereas the suggested inter-rater reliability based on average Cohen's kappa coefficient was 0.73 and 0.70 for the two scales (p<0.01), which appear acceptable. The concurrent validity of the scales was 0.64 and 0.69 (p<0.01). The construct validity for categorization of the auditory performance scale ranged between 0.58 and 0.74 (p<0.01), whereas the same feature for the speech intelligibility rating indicated a range between 0.66 and 0.69 (p<0.01). Conclusion: The findings of this investigation indicated that both CAPII and SIR scales are reliable and valid instruments for the assessment of auditory perception and speech production of cochlear-implant deaf children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language-independent assessment tools evaluate the progress of children who receive a cochlear implant, allowing large pooling of data for better access to insurers and other health care professionals. One hundred and seventeen children from centres in the United Kingdom, Iran and Turkey were assessed on two measures over a five-year test interval. There is a significant improvement over time for the Categories of Auditory Performance (CAP) and Speech Intelligibility Rating (SIR) measures. There was a significant difference between scores for different language groups: accounted for by the differences in age at implantation. There was a significant effect of age at implantation up to three years of device use. There were high correlations between the CAP and SIR scores. A longer duration of deafness resulted in a higher score for both scales; however, there was no relationship when correlated for age. Finally, the CAP pre-operative score allows us to predict the post-operative SIR scores. The scales are validated; reliable measures which can be used across countries and languages. This allows greater ability to pool data allowing data to be generalised across population groups, providing more power to prove that cochlear implantation is a viable treatment for children with bilateral severe-to-profound hearing loss. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The present research was conducted to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on anxiety, depression, and physical symptoms. Methods: This research falls among semi-probationary plans, with a pretest-posttest design, two groups, and follow-up. The research statistical population included all male and female out-patients who referred to any treatment centers in Tehran, Iran, in the years 2019-2020 with a chronic pain complaint and received a definitive diagnosis of chronic pain by neurologists and rheumatologists. In order to establish 3 groups using targeted sampling method (considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria), 30 patients were initially selected, and then, 15 patients were placed in the first experimental group and 15 patients in the second experimental group randomly. The research tools consisted of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) (1961), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) (1990), and Mcgill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) (2007). Research data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA. Results: The result of data analysis indicated that ACT and tDCS lead to a decrease in depression, anxiety, and physical symptoms. In addition, compared to tDCS, ACT had a more significant effect on reducing anxiety in individuals suffering from chronic pain (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Both ACT and tDCS had a significant effect on improving depression, anxiety, and physical symptoms in people with chronic pain. ACT was also more effective in reducing anxiety. However, there was no significant difference between ACT and tDCS in influencing depression and physical symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim: The current study aimed to investigate the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (IT-MAIS) questionnaire. Because cochlear implantation is done today at younger ages, the use of a suitable questionnaire is necessary to evaluate auditory skills and follow up the rehabilitation progress. Methods: IT-MAIS was translated according to the International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) translation protocol. The content validity was performed using Lawshe method with the participation of 10 expert professionals. The questionnaire was completed for 34 parents of cochlear-implanted children before initial programming of the device, two weeks after the rehabilitation program, and finally three months later. The intraclass correlation coefficient was calculated for test-retest reliability for each ITMAIS subscale. The internal consistency reliability was analyzed using the Cronbach a coefficient. Results: The content validity ratio for all items was above 0.79, and the content validity index was obtained to be higher than 0.96. The Cronbach a for the entire questionnaire was 0.74, and for different sections of it was obtained as 0.63-0.67. A significant difference was observed between the total score of the questionnaire before and after the rehabilitation program and its sub-items (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The Persian version of the questionnaire of IT-MAIS is a valid instrument in terms of translation quality as well as reliability and validity for assessing cochlear implant user children who are younger than three years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Arithmetic knowledge has long been known as an essential factor for educational and vocational success.Aims: This study aims to explore the effectiveness of a process-based Executive Function (EF) intervention program on the improvement of components of arithmetic.Methods and Procedure: A goal-directed sampling method was applied in this study. Participants were assigned into active control and experimental groups. Semi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test and follow-up was utilized in this research. Participants were included in this study based on their WISC-IV and Key-Math test performance. 30 male students aged 8-10 years with a formal diagnosis of Developmental Dyscalculia (DD), selected from a learning disability center in Ahvaz, Iran, participated in the study. The pre-test took 1 month, the intervention including 17 sessions, took two months and the post-test took 1 month. All the students' arithmetic knowledge were tested in pre-test, post-test, and 3 months after post-test to test the longevity of the intervention effects. Repeated measure Univariate Analysis of Variance was conducted in this study.Outcomes and Results: The results indicate that the students who attended the intervention, outperformed control group in the components of factual and procedural arithmetic in post-test and follow-up, however; the performance of two groups in conceptual knowledge was not different. This study contributes to the emerging evidence that EF intervention may improve factual and procedural arithmetic knowledge in children with DD.Conclusions and Implications: Process-based EF interventions can improve arithmetic knowledge of students with DD, which can contribute to the literature of this area WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS?: The current research helps cognitive science to present a more meticulous theoretical and conceptual pattern for EF components and math, using process-based EF intervention programs with arithmetic content. Furthermore, this research allows for specification of cognitive fundamentals of arithmetic development and understanding the mechanisms underlying the transfer effect of EF intervention to math. The findings of this research can contribute to evidence-based EF intervention studies and help educational psychologists in preparation of appropriate curricula based on the fundamental components of arithmetic development in preschool and primary school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mathematics Learning Disorder (MLD) has been found to be related to impairments in cognitive functions. Spatial ability (SA), which is made up of eight single but unified elements can be assumed to have a leading part in different areas of math skills. The first objective of this study was to explore differences in SA factors in 128 school children of third to sixth grade with and without MLD. The Flexibility of Closure, Closure Speed, Perceptual Speed, Visualization, Spatial Relation, Spatial Orientation, Spatial Temporal, and Wayfinding were measured through eight tasks. The second objective of the study was to explore the SA factors' ability to predict the performance of MLD participants in three executive functions. The results revealed that participants with MLD had poorer performance in all the SA tasks and it took longer to finish the visualization, spatial relation, and spatial orientation tasks compared to children with typical development (TD). Regression analysis indicated that some of the SA factors could predict working memory and cognitive flexibility, but they were unable to predict response inhibition. Regarding these results, applying SA factors in cognitive rehabilitation programs of children with MLD seems necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial ability is known to have an important role in learning different skills in childhood and achieving success in specific professions. A vast majority of the studies on this topic have focused on adults, and few on in children. In this study, eight tasks were selected to assess eight factors of spatial ability and were modified to be suitable for children. Computerized versions of the tasks were designed and their reliability was measured. One-hundred and ten Iranian children aged 9 to 12 years old participated in the study. In order to assess the test-retest reliability, half of the participants were tested twice. Internal consistency reliability was calculated for some of the tasks. Intraclass correlation coefficients were obtained by test-retest reliability analysis for all tasks ranging from 0.689 to 0.997. The range of Cronbach's a coefficient was found to be between 0.335 and 0.784. The range of the ω coefficient was from 0.428 to 0.798. Each modified task had adequate reliability for assessing the respective spatial ability factors. This battery can help to identify the level of spatial performance in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last years, there has been a remarkable increase in the number of unresponsive patients with anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) reported worldwide. The primary objective of this study was to explore the role of demographic, clinical and environmental risk related-factors in the development of treatment failure, relapse and chronic cases compared to responsive patients with ACL. Moreover, molecular, histopathological and immunohistochemical (IHC) findings between these forms were explored. This work was undertaken as a prospective and case-control study in southeastern Iran. Culture media and nested PCR were used to identify the causative agent. Univariate multinomial and multiple multinomial logistic regression models and the backward elimination stepwise method were applied to analyze the data. A P<0.05 was defined as significant. Also, for different groups, skin punch biopsies were used to study the histopathological and immunohistochemical (IHC) profile. All samples showed that L. tropica was the only etiological agent in all unresponsive and responsive patients with ACL. Data analysis represented that 8 major risk factors including nationality, age groups, occupation, marital status, history of chronic diseases, duration of the lesion, the lesion on face and presence of domestic animals in the house were significantly associated with the induction of unresponsive forms. The histopathological and immunohistochemical findings were different from one form to another. The present findings clearly demonstrated a positive relation between ACL and distinct demographic, clinical and environmental risk determinants. Knowledge of the main risk factors for ACL infection is crucial in improving clinical and public health strategies and monitor such perplexing factors. Author summary: Negligible data are present related to anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) treatment outcome and resultant unresponsiveness risk determinants. The role of demographic, clinical, and environmental risk associated-factors in the development of treatment failure, relapse, and chronic forms of ACL has not been studied. We carried out a case-control study for a period of 4 years (2015–2019) using culture media and nested PCR to identify the causative agent. Afterward, we analyzed the data by univariate multinomial and multiple multinomial logistic regression models and the backward elimination stepwise method. Also, we examined skin punch biopsies to study the histopathological and immunohistochemical (IHC) profile for different comparative groups. The findings identified 8 major risk factors were significantly associated with the creation of unresponsive forms. Clinical practitioners and health surveillance systems should be aware of and monitor such perplexing factors. Awareness of the major determinants for unresponsiveness to the treatment of ACL is critical to improving clinical strategies and public health measures. These multidisciplinary approaches need to address specific barriers that directly affect the treatment outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The vasculo-toxic effect of meglumine antimoniate (MA) was confirmed in our previous investigation. The current study investigates the association of this effect with altered VEGF-A and VEGF-R2 expression. Additional mechanisms by which MA causes vascular toxicity are not clearly understood. We hypothesized that MA may alter normal expression of apoptotic genes and cause vascular toxicity. The current investigation was designed to address this issue using a chick embryo model. Fertile chicken eggs were treated with MA and the extra-embryonic membrane (EEM) vasculature was evaluated by morphometric, molecular and immunohistochemistry assays. The results showed that MA not only altered apoptotic gene expression, but that this alteration may disturb the normal development of the vascular network and cause embryo malformation. The relative expression level of the CASP3, CASP7, CASP9, APAF1, AIF1 and TP53 genes increased in drug-exposed EEMs. In addition, IHC assay confirmed the low expression BCL2 and increased expression of Bax, which are associated with a high rate of apoptosis. We suggest that induction of an apoptotic signaling pathway can lead to vascular defects during embryo development and the consecutive cascade of events can lead to the embryo malformation. Highlights • Meglumine antimoniate possesses vascular apoptotic effect. • Meglumine antimoniate alters expression of apoptotic-regulating genes. • Induction of apoptotic signaling pathways lead to vascular defect during pregnancy. • Meglumine antimoniate induces embryo malformation. • Physicians should limit the use of meglumine antimoniate during embryo development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a serious health challenge at the global level due to Leishmania tropica. This study was conducted to evaluate the risk factors associated with anthroponotic CL (ACL) in unresponsive (patient who does not heal and remains with an active lesion, despite receiving two courses of intra-lesional Glucantime along with cryotherapy and one cycle of systemic Glucantime) and responsive patients in a major focus in southeastern Iran. A case-control study was conducted from April 2015 to October 2016 in the southeast of Iran. Patients were recruited in a major ACL focus from unresponsive and responsive cases. These patients were compared for environmental, clinical, and demographic characteristic factors. Twenty-five risk related factors were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression and backward elimination stepwise models. P<0.05 was defined to be statistically significant. In general, 340 patients with ACL comprising 72 (21.2%) unresponsive cases and 268 (78.8%) responsive cases with active lesions or scars were analyzed by estimating odds ratio (OR). All isolates from 15 responsive and 15 unresponsive patients were characterized as Leishmania tropica based on the BLAST and phylogenic analyses by PCR sequences of the Hsp70 and ITS1 loci. Among the 25 variables, 4 major risk factors including poor interior housing conditions (OR = 1.99, confidence interval (CI) = 1–3.93, P<0.04), history of chronic diseases (OR = 6.22, CI = 2.51–15.44, P≤0.001), duration of lesion in the patients referred ≥13 months (OR = 74.99, CI = 17.24–326.17, P≤0.001), and 5–12 months (OR = 7.42, CI = 3.07–17.92, P≤0.001) than lesions with ≤4 months of age and age groups ≥51 years (OR = 3.85, CI = 1.04–14.22, P<0.04) than those ≤7 years, were significantly associated with unresponsive forms. Improving interior house construction protecting high risk individuals and those with debilitating diseases from being bitten by sand flies, together with the early detection and effective treatment of older age groups with history of chronic diseases are highly important measures for preventing unresponsive forms in patients with ACL in southeastern Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• 6-gingerol represented the inhibitory effect on Leishmania. • In silico study show 6-gingerol has good affinity to IFN-γ. • 6-Gingerol promoted the gene expression of the T cell-related parameters. • improved the histopathological changes in the L. major-infected BALB/c mice. • 6-Gingerol combination showed increased expression in IFN-γ, IL-12P40 and TNF-α. The ongoing conventional drugs for leishmaniasis treatment are insufficient. The present study aimed to assess 6-gingerol alone and in combination with amphotericin B on Leishmania major stages using experimental and in vivo murine models. Here, arrays of experimental approaches were designed to monitor and evaluate the 6-gingerol potential therapeutic outcomes. The binding affinity of 6-gingerol and IFN-γ was the basis for docking conformations. 6-Gingerol combined with amphotericin B represented a safe mixture, extremely leishmanicidal, a potent antioxidant, induced a remarkable apoptotic index, significantly increased the expression of the Th1-related cytokines (IL-12p40, IFN-γ, and TNF- α), iNOS, and transcription factors (STAT1, c-Fos, and Elk-1). In contrast, the expression of the Th2-related cytokines was significantly downregulated (p < 0.001). This combination was also potent when the lesion appearance was evaluated following three weeks of treatment. The histopathological and immunohistochemical patterns of the murine model represented clusters of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes which compressed and deteriorated the macrophages harboring Leishman bodies. The primary mode of action of 6-gingerol and amphotericin B involved broad mechanistic insights providing a coherent basis for further clinical study as a potential drug candidate for CL. In conclusion, 6-gingerol with amphotericin B synergistically exerted anti-leishmanial activity in vitro and in vivo and potentiated macrophages' leishmanicidal activity, modulated Th1- and Th2-related phenotypes improved the histopathological changes in the BALB/c mice infected with L. major. They elevated the leukocyte infiltration into the lesions. Therefore, this combination should be considered for treating volunteer patients with CL in clinical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]