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Background and purpose: Recent studies show that bronchial hyper-responsiveness occurs in a high proportion of inflammatory bowel disease. Âirway inflammation is a common pattern of respiratory involvement in ÏBD patients and is a major finding in bronchial asthma. This study was designed to evaluate the prevalence of asthma and air way hyper-responsiveness among ulcerative colitis patients.
Materials and methods: Through a case-control study, spirometry was performed for 40 ulcerative colitis patients and 40 normal controls who were admitted to the Ïmam Khomeini hospital in Sari. The methacholine challenge test was performed in all cases with normal spirometry results. Then the data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.
Results: The results of the present study showed abnormal spirometry results for 55 % of ulcerative colitis patients compared to 22.5% of normal healthy controls (P<0.05). Ït has been found that air way hyper responsiveness occurred in 37.5% and 17.5% (P<0.05), asthma occured in 2.5% and 0% (P>0.05) and small airway disease occured in 15% and 5% (P>0.05) of cases and controls respectively. We observed that restrictive lung disease occured in 10% of both groups (P>0.05). There was also inverse correlation between duration of ÏBD and FËV1 (R=0.395, P=0.012) as well as FVÇ (R=0.367, P=0.02).
Çonclusion: Ôur results show that air way hyper-responsiveness is one of most common respiratory manifestations of ulcerative colitis patients with no symptom of airway involvement.

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 Background and purpose: Muscle damage has always been a serious problem following accidents and spinal cord injuries. Mental imagery or motor imagery is a treatment in which a patient evokes a movement to improve performance. There are limited studies in this field, so, this study aimed at investigating the effect of mental imagery on increasing the strength of elbow flexor muscles.
Materials and methods: This study was performed in 20 healthy individuals, non-athletes aged 22-25 years old. The strength of the elbow flexor muscles was measured by a dynamometer and a special tape measure was used to measure the hypertrophy of the biceps muscle. The experimental group performed strength training designed for the superior hand using free weights and at the same time performed this exercise mentally with the non-superior hand (three days a week/12 weeks). Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the changes between superior and non-superior hand and Wilcoxan test was used to compare the amount of changes in maximum muscle contractile force.
Results: Findings showed increased elbow flexor strength and hypertrophy in both the superior hand and non-superior hand.
Conclusion: Although real exercises were more effective in improving strength and hypertrophy of flexor elbow muscles, but mental imagery also affected muscle strength and hypertrophy as much as real exercises.
 

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Background and purpose: Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease, first identified in humans in 1970. Considering the importance of physicians' knowledge and attitude toward treating this disease, the current study was designed and implemented to determine the attitude and knowledge of family doctors in Sari, Iran, regarding monkeypox.
Materials and methods: The present study is a descriptive and analytical study, with the statistical population comprising family doctors in Sari. Initially, a questionnaire containing questions evaluating the knowledge and attitude of family doctors was designed. Subsequently, data were collected through a census method. After data collection, the information was analyzed using SPSS version 16 and relevant statistical tests.
Results: The participants in this study were 117 family doctors working in urban and rural areas. Descriptive data showed that 55% of the participants were male, while 45% were female. Additionally, 62% worked in urban areas, and 38% worked in rural areas. The average age of the participants was 47.10±8.07 years, and their average work experience was 17.30±5.17 years. The average knowledge score was 9.30±3.42, and the average attitude score was 3.5±1.70. Analytical data also indicated that the attitude score had a significant relationship with gender, while the knowledge score was significantly related to the place of work.
Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that the knowledge and attitude of family physicians in Sari regarding monkeypox were at a satisfactory level. Therefore, automated information dissemination systems in the field of infectious diseases can effectively be utilized to spread information about important infectious diseases.