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Background and Purpose: Blood pressure (BP) is routinely evaluated intermittently during the clinical status for care and treatment. The most common method to measure BP is by using the sphygmomanometer with a stethoscope. This method may be difficult for medical students that will use BP for medical evaluation. The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracy of double stethoscope device for blood pressure monitoring, with standard ausculatory measurements using a mercury sphygmomanometer.
Materials and Methods:In this distinguished report, 65 volunteer participants were studied. Means, standard deviations and Systolic, Diastolic pressure were calculated. The correlation between groups was determined with Pearson correlation.
Results:Mean difference in systolic, Diastolic Blood pressure between standard and routine method with double stethoscope method measurements, was not significant (P<0.001) and were in agreement with Pearson correlation between them.
Conclusion:This study demonstrates that the double stethoscope device provides an accurate measure of blood pressure that is closely approximates with what is achieved by the indirect auscultator method, using a mercury sphygmomanometer.

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Background and purpose: Biological monitoring for workers exposed to solvents includes complementary environmental monitoring which is useful in toxic chemical risk assessments. The aim of this study was environmental and biological monitoring of workers exposed to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in petrochemical industry. Material and Methods: Air and urine samples were collected from 104 individuals working in petrochemical industry. NIOSH 2549 method was used to determine the concentrations of benzene, toluene, xylene isomers, phenol, and methyl ethyl ketone in breathing environment. In order to determine the concentration of urinary metabolites, urine samples were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography. Urinary creatinine level was measured by UV-VIS spectrophotometer. To analyze the data t-test and linear regression were performed in SPSS V.16. Results: The mean concentrations of benzene, toluene, O and m-xylene, P-xylene, phenol and methyl ethyl ketone in breath samples were 1.192, 1.300, 1.97, 1.290, 0.0116, and 2.243 ppm, respectively. The mean concentrations of urinary trans, t- MA, hippuric acid, 2, 3 and 4-methyl hippuric acid, and phenol were 1431 µgr/grCr, 0.3949, 0.4444, 0.1483 gr/grCr, and 0.5850mgr/grCr creatinine, respectively. Concentrations of urinary methyl ethyl ketone were 0.154 mgr/lit. There was a direct linear relationship between concentration of VOCs in the air and urinary metabolites (P>0.05). The results showed that increase in working hours per week resulted in increased level of urinary t, t- MA, methyl hippuric acid isomers and phenol (P>0.05). Conclusion: The mean concentration of benzene in breathing environment, urinary t, and t- MA was higher than the ACGIH's Threshold Limit Values (TLV) and Biological Exposure Indices (BEI) while the mean concentrations of other compounds were lower than TLV and BEI. We also found that smoking increased urinary excretion of all metabolites expect hippuric acid.

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Background and purpose: Drug interaction (DI) decreases the success rate of treatments and lead to longer hospitalization and increased treatment cost. Also, it can seriously endanger patient's lives or cause many complications. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the incidence and management of drug interactions in neonatal intensive critical care unit (NICU) in a teaching hospital. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was performed in 50 neonates admitted to Sari Bu-Ali Sina NICU, 2013-2014. Patients’ data and parameters related to drugs were recorded. Results: Drug interactions were observed in 21 patients. From 1131 prescriptions DIs appeared in 386 cases. The mean number of DIs in each neonate was 3.5±1.6 and most of them occurred in patients concurrently receiving 5 to 10 drugs per day. Conclusion: The majority of neonates in NICU have critical conditions and need multiple therapies so it is necessary to conduct some interventions such as determination of serum concentration, dose adjustment and laboratory parameters monitoring.

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Background and purpose: Cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide are two most widely used and hazardous drugs in chemotherapy centers. This study aimed at determining surface contamination with cyclophosphamide and iphosphamide in chemotherapy centers.
Materials and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in three chemotherapy centers affiliated with Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, Iran 2016. Twenty eight samples were collected from contaminated surfaces. The samples were then prepared by solid phase extraction and analyzed by HPLC/UV apparatus.
Results: The mean values for surface contamination of cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide were 57.28 ± 63.8 and 44.15 ± 5.5 ng/cm², respectively. The highest levels of contamination with both drugs were observed at exhaust hood surfaces and the lowest level of contamination was seen in nursing station and staff resting place. The clothes and gloves of nurses were also found to be contaminated.
Conclusion: Daily number of medications, the location of drug preparation room and injection room, nursing station, staff resting place, daily cleaning programs, and repairing and maintenance of ventilation systems were amongst the major factors affecting surface contamination in chemotherapy centers.
 

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Background and purpose: Pharmacists perform a diverse range of activities and services in the field of pharmaceutical care. Therefore, the quantitative and qualitative monitoring of these pharmaceutical services in hospital wards is essential. Since monitoring such services in hospitals requires a valid instrument, the aim of this research is to develop and conduct a scientometric evaluation of a questionnaire to quantify the quality of pharmaceutical care services in general hospital wards.
Materials and methods: This methodological research was conducted between December 2023 and July 2024. To compile the questionnaire, the relevant areas were first identified. Subsequently, questions related to these areas were developed through a focused group discussion. Next, the appropriate scoring method was determined, and the initial questionnaire was constructed in two parts (technical and professional), formatted as a checklist. The content validity of the instrument was assessed in terms of clarity, simplicity, relevance, and necessity of each question. Internal consistency of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach's alpha.
Results: The mean content validity ratio of the technical part was 0.84 and 0.88 for the professional part. Also, the content validity index was 0.85 for the technical and 0.84 for the professional part. The alpha values were 0.771 for the first part and 0.773 for the second part, indicating an acceptable internal consistency.
Conclusion: While introducing a practical instrument, our results revealed acceptable validity and reliability indices for it. This tool can be used to evaluate and quantify pharmaceutical care services in hospital wards, and also as an indicator to identify high-risk areas where medication errors could occur.