Reza Afshari
1 Environmental Health Services, BC Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, Canada. 2 Occupational and Environmental Division. School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
[ 2 ] - Clinico-epidemiologic Study on Marine Envenomations and Injuries in South Iran, Persian Gulf Coasts
Background: The Persian Gulf is a suitable habitat for various types of marine species. This study was conducted with the aim of determining the epidemiology and clinical findings of injuries inflicted by marine creatures in the Persian Gulf, south Iran. Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, medical records of patients with diagnosis of marine animal exposures treated at 6 refe...
[ 3 ] - Comparison of Three Consciousness Assessment Scales in Poisoned Patients and Recommendation of a New Scale: AVPU Plus
Background: Few methods have been introduced to assess the level of consciousness in critically-ill patients. This study was designed to evaluate how the AlertVerbalPainfulUnresponsive (AVPU) responsive scale corresponds with the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale (RASS) scores in drug-poisoned patients and to devise an augmented AVPU scale. Methods: In this prospect...
[ 4 ] - Qualitative versus Quantitative Evaluation of Scientists' Impact: A Medical Toxicology Tale
Evaluation of scientists working in a specific area of science is necessary, as they may strive for same limited resources, grants and academic promotions. One of the most common and accepted methods of assessing the performance and impact of a scientist is calculating the number of citations for their publications. However, such method suffer from certain shortcomings. It has become more and m...
[ 5 ] - Structural Findings in the Brain MRI of Patients with Acute Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Background: Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning may lead to hypoxic/anoxic injury and eventually ischemic encephalopathy. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has a well-recognized role in assessment of the severity of brain damage caused by CO poisoning. In this study, we aimed to present and analyze the structural abnormalities in the brain MRI and especially in diffusion weighted MRI (DWI) images in ...
[ 6 ] - International Health Problems Related to Alcohol Abuse
The harmful use of alcohol inflicts great deal of social and economic losses on individuals and societies. Given the increase in world population and the predicted increase in alcohol consumption, the alcohol related burden of disease progressively catches higher ranks in the list of factors threatening humans' life. It has been considered that the social and economic burden related to alcohol ...
[ 7 ] - Measurement of Methanol Contents in Most Commonly Used Herbal Distillates in Mashhad
Background: Herbal distillates had been used for many centuries as herbal medicine in Traditional Persian medicine. Recently, some studies claimed the presence of methanol in different types of herbal distillates which can cause different complications or even death as methanol is highly toxic. The main purpose of this study was to determine methanol content in the commonly-used industrial herb...
[ 8 ] - Epidemics/Outbreaks of Methanol Poisoning
Epidemics of methanol poisoning happen across the globe. There are prognostic factors associated with morbidity or mortality from methanol poisoning. Recently we have compared retrospective observational case series of methanol-poisoned patients from Norway (1979 and 2002-2005), Estonia (2001) and Tunisia (2003/2004), and patients from two different centers in Iran (Teheran 2004-2009 and Mashha...
[ 9 ] - Development of Latrodectus Envenomation Severity Score (LESS); a Severity Index for Widow Spider Bite: Initial Step
Background: In order to describe the patients and evaluate the effectiveness of treatments for widow spider envenomation, investigators require a reliable assessment tool. In this paper, the development of a clinical index for measuring the widow spider bite severity, Latrodectus Envenomation Severity Score (LESS), is described. Methods: According to the valid methods for index development, a D...
[ 10 ] - Snakebite Prognostic Factors: Leading Factors of Weak Therapeutic Response Following Snakebite Envenomation
Background: The goal of antivenom administration for snake-bitten patients is to achieve therapeutic response (initial control), which means reversal of the venom-induced effects through neutralizing the venom. The aim of this study was to identify snakebite prognostic factors of weak therapeutic response prior to antivenom administration. Methods: This was a retrospective study of patients wit...
[ 11 ] - Opium Addiction and Risk of Laryngeal and Esophageal Carcinoma
Introduction: Cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption have a well-known effect on the development of upper aerodigestive tract carcinomas, but such a role for opium is questionable. This study was designed to assess the correlation between opium inhalation and cancer of the larynx and upper esophagus. Materials and Methods: Fifty eight patients with laryngeal cancer, ninety eight patients wit...