International participation in major intensive care journals

Objective

This study seeks to assess the scientific contributions in the field of intensive care medicine from each of the major countries (per million inhabitants) and discusses the possible factors which may contribute to any differences.

Data source

Review of scientific journals.

Study selection

We examined the total number of published papers (between 1989 and 1993) in five major respiratory and intensive care journals:Intensive Care Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, Chest, The American Review of Respiratory Disease, andCirculatory Shock.

Data synthesis

Amongst the American journals, USA and Canada were the predominant contributors followed by the other countries in the following order: Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Austria, Denmark, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Norway, Japan and Germany.

Conclusions

The present study reveals that the smaller European nations have a greater participation than the larger European nations in the major intensive care journals. This phenomenon could be due to different submission practices in these countries compared with the larger European countries, where a considerable number of papers are submitted to local renowned journals. There was no absolute correlation between a nation's gross national product and the total number of publications.     

Inhibition of Staphylococcus Aureus Mediated by Extracts from Iranian Plants

In order to find new antibacterial agents effective against Staphylococcus aureus, ethanolic extracts of 10 plants were tested. S. aureus (489 samples) were isolated either from healthy carriers (nose and throat) or clinical samples. Out of 489 isolates tested, 98.6% were sensitive to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole which was used as the reference antibiotic. From the plant extracts screened for antibacterial activity, Myrtus communis L. (leaves) had the greatest activity, inhibiting the growth of 99% of the isolates. Glycyrrhiza glabra L., Eucalyptus globolus Labill and Menta viridis L., were also active against the isolates inhibiting the growth of 90, 59.5 and 48.7% of the isolates, respectively. All of these extracts were active against the reference strains of S. aureus tested. Saturia hortensis L., Teucrium polium L., and Achillea santolina L., had very little antibacterial activity, while Trigonella foenum graecum L., Echium amoenum Fisch & Mey (flowers) and Juglans regia L. (leaves), had no antibacterial activity against the bacterial isolates.     

Prevalence of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders in Iranian Physical Therapists: A Cross-sectional Study

Objective

The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among Iranian physical therapists.