Tārīkh-i pizishkī i.e., Medical History

First of all, I offer my condolences on the martyrdom of Imam Ali (AS), the manifestation of justice, courage and the head of the province and Imamate, in the service of Hazrat Vali-e-Asr (AS), the Supreme Leader and all justice-seeking people, especially the hardworking family of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. May we have the success of serving the honorable nation of Iran, who are engaged in effort and construction in this spiritual atmosphere with passion, intelligence, love and interest in that Imam.

Undoubtedly, the day of the physician is one of the days of God, because in the monotheistic view, we call God Almighty a physician and we consider medicine to be the engineering of a device whose creator is God Almighty. In addition, the most important mission of the divine prophets is to prevent social diseases, cure diseases and such diseases. Organizes healthy communities. Therefore, on the first day of September, which with this interpretation, has a special belonging to the essence of the Holy God and the mission of the great prophets (PBUH), Doctor's Day is a step towards dear physician colleagues and all those who maintain and promote the health of society and restore health to patients. May they be blessed and may they all be healthy and happy, and according to the order of the mystic poet - Parvin Etesami - who said:

"Relief is not only from the doctor, but also from the medicine and the nurse."

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all pharmacologists and those who work in this important field on the 6th of September, which has been named Pharmacy Day, and we appreciate their holiness, job honor and the efforts of these loved ones on the way to self-satisfaction. And can medicine and treatment, without honest and exhausting nursing services, fulfill its main mission ?! Therefore, I congratulate both the first day of Shahrivar, which is the day of the physician, and the sixth day of Shahrivar, which is the day of pharmacy, to the accomplices of medical and pharmaceutical activities, ie dear nurses, and I wish them all the best in serving the honorable nation of Islamic Iran, which is undoubtedly the most sincere. , Are the most honest and best services, from the door of oneness, I ask.

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Background: The frequency, breadth and diversity of resources of traditional medicine, and the specialization of them requires that each of the researchers and expert groups work towards their defined goals with high speed and accuracy and even compete with each other. In such circumstances only a person or group will be able to move with faster and more accurate speed. For example if an environmental health specialist, wanted to search in Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine from beginning to end and note taking, he/she must spent at least one year or more times. Considering that the Canon is a collection of human knowledge at the beginning of the second millennium AD. in anatomy, physiology, immunology, psychiatry, prevention, diagnosis and so on, it may be out of the patience of an expertise such as environmental health, public health, social medicine, infectious diseases, a surgeon and other like these. But if we computerized these such resources and making electronic data bank with ability of quick and accurate functions for all professionals would be useful without any doubt. And each of the researchers will be able to about their expertise. So production of this data bank, including Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine is a step towards solving this important problem.

In classical medicine "maintenance therapy" in joint disorders is common. Now we are planning to present joint disorders from the viewpoint of Iranian traditional medicine to provide different plans to prevention and treatment of these disorders.

Method to achieve this aim is using library traditional medicine resources which related to different centuries.

Joint disease in Iranian traditional medicine is called “Oja-e- Mafasel”. This disorder divided in 2 categories:

1. Simple (Sadah)
2. Material (Maddy)

Depending on each category, any one has different sub titles which related to any subtitles, there are several prevention and treatment solutions. According to the etiology of joint diseases and those risk factors in viewpoint of Iranian traditional medicine, it seems that, with lifestyle modification and respect to six principles of life “Settah-e-Zarory”, probably it is possible to prevent joint disorders and in disease condition, offer better, cost effectiveness and lower complication solution.

Senility is a natural phenomenon in which physical, spiritual and mental activities of a person decrease and these physiological changes are homogeneous in different people, but their velocity may vary. The physical changes in this period include reduction of corporeal power and weakness of the limbs and tissues and a decrease in efficiency of the digestion system, and absorbing nourishments and etc, and also corruption in mental balance and lack of it, depression, hopelessness, feeling of vanity and other similar conditions and being careless about the body and the spirit [soul] and not paying enough attention to it will result in acceleration of early aging and consequently in early death. Senility and paying attention to corporeal, spiritual and mental hygiene during this period have been taken into consideration from ancient times, especially in traditional and Islamic medicine by the scientist of these fields, and every each of them has presented detailed applicable plans for this era of life. Amongst this scientist, Razi, Avicenna and Jorjani have specified some chapters in medicine for elder people, specially their hygiene, sport and activities and have divulged some instructions for them.

In this article, by studying the history and old medicine sources and other provided articles in this field, the authors attempt to state the perspectives of each of these sages from the past centuries about senility, which have been obtained through hard efforts and worthy experiences.

Introduction: Greeks, generally, have been known as the founder of science but centuries before that in a region called Mesopotamia, known as Iran today, different sciences including medicine were practiced.

Goal: to learn about the role of Iranians in optical sciences, it is necessary to conduct a historical investigation which addresses how Iranians managed myopia, hyperopia, presbiopia, and ocular deviation with lenses and spectacles in past.

Results: Considering the discovery of the spectacle made up of bone from 4^th&3^rdmillennium B.C., the discovery of ocular prosthesis in the burned city in Systan and Balouchestan, and the use of eye glass flower to relieve visual symptoms, it can be concluded that in pre historical times, spectacles, lenses, prosthesis, and drugs were used to manage visual problems.

Discussion: One area of interest in ophthalmology in Islamic Era was cataract. Learning about cataract, means learning about the intraocular lens of the eye and this means learning about ophthalmic lenses and magnifiers. In those times, a theory was needed to explain how lenses placed in front of the eye could focus the light on the retina. The success was dependent upon the mechanism of action of the intraocular lens. Therefore, it is necessary to mention that after discovering this mechanism, ophthalmic lenses were synthesized and following that telescope and microscope were designed. Avicenna took important steps in this endeavor. He performed investigations on how light could be focused by water filled bottle and not by an empty bottle. He also had adequate knowledge ocular muscles and their innervations. All of these studies provided the basics for using ophthalmic lenses in front of the eye.

Avicenna says in his book Shafa the ligh to fits object must be seen to bereflected. Greek scientists say the opposite.

In thesecondmillenniumBCItwasapprovedandaddedto thecredibility of Avicenna.

As Avicenna and other Iranian traditional medicine scientists believed in the diagnostic role of dream, dreams have been exerted to diagnose a temperament or disease for many years. Any dream content and detail indicates a particular physical and mental state of the dreamer. According to temperament, each person view different contents and colors in his dream. For example, in case of bile dominance, blood dominance, phlegm dominance, and black bile dominance, the major element of dream is fire, bleeding (excessive flow of blood), water (rains, ice, and river), and terrifying things (thundering hailstorms, dark shadows) respectively. In addition, the predominant color of the dream varies upon temperament as though the dream theme of bile dominance colors in yellow, blood dominance colors in red, phlegm dominance colors in white, and black bile dominance colors in black.

Exploitation of dream contents allied with other symptoms is helpful in diagnosis of a disease. Furthermore, we can chase mental and physical state of patient by monitoring dream content changes during treatment. The method we used in this paper is based on Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine, its commentaries, and other resources related to Iranian traditional medicine has been used in different centuries.

Introduction - anterior abdominal hernias is the most important subject of anatomical and surgical books which is teaching in all of medical schools because the number of people who going to surgical rooms for this kind of surgery are over hundred thousands yearly and it is a routine program for general hospitals. In Avicenna’s Cannon there is a wide chapter for anterior abdominal hernias, the goal of this article is comparison of abdominal hernia from Avicenna’s Canon with the new anatomical and surgical books.

Materials and methods - From a lithographic Avicenna’s Canon printed in 16^th AC century, related to American University of Beirut and another lithographic Avicenna’s Cannon related to Shahid Beheshti Medical Sciences University, both of them are written in Arabic language the chapters that are related to abdominal hernias selected, the mentioned chapters named in Arabic tharb va sifagh, (Arabic: tharb fat + sifagh peritoneum), and basic knowledge of Avicenna’s Canno about abdominal hernias compared with same parts in modern Medical English books such as Gray’s Anatomy, Schwartz principal surgery, from anatomical, surgical, pathological, semiological and differential diagnosis point of view.

Results - the finding of this study shows that Avicenna is write in the Cannon principles of anatomt of abdominal hernias such as skin, abdominal subcutaneous fat, visceral and parietal peritoneum, greater omentum, inguinal canal, deep inguinal foramens, inguinal canal, direct and indirect inguinal hernia, umbilical hernia, relationships of greater omentum and umbilical hernia, scrotal hernia, hydrocele, differential diagnosis of intestinal hernia and hydrocele.

Discussion and Conclusion - in modern anatomical and surgical books are written that  in anterior abdominal hernias its layers are very important from anatomical and surgical points of view and also Avicenna’ Cannon regarded anatomy of layers of the anterior abdominal such as the skin ,subcutaneous fat, abdominal muscles , parietal and visceral peritoneum transversal is fascia and also relation of peritoneum with inguinal hernia and scrotal hernia is very important points in the mentioned modern books which regarded also by Avicenna, invagination of the greater omentum into umbilical hernia looked by modern references also by Avicenna, process vaginalis is in first sight for hydrocele description in the new references and Avicenna mentioned it a thousand years ago and also Avicenna discovered deep inguinal hiatus and inguinal canal and named it in Arabic language correctly: soghbane zayyeghan that means two contracted hiatus and cells , and beside of anatomical and surgical points, Avicenna’s Cannon discussed about pathological, semiological, and etiological sides of  anterior abdominal hernias.

Background and Aim: Trachyspermum copticum (L.) Link (called Zenian in Persian) is a native plant to Iran, Egypt, Afghanestan and India and it's aqueous and alcoholic extracts exert cytotoxic effects on human ovarian cancer cell cultures. Our aim was to study the Transforming Growth Factor-beta2 (TGF-beta2) levels in supernatant of human ovarian cell [A2780, sensitive and resistant to Cisplatin] cultures treated with aqueous and alcoholic, and essential oil of dried seeds of Trachyspermum copticum (L.) Link.

Materials and Methods: Human ovarian cancer cells (S and CP) treated with different concentrations (from 50 to 7000 µg/mL) of aqueous and alcoholic extracts. Using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide test (MTT) and calculating cytotoxic percentage of each extracts after overnight incubation, non cytotoxic concentrations of extracts were selected.

Non cytotoxic concentrations of aqueous extract for treatment of sensitive cells were 50, 100, 200, and 1000 µg/mL; and for resistant cells were 50, 100, 200, and 2000 µg/mL. Non cytotoxic concentrations of alcoholic extract for treatment of sensitive and resistant cells were 50, 100, and 200 µg/mL. Essential oil excluded from the study because of its extremely cytotoxic effects on cells even with very low concentrations.

TGF-beta2 concentrations in supernatants were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results were analyzed with comparing mean test. P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically meaningful.

Results: Treatment of sensitive cells with 200 µg/mL, and resistant cells with 50 and 2000 µg/mL of aqueous extract associated with very less concentrations of TGF-beta in supernatants comparing with other extract concentrations (p<0.001).

But there was no meaningful association between the treatment of cells with alcoholic extract and TGF-beta2 concentrations in supernatants.

Conclusion: Treatment of human ovarian cancer cells (A2780, sensitive and resistant to Cisplatin) with some concentrations of aqueous extract associated with diminished levels of TGF-beta2 in supernatants comparing other concentrations.

Considering critical role of TGF-beta2 in growth and metastasis of tumor cells, further studies for determining the chemical components of aqueous extract and mechanism(s) of its effects on TGF-beta2 levels should be done.

Introduction: The Usage of Senna leaf as Bowel evacuation agent has been mentioned in many texts of Herbal Medicine. This plant grows in southern tropical parts of Iran.   The utilization of Seena extract for treatment of constipation and its laxative effects has been advised before surgery in majority of traditional medicine texts.  This study compares the effectiveness, adverse events and patient tolerance of two bowel preparation regimens with castor oil and Senna extract syrup in bowel preparation of out patients for intravenous urography (IVU).

Methods and materials: 114 consecutive outpatients were randomized to receive standard bowel preparation with 40 mL of castor oil or 60 mL of Senna extract syrup before IVU examination. Demographic characteristics such as age, gender and prior bowel preparation experience were the same in both groups.  Two radiologists, unaware of the method of bowel preparation, reviewed the standard radiographs and graded the bowel preparation. The tolerance and acceptability of both regimens assessed by a self administered structured questionnaire. Informed consent was obtained for patients who received Senna extract syrup.

Result: Numbers, ages, and gender distribution of patients in the two groups did not differ significantly from each other. Cleanliness scores for the castor oil and Senna extract group were 3.97±0.971 and 4.87±0.917, which indicate better colon cleansing of Senna extract syrup. Adverse events (such as vomiting, nausea, thirst, abdominal fullness, Fainting and insomnia) in Senna extract group were lower than the castor oil group. Acceptability of regimens in patients who use Senna extract syrup was higher than the other group.

Discussion: The regimen of Senna extract group is significantly effective and better tolerated than the regimens of Castor oil group in bowel cleansing. The incidence and grade of adverse events from Castor oil was higher than from Senna extract.