Background:The anxiety reduction before coronary angiography has clinical advantages and is one of the objectives of nursing. Reflexology is a non-invasive method that has been used in several clinical situations. Applying reflexology might have effect on the reduction of anxiety before coronary angiography. Objectives: The aim of this randomized clinical trial was to investigate the effect of reflexology on anxiety among patients undergoing coronary angiography. Patients and Methods:This trial was conducted in Shahid Beheshti Hospital, in Kashan, Iran. One hundred male patients who were undergoing coronary angiography were randomly enrolled into intervention and placebo groups. The intervention protocol was included 30 minutes of general foot massage and the stimulation of three reflex points including solar plexus, pituitary gland, and heart. The placebo group only received the general foot massage. Spielbergers state trait anxiety inventory was used to assess the anxiety experienced by patients. Data was analyzed using Man-Witney, Wilcoxon and Chi-square tests. The stepwise multiple regressions used to analyze the variables that are involved in anxiety reduction. Results: The mean range of anxiety decreased from 53.24 to 45.24 in reflexology group which represented 8 score reduction (P = 0.0001). The reduction in anxiety was 5.9 score in placebo group which was also significant (P = 0.0001). The anxiety reduction was significantly higher in reflexology group (P = 0.014). The stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that doing reflexology can explain the 7.5% of anxiety reduction which made a significant model. Conclusions: Reflexology can decrease the anxiety level before coronary angiography. Therefore, reflexology before coronary angiography is recommended.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally. piRNAs, which are a novel type of identified small noncoding RNA (ncRNA), play a crucial role in cancer genomics. In recent years, a relatively large number of studies have demonstrated that several piRNA are aberrantly expressed in various kinds of cancers including gastric cancer, bladder cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer and Lung cancer and may probably serve as a novel therapeutic target and biomarker for cancer treatment. The present review summarized current advances in our knowledge of the roles of piRNAs in cancer.

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Background: Poor adherence to treatment in heart failure patients is associated with frequent hospital readmissions, worsening of symptoms and premature death. Since the progression of heart failure is also affected by the psychological and social aspects of life, identifying psychosocial variables associated with health-promoting behaviors in these patients is essential. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between cardiac self-efficacy, perceived social support (PSS) and adherence to treatment in patients with heart failure reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Methods: Among patients referred to the outpatient heart failure clinic at Rajaie Cardiovascular, Medical and Research Center, a total of 120 patients with a diagnosis of HFrEF (left ventricular ejection fraction ≤ 35%), were consecutively enrolled. They were asked to complete demographic, cardiac self-efficacy, perceived social support (PSS) and adherence to treatment questionnaires. Results: A total of 120 heart failure patients (70% male, 67% with ischemic etiology) were enrolled. Most patients were between 40-59 years old. The mean (SD) score of cardiac self-efficacy was 30.6 (2.4), which shows a fair self-efficacy in our study population. The mean (SD) score for PSS was 94.6 (10) which showed more than 75% of heart failure patients have enjoyed high levels of PSS. The mean (SD) scores for the three domains of adherence to treatment were 7.4 (1.5) for diet, 13.2 (2) for physical activity and 10 (1.4) for medications which shows a poor adherence to the diet. Both PSS and adherence to treatment were significantly correlated with NYHA function class. Multivariable logistic regression indicated that cardiac self-efficacy might be a better independent predictor of treatment adherence than PSS in patients with HFrEF. Conclusions: According to the analyzed data of this study, social support, treatment adherence and self-efficacy among all patients with HFrEF were in acceptable levels. However, both patients and their care givers should be more educated in this regard.

Background. Polymorphisms in genes, which is involved in the renin-angiotensin system, play an important role in the pathogenesis of coronary heart disease (CHd). Polymorphism of c.803t>C in the human angiotensinogen gene results in methionine (M) to threonine (T) substitution at codon 268 (p.Met268Thr), which traditionally has been known as M235T. This polymorphism may contribute to cardiovascular diseases. Objectives. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between p.Met268Thr polymorphism in the angiotensinogen gene and coronary heart disease (CHd) through a case-control study, which is followed by a meta-analysis. Material and methods. In the case-control study, c.803T>C genotyping of 217 subjects (102 CHD cases vs 115 controls) was investigated by the polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. In the meta-analysis, 31 studies were included, reflecting 12,028 people with CHD and 16,362 healthy controls. Results. The data from the case-control study revealed that MT (OR, 1.875; 95%CI, 1.060-3.316; p = 0.031) and TT (OR, 3.389; 95%CI, 1.251-9.179; p = 0.016) genotypes are significantly associated with CHD. The meta-analysis revealed a significant association in the recessive model (OR, 1.156; 95%CI, 1.011-1.321; p = 0.034). Conclusions. Although the pooled OR of the meta-analysis showed that there is an increased risk of CHD conferred by p.Met268Thr of the AGT gene, this association was weak, which could be attributed to a bias in publications.