ObjectiveThere is a limited understanding of the impact of the family-centered empowerment model (FCEM) on the psychological symptoms in post-myocardial infarction (MI). This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the FCEM on the psychological improvement of patients with MI.MethodsThe present study was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) where patients experienced a standard home cardiac rehabilitation (CR) or CR utilizing the FCEM approach. The empowerment of patients was estimated during nine assessments, such as pre- and post-intervention. Factors, such as quality of life (QoL), state and trait anxiety, and perceived stress, were evaluated. A Bayesian multivariate mixed-effects model was used to simultaneously investigate the effect of the intervention group on study outcomes across the time.ResultsAmong all the participants in this study, 24 (34.3%) were women with a total mean ± standard deviation (SD) of 61.40 ± 12.83 and 24.87 ± 3.80 for age and body mass index (BMI). The participants who were in the FCEM group had a significantly higher mean level of perceived stress (β = 28.80), state anxiety (β = 16.20), trait anxiety (β = 3.65), physical (β = 38.54), and mental QoL (β = 42.14). Moreover, the individuals in the FCEM group had a significantly higher mean level of general health (β = 31.64) in the physical dimension of QoL, vitality (β = 15.04), mental role limitation (β = 21.84), and mental health (β = 18.16) in the mental dimension of QoL.ConclusionsThe FCEM can be a valuable treatment mechanism for patients with post-MI to improve their stress, anxiety, and QoL.

Objective: Head and neck trauma are among the most common reasons for referring to hospitals’ emergency departments. This study aimed to compare cervical X-ray and CT scans’ accuracy in diagnosing cervical spine injuries in trauma patients in Shahroud city.Materials and Methods: The present study is a cross-sectional study on patients with traumatic cervical injuries referred to the emergency department of Imam Hossein Hospital in Shahroud city from 2018 to 2019. Both cervical X-rays and CT scans were used for all patients. Firstly, the radiography, then CT scans were performed. An emergency medicine specialist and a radiologist examined crvical X-rays and CT scans separately for diagnosing cervical spine injuries. In this paper, CT scan findings were considered as the gold standard. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value, positive and negative likelihood were used to determine the diagnostic value of plain radiography compared to CT scan. The Kappa agreement coefficient was also calculated.Results: Out of 115 participants, 7.8% (9 patients) had cervical spine injuries period 59.1% were male, and 40.9% were female. The mean age of patients was 39.8 ± 15.3 years. Car accidents, rollover, and motorcycle accidents with 39.1, 24.3, and 20.9%, respectively, were the most common mechanisms of causing injuries in these patients. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value, positive and negative likelihood ratios for cervical X-ray were 55.56, 97.17, 62.5, 26.26, 96, 19.63, and 0.46%, respectively.Conclusion: According to the present study results, the accuracy of cervical X-ray compared to CT scan in diagnosing injuries occurred to the cervical spine due to trauma is low because the sensitivity of cervical X-rays in detecting injuries is very low. Therefore, it seems that the cervical X-ray cannot be considered as a suitable tool to rule out cervical spine injuries caused by trauma.