This study was conducted to evaluate retrospectively 203 patients diagnosed with hydatid cyst disease and treated surgically at two university medical centers between 1999 and 2009 in Tehran, the capital of Iran. Cystic echinococcosis (CE) affected more females 117 (57.6%) than males 86 (42.4%). A remarkable gender difference skewed towards females was observed, and the male/female ratio among CE cases <20 and >61 years old was 1.18 and 0.52, respectively. The age of the patients ranged from 8 to 82 years, and the age group 21– 40 years (42.8%) was the most affected. A significantly higher number of hydatid cysts were recorded in the liver than in other sites (P<0.001), and more females had higher hepatic cysts (48.8%) than males (35.0%). The ratio of hepatic hydatidosis to pulmonary hydatidosis was about 11. There was a relative direct relationship between the ratio of liver to lung cases and age, and this ratio was significantly (P<0.01) higher in individuals >40 years of age (liver/lung ratio >43) than in those <40 years of age (liver/lung ratio 2.8–7.6). Unusual cyst locations in kidneys, brain and pelvic area, followed by spleen and spine was also observed. Single organ involvement was found in 95% of the patients, and was more common in females (55.2%) than in males (39.9%). Housewives had the highest rate of infection (53.5%) followed by labourers with 14.8%, which showed a significant difference (P<0.001). Similarly, urban dwellers was also over-represented among the cases (87% urban vs. 13% rural; P<0.001). In 69.5% of cases there was only one cyst, 16.3% had two cysts, 4.7% with three cysts, and 9.5% had four cysts or more. The results showed that further studies are needed to determine the prevalence, economic impact and risk factors of the disease in the area.

As yet no unifying grading system for meningiomas has been adopted. We evaluate epidemiologic factors of meningioma in Iran & degree of agreement between the two commonly used grading systems namely WHO (2000) and Mahmood systems. During a 6-year period 238 meningiomas were selected and reviewed by two independent pathologists using both grading systems. 205(86.1%) cases were benign, 19(8%) atypical and 14(5.9%) malignant. 181(18%) cases were primary and 51(27%) secondary; 35(68%) of the latter benign, 7(14%) atypical and 9(18%) malignant. All intraspinal meningiomas were benign. In benign cranial and spinal types female to male ratios were 1.9: 1 and 1.3: 1 ; while in atypical and malignant types were 1 :1.4 and 1:3.1 respectively. Mean ages were 49.9 for benign. 41.1 for atypical and 50 for malignant types. The most frequent site of involvement in all grades of intracranial tumors was cerebral convexity (31.1 %). The most common subtype was menigothelial (65.1%). Female preponderance seen in benign nonrecurrent meningioma became increasingly less prominent and even reversed in recurrent, atypical and malignant forms. Benign recurrent tumors were similar to non-recurrent tumors microscopically. Kappa value comparing two grading systems was 0.947, so good agreements were found between Mahmood and WHO grading systems.
Benign ; Cancer cells grading system ; Malignant Neoplasms ; Meningioma ; agreement

Antineoplastic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; pathology ; Plant Preparations ; therapeutic use ; Seawater ; chemistry

MS14 is a natural herbal-marine drug, which has shown to slow down or halt the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS). This drug consists of 90% Penaeus latisculatus, 5% Apium graveolens, and 5% Hypericum perforatum L. Preclinically, the effects of MS14 have mostly been examined in an animal model of multiple sclerosis called experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE). Clinical studies of the effects of MS14 in MS patients also showed that it could improve the patients' quality of life. MS14 is a safe drug in MS patients and might also be effective in the treatment of other neurodegenerative disorders with the same mechanisms.
Animals ; Anti-Inflammatory Agents ; therapeutic use ; Antioxidants ; therapeutic use ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Herbal Medicine ; Humans ; Iran ; Medicine, Traditional ; Mice ; Multiple Sclerosis ; drug therapy ; Plant Extracts ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Seawater ; chemistry ; Tissue Extracts ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use

Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Curves are frequently used in biomedical informatics research to evaluate classification and prediction models to support decision, diagnosis, and prognosis. ROC analysis investigates the accuracy of models and has ability to separate positive from negative cases. It is especially useful in evaluating predictive models and compare to other tests which produce output values in a continuous range. Empirical ROC curve is jagged but a true ROC curve is smooth. For this purpose kernel smoothing were used. The Area Under ROC Curve (AUC) frequently is used as a measure of the effectiveness of diagnostic markers. In this study we compare estimation of this area based on normal assumptions and kernel smoothing. This study used measurements of TSH from patients and non-diseased people of congenital hypothyroidism screening in Isfahan province. Using the method, TSH ROC curves from Isfahani's infants were fitted. For evaluating of accuracy of this test, AUC and its standard error calculated. Also effectiveness of the kernel methods in comparison to other methods showed.
ROC Curve ; Thyroid Gland ; Hypothyroidism

Aim: To better understand the mental state of people who complete suicide in shooting ranges/galleries. Method: The public record was searched via the web using various search engines and the words “suicide shooting gallery” and “suicide shooting range”. When names of individuals appeared, they were used to further search for information about the event, paying particular attention to any evidence suggesting the presence of mental disorder. Results: Twenty-two cases were located. Nineteen (83%) were male and the average age was 36 years, with a range from 21 to 75 years. We present 6 case vignettes: in 3 there was evidence of mental disorder, while in the other 3 there was no evidence of mental disorder. Conclusion: Like the people who complete suicide in other locations, some of the people who complete suicide in shooting ranges/galleries are suffering from mental disorder, while some are not, and other triggers are present.

· AIM: This study was conducted to compare the outcomes of amniotic membrane transplantation (AMT) with conjunctival autograft transplantation (CAT) in primary and recurrent pterygium. The main outcome measurement was the recurrence rate after surgery.· METHODS: This study was designed as a prospective study on consecutive cases of pterygium from April 2004 to Feb2006. The cases were randomly divided into two groups of AMT (26 cases) and CAT (24 cases). All subjects were operated with an extensive excision of the fibro vascular tissues with AMT or CAT approach. Patients were followed for recurrence and complications for 24 months. The surgical procedures were performed by a single surgeon.The associations between demographic variables, surgical techniques (AMT, CAT), recurrences and postoperative complications were analyzed.· RESULTS: The patients' male to female ratio was 4:1. Involvement of right to left eye ratio was 3:2. Pterygium in70% of cases was primary and in 30% was recurrent. The most common clinical signs were red eye and reduced visual acuity while the most common complications were recurrence and corneal scar. In the first month of follow up, the recurrence rates in AMT and CAT approaches were 3.8% vs 8.3%respectively and these rates increased to 46.2% vs 25% respectively after 24 months of follow up.· CONCLUSION: The success rate of 2 years follow up was better in CAT technique. The AMT technique for pterygium surgery has an unacceptably high recurrence rate.

OBJECTIVES: Predicting the length of stay (LOS) of patients in a hospital is important in providing them with better services and higher satisfaction, as well as helping the hospital management plan and managing hospital resources as meticulously as possible. We propose applying data mining techniques to extract useful knowledge and draw an accurate model to predict the LOS of heart patients. METHODS: Data were collected from patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). The patient records of 4,948 patients who had suffered CAD were included in the analysis. The techniques used are classification with three algorithms, namely, decision tree, support vector machines (SVM), and artificial neural network (ANN). LOS is the target variable, and 36 input variables are used for prediction. A confusion matrix was obtained to calculate sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. RESULTS: The overall accuracy of SVM was 96.4% in the training set. Most single patients (64.3%) had an LOS < or =5 days, whereas 41.2% of married patients had an LOS >10 days. Moreover, the study showed that comorbidity states, such as lung disorders and hemorrhage with drug consumption have an impact on long LOS. The presence of comorbidities, an ejection fraction <2, being a current smoker, and having social security type insurance in coronary artery patients led to longer LOS than other subjects. CONCLUSIONS: All three algorithms are able to predict LOS with various degrees of accuracy. The findings demonstrated that the SVM was the best fit. There was a significant tendency for LOS to be longer in patients with lung or respiratory disorders and high blood pressure.
Comorbidity ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Coronary Vessels ; Data Mining ; Decision Trees ; Heart ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Insurance ; Length of Stay ; Lung ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Social Security ; Support Vector Machine

OBJECTIVES: Two main digital signal processing technologies inside the modern hearing aid to provide the best conditions for hearing aid users are directionality (DIR) and digital noise reduction (DNR) algorithms. There are various possible settings for these algorithms. The present study evaluates the effects of various DIR and DNR conditions (both separately and in combination) on listening comfort among hearing aid users. METHODS: In 18 participants who received hearing aid fitting services from the Rehabilitation School of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences regularly, we applied acceptable noise level (ANL) as our subjective measure of listening comfort. We evaluated both of these under six different hearing aid conditions: omnidirectional-baseline, omnidirectional-broadband DNR, omnidirectional-multichannel DNR, directional, directional-broadband DNR, and directional-multichannel DNR. RESULTS: The ANL results ranged from −3 dB to 14 dB in all conditions. The results show, among all conditions, both the omnidirectional-baseline condition and the omnidirectional-broadband DNR condition are the worst conditions for listening in noise. The DIR always reduces the amount of noise that patients received during testing. The DNR algorithm does not improve listening in noise significantly when compared with the DIR algorithms. Although both DNR and DIR algorithms yielded a lower ANL, the DIR algorithm was more effective than the DNR. CONCLUSION: The DIR and DNR technologies provide listening comfort in the presence of noise. Thus, user benefit depends on how the digital signal processing settings inside the hearing aid are adjusted.
Hearing Aids* ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing* ; Humans ; Noise* ; Rehabilitation ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted

The prevalence of Sarcocystis spp. was investigated by gross and histopathological examinations in 250 camels (Camelus dromedarius) slaughtered from 2002 to 2005 in the Mashhad Slaughterhouse, eastern Iran. Samples were taken from the diaphragm, heart, tongue, esophagus and masseter muscles for histopathological studies. No macroscopic sarcocysts were found in the samples at gross inspection. Sarcocysts were detected in 209 of 250 (83.6%) examined camels at histopathological level. The infection rate of the esophagus, heart, masseter muscles, diaphragm, and tongue was 58.8%, 48.0%, 46.8%, 41.6%, and 28.0%, respectively. There was no significant difference in the rate of infection between male (85.8%) and female (81.0%) camels. The tissue response to vital cysts was minimal; however, reaction to the degenerating cysts was severe and caused tissue damages resulting in hyperemia, hemorrhages, mononuclear cell infiltration, necrotic changes, and fibrosis. The wild and domestic carnivores especially dogs may be the final hosts of Sarcocystis spp. in this area.
Animals ; *Camels ; Esophagus/parasitology ; Female ; Heart/parasitology ; Iran/epidemiology ; Male ; Muscle, Skeletal/parasitology ; Prevalence ; Sarcocystis ; Sarcocystosis/complications/epidemiology/*veterinary