Sexual Knowledge among High School Students in Northwestern Iran.

Objectives. Regarding the importance of sexual desire in adolescence period and public and parental concerns about it and considering the lack of studies on sexual knowledge especially in adolescents in Iran, this study was conducted to evaluate the sexual issues in high school girls and boys. Patients and Methods. The cross-sectional study was performed on 2700 high school students. Students were selected through a multi-staged randomized sampling method in Tabriz and by the convenience method in Ardabil and Urmia. Data collection tool was a questionnaire including knowledge questions and measured by a three-point scale. Data were statistically analyzed with SPSS version 11.5 software. Results. 11.8% of the students had a low sexual knowledge, 46.7% had average and 41.5% had a high one. There was no significant difference between male and female students' general sexual knowledge. The highest knowledge was about being aware of the religious rules concerning sex. Conclusion. Adolescents should be trained and acquire information about the different aspects of sexual issues. Female adolescents especially need to be educated about puberty physiology, fertility physiology and STDs.

The effects of magnesium, L-carnitine, and concurrent magnesium-L-carnitine supplementation in migraine prophylaxis.

Given the conflicting results about the positive effects of magnesium and L-carnitine and as there is no report concerning concurrent supplementation of magnesium and L-carnitine on migraine prophylaxis, the effects of magnesium, L-carnitine, and concurrent magnesium-L-carnitine supplementation on migraine indicators were assessed. In this clinical trial, 133 migrainous patients were randomly assigned into three intervention groups: magnesium oxide (500 mg/day), L-carnitine (500 mg/day), and Mg-L-carnitine (500 mg/day magnesium and 500 mg/day L-carnitine), and a control group. After 12 weeks of supplementation, the checklist of migraine indicators including migraine attacks/month, migraine days/month, and headache severity was completed, and serum concentrations of magnesium and L-carnitine were measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometry and enzymatic UV test, respectively. The results showed a significant reduction in all migraine indicators in all studied groups (p < 0.05). The ANOVA results showed a significant reduction in migraine frequency across various supplemented and control groups (p = 0.008). By separating the effects of magnesium supplementation from other confounding factors such as routine treatments using the repeated measures and nested model, it was clarified that magnesium supplementation had a significant effect on all migraine indicators. Oral supplementation with magnesium oxide and L-carnitine and concurrent supplementation of Mg-L-carnitine besides routine treatments could be effective in migraine prophylaxis; however, larger trials are needed to confirm these preliminary findings.

Subjective global assessment of nutritional status in children.

This study was aimed to compare the subjective and objective nutritional assessments and to analyse the performance of subjective global assessment (SGA) of nutritional status in diagnosing undernutrition in paediatric patients. One hundred and forty children (aged 2-12 years) hospitalized consecutively in Tabriz Paediatric Hospital from June 2008 to August 2008 underwent subjective assessment using the SGA questionnaire and objective assessment, including anthropometric and biochemical measurements. Agreement between two assessment methods was analysed by the kappa (κ) statistic. Statistical indicators including (sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, error rates, accuracy, powers, likelihood ratios and odds ratio) between SGA and objective assessment method were determined. The overall prevalence of undernutrition according to the SGA (70.7%) was higher than that by objective assessment of nutritional status (48.5%). Agreement between the two evaluation methods was only fair to moderate (κ = 0.336, P < 0.001). The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of the SGA method for screening undernutrition in this population were 88.235%, 45.833%, 60.606% and 80.487%, respectively. Accuracy, positive and negative power of the SGA method were 66.428%, 56.074% and 41.25%, respectively. Likelihood ratio positive, likelihood ratio negative and odds ratio of the SGA method were 1.628, 0.256 and 6.359, respectively. Our findings indicated that in assessing nutritional status of children, there is not a good level of agreement between SGA and objective nutritional assessment. In addition, SGA is a highly sensitive tool for assessing nutritional status and could identify children at risk of developing undernutrition.

Subjective vs objective nutritional assessment study in children: a cross-sectional study in the northwest of Iran.

Different methods have been used to assess nutritional status in hospitalized pediatric patients, and there is no agreement on the finest index which reflects nutritional status. The aim of this study was to compare the subjective global assessment (SGA) and objective assessment of nutritional status in hospitalized pediatric patients. One hundred forty children with mean age of 6.43 +/- 0.23 years hospitalized consecutively in Tabriz Pediatric Hospital from June to August in 2008 underwent a subjective assessment using the SGA questionnaire and objective assessment (anthropometric and biochemical measurements). An agreement between 2 assessment methods were analyzed by the kappa statistic. According to the result of SGA method, the overall prevalence of malnutrition was higher than the objective assessment method. The agreement between the 2 methods were merely fair to moderate (kappa = 0.336, P = .000). The linear relationship between 2 methods was also fair to moderate (r = 0.374, P < .05). Our findings indicated that the differences between two evaluated methods in assessing nutritional status of pediatric patients, and it can also detect the changing trend of nutritional status, which may be missed by one-time anthropometry and biochemical methods.

Preoperative transcranial and carotid Doppler study in coronary artery bypass graft patients.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the correlation of postoperative neurologic complications with preoperative transcranial and carotid Doppler study findings of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients. METHODS: In a descriptive, analytic, follow up study we prospectively studied 201 patients undergoing elective and isolated CABG surgery during a 12 month period from October 2003 to September 2004 at Madani Hospital of Tabriz Medical Sciences University, Iran. Neurologic examination, intracranial cerebral arterial study using transcranial Doppler (TCD) and carotid duplex were performed preoperatively. Intraoperative and postoperative complications were followed up for one month. RESULTS: Two hundred and one patients (158 male, 43 female) with a mean age of 57.29+/-9.67 were studied. Out of these, 131 patients had 3 coronary vessels disease, 64 had 2 vessels, 5 had one vessel, and one patient had diffuse coronary disease. A TCD was performed in 183 patients and disclosed abnormalities in 22 patients and was normal in 161 cases. The total number of involved arteries was 34. Among 154 carotid duplex studied patients, 102 had plaque, inducing <50% stenosis in 99, 50-74% stenosis in one, and 75-90% stenosis in 2 cases. Postoperative neurologic complication occurred as follows: 4 stroke, 7 delirium, and 3 amnesia. One of the operated patients died. Nine of 161 patients with normal TCD (5.6%) and 5 of 22 (22.7%) with intracranial cerebral arterial disease (ICAD) showed central nervous system (CNS) complications (p=0.015). There were significant correlations between number of involved cerebral arteries and post CABG CNS complications (p=0.0001), including stroke (p=0.007), and between diabetes mellitus history with these complications (p=0.012). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that lCAD is an independent risk factor for CNS complications after CABG surgery. Hence, we recommend pre-CABG evaluation of the cerebral arteries by TCD, for the risk assessment of CABG surgery.