Prevalence of foot and knee deformities among high school female students in Tehran District No. 5

Foot and knee deformities are among common complaints of patients referred to the orthopedic centers. Most of naturally occurring lower limb deformities in children, which are rather common, would be corrected with further normal growth. However, a small percentage of these problems remain unresolved and may cause complications in the future. The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine the prevalence of foot and knee deformities [such as, genovarus, genovalgus, flat foot.....] among one thousand female high-school students in of Tehran District No. 5. Also relationships of deformities with age, familial and personal history and severity of clinical symptoms were studied. To indicate the severity of symptoms of genovarus and genovalgus, bilateral medial femorocondylar distance and bimalleolar distance were measured respectively. Severity of hallux valgus was determined by measuring the angle formed by medial border of foot and medial border of great toe. Also clinical observance of patient's sole while standing was used to evaluate whether the patient had the pescavus or flat foot. 30. 4% of the studied subjects had knee abnormalities, of which 27.5% were classified as genovarus and 2.9% as genovalgus. 11.2% suffered from foot anomalies, of which 0.2% hadpescavus and 11% had flat foot. Prevalence of hallux valgus was 12.7%. Meaningful relationships were observed between foot and knee deformities and other variables such as age, birth order and severity of clinical symptoms. There was a significant association between foot deformities and familial or personal history. No significant association was detected between knee deformities and familial or personal history. These findings point to the importance of proper physical examination, early diagnosis and on-time treatment of foot and knee deformities in children

[Fatigue in multiple sclerosis: a study of fatigue and some factors influencing it in Iran]

Fatigue is one of the most common and important disabling symptoms in multiple sclerosis [MS] patients. Fatigue in patients could be due to neuroimmunology, disability secondary to the disease process, muscular fatigue due to spasticity, drugs and problems such as depression and sleep disorders. In order to evaluate the prevalence and degree of fatigue severity in MS patients and to determine some influencing factors, we studied sixty patients with definite MS in Iran and assessed fatigue [According to FSS score] and also some factors such as depression [According to BDI score], disability status [according to EDSS score] in them. In our 60 patients the range of age was 20-24 years. 73% of the patients were female. In 70% of the patients clinical course of MS was compatible with Relapsing-Remitting type and in 30% secondary progressive form. The prevalence of fatigue [According to FSS] was very high; exactly 100% but only 10% of the patients had self-complaint of fatigue. There are some correlations between fatigue and presence of disability [according to EDSS], depression and age of the patients. Fatigue was more frequent in Secondary Progressive form of MS. We didn't find any correlations between fatigue and sex, duration of the disease, the rate of attacks during the first year of the disease, using MS-specific drugs and fatigue modifying drugs in the patients. It seems that fatigue is more frequent in MS Iranian patients than it has been thought. The correlation between fatigue and depression and degree of disability in patients should alert physicians in considering proper treatment of depression and prevent the progression of MS in the patients as much as possible