Spatio-temporal analysis of COVID-19 incidence rate using GIS: a case study-Tehran metropolitan, Iran.

COVID-19 has been distinguished as a zoonotic coronavirus, like SARS coronavirus and MERS coronavirus. Tehran metropolis, as the capital of Iran, has a high density of residents that experienced a high incidence and mortality rates which daily increase the number of death and cases. In this study, the IDW (Inverse Distance Weight), Hotspots, and GWR (Geography Weighted Regression) Model are used as methods for analyzing big data COVID-19 in Tehran. The results showed that the majority of patients and deaths were men, but the death rate was higher in women than in men; also was observed a direct relationship between the area of the houses, and the infected rate, to COVID-19. Also, the results showed a disproportionate distribution of patients in Tehran, although in the eastern regions the number of infected people is higher than in other districts; the eastern areas have a high population density as well as residential land use, and there is a high relationship between population density in residential districts and administrative-commercial and the number of COVID-19 cases in all regions. The outputs of local R2 were interesting among patients and underlying disorders; the local R2 between hypertension and neurological diseases was 0.91 and 0.79, respectively, which was higher than other disorders. The highest rates of local R2 for diabetes and heart disease were 0.67 and 0.55, respectively. From this study, it can be concluded the restrictions must be considered especially, in areas densely populated for all people.

Pathodiagnostic parameters for meningioma grading.

Meningiomas are usually slow-growing benign tumors, for which complete removal can be difficult and recurrence is an issue. In this study the relationship between pathodiagnostic parameters, histological grade, and MIB-1 monoclonal antibody expression in meningioma diagnosed over 10 years in Shohada Hospital, Tehran, was assessed. All cases were re-evaluated according to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) Classification. Between January 1997 and December 2006, a total of 4885 intracranial tumors were diagnosed at Shohada Hospital, 378 (7.74%) of which were meningiomas. All slides stained with hematoxylin and eosin were reviewed by two independent pathologists and all the diagnoses reconfirmed; histological anaplasia was classified according to the grading of the WHO Working Group 2000 as benign (Grade I), atypical with incipient signs of anaplasia (Grade II), or overtly anaplastic (Grade III). The mean age of patients with meningiomas was 49.11+/-12.99 years (range 6-78 years, median=50); females outnumbered males by a ratio of 1.7 to 1. Presenting symptoms were headache/vertigo (66.7%) and epilepsy (28.5%). Convexity meningiomas were most common, followed by meningiomas of the sphenoid ridge and cerebellopontine angle. There was no relationship between the location of the tumor and the histopathological features. The association between mitotic rate, increased cellularity, nucleo-cytoplasmic ratio, and sheet-like spreading was especially strong. Histopathological study of completely resected meningiomas showed that loss of architecture, frequent mitotic figures, a high cellularity, increased nucleo-cytoplasmic ratio, a prominent nucleolus, brain invasion, and necrosis were correlated with the grade of the meningiomas. Overall, the mitotic count was the most important marker for tumor grade.

Road traffic injuries in Iran: the role of interventions implemented by traffic police.

INTRODUCTION: In Iran there are about 70 deaths per day from road traffic injuries (RTIs). Despite some interventions having been implemented during the past 5 years, the impacts of these interventions on mortality and morbidity rates have not been well evaluated. OBJECTIVE: To ascertain and describe the epidemiological pattern of RTIs in Iran for the years 2004 to 2007 and to compare the epidemiological trends of RTIs, before and 2 years after four road safety programs were put into place. METHODS: A 4-year database from two sources, the traffic police and medico-legal data, was employed. The morbidity and death rates per 10,000 vehicles and per 100,000 populations were calculated as were the odds ratios (ORs) for before and after these national interventional programs. The four interventions concurrently/simultaneously put into place in 2005 were (1) enforcement of laws on the mandatory fastening of seat belts, (2) enforcement of the laws on use of motorcycle helmets, (3) enforcement of general traffic laws, and (4) mass media educational campaigns on national radio and television. FINDINGS: There was a significant decrease in RTI-related death and morbidity rates in Iran, after the intervention programs were conducted (P < 0.001). The death rate decreased from 38.2 per 100,000 in 2004 to 31.8 in 2007 (OR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.82-0.85). The death rate per 10,000 vehicles also showed a significant decline from 24.2 to 13.4 (OR = 0.56, 95% CI = 0.55-0.57). Similar reductions were seen among nonfatal RTIs. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate the role of traffic police interventions, initiated simultaneously on a national level, in RTI prevention. Though these reductions may not be solely attributable to the interventions implemented, they do highlight the importance of the contribution made by law enforcement and mass education campaigns.