Prevalence of hypertension and related risk factors in central Iran: Results from Yazd Health Study.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of hypertension (HTN) varies across countries due to differences in its related risk factors. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of HTN and related risk factors among adults. METHODS: This study was conducted on the data from the recruitment phase of Yazd Health Study. Using multi-stage random cluster sampling, 10000 adults of 20-69 years were selected. Self-reported HTN (diagnosed by a physician) was recorded in a home visit. Blood pressure (BP) was measured using a standard protocol and categorized based on the Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and ýTreatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC-7) classification. T-test was used to examine the gender differences. Qualitative variables were presented as number (frequency). Chi-square test and bivariate logistic regression were carried out to determine the association between risk factors. RESULTS: The response rate was 95% (n = 9975). The prevalence of positive history of HTN was 18.5%. The mean systolic and diastolic BP was 126.5 ± 18.4 and 80.2 ± 12.5 mmHg, respectively. The prevalence of HTN was 36.0% (95%CI: 35.1-36.9). Its prevalence reduced by high-education, physical activity, lower BMI, and lack of history of diabetes mellitus (DM) (P < 0.0001). HTN is less common in smokers (P < 0.0001). Logistic regression analysis showed that HTN was higher among men (OR: 1.83; 95%CI: 1.64-2.03), the elderly (OR: 5.15; 95%CI: 4.20-6.31), low-educated (OR: 1.40; 95%CI: 1.17-1.67), and diabetics (OR: 1.20; 95%CI: 1.05-1.38). The prevalence of HTN was 2 times higher in obeses. HTN did not have a significant relationship with inactivity, smoking, and hypercholesterolemia. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of HTN was high. By identifying modifiable risk factors, health policymakers can prioritize intervention programs. It is necessary to inform younger adult groups how these factors can be managed through a healthy lifestyle and nutritional habits.

Maternal thyroid function test level during the first trimester of pregnancy at a center Yazd, Iran: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Thyroid dysfunction is associated with negative pregnancy outcomes. There is a lack of reliable information on thyroid hormones in Iranian pregnant women, especially in Yazd. OBJECTIVE: To determine the safe thyroid hormone levels in women of Yazd and also the first trimester-specific reference ranges for serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), thyroxine (T4), and triiodothyronine (T3). MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, the serum of 1,148 women in the first trimester of pregnancy was analyzed. Thyroid function tests (TSH, T4, T3) were measured through radioimmunoassay (RIA) [immunoradiometric (IRMA) for TSH]. The study was conducted in Yazd, from September 2018 to November 2019. Reference intervals were defined as the 5 th , 50 th , and 95 th percentiles. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 28.78 ( ± 5.86 yr) (range: 15-45 yr). The thyroid hormones reference intervals in the first trimester were TSH (0.2-3.8 mIU/l), T4 (7.45-12.75, µ g/dl), and T3 (100-217 ng/dl). CONCLUSION: The results of the present study determined a local thyroid function measurement in the first trimester of pregnancy at a center of Yazd, Iran. This could facilitate the decision-making of maternal TSH level during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Infertility and physical activity: A cross-sectional study of women living in Yazd aged 20-49 yr, 2014-2015.

BACKGROUND: Changes in the state of energy balance owing to changes in physical activity (PA) may affect the reproductive system. OBJECTIVE: the aim of this study was to assess the association between PA and infertility of women living in Yazd 2014 - 2015. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study method was analytical cross-sectional on the Yazd Health Study (YaHS) data which was conducted on 10,000 people. We studied 2,611 women (20 and 49 yrs old), living in Greater Yazd area. PA information was collected using a physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ) short form. The standardized instruments were used for anthropometrics measurement. RESULTS: Totally 135 cases of infertility were documented. The overall prevalence of infertility was 4.73% (95% CI: 3.94-5.59%). The median of PA scores (METs) in women was 746.66 and 25-75% interquartile range was 361.25-1277.25. The relationship according to the Chi-square test between infertility and PA, as categorized variables, was significant (p = 0.015). It showed over 90% of those who suffered from infertility had a low or moderate PA. CONCLUSION: The results of our study showed that there is a significant relationship between infertility and PA level in women living in Greater Yazd area. Also, women with infertility had lower activity levels, consistent with most previous studies.

Relationship between Self Care Management with Glycemic Control in Type 2 Diabetic Patients.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-care management and HbA1c level of the patients with type 2 diabetes in YAZD. METHODS: This study was a cross-sectional study. The number of 376 diabetic patients referred to the Diabetes Research Center in Yazd entered the study. The data collection tool was a summary of Diabetes Self Care Activity questionnaire (SDSCA), which was collected through interviews with patients. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software V 16 and kruskalwallis and independent sample t tests. RESULTS: The results showed that of 376 patients, 218 (%58) were women and 158 (%42) were male. The mean age of the participants in the study was 54.5 ± 10.9 years old and the mean duration of the disease was 9.53 ± 8.39 years. The mean HbA1C in the patients was 7.93% ± 1.38%. The mean of BMI was 28.93 ± 6 kg/ m2. The mean of self-care score in the patients under study was 30.53 ± 11.4. There was a significant relationship between the mean of self-care score, BMI, age and HbA1C (P value <0.05). CONCLUSIONS: According to the results of the study, it can be concluded that the level of self-care in patients with controlled diabetes mellitus (HbA1C <7%) is more than patients with uncontrolled diabetes mellitus (HbA1c ≥9%).

CT Scan Incidental Findings in Head Trauma Patients - Yazd Shahid Rahnemoun Hospital, 2005-2015.

BACKGROUND: Incidental findings are presented in radiology reports. Many of these findings do not require further investigation; however, some require further investigation and repeated imaging. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of incidental findings on CT scans of patients with head trauma from 2005 to 2015. METHODS: This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in years on 5,193 CT scan reports referred to Shahid Rahnemoun hospital in Yazd, Iran. The images were evaluated by consensus agreement of two radiologists. The relationship between age, sex and incidental findings was analyzed using the SPSS 20 software. RESULTS: A total of 5,193 subjects with a mean age of 34.16 ± 21.17 were examined. About 64% of cases were male. The frequency of incidental findings was 10.9%. The most common finding was calcification with a frequency of 3.3% and the least was Dandy Walker finding at 0.02%. There was no relationship between age, sex and the frequency of incidental findings. No significant trend was found between IFs frequency during ten years. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicated that most incidental findings were related to benign findings, but also malignant findings were diagnosed.

Prediabetes and gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms; a cross-sectional study.

AIMS: Prediabetes associate with known micro and macrovascular complications of diabetes. Also gastrointestinal symptoms are present in diabetics higher than general population. The aim of this study was evaluation of gastrointestinal symptoms in subjects with prediabetes. METHODS: This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 130 persons 30-65 years old, 65 pre-diabetic patients and 65 persons without glucose disorders from 2014 to 2015 in YAZD province. FBS and HbA1c used for diagnosis prediabetes. Demographic and medical history were collected. A questionnaire according to Rome III Criteria was used to collect digestive information (diarrhea, abdominal pain, constipation, abdominal bloating, heartburn, increased gas passing, nausea, intermittent diarrhea and constipation in the last 6 months ago). Frequency of GI symptoms in subjects with and without glucose disorders were compared. Data were analyzed by SPSS software Version 20. Data were reported as mean ±â€¯standard deviation or frequency and T-test, Chi Square and Spearman correlation coefficient tests were used. P-value less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Higher frequency of bloating, early satiety, nausea, heartburn, gas passing and constipation are seen in the pre-diabetes group than in the control group; (p-value 0.0001, 0.0001, 0.0001, 0.0001, 0.001 and 0.0001 respectively). 96.9% in prediabetics had at least one gastrointestinal symptom, while in the normal groups 50% had at least one GI symptom (p-value: 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Gastrointestinal symptoms were seen in prediabetics higher than healthy persons. So, prediabetes can not be considered an entirely benign and asymptomatic condition. Lifestyle interventions maybe necessary at this state.

Dose vitamin D supplementations improve peripheral diabetic neuropathy? A before-after clinical trial.

OBJECTIVE: Peripheral neuropathy is a common complication of diabetes mellitus. This study was set to assess the effect of vitamin D supplementation on peripheral neuropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was a quasi-experimental trial in Yazd diabetic research center. Sixty T2DM subjects (30-65 years old) with painful diabetic neuropathy enrolled in this study from March 2017 till April 2018. Patients received weekly 50000 IU of vitamin D3 for 12 weeks orally. Evaluation of diabetic neuropathy was performed by using Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument (MNSI) before and after trial. Also fasting plasma glucose, HbA1c, calcium and vitamin D checked before and after the trial. SPSS version 20 software was used for statistical analysis. P ≤ 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. RESULTS: Among 60 T2DM patients, 58 completed the study. Most of them (53.4%) were male. At the end of study, HbA1c, vitamin D, MNSI (both questionnaire and physical examination) improved that is statistically significant (p-value: <0.001). CONCLUSION: Oral supplementation of vitamin D 3 (50,000 IU) once weekly for 12 weeks was associated with improvement in the serum level of vitamin D and significant decrease in the symptoms and sign of diabetic neuropathy. So serum vitamin D level should be checked in persons with diabetic neuropathy and low levels of it should be corrected in order to reducing neuropathy severity.

Noble metal nanostructures in optical biosensors: Basics, and their introduction to anti-doping detection.

Nanotechnology has illustrated significant potentials in biomolecular-sensing applications; particularly its introduction to anti-doping detection is of great importance. Illicit recreational drugs, substances that can be potentially abused, and drugs with dosage limitations according to the prohibited lists announced by the World Antidoping Agency (WADA) are becoming of increasing interest to forensic chemists. In this review, the theoretical principles of optical biosensors based on noble metal nanoparticles, and the transduction mechanism of commonly-applied plasmonic biosensors are covered. We review different classes of recently-developed plasmonic biosensors for analytic determination and quantification of illicit drugs in anti-doping applications. The important classes of illicit drugs include anabolic steroids, opioids, stimulants, and peptide hormones. The main emphasis is on the advantages that noble metal nano-particles bring to optical biosensors for signal enhancement and the development of highly sensitive (label-free) biosensors. In the near future, such optical biosensors may be an invaluable substitute for conventional anti-doping detection methods such as chromatography-based approaches, and may even be commercialized for routine anti-doping tests.

Is hearing impairment in diabetic patients correlated to other complications?

PURPOSE: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a heterogeneous group of metabolic disorders characterized by chronic hyperglycemia that results by relative or absolute insulin deficiency. Hearing disorders is common otological disorders in diabetic patients. This study aimed to investigate the frequency of hearing impairment among DM patients and its association with diabetes complications and blood sugar control. METHODS: This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted from 2016 to 2017 on 81 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), aged 40-65 years who were referred to Yazd diabetic research center. Air conduction pure tone hearing thresholds were obtained for each ear at frequencies of 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 and 8000 Hz. We defined hearing impairment as the pure-tone average ≥ 25 dB hearing level of pure-tone thresholds at low frequencies (500; 1000; and 2000 Hz) and high frequencies (4000 and 8000 Hz. The demographic data and diabetes complications frequency were gathered. All statistical analysis was done in SPSS 22. RESULTS: The mean (±SD) age of participants was 56.38 ± 5.68 years (range 40-65 years), 32(39.5%) were males and 49(60.5%) were females. The prevalence of hearing loss in high frequency in right ear was higher in male (p value = 0.047). The grade of diabetic retinopathy and nephropathy were significantly associated with hearing impairment in high frequency in both ears (p value<0.05). Finally, the results showed that even after adjustment of confounding variables using logistic regression analysis there were no relationship between hearing impairment and variables in both ears. CONCLUSION: The hearing impairment was associated with diabetes complications as retinopathy and nephropathy. The association was significant in high frequency.

The prevalence of infertility in 20-49 years women in Yazd, 2014-2015: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Infertility is a serious health problem that affects the individual, her/his family, and the community. Infertility is defined as failure to achieve clinical pregnancy after at least 12 months of unprotected coitus. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of primary and secondary infertility and the associated factors in Yazd Greater Area during 2014-2015. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional analytic study using Yazd Health Study data which was conducted on 10,000 people. We studied 2611 women between 20-49 yr old who lived in Yazd Greater Area. Data were collected using a validated questionnaire. Anthropometrics were collected using standardized instruments. RESULTS: Among women participating in the study, 135 cases of infertility were documented and the overall prevalence of infertility was 4.73% (95% CI: 3.94%-5.59%), among them 2.6% (95% CI: 2.4-3.8%) had primary and 2.1% (95% CI: 1.8-3.4%) had secondary infertility. In this study, infertility was significantly correlated with age (r=0.051, p=0.032), educational level (r=-0.41, p=0.001), body mass index (r=-0.012, p=0.018), waist circumference (r=0.027, p=0.022), history of abortion (r=0.099, p=0.026), and family history of infertility (r=0.121, p=0.001). CONCLUSION: The results of our study showed that the prevalence of infertility among women living in Yazd was lower compared to the other regions in Iran. Female factors were the main cause of infertility in central part of Iran.

Dosimetric comparison of different inhomogeneity correction algorithms for external photon beam dose calculations.

Dose calculation algorithm is one of the main sources of uncertainty in the radiotherapy sequences. The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of different inhomogeneity correction algorithms for external photon beam dose calculations. The methodology was based on International Atomic Energy Agency TEC-DOC 1583. The phantom was scanned in every center, using computed tomography and seven tests were planned on three-dimensional treatment planning systems (TPSs). The doses were measured with ion chambers and the deviation between measured and TPS calculated dose was reported. This methodology was tested in five different hospitals which were using six different algorithms/inhomogeneity correction methods implemented in different TPSs. The algorithms in this study were divided into two groups: Measurement-based algorithms (type (a)) and model-based algorithms (type (b)). In type (a) algorithms, we saw 7.6% and 11.3% deviations out of agreement criteria for low- and high-energy photons, respectively. While in type (b) algorithms, these values were 4.3% and 5.1%, respectively. As a general trend, the numbers of measurements with results outside the agreement criteria increase with the beam energy and decrease with advancement of TPS algorithms. More advanced algorithm would be preferable and therefore should be implanted in clinical practice, especially for calculation in inhomogeneous medias like lung and bone and for high-energy beams calculation at low depth points.

Assessment of the role of religious tendency in domestic violence.

The present study assessed relationships between religiosity and the perpetration of violence by husbands and wives toward one another in an Iranian context. 180 Iranian couples living in Iran were administered the Islamic Religious Tendency and Domestic Violence questionnaires. Patterns of relationship between aspects of religious tendency and expressed violence were similar in men and women. There was a negative correlation between Religiosity, Religious Valuation, and self-reported Domestic Violence of husbands and wives. Religious Disorganization was positively correlated with expressed Domestic Violence of husbands and wives. Finally, the results of a regression analysis revealed that only Religiosity and Religious Disorganization predicted self-reported Domestic Violence of husbands and wives.