Unhealthy lifestyles and ischaemic electrocardiographic abnormalities: the Persian Gulf Healthy Heart Study

We assessed prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, ischaemic heart disease [IHD] and unhealthy lifestyles in 3723 participants aged >/= 25 years in the northern Persian Gulf region; 96.0% had >/= 1 cardiovascular risk factor. Over 60% had unhealthy body weight, only 8.3% ate the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables, 70.6% were physically inactive and 19.0% were current smokers. Prevalence of electrocardiogram [ECG] with evidence of IHD was 12.7%. Present or past smoking and truncal obesity were independently associated with IHD ECGs in men, and past or present smoking and obesity in women. Hypertension and diabetes were independently associated with increased risk of IHD ECG

Histological and immunological evaluation of gastrointestinal stromal tumors

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors [GISTs] constitute the majority of gastrointestinal mesenchymal tumors. They usually express a proto-oncogen protein called CD117 detected by immunohistochemistry. This study investigated the differentiation of GISTs as well as the risk of aggressive behaviors in GISTs from surgically-treated patients in university affiliated hospitals. The clinicopathologic, histomorphologic and immunohistochemical features of 36 GISTs of patients referring to two large general hospitals in the last 13 years were examined. The GISTs occurred in 36 patients [41.6% male and 58.4% female] aging 15 to 89 years. 50% of the cases were in the stomach, 30% in the small intestine and the remainder in the colon and mesenter. The diameters of tumors were 0.7 to 30 cm and mostly [60.6%] more than 5. 85% of tumor cells were spindle, 14% epithelioid, and the remainders were mixed. 36.1% of tumors showed mitotic counts > 5/50 HPF and 11.1% less than 5/50HPF. 33.3% of the tumors showed necrosis. 8 tumors had malignant behavior during 13-yrs follow up. Immunoreactivity for c-kit, SMA, chromogranin, synaptophysin, desmin and S100 were 83.3%, 69.4%, 44.4%, 41.6%, 50% and 0%, respectively. The decreasing rank order of differentiation forms were neural, smooth muscle, dual and null. Most of our tumors were in high risk group and most of the high risks were intestinal with neurogenic differentiation. Immunostaining including c-kit is necessary to study the differentiation of gastrointestinal stromal tumors

[Behavioral characteristics in infants with atopic dermatitis: a comparative study]

This is an old presumption that atopic syndromes including asthma, hay fever and atopic dermatitis [AD] may have a psychological component that may manifest itself either before, during or after the physical manifestations of atopic but few controlled studies have been conducted to show this possible correlation and their results have shown some contradictions and different conclusions. The aim of this study was to compare the behavioral characteristics of infants with atopic dermatitis [AD] with normal control group. The behavioral characteristics of 30 infants [3-12 months old] with atopic dermatitis [AD] were compared with 40 matched controls. We used infant Behavior Questionnaire [IBQ], version/2000, that has a total of 145 questions for measuring the following scales: Distress to limitation, Fear, Duration of orienting, Smiling and laughter, High pleasure, low pleasure, Soothability, Rate of recovery from distress, Perceptual sensitivity, Sadness and Approach [11 scales]. The Questionnaires were completed by the parents or the infants care givers, supervised by the author. There was no significant difference between the two groups in the Fearfulness, Duration of orienting, Smiling and Laughter, Sadness and Low and High pleasure. But Rate of recovery from distress was significantly higher in infants with AD [P= 0.05]. There was also significant excess of Distress to Limitation [P=0.05] and Soothability [P=0.01] in infants with AD than in control group. The score of Approach and Perceptual Sensitivity were also shown to be significantly higher in AD group. Infants with atopic dermatitis are shown to have higher perceptual sensitivity to environmental stimuli and express more pleasure and enjoyment to rapid, more complex, novel or intense stimuli. Infants with AD also show frequently more excitement and rapid approach compared with none atopic infants