[Determination of the ratio and causes of unused blood ordered from blood bank blood in elective surgery in Rasoul-e-Akram Hospital]

Blood reservation is done in many surgical operations because of the risk of bleeding. However, reservation should be based on a standard protocol so as to prevent blood loss. In this study, we deal with the ratio and causes of unused blood ordered from blood bank in elective surgeries in Rasoul-e-Akram hospital in Tehran. In this descriptive study, a questionnaire was added to file records of patients who were candidates for elective surgery in Rasoul-e Akram Hospital during 2005. Questionnaires were filled out by the physicians who had ordered blood after patients' discharge; these questionnaires were ultimately sent to blood transfusion committee. The collected data were then analyzed using descriptive statistic methods and SPSS version11.5. The total number of reserved blood bags for elective surgeries was 8385 in one year out of which 1460 [17/4%] were transfused. The ratio of transfused cross-matched blood was 3.12; the major reason for ordered blood not to be used was incorrect surgical team estimation [44.6%]. This study revealed that blood reservation is not performed based on any definite protocol and it is necessary to control the reservation and use of blood both qualitatively and quantitatively in medical centers

[Survey of relation of maternal age, job, smoking and use of folic acid and other drugs with neural tube defects]

Neural Tube Defects [N.T.Ds] are the most common anomalies of the central nervous system which cause due to the defect of the closing of neural tube during the third and forth week of intra uterine life. It is estimated that 300/000 children born with these anomalies each year. Recent studies show the role of both environmental and genetic factors in the occurrence of N.T.Ds. Evaluation of relation between maternal age, job, smoking, use of folic acid and other drugs during pregnancy and N.T.Ds. In a case-control and retrospective study, we studied the data from 51 N.T.Ds infant and the same number of normal babies. Chi- square test was used for statistical analysis and P< 0.05 was significant. There was significant relation between maternal smoking, agricultural and animal husbandry job and not use of folic acid with occurrence of N.T.Ds. neural Tube Defects can cause by smoking of mother, her agricultural and animal husbandry activities and not using of folic acid tablet during pregnancy. Most of these children were born from mothers less than 35 years old