Prevalence and correlates of gastroesophageal reflux disease in Southern Iran: pars cohort study

Background: Prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease [GERD] is increasing worldwide. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of GERD in Pars Cohort Study [PCS] and to find its correlates

Methods: We used the baseline data from PCS. PCS was conducted in the district of Valashahr in Fars province in southern Iran from 2012 to 2014. 9264 inhabitants who were 40-75 years old, and agreed to participate were enrolled. Data were collected by a structured questionnaire and simple physical examination of all participants

Results: Generally, 58.50% [95% CI 57.49 - 59.51] of the participants had GERD and 25.10% [95% CI 24.22 - 25.99] experienced it at least weekly. Approximately, 32.0%, 52.0%, and 24.4% of the participants reported heart burn sensation, regurgitation, and both symptoms, respectively. Being female [OR: 1.45, 95% CI 1.27 - 1.65], being older [OR: 1.20, 95% CI 1.06 - 1.36], being divorced/ widowed/separated [OR: 1.38, 95% CI 1.01 - 1.91], and lower education [OR: 1.43, 95% CI 1.02 - 2.03] were associated with frequent GERD

Conclusion: GERD is common in PCS and its prevalence is close to that in western countries. Being female, higher age, being divorced/widowed/separated, lower education, history of hypertension, anxiety, insomnia, and non-cigarette tobacco smoking were associated with frequent GERD. We are going to investigate the causal relationship between these risk factors and GERD in the next stages of PCS

gastro-esophageal malignancies in Northern Iran research project: impact on the health research and health care systems of Iran

The Gastro-Esophageal Malignancies in Northern Iran [GEMINI] research project is an example of recent progress in health research in Iran. The original aim of this project was to identify etiologic factors and prevention measures for upper gastrointestinal cancers in Northern provinces of Iran, but its achievements have gone much beyond this initial goal. GEMINI consists of several projects including cancer registries, pilot studies, case-control studies, and the Golestan Cohort Study. GEMINI has been conducted through extensive collaborations between the Digestive Disease Research Center of Tehran University of Medical Sciences with other domestic and international health organizations. The achievements of GEMINI include producing new knowledge, introducing new research methods, developing and expanding health research and health care infrastructures, investing in human resources, and increasing the awareness and knowledge of policy makers and officials at all levels about the importance of chronic diseases in Iran's health priorities. The success of GEMINI reveals the feasibility of large-scale health research studies in developing countries and serves as a successful model not only for health research in Iran, but also for similar research studies in other developing nations

Modeling the risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and squamous dysplasia in a high risk area in Iran

Identifying people at higher risk of having squamous dysplasia, the precursor lesion for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma [ESCC], would allow targeted endoscopic screening. We used multivariate logistic regression models to predict ESCC and dysplasia as outcomes. The ESCC model was based on data from the Golestan Case-Control Study [total n = 871; cases = 300], and the dysplasia model was based on data from a cohort of subjects from a gastroenterology clinic in Northeast Iran [total n = 724; cases = 26]. In each of these analyses, we fit a model including all risk factors known in this region to be associated with ESCC. Individual risks were calculated using the linear combination of estimated regression coefficients and individual-specific values for covariates. We used cross-validation to determine the area under the curve [AUC] and to find the optimal cut points for each of the models. The model had an area under the curve of 0.77 [95% Cl: 0.74-0.80] to predict ESCC with 74% sensitivity and 70.4% specificity for the optimum cut point. The area under the curve was 0.71 [95% Cl: 0.64-0.79] for dysplasia diagnosis, and the classification table optimized at 61.5% sensitivity and 69.5% specificity. In this population, the positive and negative predictive values for diagnosis of dysplasia were 6.8% and 97.8%, respectively. Our models were able to discriminate between ESCC cases and controls in about 77%, and between individuals with and without squamous dysplasia in about 70% of the cases. Using risk factors to predict individual risk of ESCC or squamous dysplasia still has limited application in clinical practice, but such models may be suitable for selecting high risk individuals in research studies, or increasing the pretest probability for other screening strategies

Frequency of HLA-B27 antigen in iranian patients with brucellosisand it's relationship with osteoarticular complication

To determine frequency of HLA-B27 in brucellosis patients and to investigate a possible association between osteoarticular bruceltosis and HLA-B27 antigen. Sixty patients with serotogicatly confirmed brucettosis and 100 healthy controls were screened for HLA-B27 by using standard microlymphocytotoxicity method. Osteoarticular involvement was suggested by clinical presentation and confirmed by nuclear scan. Patients were placed in two groups and compared, patients with osteoarticular involvement [OAP group] and without osteoarticular involvement [OAN group]. All data were analyzed by SPSS [versionl 11.5, USA] and using Fisher's exact X2 test. Out of total 60 patients with brucellosis 38 [63.3%] were male. Mean age of the patients were 36.2 +/- 12.3 with the range of 18-65 years. HLA-B27 test was positive in 11 patients [18.33%] with brucellosis, whereas in control group HLA-B27 positivity was 7% [p<0.05].The prevalence of HLA-B27 in OAP and OAN groups was 33.33% and 8.33%, respectively [p<0.05]. The prevalence of HLA-B27 in our bruceltosis patients is higher than normal population and there is a significant association between HLA-B27 and bruceltar osteoarthritis in the region of study

[ trend of pharmaceutical research in Iran compared to Middle East and North Africa: a scientometrics study]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Iranian trend of research in pharmaceutical sciences published in international publication and to compare it with that in other countries in the Middle East and North Africa in 1996-2006 through scientometrics methods. In this ecological study, the data were extracted from ISI: Web of Science, Scopus and International Pharmaceutical Abstract [IPA] databases. The indexed documents of authors from Iran as well as 13 other regional and North African countries in mentioned databases in the fields relevant to pharmaceutical sciences including pharmacy, pharmacology, toxicology and medicinal chemistry in the last 11 years [1996-2006] were retrieved and quantitatively analyzed. Analysis of indexed pharmaceutical documents from the Middle East and North African countries [1996-2006] showed that Iran ranks second in the ISI/WOS, Scopus and IPA. However, Iran has achieved the first rank in the WOS and Scopus in the years 2004-2006 and in IPA in the last two years [2005-2006]. Ranking of normalized indexed pharmaceutical documents based on GDP and population showed Iran fell to the forth rank in Scopus and IPA and the fifth in WOS. Iran has managed to stand on the first place of science production within the field of pharmaceutical sciences among Middle East and North Africa in the last 11 years. Maintenance of the acquired rank requires planning and paying enough attention to utilization of research potentials of universities and research centers within the field of pharmaceutical sciences and the interdisciplinary sciences

Ultraviolet radiation absorption by sunglasses available through Iranian optician trade union and miscellaneous vendors

To compare the protection of eyes against visible light [VL] and ultraviolet radiation [UVR] by sunglasses available through the Iranian optician trade union [IOTU] shops and those provided by miscellaneous vendors. Totally, 353 pairs of sunglasses, including 188 pairs from IOTU shops and 165 pairs from miscellaneous vendors were selected based on systematic random sampling. The amount of UVA, UVB and VL transmission of the samples were examined by spectrophotometer. American national standard institute [ANSI] standards were the reference for measuring the UV transmission. All of the sunglasses from IOTU shops met ANSI standards in transmission of UVA, UVB, while these percentages in miscellaneous vendors were 92.1% for UVB and 95.8% for UVA transmission [P<0.05]. Mean of UVB transmission was 0.78% in IOTU shops and 1.8% in miscellaneous vendors. These percentages for UVA transmission was 0.92% and 7.1% respectively [P

Views of Iranian medical journal editors on medical research publication

Medical journal editors play an important role in optimizing research publication. This study evaluates the views of Iranian medical journal editors, and their knowledge of medical publication standards. In May 2001, 51 editors from all journals approved by the Ministry of Health were invited to participate, 27 of whom completed the study. A self-administered questionnaire, based on the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals [URMS] was used which consisted of 28 questions in 9 subject fields. These fields included: peer review, conflicts of interest, authorship criteria, publication ethics, duplicate publication, mass media, advertising, competing manuscripts, and the Internet. The knowledge of the editors was assessed by a scoring system, with a range of -46 to +44 points. Twenty-three of the participants were editors-in-chief and 4 were managing editors. Their average age was 47.3 +/- 8.7 years and 25 were male. All journals were peer-reviewed, most having 2 or 3 reviewers for each manuscript. Of the journals, 92.6% accepted or rejected an article on the basis of the views of most reviewers and 52%, sometimes or always, used a statistician as a reviewer. Most of the editors believed that writing the first draft and designing the study are authorship criteria, and most of them believed that these 2 are stated in URMS. Seven journals [25.9%] never published advertisements. Among journals that sold advertisements, the most popular policy [85%] was the rejection of advertisements because they advertised harmful products. Out of 27 journals, 12 were accessible on the Internet, and 7 had independent websites. Of the editors, 81.5% thought that a website is useful for their journal. The average knowledge score of the editors was 6.5 +/- 7.5. None had a negative score, 33% scored zero, 45% obtained average scores and 22% obtained good scores. The results show that peer review is favored by all the editors studied, though it seems that journals do not follow clear-cut policies in this regard. Most of the editors, agreed with the statements of URMS to some extent and generally most have average to high knowledge of URMS