[Epidemiology of helicobacter pylori infection in Kurdistan Province, 2006]

It is estimated that more than half of the world population are infected with H-pylori. Therefore, this infection maybe regarded the most common infection in human being. The organism may be unique among bacterial pathogens in provoking a wide range of sequelae. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence rate of H-pylori infection in Kurdistan Province in the west of Iran, in 2006. In this cross sectional study, the sample size included 1503 people, older than 10 years of age, who were selected randomly out of Kurdistan resident population. Samples were tested by use of ELISA method for detection of H-pylori IgG antibody using kits of Trinity Biptech capita H.pylori IgG. Data were introduced into SPSS software and analyzed by means of Correlation analysis, t-test, and X[2] test. Blood specimens from 1503 subjects were collected. 866 [57.6%] patients were female and 637 [42.4%] were male. 802 [53.35] patients were living in urban and 70 [46.64%] patients in rural areas. The mean age of subjects was 32.15 [SD=14.91] years, with age range of 10 to 100 years. The prevalence of H-pylori infection was 36.5 percent. According to the results of this study the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in our subjects is relatively low which must be considered in clinical evaluation

Is there any association between FRB gene polymorphism and infertility in Iranian men?

A significant proportion of infertile men with azoospermia and severe oligoazoospermia have a genetic etiology for their reproductive failure. Genetic analysis has major effects on finding the causes of infertility in last decade, but still in some cases, we still do not have clear answer for our patients. During last years it has become evident that endogenous estrogens and estrogen receptors [ER] play role in the regulation of testicular function. Present study was performed to evaluate the significance of RsaI and AluI single nucleotide polymorphism in the ERƒ gene in infertile patients in comparison with normal fertile male control. From 120 infertile men referred to our center after ruling out all the known causes of the infertility such as chromosomal abnormalities, Y-chromosome microdeletion, and other pathologic disorders, 5 ml peripheral blood were obtained for DNA extraction. PCR amplification of the polymorphic region was carried out and after running the PCR products on 1.5% agarose gel, the frequency of the polymorphism were calculated. A 3 times higher frequency of the heterozygous RsaI genotype was found in men with low sperm concentration compared to control [P=0.003]. In contrast, the proportion of homozygous AluI genotype was only 1/3 in severely oligoazoospermic men in comparison with control [P=0.03]. Our results could suggest that ERƒ and RsaI and AluI single nucleotide polymorphisms on this gene are important for spermatogenesis in humans, and could play an important role in the spermatogenesis process in males. Also it is possible to conclude that different conditions of infertility may not have genetic predisposition in common