BACKGROUND Patients with β-thalassemia major (TM) develop iron overload through increased iron absorption and transfusional therapy and it's the most important complication of TM. Thalassemia is common in coastal regions and lands with low altitudes. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of high and low altitude on serum ferritin and treatment requirement in two groups of β-thalassem...

BACKGROUND Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) is a chronic and common disease, which is characterized by heartburn and regurgitation. In the last couple of decades, GERD has received much attention and studies have shown an increase in its prevalence. Although there have been a few studies on the prevalence of GERD in Iran, no study has yet been done in the northeastern part of the country....

BACKGROUND Depressive disorder is globally estimated to be as many as one in five visits to primary health care. Approximately more than 50% of depressed women in primary care are not diagnosed. As a part of a major investigation into perceptions of women's depression, this study explored how female patients and their relatives conceptualize patients' conditions in three ethnic groups in Iran (...

OBJECTIVE Pregnancy is accompanied by profound alterations in thyroid economy and relative iodine deficiency. The aim of this study was to evaluate urinary iodine excretion of pregnant women in cities with adequate and more than adequate iodine intake. METHODS A cross-sectional study was performed on schoolchildren and pregnant women in four cities in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Urinary iod...

Saffron is an important crop in social and economical aspects in Khorassan Province (Northeast of Iran). In this research we tried to evaluate trends of saffron yield in recent years and to study the relationship between saffron yield and the climate change. A regression analysis was used to predict saffron yield based on 20 years of yield data in Birjand, Ghaen and Ferdows cities. Climatologic...

A Hamiltonian path is a path in an undirected graph, which visits each node exactly once and returns to the starting node. Finding such paths in graphs is the Hamiltonian path problem, which is NP-complete. In this paper, for the first time, a comparative study on metaheuristic algorithms for finding the shortest Hamiltonian path for 1071 Iranian cities is conducted. These are the main cities o...

Intestinal parasites are important pathogens can cause mortality and morbidity among immunosuppressed patients and human immunodeficiency virus infection. There are few reports on the prevalence of intestinal parasites among cancer patients in Iran. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy in Khuzestan pro...

BACKGROUND Malaria is one of the most important parasitic diseases in tropical and temperate regions. The aim of this study was to determine the trend of malaria in Mazandaran Province, northern Iran during 1997-2012. METHODS This retrospective study was conducted from 1997 to 2012. The population's study was individuals who registered at health centers of Mazandaran Province. Peripheral bloo...

PURPOSE The determination of the pattern of traumatic vascular injuries of the upper extremity in Iran was the aim of this study. METHODS Data of the Iranian national trauma project were used to identify patients with upper extremity vascular injuries. This project was conducted in 8 major cities from 2000-2004. RESULTS A total of 113 cases with 130 vascular injuries were found, including 2...

BACKGROUND Acanthamoeba is an opportunistic amphizoic protozoan found in different water sources including swimming pool as well as in sewage. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Acanthamoeba in tap-water samples in Iran. METHOD In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 94 samples of cold and warm tap-water were collected from different wards of hospitals in 13 cities ...