background: infertility is common among couples of child-bearing age and ap-proximately half of known causes of primary infertility are attributable to male factor. it is still unclear whether the injurious effects of cigarette smoking on sperm characteristics and infertility are due to nicotine. therefore, the present study investigated the effects of orally administered of nicotine on sperm c...

background: asphyxia is a medical condition in which placental or pulmonary gas exchange is impaired or they cease all together, typically producing a combination of progressive hypoxemia and hypercapnea. objective: in addition to regional differences in its etiology; it is important to know its risk factors. materials and methods: this is a case-control study, all neonates born from may 2002 t...

background: cholera is considered a key indicator of social development but still is reported in various cities of iran. the present study aimed to analyze the available information regarding cholera outbreaks since 2010 in iran. methods: all cases reported to the center for disease control and prevention of ministry of health and education who had been confirmed as cholera cases by the health ...

context maternal serum human chorionic gonadotropin (hcg) and alpha fetal protein (afp) were originally introduced to detect trisomy 21 and neural tube defects. however, in the absence of aneuploidy or neural tube defects, mid-trimester maternal serum hcg and/or maternal serum afp associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. pregnancies with unexplained mid-trimester elevation in maternal serum ...

BACKGROUND Maternal mortality is extremely high in Nigeria. Accurate estimation of maternal mortality is challenging in low-income settings such as Nigeria where vital registration is incomplete. The objective of this study was to estimate the lifetime risk (LTR) of maternal death and the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in Jigawa State, Northern Nigeria using the Sisterhood Method. METHODS Int...

BACKGROUND Cesarean delivery rates continue to increase worldwide and reached 57% in Brazil in 2014. Although the safety of this surgery has improved in the last decades, this trend is a concern because it carries potential risks to women's health and may be a modifiable risk factor of maternal mortality. This paper aims to investigate the risk of postpartum maternal death directly associated w...