The Medical Journal of The Islamic Republic of Iran 

About: The Medical Journal of The Islamic Republic of Iran is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Population & Health care. Over the lifetime, 2321 publications have been published receiving 11147 citations.

Atherogenic Index of Plasma (AIP): A marker of cardiovascular disease.

Abstract: Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the cause of one third of deaths worldwide and this will progress because of increasing CVD's risk factors. The most basic task of dealing with the ep i- demic of CVD is primary prevention of risk factors. As Atherogenic Index of Plasma (AIP) is a strong marker to predict the risk of atheros clerosis and coronary heart disease, we assessed the corr e- lation between AIP and other important factors. Methods: This cross -sectional study was a part of national non l- ysis was performed u sing SPSS version 11. In all calculations, p <0.05 was considered as statistically significant level. Results: The study population consisted of 500 men and 500 women with mean±SD age 41.9±14.2 years. According to the AIP category, 9.8% (98) were in low risk group, 12.7% (127) were in inte r- mediate risk and 77.5% (775) were in increased risk of CVD. AIP was significantly correlated with waist circumference (r=0.35, p<0.001), BMI (r= 0.33, p<0.001) and physical activity (r= -0.09, p<0.01). Conclusion: AIP can be used as a regular monitoring index of CVD in every day practice, especia l-

Health in the Islamic Republic of Iran, challenges and progresses.

Abstract: The Islamic republic of Iran (Iran) is a great country with a wide area and dispersed population. You may find only few countries in the world that neighbor 17 countries in which two of them involved in a concurring war. The weather, culture, the environmental hazards and the infrastructures and ultimately heath indicators have a great diversity in Iran. The specific geographic situation of Iran and mass immigration from Afghanistan and Iraq, the wars and insecurity after it in the region, and illegal drug traffic from eastern borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan have all affected the health system in Iran (1). There are noticeable health inequalities within the country; for instance, the difference between life expectancy between different provinces reaches 24 years. The same is through for almost all indicators excluding the vaccine coverage and access to primary health care which are above 90% nationwide. While the major burden of disease in the country as a whole and specially in the large metropolitans is non communicable diseases (NCDs) including cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer and injuries, the country is still faced with the problem of infectious diseases which in many instances are somehow related to its neighbor countries (2, 3). In the both recent epidemics of the Cholera which occurred in Iran in 2005 and 2007 through fingerprinting of the bacteria it was clearly shown that organisms was imported from Pakistan and Iraq respectively (4). Cremean Congo fever previously not known in Iran is now a real health hazard with up to 250 cases each year affected with a fatality rate of 25%. All these reported cases were related to smuggled poultry from neighbor countries. Two out of four countries which could not still eradicate poliomyelitis are neighbors of Iran. Despite of these challenges, it is now 12 years that Iran has obtained the certificate of polio eradication and sustained this success. Malaria although previously endemic in Iran is now confined to three south eastern provinces which its majority of falciparum cases being foreigners who entered the country illegally. These threats could not stop the success of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MHOME) in control of all of epidemics and even in helping the neighbor countries through the so called group 5 initiative which was launched on 2005 during Eastern Mediterranean regional meeting of the world health organization(WHO) between Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and WHO with central role of Iran as the secretary. This could have been done only through strengthening of the primary health care (PHC), active surveillance and frequent monitoring, vaccination at borders and even sending free vaccines to the neighbor countries. Working for the future is based on our current capacities. This is through analyzing the previous achievements and realizing today's needs and predicting fluctuating situations in tomorrow. In this study, we reviewed some of the achievements of Iranian health system in the recent decades.

Polyphenols and their effects on diabetes management: A review

Abstract: Background: Type 2 diabetes is a growing public health problem and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The worldwide prevalence of type 2 diabetes is rising. Polyphenols, such as flavonoids, phenolic acid, and stilbens, are a large and heterogeneous group of phytochemicals in plant-based foods. In this review, we aimed at assessing the studies on polyphenols and diabetes management. Methods: A literature search in the PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, and ISI Web of Science databases was conducted to identify relevant studies published from 1986 to Jan 2017. Results: Several animal models and a limited number of human studies have revealed that polyphenols decrease hyperglycemia and improve acute insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity. The possible mechanisms include decrease in glucose absorption in the intestine, inhibition of carbohydrates digestion, stimulation of insulin secretion, modulation of glucose release from the liver, activation of insulin receptors and glucose uptake in insulin-sensitive tissues, modulation of intracellular signaling pathways, and gene expression. Conclusion: Growing evidence indicates that various dietary polyphenols may influence blood glucose at different levels and may also help control and prevent diabetes complication. However, we still need more clinical trials to determine the effects of polyphenols- rich foods, their effective dose, and mechanisms of their effects in managing diabetes.

A novel method for fuzzy diagnostic system design.

Abstract: Background: In recent years, liver disorders have been continuously increased. Proper performance of data mining techniques in decision-making and forecasting caused to use them commonly in designing of automatic medical diagnostic systems. The main aim of this paper is to introduce a classifier for diagnosis of liver disease that not only has high precision but also is understandable and has been created without expert knowledge. Methods: In regards to this purpose, fuzzy association rules have been extracted from dataset according to fuzzy membership functions which determined by fuzzy C-means clustering method; while each time, extracting fuzzy association rules, one of the five quality measures including confidence, coverage, reliability, comprehensibility and interestingness is used and five fuzzy rule-bases extracted based on them. Then, five fuzzy inference systems are designed on the basis of obtained rule-bases and evaluated in order to choose the best model in terms of diagnostic accuracy. Results: The proposed diagnostic method was examined using data set of Indian liver patients available at UCI repository. Results showed that among considered quality measures, interestingness, reliability and truth outperformed respectively, and yielded precision, sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of more than 90%. Conclusion: In this paper, a classification method was developed to predict liver disease which in addition to high classification accuracy, it has been created without expert knowledge and provided an understandable explanation of data. This method is convenient, user friendly, efficient and requires no expertise.

Prevalence, etiology, and types of dental trauma in children and adolescents: systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Dental traumas are common among children and adolescents in many societies posing health and social problems. The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis on prevalence, etiology, types, and other epidemiologic aspects of dental trauma in children and adolescents (0-18 years old). METHODS: In this systematic meta-analytical review, data were collected searching for key words including traumatic dental injuries, dental trauma, dental injury, dental trauma, tooth injuries, tooth trauma, traumatized teeth, dentoalveolar trauma, oral trauma, epidemiology, etiology, prevalence, incidence, occurrence, child*, and adolescence in the following databases: Scopus, CINAHL, Science Direct, PubMed and Google scholar. RESULTS: From the total of 3197 articles, 44 completely relevant papers were included in the study. The prevalence of dental trauma was variable based on geographical area and was estimated 17.5% in the population, with higher prevalence in boys. Falling was the major cause for dental trauma, and the most frequent location was home. The most frequent type of trauma was enamel fracture. CONCLUSION: A relatively high prevalence was detected for dental trauma, which calls for effective planning and intervention to prevent the occurrence in children and adolescents. These may include special care for children, eliminating fall-prone areas, installing safety measures at homes, using protective appliances in sports, education, and raising the knowledge and availability of services to address enamel fracture. Region-specific criteria should be taken into account in programs and interventions. Language: en