Hepatitis B vaccination coverage among Iranian children aged 15-26 months in 2006

This study in 2006 estimated the hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination coverage in the Islamic Republic of Iran at the national and district levels in urban, rural and remote populations of 41 university health service areas. Of 21 905 children recruited to the study, vaccination coverage based on vaccination card records was 100% in 14, 15 and 10 of the 41 university areas for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd doses of HBV respectively. National levels of HBV1, HBV2 and HBV3 coverage were 98.9%, 98.8% and 98.4% respectively. The lowest HBV vaccination coverage rate was 90.7% (in a remote district). HBV vaccination coverage was at an acceptable level in Iranian children

Primary immunodeficiency disorders in Iran: Update and new insights from the third report of the national registry

Background: Primary immunodeficiency disorders (PID) are a group of heterogeneous disorders mainly characterized by severe and recurrent infections and increased susceptibility to malignancies, lymphoproliferative and autoimmune conditions. National registries of PID disorders provide epidemiological data and increase the awareness of medical personnel as well as health care providers. Methods: This study presents the demographic data and clinical manifestations of Iranian PID patients who were diagnosed from March 2006 till the March of 2013 and were registered in Iranian PID Registry (IPIDR) after its second report of 2006. Results: A total number of 731 new PID patients (455 male and 276 female) from 14 medical centers were enrolled in the current study. Predominantly antibody deficiencies were the most common subcategory of PID (32.3 %) and were followed by combined immunodeficiencies (22.3 %), congenital defects of phagocyte number, function, or both (17.4 %), well-defined syndromes with immunodeficiency (17.2 %), autoinflammatory disorders (5.2 %), diseases of immune dysregulation (2.6 %), defects in innate immunity (1.6 %), and complement deficiencies (1.4 %). Severe combined immunodeficiency was the most common disorder (21.1 %). Other prevalent disorders were common variable immunodeficiency (14.9 %), hyper IgE syndrome (7.7 %), and selective IgA deficiency (7.5 %). Conclusions: Registration of Iranian PID patients increased the awareness of medical community of Iran and developed diagnostic and therapeutic techniques across more parts of the country. Further efforts must be taken by increasing the coverage of IPIDR via electronically registration and gradual referral system in order to provide better estimation of PID in Iran and reduce the number of undiagnosed cases. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media

Cubic B-splines collocation method for a class of partial integro-differential equation

In this paper, a numerical method is proposed to estimate the solution of initial-boundary value problems for a class of partial integro-differential equations. This is based on the cubic B-splines method for spatial derivatives while the backward Euler method is used to discretize the temporal derivatives. Detailed discrete schemes are investigated. Next, we proved the convergence and the stability of the proposed method. The method is applied to some test examples and the numerical results have been compared with the exact solutions. The obtained results show the computational efficiency of the method. It can be concluded that computational efficiency of the method is effective for the initial-boundary value problems. Keywords: Cubic B-splines, Partial integro-differential equation, Backward Euler metho

On solving integral equations using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods

In this paper, we propose an original approach to the solution of Fredholm equations of the second kind. We interpret the standard Von Neumann expansion of the solution as an expectation with respect to a probability distribution defined on a union of subspaces of variable dimension. Based on this representation, it is possible to use trans-dimensional Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods such as Reversible Jump MCMC to approximate the solution numerically. This can be an attractive alternative to standard Sequential Importance Sampling (SIS) methods routinely used in this context. To motivate our approach, we sketch an application to value function estimation for a Markov decision process. Two computational examples are also provided

An Efficient Numerical Method for a Class of Nonlinear Volterra Integro-Differential Equations

We investigate an efficient numerical method for solving a class of nonlinear Volterra integro-differential equations, which is a combination of the parametric iteration method and the spectral collocation method. The implementation of the modified method is demonstrated by solving several nonlinear Volterra integro-differential equations. The results reveal that the developed method is easy to implement and avoids the additional computational work. Furthermore, the method is a promising approximate tool to solve this class of nonlinear equations and provides us with a convenient way to control and modify the convergence rate of the solution

Evaluating the ability of hospital information systems to establish evidence-based medicine in Iran

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the correct use of the best evidences in clinical decision making for patient care. Hospital Information Systems (HIS) can act as a bridge between medical data and medical knowledge through context-sensitive merging and filtering of patient data, individual clinical knowledge and external evidence. The aim of this study was to determine the ability of HISs to establish EBM in Iran. This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on HISs of 30 hospitals from March 2011 to October 2011. Data were collected using a researcher-constructed checklist including applicant's background information as well as information based on research objectives: clinical decision support system (CDSS), reference databases, contextual and case-specific information, clinical and administrative data repositories and Internet-based health information. Face and content validity of the checklist were assessed by the qualified specialists and then the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and SPSS 16 software. The results of the study revealed that the HISs lacked the essential components to providing access to CDSS, reference databases and Internet-based health information in 19, 16 and 20 hospitals were 63.3 , 53.3 and 66.7, respectively. Twenty-two hospitals (70 ) had more than two-thirds of the essential components to access clinical and administrative data repositories; 23 hospitals (76.7 ) had at least one essential component to access contextual and case-specific information. It can be concluded that the ability of the HISs to establish EBM in providing access to the clinical and administrative data repositories is better than other research objectives. Furthermore, more attention should be paid to other related objectives. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York

The role of transcranial sonography in differentiation of dementia subtypes: an introduction of a new diagnostic method

Purpose: Transcranial sonography (TCS) is increasingly used for the diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders. We assessed the role of third ventricle width (TVW), midbrain area (MA), and midbrain circumference (MC) by TCS for diagnosis and differentiation of dementia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed in 59 patients with dementia including 19 patients with Alzheimer�s disease (AD), 10 Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), 23 Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and 7 Vascular dementia (VaD), and 22 normal-cognition individuals. Both case and control groups were matched by age, sex, and educational level. The dementia patients were divided into two subgroups: cortical-dominant dementia (CDD) including AD and FTD; and subcortical-dominant dementia (SDD) including DLB and VaD. TCS was performed through a temporal window, in which the size of TVW and midbrain was measured by trans-thalamic and trans-mesencephalic planes, respectively. Results: The mean TVW was 0.85 ± 0.3 cm and 0.66 ± 0.2 cm in dementia patients and the control group, respectively (p < 0.01). The MA/MC were smaller in dementia patients compared with the control group (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01). The TVW in CDD (p = 0.003) and SDD (p = 0.027), but only MA/MC in SDD (p < 0.05), was statistically different compared with the control group. Conclusion: The measurement of TVW and midbrain size by TCS can be used for diagnosis and differentiation of dementia. Patients with CDD and SDD have larger TVW than the control group, whereas patients with SDD have smaller midbrain sizes. © 2020, Fondazione Società Italiana di Neurologia