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Background: The present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of acute iron poisoning among patients in a referral poison control center located in Tehran. It also studied their clinical profile, treatment, and outcome. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted on acute iron poisoned patients, who were admitted to the poison center from March 21, 2015 to March 19, 2020. Some background variables such as age, gender, ingested dose, time interval between onset of poisoning to hospital admission, the need for antidote, clinical presentations, paraclinical findings and outcome of poisoning were extracted from patients' medical records. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS software. Results: A total of 74 patients with acute iron poisoning with a mean age of 16.85 ± 11.97 years included in this study. Sixty-one (82.4%) patients were female and the most affected age group was 19-30 years (35.1%). The ingestion dose median in patients under 18 years old was 2450 (IQR=5600, Min= 120, Max= 30000) mg and in the group over 18 years old it was 9000 (IQR= 11125, Min= 600, Max= 30000) mg. Vomiting (66.2%) and lethargy (24.3%) were the most common clinical presentations on admission. Metabolic acidosis was the most common abnormality in blood gas analysis (43.2%). Positive findings in abdominal radiography have been observed in 4 (5.4%) cases. The serum iron concentration in the patients were 259.54 ± 153.96 µg/dL. Moreover, mortality was reported in one case (1.3%). There was a significant difference between the age of the patients whom received deferoxamine and more patients under 18 years of age received the antidotal therapy (p=0.003). Conclusion: The present study showed a low mortality rate among the acute iron poisoning patients. From this view, it can be concluded that adults have lower mortality rates than children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Estrogen is involved in the pathogenesis of breast and gynecological cancers. Regular use of aspirin reduces estrogen levels. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of aspirin on estrogen levels in postmenopausal women. Methods: This double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel-group trial was conducted on postmenopausal women referred to an outpatient clinic at a women's hospital in Tehran. Volunteers were randomly assigned to receive aspirin 100 mg/day or placebo for 6 weeks. Estradiol, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), and testosterone levels at baseline and at the end of the intervention were measured by ELISA. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20, Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, independent samples t-test, and Mann–Whitney U test. Results: Twenty-seven and 28 participants were finally analyzed in the aspirin and placebo groups, respectively. There was no significant difference between the two groups in body mass index (BMI), age, or menopausal years. There was a statistically significant difference (p = 0.002) in the amount of change in estradiol levels of the intervention group (median=− 3.5 pg/ml) compared to the control group (median=1.5 pg/ml). In contrast, there were no significant differences between the two groups regarding testosterone and SHBG levels (p = 0.58, p = 0.32). Conclusions: Since low doses of aspirin may decrease estradiol levels, it could be considered a promising adjunctive therapeutic candidate in postmenopausal women to decrease BC incidence. However, further studies with larger sample sizes, measurements of estrogen levels and its related compounds in different time points accompanied by long-term follow-ups are needed to better elucidate the potential mechanisms by which nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) negatively affect breast cancer. Trial registration: IRCT201012195397N1. Date of first registration: 03/01/2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) has become the gold-standard for treating patients with the larger renal stones and staghorn calculi. This study was designed to evaluate the outcomes of flank versus prone position in patients underwent ultrasonic-guided PCNL for treatment of large kidney stones. Methods: This prospective randomized clinical trial was conducted from September 2017 to September 2019 in the department of Urology, Labbafinejad University hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Two hundred patients with kidney stones larger than 2 cm underwent PCNLs in prone (n = 100) or flank position (n = 100). Success rate, operative time, access time, hemoglobin and creatinine changes, hospital stay, auxiliary procedure and surgical complications were compared between the two groups. Results: The two groups were similar in their baseline characteristics. The success rates in prone (87%) versus flank position (85%) were not significantly different at the first post-operative follow-up (p = 0.91). At the three-month follow-up, the overall stone free rates for the prone position PCNLs and flank position PCNLs were 94/100 (94%) and 90/100 (90%) (p = 0.96). There were no significant difference between the groups in operative time (p = 0.42), access time (p = 0.66), hemoglobin (p = 0.46) and creatinine (p = 0.22) changes, hospital stay (p = 0.05), auxiliary procedures (p = 0.75) and surgical complications. Conclusion: Overall, there is no significant difference between prone and flank positions in success rate and complications. More prospective studies must be carried out to identify patient populations who are most apt to benefit from one position over the other. Trial registration number: IRCT20200902048597N1 Date of registration: 2020-11-21, retrospectively registered [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Female Sex Workers are among those women who are significantly more vulnerable to violence. Apart from the human rights perspective, assessing the frequency of violence among sex workers is especially important because of its relation to the spread of HIV and other sexually-transmitted infections. This cross-sectional, observational study was conducted among 263 female sex workers in southern parts of Tehran and their suburban regions in 2017 where the population is considered more socially and economically vulnerable. To evaluate univariate analysis between sexual violence and physical violence as dependent variables and the assumed exposures as well as confounders, the models were built distinctly. The models included exposures of the questionnaire as independent variables. The exposure factors with a p value of less than 0.2 were moved into the multiple logistic regression models. The rates of sexual violence and physical violence were reported as 72.2% and 82.3% respectively. According to our results, sexual violence is associated with higher education, working in streets, drug usage, having the experience of forced unprotected sex and feeling of discrimination. Physical violence is associated with low education, drug usage and feeling of discrimination in multiple analyses. Addressing the violence against female sex workers is a complex multifactorial issue in Iran. It requires structural changes in some social, legal, economic and health infrastructure programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: As one of the major health problems in the present century, the COVID-19 pandemic affected all parts of the global communities and the health of substance users are potentially at a greater risk of harm. This global study has been designed and conducted by the International Society of Addiction Medicine Practice and Policy Interest Group (ISAM-PPIG) to understand better the health related issues of people with Substance Use Disorders (SUD) as well as responses of the relevant health care systems during the pandemic. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study using convenient sampling. The data gathering was carried out with two follow-up stages each two months apart through an online conducted survey prepared using Google platform. The survey started by emergence of COVID-19 as a pandemic in March 2020 and respondents were followed till September 2020 when most of the initial lockdowns by most countries are supposed to be reopened. Ethics and Dissemination: The study was approved by the ethics committee of University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran. The results will be published in relevant peer reviewing journals and communicated with different international stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The current study tried to evaluate the quality of life (QOL) of phenylketonuria (PKU) patients residing in Tehran, Iran and it also tried to determine the average quality of life of patients. Various aspects of QOL have been analyzed depending on gender, age, and educational levels of the subjects. Methods: The sample of the study consisted of late-diagnosed PKU patients who were referred to Mofid Children's Medical Center as well as to Ali-Asghar Hospitals in order to receive metabolic diets on a one year period starting from spring 2013 to spring 2014. Due to the limited study population, subjects were selected via census, therefore 82 patients were enrolled. The research material consisted of the Persian edition of World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF), designed to examine physical, mental, social and environmental health. The data was gathered on two levels-descriptive and inferential- by using the SPSS software, V.20. Results: Results indicated that the low quality of life in the late-diagnosed patients suffering from PKU, with mental, physical, social, and environmental aspects, was below the average. Still, even if it was not gender dependent, QOL was greatly influenced by the educational level of the patients. Moreover, it was discovered that the mental health of the patients above 40 years old was significantly lower than the other age groups. Conclusions: According to the findings of this study, it was recommended that special attention should be given to the improvement of the social and mental health of PKU patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 Predictive Maintenance (PdM 4.0) architecture in the broadcasting chain is one of the taxonomy challenges for deploying Industry 4.0 frameworks. This paper proposes a novel PdM framework based on advanced Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0) to reduce operation and maintenance costs. This framework includes real-time production monitoring, business processes, and integration based on Design Science Research (DSR) to generate an innovative Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) meta -model. The addressed model visualizes sub-processes based on experts' and stakeholders' knowledge to reduce the cost of maintenance of audiovisual services including satellite TV, cable TV, and live audio and video broadcast services. Based on the recommendation and the concept of Industry 4.0, the proposed framework tolerates the predictable failures and further concerns in similar related industries. Some empirical experiments have been conducted by using the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting's (IRIB) high-power station (located near the capital city of Iran, Tehran) to evaluate the functionality and efficiency of the proposed predictive maintenance framework. Practical outcomes demonstrate that interval times between data collection should be increased in audio and video broadcasting predictive maintenance because of the limitation of the internal processing performance of equipment. The framework also indicates the role of the Frequency Modulation (FM) transmitters' data clearance to reduce the instability and untrustworthy data during data mining. The proposed DSR method endorses using a customized RAMI 4.0 meta -model framework to adapt distributed broadcasting and communication with PdM 4.0, which increases the stability as well as decreasing maintenance costs of the broadcasting chain in comparison to state-of-the-art methodologies. Furthermore, it is shown that the proposed framework outperforms the best-evaluated methods in terms of acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]