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Background: Early treatment of ischemic stroke patients who arrive at the hospital ≤4.5 hours after the onset of symptoms with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator is more beneficial and very important. Objective: This study is aimed to investigate the factors delaying the hospital arrival of patients with acute ischemic stroke by using multiple logistic regression analysis. Methods and Materials: This descriptive cross-sectional study was done on patients diagnosed with acute ischemic stroke who were referred to Ardabil city Training and Research hospital at 2018. All patients and/or patient relatives were interviewed and data were collected through a checklist including demographic and clinical data of patients to explore the involved factors delaying hospital arrival of patients and then analyzed using multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: Of all included patients, only 25.3% arrived at the hospital in ≤ 4.5 hours. By using multivariate logistic regression analysis, living in cities (P = 0.007), cigarette consumption (P = 0.032), having valvular heart disease (P = 0.008), and gender (P = 0.049) were factors associated with an early arrival to the hospital. Conclusions: Results showed that most of the patients had a considerable delay in arriving at the hospital in ≤ 4.5 hours. Thus, providing health promotion strategies to improve society awareness of early symptoms of stroke, training of local physicians about the importance of early arrival of stroke patients, and more extended ambulance services in all cities and rural areas are necessary for better management of acute stroke patients in this area.

Background and Purpose. Trauma is the leading cause of death for youth in developing countries. Given the prevalence of head trauma (HT) in society and its complication and burden, the epidemiologic study of head trauma is necessary and is the main aim of this study. Materials and Methods. This retrospective population-based survey describes the epidemiology of head injury in a defined population in Ardabil city. It includes all 204 patients with head injury referred to the University Hospital of Ardabil, Iran, during 2013-2014. Data were collected by a checklist and analyzed by statistical methods in SPSS.19. Significance level p < 0.05 was considered. Results. Of all registered cases, 146 (71.6%) were male and the rest of them were female. Most of HT patients lived in Ardabil city (60.8%). The mean age of patients was 22.6 ± 25.9 and most of victims were young. 24.5% of traumatic patients have injuries in severe to critical level (grade 3-4). The most cause of trauma was accidents (41.7%). Most of injuries occurred in night (55.9%) and in summer season (42.2%). Causes were traffic accident in 41.7%. Conclusion. Results showed that the leading cause of head trauma especially in the warm seasons is accidents and so, designing programs to reduce road accidents can dramatically reduce the rate of trauma in the future in Ardabil province.

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Knee pain is one of the most common complains which cause patients to visit a doctor and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is one of the common diagnostic methods which are common to find the cause of Knee pain. This study aim to determine knee MRI appropriateness, in Valiasr hospital of Birjand in 2014.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> In this study descriptive – analytical study, 150 patients referred to MRI unit were selected using convenient sampling method. Data were gatherers using a Questionnaire and then analyzed by SPSS16 using descriptive statistics and Pearson, chi-square and Fisher's exact tests.  </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Of 150 cases, 70 (46.7%) were considered inappropriate, 7 (4.7%) were uncertain, and 73 (48.7%) were deemed to be appropriate. The economic burden of inappropriate prescriptions was 46200000 Rails. A statistical significant relation was observed between appropriateness of prescription with sex, jobs, education, physician specialist and referring institution.</p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Considering the high rate of inappropriate prescriptions, it is necessary to find the causes. Developing, customization, and perform clinical guidelines in all of our country may help reducing this rate.

Background: Overweight and obesity and its problems are the most important health and nutrition issues of adolescents in developed countries. This study aimed to determine prevalence of overweight and obesity among high school girls in Ardabil.Methods: As a cross sectional study height, weight, waist circumference and hip circumference were measured. BMI and WHR were used to assess the overweight and obesity. Data analysed by statistical methods in SPSS.19.Results: The mean age of students was 16.6±1.1 years.  0.25 of students were in age 16.  According to BMI, 8.8% of all students have overweight. According to the WHR, 72 (35.1%) had WHR >0.8 which were in unhealthy high risk group.Conclusions: Results showed that the rate of overweight and obesity in high school girls in Ardabil was lower than many studies in country. So, programming for rising their knowledge about obesity related factors and increasing their physical activity and modify feeding behaviour is essential.