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Background and Aim: There is no consensus over the relationship between lipid profiles and atherosclerosis risk factors with lumbar disc degeneration. This study aims to investigate the lipid profile and some risk factors of cardiovascular diseases in patients undergoing surgery for lumbar disc degeneration. Methods and Materials/Patients: A correlational cross-sectional study was carried out on all candidates for lumbar disc degenerative diseases surgery at Poursina Hospital in Rasht City, Iran from July to December 2017 (130 adult patients aged 20-77 years). The obtained data were collected from the patients' medical file or asking them after obtaining written informed consent. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS V. 16 by performing the Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests to examine the relationship between the study variables. The significance level was set at P≤0.05 for all tests. Results: 60.8% of subjects had comorbid diseases, mostly hyperlipidemia, and hypertension. Their mean low-density lipoprotein and triglyceride levels were higher than normal and their mean total cholesterol was at borderline. Also, 74.6% and 84.6% of the patients had Body Mass Index and abdominal circumference higher than the normal range. Physical activity in 88.5% of subjects was below the desired level and 79.2% of the patients did not report a history of smoking. Inferential findings indicated a significant relationship between dyslipidemia and various types of lumbar disc degenerative diseases (P<0.05). Conclusion: The study showed dyslipidemia and some other risk factors of cardiovascular diseases, including obesity and inactivity in patients with lumbar disc degenerative disease. More research is needed to assess other atherosclerosis risk factors and types of lipids with respect to disc degenerative diseases.

Background and Aim: Lumbar DisK Degeneration (LDD) is one of the most important causes of pain in the lower back, lack of physical activity, overweight, and obesity have been regarded as the most significant factors in its occurrence. The present study was conducted with the aim of evaluation of body mass index, abdominal obesity and physical activity level in patients undergoing lumbar disk degeneration surgery. Methods and Materials/Patients: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 130 adult patients (20 to 77 years old) candidates for surgery admitted to the Poursina Hospital in Rasht City, Iran in 2016 due to degenerative lumbar vertebrae diseases. After obtaining the patients' consent, their abdominal circumference, weight, and height were measured by the researcher. The Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity (RAPA) questionnaire was used to assess the level of physical activity of the subjects and questions about professional sports were asked by the researchers. SPSS 16 was used to analyze the study findings. The Chi-square test and Fisher exact test were applied to examine the relationship between qualitative data. Results: The mean±SD BMI values in males and females were 26.63±4.47 and 28.96±4.45 kg/ m 2 , respectively. Also, the mean±SD values of abdominal circumference in men and women were 99.8±13.35 cm and 107.44±17.58 cm, respectively. The majority of the people (88.5%), including 71.7% of men and 97.6% of women had suboptimal physical activity, and a small percentage of samples (10.8%) reported previous professional exercises Conclusion: The present study results indicate the lack of activity level, high BMI and abdominal obesity in our patients. Further study is required to investigate the significant relationship between BMI and degenerative diseases.

Background: Previous studies suggest that dysregulation of the immune system is involved in the pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The aim of the present study was to investigate some pre-and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the serum of children with autism and healthy children and to determine the correlation between these cytokines and hs-CRP. Materials and methods: Serum levels of IL-1β, IL-1RA, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α cytokines and hs-CRP were assessed in twenty boys with autism spectrum disorder, aged 6 to 14 years, and 20 healthy controls. To analyze the data, multivariate analysis of variance analysis was used to compare the variables in the two groups, and Pearson correlation coefficient was utilized to assess the relationship between the levels of the cytokines and hs-CRP at the level of 0,05. SPSS software version 21 was used. Results: The results showed that the level of all cytokines as well as hs-CRP in the autistic group was significantly higher than normal children (p<0.001), but there was no statistically significant relationship between cytokines and hs-CRP levels in children with autism (p>0.05). Conclusion: The results suggest that abnormal immune responses such as increased levels of cytokines can be served as one of the biological markers of ASD.

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