Background & Objectives: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is one of the three causes of mortality made by cardiovascular disease and pulmonary embolism is the most common preventable causes of mortality among hospitalized patients. Considering high prevalence, the importance of etiologic studies of diseases and different previous reports regarding the role of blood groups on occurrence of diseases such as VTE, this study was carried out to determine the blood groups of the hospitalized patients with diagnosis of VTE.

  Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 200 hospitalized patients with the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) in Imam, Fatemi and Alavi hospitals in Ardebil. The final diagnosis was made by c olour D oppler ultrasound and pulmonary CT angiography and blood groups and risk factors were determined. Results of this study analysed along with the previous epidemiologic reports related with blood groups in Ardebil and Iran population using chi-square and t-test and SPSS software.

  Results: Of 200 patients with VTE, 140 patients were affected with DVT and 60 patients with PE. In this study, 92 patients were males and 108 were females. The mean age of patients was 52 ± 19 years. The most prevalent blood group was type A with a rate of 47.5%. There was no correlation between the diseases namely DVT or PE and blood groups (P=0.55). Frequency of type A ( OR: 2.914) and B ( OR: 1.608) in patients with VTE was more than Ardebil and Iran population but the type O (OR: 0.632) was less than those population. These differences were statistically significant. The frequency of type AB was similar in all groups.

  Conclusion: The Correlation between blood groups and venous thromboembolism, which have been discussed in many studies, have been investigated in Iran and at medical centres of Ardebil University of Medical Science for first time. It seems the type of blood groups (A and B) is effective in frequency of VTE. More studies are needed on the correlation between blood groups and VTE.

  Background & objectives: Heart failure is considered as a major cause of hospitalization. Many studies have shown association between sleep-related breathing disorders and heart failure. It has been shown that the relationship between nocturnal hypoxia and left ventricular dysfunction can cause significant morbidity and mortality in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF ). Accordingly, treatment of sleep related breathing disorders (SRBD) can give rise to improvement in CHF treatment too. This study surveys the prevalence of sleep disorder in stable heart failure patients regardless of ejection fraction.

  Methods : This study was a descriptive-analytical study. One hundred and eight patients with heart failure disease were studied. A questionnaire consisting of two parts (part I consistent of demographic information and part II consistent of sleep disorders) and clinical examination (pulse oximetery and echocardiography) were used for collection of data. The data were analyzed with SPSS statistical software using descriptive and analytical tests including the chi-square, Pearson correlation and ANOVA.

  Results: Fifty six persons (51.9%) of patients were female and 52 persons (48.1%) were male with mean age of 65.42 ± 11 years. In total sleep duration, 95 patients (88%) had nocturnal hypoxemia . There was correlation between arterial oxygen desaturation at night and ejection fraction .

  Conclusion : This study confirmed strong associations between nocturnal hypoxia and left ventricular dysfunction and SRBD should be considered in clinical treatment of systolic heart failure.

Background & objectives: Fluoroquinolones have important role in treatment of P. aeruginosa infections. The main mechanism of fluoroquinolones resistance in P. aeruginosa is mutations in the quinolone-resistance-determining region (QRDR) of gyrA and parC genes. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of these mutations in ciprofloxacin resistance in different clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa.

Methods: A total of 75 clinical P. aeruginosa isolates were collected from different university-affiliated hospitals in Tabriz. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of ciprofloxacin were evaluated by Etest assay. DNA sequences of the QRDR of gyrA and parC were determined by dideoxy chain termination method.

Results: From 75 isolates, 77.33% were resistant to ciprofloxacin. No amino acid changes were detected in gyrA or parC genes of the ciprofloxacin susceptible isolates. Thr-83→Ile substitution in gyrA was observed in all ciprofloxacin resistant isolates. About 90% of them had Ser-87→Leu substitution in parC. Geometric mean MICs of ciprofloxacin were different for various clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa which had the same situation in type and location of gyrA and parC mutations. Moreover, the geometric mean MIC in isolates from urine was significantly (p<0.05) higher than isolates from tracheal aspirates.

Conclusion: Mutations in gyrA and parC genes are the major mechanisms for ciprofloxacin resistance in clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa. Moreover, the role of different effective factors in fluoroquinolone resistance can be different in various clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa.