Background & Objectives : Coronary artery disease is one of the most important mortality causes in developed and developing countries. Many risk factors can influence coronary artery disease some of which can be controlled and prevented. Information should be given to people for controlling these factors and prior to this information – giving, the primary awareness of them about risk factors needs to be ascertained. This research is a study of the knowledge, attitude and practice of Ardabil people about CAD risk factors.

  Methods : This descriptive analytic study was done on 384 individuals (female and male) over 20 years old. These subjects were selected from five clusters. Synthetic questionnaire was used for data collection through direct interview at home. The collected data was then analyzed by SPSS software.

  Results : 50.5% of samples were females. 27.3 % of the subjects were high-school graduates. Most of them (70%) were aware of stress and lesion as risk factors. 66.9% of them were aware only of the effect of immobility on coronary artery disease but 13% of them had regular physical activity. 52.1% of them were aware of the harmful effect of salt on CAD, but 15% of them had low salt intake. 48.2% of people were aware of benefit of liquid oil on health, but only 25% of them consumed it. Results showed that, 48.2%, 51.3% and 40.9% of individual had moderate knowledge, positive attitude, and weak practice, respectively. The relationship among variables was significant (P<0.0001), and practice of people has been increased with increasing of knowledge and attitude.

  Conclusion : Regarding these results, regular programs are necessary for increasing awareness and practice of people as primary preventive steps for controlling CAD.

 Background & Objectives: Cardiovascular events are among the most common causes of mortality in patients with end stage renal disease. Caediac biomarkers such as troponins are very sensitive in diagnosing heart problems. Troponin I can be used to diagnose acute cardiovascular problems in hemodialysis patients.

 Methods: In this descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study the level of troponin I was measured in 39 hemodialysis patients using ELISA method and BUN, Cr and Hb level before hemodialysis. LVH and LVMI were determined by echocardiography. The data were analyzed using SPSS.

 Results: The patients were 52.92 years old on average. 26 patients were male and 13 female. The average of tropnin I was 0.78 μ g/l. There was no meaningful relationship between troponin I and LV MI, age and sex. However, a significant relationship was found between the level of troponin I with EF and diastolic dysfunction (p=0.05).

 Conclusion: Troponin I can be regarded as an indicator of LV dysfunction.

  Background & Objectives: Coronary artery diseases are the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in industrial countries and in Iran. Myocardial infarction and unstable angina are essential clinical syndromes of coronary artery diseases, with the difference that the mortality and morbidity of NonST-elevated myocardial infractions is more than U/A and requires more intensive care. Rapid differentiation and diagnosis of NSTEMI from U/A plays a major role in effective treatment of patients and improvement of their prognosis. This study was designed to determine the incidence of nonST-elevated MI among patients hospitalized with initial diagnosis of U/A.

  Methods: This is a descriptive and analytical study performed on patients hospitalized with U/A diagnosis between 2001 and 2002 in Ardabil Buali hospital. The data (including demographic characteristics, patients’ clinical findings, ECG changes, laboratory findings) were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive and analytical statistics.

  Results: mean patient age was 61 and prevalence of nonST-elevated MI among patients with U/A was 23 patients (22.1%). Mean age of patients with NSTEMI was 60.5 and its prevalence was greater in male (69.9%) than in female (30.4%). The most prevalent ECG change in patients was T wave inversion and ST depression (78.3%) and in U/A patients it was T wave inversion (60.5%). The difference was statistically significant (p<0.001). 64.7% of the NSTEMI patients and 27.4% of the patients with U/A had severe chest pain (p<0.004).

  Conclusion: Prevalence of NSTEMI was about ¹/₅ of patients hospitalized with diagnosis of U/A and ECG changes among these patients (as T wave inverison and ST depression along with negative T wave) is more prevalent compared to those with U/A. Clinical manifestation and complications were more severe in these patients than U/A group.

  Background and Objectives: pericardial effusion is characterized by the accumulation of excessive fluid in the pericardial space, which can lead to cardiac dysfunction or death. Most of the previous studies have been performed in developed countries and its epidemiologic aspects in developing countries were not well-recognized. The aim of this research was determination of etiology, clinical and paraclinical findings in patients with pericardial effusion.

  Methods: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive and retrospective study. From all of the patients admitted to Buali hospital between 2001 to 2003 ,49 patients that showed moderate to massive pericardial effusion in echocardiography were selected and studied in terms of history, physical examination, CXR, ECG and pericardial fluid analysis (if performed).

  Results: From 49 patients 25 (51%) were female and 24 were male. Age ranges of patients were 11 to 85 years. The age of 42% of the patients was above 60 years. The most common clinical complaints were dyspnea (44.9%) and chest pain (24.5%). ECG in most of them (53.1%) were normal sinus rhythm. Cardiac electrical axis in 83.7 % was normal, but ECG in 83.7% of cases showed low voltage QRS complex. The most common findings in CXR was cardiomegaly (85.7%) and 14.3% of patients had normal CXR. Common etiologies of pericardial effusion were chronic renal failure (16.3%), tuberculosis (8.2%), heart failure (8.2%) and malignancies (6.1%). Etiology of disease in 44.8% of patients was unknown.

  Conclusion: It seems that most of pericardial effusions occur in higher ages. It can be due to high prevalence of different diseases such as heart failure, chronic renal failure or malignancies in senile persons.

  Background & Objectives: Myocardial infarction is one of the most common causes of mortality throughout the world. Utilization of thrombolytic drugs at the first hours upon MI leads to decrease in the rate of mortality. Streptokinase (SK) is commonly used because of its cost and availability. The golden time for maximum effect of SK appeared to be first hours after MI. The drug efficiency diminishes after 3 hours and it will be ineffective after 12 hours.

  This study was aimed to investigate interval between onset of the clinical symptoms and streptokinase receiving in patients with acute myocardial infarction�admitted for drug reception.

  Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 150 patients with STEMI (ST elevation Myocardial Infarction ) who were attended to emergency room of Imam Khomeini hospital and fulfilled a questionnaire containing the data about age, sex, educational level, onset of symptoms, referring time to emergency room, SK utilization, past medical history of cardiac diseases, type and location of AMI, contraindications and side effects of SK.

  Results: In 111 men (74%) and 39 women (26%), the mean for interval between onset of symptoms and drug injection was 8 hour and 27 minutes ± 8 hour and 18 minutes .Only 41% of patients received streptokinase in less than 3 hours after chest pain. The main reasons for delaying in drug consumption were delayed decision to come to hospital in 61% of persons, long distance to hospital for 22% of individuals, delayed admission tor CCU for 13% of cases and delay in physician diagnosis for 0.043% of patients. To have a male sex and residency in city where the hospital was establilished were associated with less-delayed treatment start. However, the educational level, age and history of MI were not correlated with onset of treatment.

  Conclusions: Our results clearly show that the majority of patients receipt streptokinase more than 3 hours after chest pain. With considering the factors associated with delay to receive SK, teaching the patients with ischemic heart disease and giving information about golden time for thrombolytic therapy and its effect in prognosis as well as extending cardiac disease treatment centers in suburbs are recommended.