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  Background & Objectives : Visceral leishmaniasis is an important endemic disease in Iran and Meshkin shahr County is the most important foci of visceral leishmaniasis in Iran. The aim of this study is the survey of recent changes in epidemiological patterns of visceral leishmaniasis in Meshkin Shar area during 12 years.

  Methods : This is a descriptive retrospective study. Records of 193 cases with confirmed kala-azar disease were reviewed in the period of 2001-2012. Data collected from files and were analyzed using descriptive statistics and SPSS v.15.

  Results : From 193 patients with confirmed kala-azar disease, 85% were resident in rural and 15% in urban areas. Among of these patients, 43% were female and 57% male. About 66% of patients were under 2 years old, 23% in age group between 2-5 years and 11% above five years. Among four parts of Meshkin Shahr County, in the first five years of the study, the most cases of the disease were from the central part, but in second six years the most cases were from the west part of this county and in latest year (2012) it has been coverted .

  Conclusions : Incidence of kala-azar was decreased during last 12 years. Because of high infection rate in dogs and considering important role of these reservoirs in conserving and distribution of disease, stopped health activities in any parts of area can increase the incidence of disease.

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Background & objectives: Visceral leishmaniasis is a zoonotic disease and is considered as the most important disease in dogs. The disease has been reported in North West and South of the country, in Iran. In addition to stray dogs, some apparently healthy dogs can be contaminated without showing any sign or symptoms in this area. In the present study, canine visceral leishmaniasis was investigated in dogs lacking clinical signs in Meshkinshahr city in Ardabil, Iran.

Methods: This study was a cross-sectional survey conducted during 2011-2014. A total of 110 serum samples collected from dogs either having or lacking clinical signs and tested by direct agglutination test (DAT) assay. Then 10 dogs (41.6%) showing clinical signs and 15 dogs (17.4%) without any symptoms were autopsied and their spleens were sampled. The samples were used for smear preparation and culturing.

Results: Based on the results, among 24 dogs with clinical signs 20 cases (83.3%) and of 86 dogs without signs, 16 cases (18.6%) found to be positive. On the other hand, smear and culture results were found to be positive in 100% and 60% of dogs with and without clinical signs, respectively. The interesting and impressive results of this study was that the dogs with symptoms but negative DAT and asymptomatic dogs with negative DAT were positive in parasitological tests.

Conclusion: This proves that asymptomatic dogs like symptomatic dogs can be effective in L. infantum infection and is able to maintain the transmission of the disease in endemic areas. On the other hand, a number of symptomatic dogs with negative anti-leishmania antibodies were positive in parasitological tests. Thus, this study also shows that although DAT is effective in determining asymptomatic dogs and canine visceral leishmaniosis control programs but it does not seem to be satisfying in endemic areas such as Meshkin-shahr. Thus in endemic areas, it is recommended that the low antibody titer should be considered.

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Background & aims: The main purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of NEO personality dimensions on general health, quality of life and job burnout in a sample of faculty members of Iran University of Medical Sciences.

Methods: In this correlational study, data were collected by convenience sampling using General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), WHO Quality of Life- Brief (WHOQOL-FFI), Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and NEO-FFI. In order to analyze the data, statistical indices, including mean, standard deviation and Pearson correlation coefficient were used. 

Results: The results showed a significant correlation between  personality dimensions, including  neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness and agreement with any public health variables (correlation coefficients 0.435, 0.533, 334.513, 0.0) and quality of life (correlation coefficients 0.294, 0.438, 312.459, 0.0) and burnout (correlation coefficients 0.259, 0.351,       -0.302, -0.299, 0.0) , respectively in the Department of Surgery, but openness to experience had  no significant correlation with any of the above-mentioned variables. Also, there was a significant relationship between the three variables of public health, quality of life with burnout.

Conclusions: According to the findings, it can be concluded that in the participants of this study, increase of neuroticism scores was associated with decreased general health and quality of life scores and increased job burnout. Further, increased extroversion scores were associated with increase in general health and quality of life and decrease in job burnout scores.

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Introduction: Skin defect reconstruction following tumor resection, is a challenge for surgeons. Nose as a key point of aesthetics has a significant role in this scenario. One of the practical approaches is dorsal nasal flap (Rintala) to cover lower 1/3 nasal defects. The disadvantages of this method are limitation to reach lower areas, especially nose tip, flap ischemia and wound dehiscence.
Case report: A 47 years old man with supratip BCC lesion underwent tumor resection and prepared for dorsal nasal flap reconstructive surgery, in which dorsal hump resection caused relaxed flap transfer and ultimately more acceptable profile view.
Conclusion: Advancement of the dorsal nasal flap more distally can be achieved by dorsal hump reduction in selected patients, which makes patients more satisfied with their new nasal form and appearance and reduces the risk of distal flap ischemia.

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Background & objectives: Long QT syndrome (LQTS), congenital or acquired disorder, is characterized by a prolonged QT interval associated with syncope attacks and sudden death. Jervell and Lange-Nielsen first described LQTS in conjunction with sensory-neural congenital deafness. In long QT syndrome, the modified QT interval is greater than 440 ms and 460 ms in men and in women respectively. Acquired forms of prolonged QT are the consequence of metabolic disorders and various medications.
Since the number of people with congenital deafness in the society is not low and studies in Iran about this syndrome, especially in children are limited, therefore identification of these patients by performing an ECG and simple measures, may be useful in reducing sudden death among these patients. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of prolonged QT syndrome in children with congenital sensory-neural deafness which undergoing cochlear implant surgery.
Methods: In this study, a single-center cross-sectional observational study, all children with congenital deafness which undergoing cochlear plantation at northwest of Iran were enrolled. Patients' heart rate and QT interval were calculated using Bazett's formula. The association of long QTc with syncope and sudden death, evaluated by using Schwartz's criteria in children with long QT syndrome.
Results: Of the 357 studied patients, 204 (57.1%) were male and 153 (42.9%) were female. The mean±SD of the current age of the patients was 7.15±2.93 years with a mean of 7 years. The mean±SD of QT interval in the studied patients was 291.01±26.89 ms with a mean of 280 ms. the mean±SD of the  QTc interval in the studied patients was 400.52±25.74 ms with a median of 404 ms. Frequency of Long QTc in the studied patients was 17 cases (4.8%) and long QT syndrome was 5 cases (1.4 %).  
Conclusion: The prevalence of prolonged QT syndrome in patients with congenital deafness in northwest of Iran in 2019 was 4.8%, and 2 cases had syncope and 3 cases had sudden death.

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