Given the conflicting results about the positive effects of magnesium and L-carnitine and as there is no report concerning concurrent supplementation of magnesium and L-carnitine on migraine prophylaxis, the effects of magnesium, L-carnitine, and concurrent magnesium-L-carnitine supplementation on migraine indicators were assessed. In this clinical trial, 133 migrainous patients were randomly assigned into three intervention groups: magnesium oxide (500 mg/day), L-carnitine (500 mg/day), and Mg-L-carnitine (500 mg/day magnesium and 500 mg/day L-carnitine), and a control group. After 12 weeks of supplementation, the checklist of migraine indicators including migraine attacks/month, migraine days/month, and headache severity was completed, and serum concentrations of magnesium and L-carnitine were measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometry and enzymatic UV test, respectively. The results showed a significant reduction in all migraine indicators in all studied groups (p < 0.05). The ANOVA results showed a significant reduction in migraine frequency across various supplemented and control groups (p = 0.008). By separating the effects of magnesium supplementation from other confounding factors such as routine treatments using the repeated measures and nested model, it was clarified that magnesium supplementation had a significant effect on all migraine indicators. Oral supplementation with magnesium oxide and L-carnitine and concurrent supplementation of Mg-L-carnitine besides routine treatments could be effective in migraine prophylaxis; however, larger trials are needed to confirm these preliminary findings.

Objectives. Regarding the importance of sexual desire in adolescence period and public and parental concerns about it and considering the lack of studies on sexual knowledge especially in adolescents in Iran, this study was conducted to evaluate the sexual issues in high school girls and boys. Patients and Methods. The cross-sectional study was performed on 2700 high school students. Students were selected through a multi-staged randomized sampling method in Tabriz and by the convenience method in Ardabil and Urmia. Data collection tool was a questionnaire including knowledge questions and measured by a three-point scale. Data were statistically analyzed with SPSS version 11.5 software. Results. 11.8% of the students had a low sexual knowledge, 46.7% had average and 41.5% had a high one. There was no significant difference between male and female students' general sexual knowledge. The highest knowledge was about being aware of the religious rules concerning sex. Conclusion. Adolescents should be trained and acquire information about the different aspects of sexual issues. Female adolescents especially need to be educated about puberty physiology, fertility physiology and STDs.

This study was aimed to compare the subjective and objective nutritional assessments and to analyse the performance of subjective global assessment (SGA) of nutritional status in diagnosing undernutrition in paediatric patients. One hundred and forty children (aged 2-12 years) hospitalized consecutively in Tabriz Paediatric Hospital from June 2008 to August 2008 underwent subjective assessment using the SGA questionnaire and objective assessment, including anthropometric and biochemical measurements. Agreement between two assessment methods was analysed by the kappa (κ) statistic. Statistical indicators including (sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, error rates, accuracy, powers, likelihood ratios and odds ratio) between SGA and objective assessment method were determined. The overall prevalence of undernutrition according to the SGA (70.7%) was higher than that by objective assessment of nutritional status (48.5%). Agreement between the two evaluation methods was only fair to moderate (κ = 0.336, P < 0.001). The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of the SGA method for screening undernutrition in this population were 88.235%, 45.833%, 60.606% and 80.487%, respectively. Accuracy, positive and negative power of the SGA method were 66.428%, 56.074% and 41.25%, respectively. Likelihood ratio positive, likelihood ratio negative and odds ratio of the SGA method were 1.628, 0.256 and 6.359, respectively. Our findings indicated that in assessing nutritional status of children, there is not a good level of agreement between SGA and objective nutritional assessment. In addition, SGA is a highly sensitive tool for assessing nutritional status and could identify children at risk of developing undernutrition.

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This study aimed to evaluate the nutritional status of children consecutively admitted as inpatients to Tabriz Paediatric Hospital in the northwest of the Islamic Republic of Iran between June and August 2008. A total of 140 children aged 2-12 years were included. Patients' weight, height and triceps skinfold thickness (TSFT) were measured, and nutritional status was evaluated. Evaluation of weight-forage , height-forage , weight-forheight and TSFT showed that 48.6%, 30.7%, 32.2% and 14.3% of the patients, respectively, were malnourished. Malnutrition among hospitalized children is worthy of attention, and effective strategies for systematic screening and treatment of malnutrition need to be developed and implemented.