Background:Problematic internet use is on the increase and has caused serious problems in many areas. This issue seems to be more important for medical students.Objectives:This study was designed to explore the prevalence of internet addiction and its related factors among the students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences.Materials and Methods:A cross sectional study was conducted on 383 medical students of Mashhad in 2013. Four hundred participants were selected through two-stage stratified sampling method proportional to the number of students in each stage of education. Data Collection was done through using the Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS) and a checklist of demographic details and characteristics of internet usage behavior.Results:It was found that 2.1% of the studied population were at risk and 5.2% were addicted users. Chatting with new people, communicating with friends and families, and playing games were the most popular activities in these groups. The factors related to internet addiction included: male sex, stage of education, daily time spent on using internet, most frequent time of internet use, monthly cost of use, and tea consumption.Conclusions:Although our study showed the prevalence of internet addiction was not more than other populations and universities, since the prevalence of internet addiction is rapidly increasing worldwide, this population might also be at risk of addiction. Thus, focusing on related factors can help us in designing more effective interventions and treatments for this susceptible group.

Background: The present study aimed to assess the effects of Ramadan intermittent fasting on body weight and composition and the effects of age and sex. Methods: Body weight, height, waist and hip circumferences were measured, body mass index (BMI) was calculated and fat mass, fat-free mass and percentage body fat were assessed by bioelectrical impedance on 240 adult subjects (male: 158) who fasted between sunrise and sunset for at least 20 days. Measurements were taken 1 week before and 1 week after Ramadan. Energy and macronutrient intakes were assessed using a 3-day food frequency questionnaire on a sub-sample of subjects before and during Ramadan. Results: Subjects were grouped according to age and sex:35 years (n = 82, males: 31) and 36-70 years (n = 158, males: 127). There were significant reductions in weight and BMI (P < 0.001) in almost all subjects, with the biggest being in males 35 years [À2.2% (SE 2.2%), P < 0.001]. Waist and hip circumferences fell in most subjects, except females aged 36-70 years. Fat mass fell in most subjects, ranging from 2.3% to 4.3% from baseline, except in females aged 36-70 years who did not experience a significant change. Fat-free mass was significantly reduced in all subjects (P < 0.001), whereas percentage body fat was lower only in males by 2.5% (SE 3.2%) (P = 0.029) in those aged 35 years and by 1.1% (SE 1.5%) (P < 0.001) in those aged 36-70 years. Dietary intake was similar before and during Ramadan, except in males whose protein intake fell during Ramadan (P = 0.032). Conclusions: Ramadan fasting leads to weight loss and fat-free mass reductions. Body composition changes vary depending on age and sex.

There are unresolved questions regarding the association between persistent leukocytosis and risk of thrombosis and disease evolution in polycythemia vera (PV), as much of the published literature on the topic does not appropriately use repeated-measures data or time-dependent modeling to answer these questions. To address this knowledge gap, we analyzed a retrospective database of 520 PV patients seen at 10 academic institutions across the United States. Taking hematologic laboratory data at ∼3-month intervals (or as available) for all patients for duration of follow-up, we used group-based trajectory modeling to identify latent clusters of patients who follow distinct trajectories with regard to their leukocyte, hematocrit, and platelet counts over time. We then tested the association between trajectory membership and hazard of 2 major outcomes: thrombosis and disease evolution to myelofibrosis, myelodysplastic syndrome, or acute myeloid leukemia. Controlling for relevant covariates, we found that persistently elevated leukocyte trajectories were not associated with the hazard of a thrombotic event (P = .4163), but were significantly associated with increased hazard of disease evolution in an ascending stepwise manner (overall P = .0002). In addition, we found that neither hematocrit nor platelet count was significantly associated with the hazard of thrombosis or disease evolution.

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Background: Lung cancer (LC) is a global public health priority. In this study, the epidemiology and current trends of primary LCs were investigated in northeast of Iran.Methods: Demographic and pathologic records of primary LCs during 1985-2012 in Mashhad (capital of northeast of Iran) were reviewed. Data were obtained from archives of the largest referral oncologic hospital and the only private outpatient radiation-oncologic clinic in the region. To investigate trends, study duration was classified into 3 periods:

Background: Conventional cytogenetic is one of the most important diagnostic tools for predicting the overall survival of the patients. Molecular genetics in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has provided insights into the molecular mechanism of leukemogenesis. In this study we aimed to investigate the impact of cytogenetic and molecular methods on the survival of patients with de novo established AML in order to achieve a useful marker or test in the process of predicting the disease course. Material and methods: Eighty newly diagnosed AML patients who were treatment naive entered the study. Cytogenetic and molecular studies such as, the conventional karyotyping, sequencing and reverse transcriptase real time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) were included. Overall survival was calculated by Kaplan-Maier technique and the data were analyzed by SPSS.V.19. Results: Among 80 patients, 36 (45%) were female and 44 (55%) were male patients. Patients’ median age was 29 years, ranging from 1 to 76 years. The mean overall survival was 19 months (95% CI: 1523 months). The 1-year AML survival rate was 61%. There were significant differences in overall survival between the NPM1-mutated groups compared to the patients without any mutations (19% versus 61%) (p < 0.032). Conclusion: This study makes a significant contribution in assessing the prognostic value of cytogenetic and molecular markers. This study showed the heterogeneity of de novo AML that involved various factors and prevalence of distinct cytogenetic subgroups. Our data in comparison with other population-based studies, confirmed a differential distribution of cytogenetic and molecular classification indicating geographic heterogeneity.