Introduction: Testing for the presence of micro-organisms in the urinary tract, in order to diagnose asymptomatic bacteriuria or symptomatic urinary tract infections (UTI), is very common at all levels of health care. This study was conducted to assess the diagnostic values for bacteriuria and pyuria and evaluate their roles in therapeutic decision making. Methods: A total of 1770 urine samples were obtained by simple randomized method from the central Laboratory of the Ali-ebne-Abitaleb Hospital (Zahedan, Iran). Urine culture was done to compare urine microscopy profiles. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of the findings of urine analysis was described. Results: 1055 (59.6%) of the cases were females. 13% (230/1770) of patients had positive urine cultures. The most prevalent cultured micro-organism was E. coli (63%). Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of microscopic pyuria were 85%, 88%, 51%, 97%, respectively. As the same for bacteriuria, these calculations were 97%, 98%, 90%, 99% and for the category with both bacteriuria and pyuria were 82%, 99%, 95%, 97%, respectively. Conclusion: According to the results, it is concluded that the urine microscopy features seems to be useful to exclude the presence of infection if the results of both bacteriuria and pyuria are negative, but positive test results have to be confirmed

Findings of the current study highlighted the underlying inflammatory process following extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) procedure and can be a good sample for further investigations. Introduction: Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) was established as a dramatic procedure in the treatment of urinary stones. According to the growing utilization of ESWL as a major method of urinary stone, management and the reports have been reported based on renal tissue damage. Objectives: We decided to examine the severity of ESWL-induced renal tissue damage and its related factors by monitoring the urinary levels of cytokines. Patients and Methods: In this study, the urinary samples of 32 patients with urolithiasis were taken before, 24 hours and 14 days after ESWL and interleukin-1ɑ (IL-1a) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Results: Our findings indicated that there was a significant difference between the urinary levels of both IL-1ɑ and IL-6 in 14 days before and after ESWL. Conclusion: According to our results, ESWL leads to an inflammatory process in the urinary tract and the inflammation have continuously increased up to 14 days after procedure. Please cite this paper as:

Introduction:Knowing the composition of a urinary calculus is frequently a key factor in determining its most appropriate management. Helical computed tomography (CT) can provide helpful information on stone size and stone composition. Objectives: We sought to determine the urinary stone composition by CT characteristics. Materials and Methods: Since March 2008 till August 2009, 120 renal stones were obtained from patients who had undergone pyelolithotomy or nephrolithotomy at the Imam-Ali hospital, Zahedan, Iran. Stones with the largest diameter more than or equal to 5 mm were studied. Each calculus was placed inside the chicken lean meat. The radiologist was unaware of the exact chemical composition of the stones. We used independent sample t test for comparison of the absolute Hounsfield unit (HU) values of the different types of calculi. Results: Of total 120 participated patients, 67 (55.8%) were male and 53 of them (44.2%) were female. The mean age of cases was 35.8 ± 12.4 years. According to HU in CT scan and final confirmation with chemical analysis, the calculi were classified into several groups. Of 120 stones, 112 were chemically pure and 8 were mixed. There were 59 calcium oxalate, 27 calcium phosphate, 17 uric acid, 5 struvite, 4 cysteine and 8 mixed stones with variable ratios. In the analysis of the stones, overall difference between densities of the stones was statistically significant (P < 0.001). Conclusion: According to the result of our study, we concluded that the use of non-contrast CT can be helpful in the prediction of urinary stone composition A R T I C L E I N F O Keywords: Kidney stones Computed tomography UrolithiasisArticle History: Original A B S T R A C T Implication for health policy/practice/research/medical education:Mean density of the urinary stones has significant differences. Stone densitometry can be used to differentiate stones from each other. Generally we can state that the use of non-contrast CT and its HU densitometry can be helpful in the prediction of urinary stone composition and it may improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of urinary stones.Please cite this paper as: Gooran Sh, Rohani Z, Akhgar S, Rajabnia Chenari M, Rezghi Maleki E, Narouie B. How spiral computed tomography can be helpful in the evaluation of urinary stones composition? J Renal Inj Prev. 2017;6(3):188-191.

Introduction: Gastric adenocarcinoma and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) are the second and third common cancer in Iran respectively and are the leading causes of cancer deaths in the world. The status of serum zinc level in these cancers has not been fully evaluated. Objectives: The aim of the study was to compare serum zinc levels in patients with ESCC and gastric adenocarcinoma as compared to patients with other non-digestive cancers. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 consecutive patients (10 patients with SCC of the esophagus, 40 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma and 50 cases with other non-digestive cancers as the controls). Morning blood samples were taken containing 5 ml of blood from both groups and immediately stored in the laboratory at 8°C until all samples were taken. After collecting, serum levels of zinc in the specimens were measured by 24i chemistry analyzer. The SPSS version 23.0 for Windows was used for the statistical analysis. Results: The results of this study did not show a significant difference between mean serum level of zinc across the patients with ESCC and patients with gastric adenocarcinoma or those with other nondigestive cancers adjusted for age and gender (P > 0.05). However, a significant difference between the mean serum zinc level in patients with gastric adenocarcinoma and other non-digestive cancers was detected (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Regarding the normal serum level of zinc in other non-digestive cancers and a decrease in zinc level in gastrointestinal cancers in our study, malnutrition which is common in all malignancies, has no effect on zinc deficiency in gastrointestinal malignancies, and zinc deficiency can be considered as a primary risk factor for the development of these two digestive malignancies.