Findings suggest that massage is an effective alternative intervention, decreasing pain and anxiety during labor and increasing the level of satisfaction. Also, the supportive role of presenting an attendant can positively influence the level of anxiety and satisfaction.

Epidemiological studies show that parasitic inections are among the most common infections and one of the biggest health problems of the society worldwide. Children at school age have the highest morbidity compared with other ages. Therefore, by treating these children, the disease burden in the total population is reduced. In this study, prevalence of parasitic infection in children referred to Children's Medical Center was compared in different years. In this retrospective cross-sectional study, the subjects were children under 13 years who were referred to Children's Medical Center Laboratory during 18 years (1991-2008) and underwent stool exam by any reason. The specimens were evaluated by different common methods of stool parasitology. In suspected cases, parasites was cultured in specific medium and stained as needed. Required data were obtained from the laboratory files and analysed according to study's purpose. Subjects were 124 366 children. Among them, 0.78% of cases had parasitic infections and 60.54% cases were male. Parasitic infections were related to protozoa in 95.33% cases and intestinal worms in 4.87%. Of them, 50.352% were pathogenic protozoa. The most parasitic infection was Giardia lamblia. Among intestinal worms, the highest prevalence was related to Hymenolepis nana (40.7%). A comparison between the first 10 years and the next 8 years of the study showed that the prevalence of intestinal parasites were 8% and 1% (P < 0.001) and the rate for protozoal infection were 14.9% and 4.3%, respectively (P < 0.001). The prevalence of intestinal parasites was reduced during recent years; however, more attempts should be performed to make it lower.

Six-month mortality was significantly higher in patients with MI with high RDW. Thus given that RDW is an inexpensive and available laboratory test, it could be used for mortality risk assessment and follow up the patients for stricter control of other modifiable risk factors.

Background: Acute appendicitis is the most common nonobstetric surgical problem in pregnancy. Common signs and symptoms of appendicitis are less reliable during pregnancy due to physiological changes; thus, the role of imaging becomes prominent. Thus, in the present study, we aimed at assessing the accuracy of sonography in diagnosing acute appendicitis during pregnancy. Methods: In this prospective analytic study, among 1000 patients diagnosed and treated as acute appendicitis, clinical and sonographic findings of 58 consecutive pregnant patients, who underwent appendectomy, were recorded and analyzed. All surgically resected samples were evaluated and confirmed through histological evaluation. Sonographic criteria were utilized to judge the results for appendicitis. Diagnostic test performance characteristics (sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and likelihood ratios) were calculated. Results: The mean age of the patients was 27.1±4.9 years, and the most common clinical symptom was right lower quadrant pain. There was no significant difference in the mean leukocyte count between the appendicitis group and normal appendix group (p=0.768). Left shift was also unrelated with the appendix pathology (p= 0.549). The sensitivity, specificity, predictive values (positive and negative), and likelihood ratios (positive and negative) were 80%, 75%, 91.4%, 52.9%, 3.2, and 0.26, respectively during all trimesters of pregnancy. Conclusion: Ultrasonography is the initially preferred imaging modality in pregnant women suspected of having acute appendicitis with an acceptable sensitivity; however, application of other imaging modalities such as CT scan or MRI is recommended after inconclusive ultrasonography results.