Objective. The present study was designed to investigate the prevalence of different combinations of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) risk factors among a nationally representative sample of adolescents in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Methods. The study sample, obtained as part of the third study of the school-based surveillance system entitled CASPIAN III, was representative of the Iranian adolescent population aged from 10 to 18 years. The prevalence of different components of MetS was studied and their discriminative value was assessed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results. The study participants consisted of 5738 students (2875 girls) with mean age of 14.7 ± 2.4 years) living in 23 provinces in Iran; 17.4% of participants were underweight and 17.7% were overweight or obese. Based on the criteria of the International Diabetes Federation for the adolescent age group, 24.2% of participants had one risk factor, 8.0% had two, 2.1% had three, and 0.3% had all the four components of MetS. Low HDL-C was the most common component (43.2% among the overweight/obese versus 34.9% of the normal-weight participants), whereas high blood pressure was the least common component. The prevalence of MetS was 15.4% in the overweight/obese participants, the corresponding figure was 1.8% for the normal-weight students, and 2.5% in the whole population studied. Overweight/obese subjects had a 9.68 increased odds of (95% CI: 6.65–14.09) the MetS compared to their normal-weight counterparts. For all the three risk factors, AUC ranged between 0.84 and 0.88, 0.83 and 0.87, and 0.86 and 0.89 in waist circumference, abdominal obesity, and BMI for boys and between 0.78 and 0.97, 0.67 and 0.93, and 0.82 and 0.96 for girls, respectively. Conclusion. The findings from this study provide alarming evidence-based data on the considerable prevalence of obesity, MetS, and CVD risk factors in the adolescent age group. These results are confirmatory evidence for the necessity of primordial/primary prevention of noncommunicable disease should be considered as a health priority in communities facing a double burden of nutritional disorders.

Fluoxetine was superior to omeprazole for improving the symptoms of patients with heartburn and normal endoscopy who failed once daily PPIs. The superiority of fluoxetine was mostly attributed to those with normal esophageal pH rather than those with abnormal pH (ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01269788).

Background In Iran, admission to medical school is based solely on the results of the highly competitive, nationwide Konkoor examination. This paper examines the predictive validity of Konkoor scores, alone and in combination with high school grade point averages (hsGPAs), for the academic performance of public medical school students in Iran. Methods This study followed the cohort of 2003 matriculants at public medical schools in Iran from entrance through internship. The predictor variables were Konkoor total and subsection scores and hsGPAs. The outcome variables were (1) Comprehensive Basic Sciences Exam (CBSE) scores; (2) Comprehensive Pre-Internship Exam (CPIE) scores; and (3) medical school grade point averages (msGPAs) for the courses taken before internship. Pearson correlation and regression analyses were used to assess the relationships between the selection criteria and academic performance. Results There were 2126 matriculants (1374 women and 752 men) in 2003. Among the outcome variables, the CBSE had the strongest association with the Konkoor total score ( r = 0.473), followed by msGPA ( r = 0.339) and the CPIE ( r = 0.326). While adding hsGPAs to the Konkoor total score almost doubled the power to predict msGPAs ( R 2 = 0.225), it did not have a substantial effect on CBSE or CPIE prediction. Conclusions The Konkoor alone, and even in combination with hsGPA, is a relatively poor predictor of medical students’ academic performance, and its predictive validity declines over the academic years of medical school. Care should be taken to develop comprehensive admissions criteria, covering both cognitive and non-cognitive factors, to identify the best applicants to become "good doctors" in the future. The findings of this study can be helpful for policy makers in the medical education field.

Objective: This nationwide study was conducted to determine the association of anthropometric measures with cardiovascular risk factors and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in Iranian normal-weight children and adolescents. Methods: We analyzed the data of 3,565 children and adolescents (50.3% boys), aged 10-18 years, with a normal BMI (5th-84th percentile) obtained from the third survey of ‘Childhood and Adolescence Surveillance and Prevention of Adult Non-communicable Disease' (CASPIAN III) study. The diagnostic criteria for MetS were defined by the International Diabetes Federation consensus. Results: The prevalence of MetS for 10- to 13.9-year-old boys, 14- to 18-year-old boys, 10- to 13.9-year-old girls, and 14- to 18-year-old girls were 1.4, 2.8, 2.3, and 3.3%, respectively. After adjustment for age and sex, each unit increase in BMI (within normal range) and waist circumference increased the odds of MetS from 6 to 72% and from 1 to 20%, respectively. The dominant pattern of dyslipidemia among the participants was high triglycerides and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Conclusion: This study complements recent research about the high frequency of metabolic risk factors among normal-weight individuals in the pediatric age group.

Lithium causes erectile dysfunction in patients but its mechanism is yet unknown. The aim of our study was to verify the effect of acute lithium administration on the nonadrenergic noncholinergic (NANC)- and endothelium-mediated relaxation of guinea pig isolated corpus cavernosum. Although lithium (0.5, 1, and 5mm) had no effect on the neurogenic relaxations, it significantly (P<0.001) attenuated the relaxant responses to acetylcholine in a concentration-dependent manner. Combination of low concentration of lithium (0.5mm) with either 0.1 or 1μm l-NAME significantly (P<0.001) reduced the endothelium-mediated relaxation. Although the Nitric oxide (NO) precursor l-arginine at 1mm did not alter the relaxant responses to acetylcholine in control strips, it improved the inhibition by lithium (1mm) of relaxant responses to acetylcholine. Sodium nitroprusside (SNP; 10nm-1mm) produced similar concentration-dependent relaxations in both groups. Our experiments indicated that lithium can result in impairment of the NO-mediated endothelium-dependent but not NANC relaxation of guinea pig corpus cavernosum.