Iranian Journal of

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Cardiovascular disorders are responsible of nearly fifty percent of deaths in industrial and developing countries. However numerous studies have revealed considerable differences in distribution of cardiovascular risk factors at the national, regional and ethnic levels. There is a necessity to elucidate the status of all recognized risk factors in any population to attribute these differences in the incidence of cardiovascular events to the changes in some risk factors or natural history of the disease in that society. The study of cardiovascular risk factors in the 17th zone of Tehran is performed according to the model of MONICA project of WHO. In this project the trend of cardiovascular events and their association with changes in risk factors is monitored in more than twenty countries and 35 centers. In this article we describe some aspects of the statistical design and sampling procedure of our aformentioned study such as sampling framework, sampling methods and its rationale, best size of clusters, sample size and sample selection in each cluster.

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Neuropathy is a common complication of diabetes mellitus. Meticulous neurological examination and electrodiagnosis are valuable tools in early diagnosis of neuropathy and prevention of its sequels.
Methods: A hundred and three randomly selected diabetic patients were recruited from the endocrine clinic. Mean age of patients was 52.6 ±14 years. 29.4% had type 1 and 70.6% had type 2 diabetes.
Medical history was taken from patients and neurological examination was done. Electroneurographic examination included nerve conduction velocity, action potential amplitude, distal latency and H reflex measurements.
Results: Neuropathy was found in 79.4% of patients. The prevalence of neuropathy had a direct relation with duration of the disease. The most common complaints were tingling and numbness of extremities (72%) and burning sensation of the feet (36%). The most common physical findings were abnormal ankle jerk (92%), and decreased vibration perception (76%) in feet. Abnormal H reflex
(92.5%) and decreased amplitude of action potentials (79%) were the most common electroneurographic findings. There was a strong correlation between clinical and electroneurographic findings.
Conclusion: Neuropathy was quite common in diabetic patients. Neurologic examination is, therefore, recommended to prevent unnecessary workups and prevent complications.

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There are situations in medical studies, wherein it is impossible to use the methods based on normal distribution (parametric methods). This paper objects to introduce common nonparametric methods and the inferences based on the methods in medical studies. Principles and method of calculations along with the software codes for common nonparametric methods and inference based on them were presented taking into account the considerations relevant to choose the nonparametric methods and their relative efficiency with examples in medical studies. In the situation where the assumptions are not satisfied, the nonparametric methods should be used without caution to lose the efficiency or even with higher efficiency of these methods. To compare a non-normal or ordinal variable between two groups Mann-Whitney test, to compare a non-normal or ordinal variable among more than two groups Kruskal-Wallis test, to compare a non-normal variable between two related situations or matched groups Wilcoxon test and to compare an ordinal variable between two related situations or matched groups Sign test should be used. In each of these tests the results of research based examples were presented along with the methods of their calculations. To assess the relation or difference in all types of medical studies, these tests are recommended considering the situation and purpose of study.

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Background: The major cause of obesity is an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure and resting energy expenditure (REE) is the most important determining factor in metabolism because it can reduce obesity and body fat mass gain. Overt hypothyroidism is associated with a lower resting energy expenditure (REE). With treatment, the resting energy expenditure (REE) will be normal. But a group of patients with treatment and normal serum level of TSH and thyroid hormones, Continue to complain of the lack of improvement of Clinical signs of overt hypothyroidism. This study is designed whether patients that have Clinical signs of overt hypothyroidism in compared with patients without Clinical signs, resting metabolic rate, body composition and lipid profile are different or not.
Methods: This study is a descriptive and comparative study on 100 women with overt hypothyroidism are treated with levothyroxine. The patients were divided into 2 groups of 50 patients with and without clinical signs. All patients were matched for age and BMI and menstrual cycle. 2 groups regarding anthropometric measurements, resting energy expenditure (REE), body composition, thyroid hormones, lipid profile and diet were compared with each other.
Results: The average resting energy expenditure (REE) and adjusted of it for weight was significantly lower in the group with Clinical signs (Pvalue<0.03). But there was no significant difference between the 2 groups for the form of an adjustment for fat free mass (FMM) and FT3. The body fat mass (FM) was higher in the group with Clinical signs (Pvalue<0.005).But there was no significant difference between the 2 groups in the percentage of body fat mass and fat free mass (FMM). Serum levels of TSH, TF4, FT4, TT3, FT3, total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, there was no significant difference between the 2 groups. But the level of blood triglycerides (TG) in the group with Clinical signs was significantly higher than the group without Clinical signs (Pvalue<0.01).
Conclusion: Patients with Clinical signs, lower resting energy expenditure (REE) and fat mass (FM) and triglycerides blood (TG) is higher than in patients without Clinical signs.

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Background: Sirtuin-1 is known as a key metabolic sensor in various tissues, including skeletal muscle and tissue, which can play a pivotal role in regulating glucose and lipid metabolism through diacetylase activity. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of licorice extract and swimming exercise on SIRT1 signaling pathways in the soleus muscle of diabetes male rats.
Methods: The research is of an experimental and fundamental type, and the working method is an experimental work with a descriptive-solution nature. Fifty mice were bought and divided into 5 groups of 10. The main training program consisted of swimming in the rodent tank of the special swimming water tank for 6 weeks and 5 sessions per week. In order to induce diabetes in the mice, streptozotocin was injected. Seven days after the injection, the blood sugar of the mice was measured, and the mice with blood sugar more than 250 ml/dL were selected as diabetes samples. Licorice root extract was given to two groups of rats. In order to analyze, two-way analysis of variance was used using SPSS26 software.
Results: The results showed that the interaction effect of swimming training and consumption of licorice extract on SIRT1 signaling pathways is statistically significant (P= 0.002).
Conclusion: SIRT1 plays an important role in the control of glucose homeostasis. In fact, under certain conditions, the activity and expression level of SIRT1 gene decreases in different SI tissues due to its important metabolic role. Swimming training along with licorice supplement may be used for prevention and treatment of diabetes by positive regulation of SIRT1 gene expression.