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Background and Aim: Symptoms of the "Darkroom Disease" amongst X-ray personnel are well reported. In this study, radiographers have been compared to physiotherapists to see if there is any link between the occurrences of symptoms with processing chemicals. The aim of this study was to find the prevalence of these symptoms amongst radiographers.

Materials and methods: Sixty nine radiographers from 13 hospitals of Tehran Medical School University were compared with 72 physiotherapists from those hospitals. Respondents were asked to identify, by means of questionnaire, any of the symptoms like dermatitis, sore throat, allergy, shortness of breath etc., described as "Darkroom Disease" from which they suffer.

Results: Data provided by this work demonstrated that radiographers suffered more from shortness of breath (P=0.013 & for men P=0.045), nausea (men P=0.049), and physiotherapists suffered more from catarrh (P= 0.044 & for men P=0.046), as well as joint pain (men P=0.04).

Conclusion: The results from this preliminary work suggests that there is a link between using the processing chemicals and incidence of these symptoms like shortness of breath, nausea among radiographers (P< 0.05), and it seems that the incidence of dermatitis and the history of this disease are linked.

Background & Aim : Symptoms associated with acute discomfort, e.g., headache eye, nose, or throat irritation dry and itchy skin, which are known as Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) are well reported amongst people who work in hospital environment especially in the X- ray department. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of the symptoms and to identify work related factors in hospital environment.

Materials and Methods : A questionnaire survey has been done from 219 hospital personnel who worked in the university hospitals (medical X-ray technologists, physiotherapists and office staff) as the exposed group and 219 personnel of the same occupations from private health care units and offices as the control group about if they experienced any of the mentioned symptoms in the last eight weeks. A total of 215 and 216 the questionnaire were accepted from each group respectively and included in analyses.

Results: From data provided by this work, 6 symptoms (headache, sorethroat, sinusitis, dermatitis,nasalaids and sore eyes)  have significant relationship between exposed and control groups. One symptom (catarrh) had significant difference among physiotherapists (P< 0.05), but with no significant difference between hospital and non-hospital environment. In addition, there was a relationship between incidence of dermatitis and history of skin allergy (P< 0.05).

Conclusion: The results from this preliminary work are similar with the studies, which have been done by others. These results also suggest that there is a link between incidence of SBS and hospital based chemical agents.

Background and Aim: Females were reported to have significantly lower hematocrit (Hct), which might be the cause of increased need for blood transfusion. The goal of this study is to determine risk factors affecting blood transfusion in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft procedure related to gender

Materials and Methods: A cross sectional review of 500 (306 males and 194 females) ASA physical status I or Il patients undergoing bypass procedures with saphenous vein graft performed over a one year period were included in this study. The conducting of anesthesia was standardized. For each patient, we recorded the gender, age, body weight, height, body surface area (BSA), and duration of surgery. Hematocrit levels prior to surgery and the end of surgery were recorded. Packed red blood cell (PRBC) administration and use of fresh frozen plasma (FFP) and platelets were noted. Differences between the data for female and male patients were evaluated using Student's t-test, Chi-square test and using regression analysis.

Results: Approximately 57.2 % (111) female and only 39.9% (121) male patients received PRBCs. On average, females received 1. 6 units of PRBCs intraoperatively and 2. 6 units of PRBCs during the entire hospital stay, while the males received 1.1 units and 1.8 units for similar periods (P=0.0001). When females and males were compared within the same subgroups for age, body surface area (BSA), duration of surgery, and preoperative Hct, etc. ...had a significant correlation with age, postoperative Hct and BSA in females but had a significant correlation with preoperative Hct, preoperative PRBC and duration of surgery in males (P<0.05). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the probability of a patient receiving or not receiving PRBC transfusion is significantly influenced by preoperative Hct, postoperative Hct, duration of surgery, preoperative PRBC mass, and gender.

Discussion and Conclusion: Gender is an independent essential determinant of blood transfusion in CABG patients, and may interact with BSA, preoperative Hct, duration of surgery and other factors in determining the probability of transfusion.