History and Objectives: Hypertension is one of the common diseases with complications that lead to death. Some researches has argued that in patients with hypertension, the level of C3 in serum is elevated. This study was carried out to determine the level of C3 in patients with hypertension and to compare it with control group in Isfahan province in 1998.

Materials and Methods: The analytical strategy of this study was randomly performed on 60 patients with hypertension and on 60 normal persons. The SRID method was used to determine the level of C3 in serum. Both groups were similar regarding age and gender. For statistical analysis t-test was used.

Results: C3 level was 85±13 in normal persons and 131±32 mg/dl in patients with hypertension with a 54% difference (P<0.0001). In addition, its level showed no relationship with gender. In patients with hypertension, there was a lower increase in the level of C3 with age.

Conclusion: Hypertension can increase the level of C3 in serum. It is recommended to carry out a cohort research study for finding a relationship between an increase in the level of C3 in patients with hypertension and incidence of atherosclerosis.

History and Objectives: Ascites is defined as fluid accumulation in peritoneal space and is one of the critical symptoms for background disorders. Considering its causative factors and lack of information in this respect, this study was performed on hospitalized patients admitted to Shaheed Beheshti hospital during the years 1993-2000.

Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on existing data of patients with ascites. For this purpose, their medical records were extracted and studies. Then, the characteristics including age, gender, diagnosis, ascites/serum albumin gradient and protein concentration were determined and recorded.

Results: A total of 17 cases out of 117 patients excluded from the study because of death prior to diagnosis, early leave and absence of coordination for paracentesis. The studied patients had an average age of 55.8±18.4. In addition, 44% of them were female and 56% of them were male and most of them had an age greater than 60 years. The major causative factors included cirrhosis (66% in total, 80.4% for males and 47.7% for females), malignancy (20%), heart failure (9%), Tuberculosis (1%) and mixed factors (4%). Furthermore, in 36 out of cases with ascites as a result of cirrhosis (97.1%), the albumin gradient was greater than 1.1. This value was 100% in patients with ascites due to cardiac disorders and its sensitivity was 92.8%.

Conclusion: It is concluded that the most common cause of ascites is hepatic cirrhosis and it is recommended to evaluate cirrhosis and determine albumin gradient for diagnostic goals.

Background: Ascite is one of the most important symptoms of underlying diseases that a complete evaluation of it makes the suitable treatment possible. Because of neumerous procedures in diagnosis of ascitic fluid and inauthenticity of the information in this regard, this study was performed to evaluate the nature of ascitic fluid with two ascite-serum albumin gradient and transudate-exudate methods on hospitalized ascitic patients admitted to Shaheed Beheshti Hospital during the 1994-2003.

Materials and Methods: Descriptive study with diagnostic value was performed on ascitic patients hospitalized in all age ranges. Firstly, all patients with absolute ascite, diagnosed through CT scan, sonography and parasynthesis were evaluated and then necessary demographic data and the ascitic causes i.e. cirrhosis, heart failure, nephrotic syndrome, multiple ascite with various reasons or pancreas diseases were recorded. After taking consent, Patients were parasynthesied. Ascite liquid (50-100CC) and arm citrated blood (5CC) were taken and sent to laboratory. Total protein of ascite fluid, serum and ascitic liquid albumin were determined cytologic study, staing and acid fast and culturing were also done. After taking answers, was each case with ascite liquid protein of ≥2.5 mg/dI and the ones with the protein of <2.5 mg/dI was classified in exudates and transudate group respectively. To determine the gradient, albumin of ascite liquid subtracted from serum albumin. The patients with the result of ≥ 1.1 were put in high gradient group and those with the result of < 1.1 were classified in low gradient one. Also, sensitivity and characteristic , means, standard deviation of the two methods along with the were obtained. By sensitivity .

Results: 100 patients with ascitic were studied, 56 of whom were male with average age of (X ± SD) 55.2 ± 16.4 and the rest were female with average age of (X ± SD) 54.9 ± 15.4 61% of the patients were more than 60. The most common reason of ascite (65%) was cirrhosis. Heart failure (14%) and malignancies (11%) were classified in 2nd and 3rd ranks. The sensitivity of transude-exuda and gradient albumin 47% and 73% respectively and the characteristic of transude-exuda method to gradient albumin was 80.3%. Also agreement coeficiency was 44% (K=0.44). The highest rate of conformity and transude-exude and gradient albumin method in recognizing infectious peritonite and multiple ascite were variable reasons (100%) and hepatitic cirrhosis (89.2%). The least rate of agreement was conjestive heart failure (21.4%).

Conclusion: The most common cause of ascite was hepatitic cirrhosis and the most agreement of two transudate-exudate and albumin gradient method, was infectious peritonitis and Mixed ascite, mean while, sensitivity and specifity of albumin gradient and specifity of transudate-exudate to albumin gradient had the highest agreement.

Background: Hypertensive patients are highly susceptible to oxidizability. Although hypertension is common among Iranians, few data are available about lipid oxidation status in the involved people. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between serum lipids levels and susceptibility of lipids to oxidation in hypertensive patients.

Materials and Method: Fasting serum lipids and uric acid (UA) were determined in 100 patients with established hypertension, aged 56 ± 12.6 years. In addition, cooper induced serum lipid oxidation was evaluated. Total cholesterol (TC) and triglycerides were determined by enzymatic method (cholesterol oxidase and glycerol oxidase respectively) and uric acid was measured by uricase method. Test kits were supplied by Zistshimi, and technicon-RA-1000 autoanalyser was used for analysis. Lipid oxidation was followed by the formation of conjugated dienes at 245 nm, in diluted serum, after adding Cu²⁺. Quantitative parameters including lag-time, maximal rate (V-max), and maximal amount of lipid peroxide products (O-D-max) were evaluated. Microsoft Excel was used for preparing kinetic curve of lipid oxidation, and SPSS software (V.11.5) to compare and determine the correlation coefficient between variables.

Results: A significant correlation between Lag-time and serum level of uric acid was found (r=0.34, p=0.009). Also V-max and OD-max were significantly correlated with cholesterol (r=0.46, p=0.001, r=0.52, p=0.001) and triglyceride (r=0.34, p=0.008, r=0.38, p= 0.003).

Conclusion: Our results revealed that in hypertensive patients higher levels of uric acid might have a protective effect against lipid oxidation. Higher levels of serum lipids apparently do not affect lipid oxidizability, but they do influence on the production of higher amount of lipid oxidation products

Background: Lead exposure is involved in cardiovascular diseases, as a major cause of mortality worldwide. This study aimed to provide an overview of the underlying mechanisms.

Materials and Methods: The recent studies regarding Lead and cardiovascular diseases are reviewed. Electronic information resources such as Web of knowledge, PubMed, Science direct and Google scholar were used.

Results: The data analysis indicated that the low level Lead exposure in long term causes a marked increase in arterial pressure by several mechanisms: an increase in the activities of angiotensin converting enzyme and kininase II, the effect on synthesis and/or release of renin, a reduction in the Nitric oxide availability and an increase in arterial resistance, the stimulatory effect on sympathetic nervous system, the alteration of adrenergic system and endothelium derived vasoregulatory factors, the dysregulation of arterial natriuretic peptide and interference with dependent signaling pathway. The other action of Lead is the promotion of oxidative stress (OS). Several studies demonstrated the association between OS and cardiovascular diseases. Lead has an effect on endothelial and vascular functions by interfering with the synthesis of some proteoglycans. Also, this metal can arouse a negative effect on fibrinolytic process and promote the growth of vascular smooth cells, which are involved in the formation of atherosclerotic plaque.

Conclusion: Further research is needed to characterize the full impact of Lead exposure on cardiovascular diseases. Considering the high levels of Lead pollution and prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in Iran, the effects of Lead exposure on cardiovascular diseases need to be included in the risk assessment of Lead exposure.

Background: Prostacyclin have positive effects in improving the cardiopulmonary variables, signs and the hemodynamics of cases with a  idiopathic pulmonary artery hypertension (IPAH).The objective of this study was to determine the benefits of intermittent intravenous Iloprost infusion on IPAH cases.

Material and Methods: This longitudinal study was conducted on IPAH cases (no=20) at Massih Daneshvari Hospital (2011-2013), treated with cyclic intravenous Iloprost. The   treatment consisted of a 6 hours/day Iloprost infusion for three consecutive days. Every 6 weeks the infusion was repeated again with a velocity of 0.5-2.0 ng/kg/min. Before, during and after the completion of functional class, six-minute walk test (6MWD), pulmonary artery pressure (PAP), right ventricular pressure (RVP), and plasma NT-ProBNP level were measured.

Result: At follow-up, NYHA score, PAP, RVP, NT-ProBNP and PASP were significantly decreased (P<0.001), while the distance walked in 6MWD was significantly increased.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that cyclic intravenous Iloprost might improve the NYHA score, PAP, RVP and can provide a protection against the development or worsening of PAH in patients with IPAH.