It has been shown that images could be transferred from monitor of a fluoroscop machine to a personal computer via 16 Bit(RGB) frame-grabber (Videoblaster card) having 2 Mbyte memory and 680×480 pixel resolution, with speed of 30 frames per second. In a typical angiography one could store these images for 10 s in 36M byte memory. The least distinguishable contrast of these images, after processing in computer would be more than that on radiological film. Also images with the frequency of 1.6 line per mm (thickness of 0.3 mm) on a radiological film, have the same spatial resolution (MTF=0.8) as the captured processed images of 1 line per mm (thickness of 0.5 mm) in the computer. In other word, the technique of capturing fluoroscopic image by PC could be used instead of radiological film to show viens with thickness of 0.5 mm or more, and make sure that spatial resolution is the same as that for viens with thickness of 0.3 mm on radiological film. In this technique 1) the patients dose would decrease by omitting few radiographs prier and post injection of contrast material and 2) as the images are digitized, logarithmic subtraction, saving images on CD or magnetic disk, and image processing are achievable by common softwares.      

History and Objectives: Considering the prevalence of coronary artery therosclerosis and its significant complications such as myocardial infarction, and its high rate motality and special involvment of the main left coronary artery division which includes higher mortality rate and the successful by-pass surgery compared to drug treatment and and assessment of relationship of  risk factors regarding the presence or absence of clinical signs and the study of its condition and stenosis of LMCA and its relationship with other stenosis in different parts of left and right coronary, the present study was carried out on patients referred to Dr. Shariati Hospital for coronary vessel angiography between 1990-1994. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study was conducted on existing patients file from Dr. Shariati Hospital for whom coronary angiography was performed for the past five years. There was no preclinical or clinical evidence of rhomatic diseases or congenital heart disease and patients who were suffering from LMCAD were selected. Personal records, clinical signs, cardiovascular risk factors and angiographic results were extracted. Results: From the total of 1479patients, 10% had LMCAD. 94% of the patients had clinical signs such as pain or dyspnea. The most prevalent risk factor was hyperlipidemia (in 60% of cases). Hypercholesterolemia was the most common risk factor associated with the disease (60%) and increased arterial pressure was the least prevalent associated risk factor (2.5%). The distal  region narrowing in LMCA with 75% was the most frequent and in ostium it was the least frequent. The distribution of LMCA was in trunk lenght (11%), and 2% in middle section (6%), in proximal section (5%) and in the form of ectalic (2%). The distribution of the intensity of narrowing in LMCA shows that the most frequent relates to 30% narrowing and the least rates relates to obstructions over 90%. In other words, 55% of the patients 40% have narrowing or more. In inspecting the relationship between the MCAD and narrowing in other parts, the most frequent narrowing was associated in CX-artery with 79% of the cases and in descending proximal artery in 75% of cases, in distal region with 13% and in descending posterior artery with 19% of prevalence. Conclusions: The narrowing of coronary artery particularly in the main trunk is a common disease with high mortality rate. The characterization of angiography and its relationship with the narrowing in other parts of angiography relationship between this type of narrowing with narrowing the once in other parts of coronary artery results in identification of LMCAD.  

This is prospective double-blind research which was carried out in Imam Khomeini Hospital in order to study the accuracy of color doppler ultrasonography for detecting the site & grade of stenosis in cervical carotid artery. 40 patients with mean age of 62 years studied with color doppler before DSA angiography. The most common sites of stenosis were left internal carotid (39.5%) & right internal carotid arteries (38.4%).We measured peak systolic & end-diastolic velocities (PSA & EDV) & ratios of PSV & EDV at stenosis sites to CCA (PSV Ratio & EDV Ratio).Results showed that PSV has the highest sensitivity & accuracy in all grades of stenosis: mild to moderate stenosis: sensivity (90.5%), accuracy (89.5%), severe stenosis: sensitivity (82.1%), accuracy (92.8%), total occlusion: sensitivity (93.88%), accuracy (96.5%).There is no difference between accuracy of doppler parametrs for detection of total occlusion (96.5%) but in other grades after PSV, EDV (mild-moderate 86%, severe 87.2%), EDV Ratio & PSV Ratio (mild-moderate both 84.8%, severe both 86%) have the highest accuracies.We concluded that color doppler sonography can reliability detect stenosis in carotid arteries & PSV has the highest accuracy.

Most of septicaemias begin with invasion of transcutaneous insersion tract by microorganisms from the patient skin flora. Disinfection of insertion site with chemical antiseptics such as ethanol, Betadine, Cetrimide - chlorhexidine gluconate is regarded as one the most Important measures for prevention of intravascular device related infection especially in NICU, ICU and immunocompromised patient. Phlebitis, local abscess, bacteremia, osteomy elitis, arthritis and endocarditis are the most common serious complication of improper use of antiseptics. To asses the efficacy of three cutaneous antiseptics, Ceuimide-c, 10% Betadine and 96% Ethyl alcohol, Phenol coefficient of them against S.aureus (PTCC 1113), E.coli (PTCC 1338) and K.pneumoniae (PTCC 1053) were determined by AOAC methods. Phenol coefficient of Cetrimide-C were 66,47,51 on S,aureus, E.coli and K.pneumoniae respectively. Phenol coefficients of 10% Betadine were 30,16 and 12 and Phenol Coefficients of Ethyl alcohol were 0.04, 0.03 and 0.03. There were a significant differences among Cetrimide-C, 10% Betadine and Ethyl alcohol (P=0.00). Our finding suggests that Cetrimide-c and Betadine should be considered as a, first-line antiseptics against 3 bacterial strains. We also encourage other investigators to examine these common antiseptics in clinical trials studies.      

To determine the association of serum apolipoprotein (apo) A-I and apo B concentrations, and paraoxonase (PON) high-density lipoprotein (HDL) associated enzyme activity with angiographically determined coronary artery disease (CAD) in Iranian diabetic and nondiabetic CAD patients and nondiabetic control subjects, 251 subjects aged 30-70 years, who underwent their first coronary angiography were matched and randomly assigned into three groups: CAD+DM+, CAD+DM-, and CAD-DM- (control). Stenosis of >= 50% in 1 or more coronary arteries was classified as CAD+. CAD- was defined as a maximum stenosis of 10% in any coronary artery. Fasting serum concentrations of cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TGs), LDL-C, HDL-C, apo A-I, apo B, and PON activity were determined. Apolipoprotein concentrations were measured in a fasting serum sample by immunoturbidometric assay and paraoxonase/arylesterase activities by spectrophotometric assay of p-nitrophenol/phenol production following addition of paraoxon/phenylacetate. Information concerning nonlipid risk factors were collected by questionnaires. No significant difference was observed in HDL-C, LDL-C, apo A-I, and PON/arylesterase activity between the study groups. The values of TC (213±38 vs 196±45, p<0.05), TGs (209±187 vs 151±113, p<0.005), apo B (99±22 vs 96±24, p<0.0001), TC/HDL-C (4.8±1.5 vs 4.0±1.3, p<0.001), and LDL-C/HDL-C (2.9±1.1 vs 2.4±1.1, p<0.05) were higher and apo A-I / apo B (1.7±0.4 vs 2.0±0.6, p<0.01) was lower in CAD+DM+ patients than in control subjects. In CAD+DM- group, only the level of apo B (96±24 vs 85±18, p<0.01), and the ratio of apo A-I/apo B (1.8±0.4 vs 2.0±0.6, p<0.01), were significantly higher than those of control group. On multiple logistic regression analysis, the best markers for discrimination between CAD+ groups and CAD- control subjects were the ratio of apo A-I/apo B in diabetic and apo B in nondiabetic patients. The results suggest that in Iranian diabetic and nondiabetic patients with CAD the concentration of apolipoproteins are better markers than traditional lipid parameters in discriminating between CAD+ and CAD- subjects. Lack of significant difference in PON activity between CAD+ patients and CAD- controls supports the concept of interethnic variability in PON polymorphism and unimodal distribution of its activity in non-Europid populations observed in other studies.