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Introduction: Liver dystemperament is one of the main concepts of Iranian Traditional Medicine. However, the significance of its diagnostic criteria is not clear. The purpose of this study is to determine the major and minor diagnostic criteria of liver dystemperament in Iranian Traditional Medicine. Methods: This study is a qualitative study based on a hybrid model or a combination of theoretical and empirical studies. At the theoretical stage, 11 books of the main texts of Iranian Traditional Medicine were reviewed and scientific databases were searched by the keywords "liver" and "temperament" (mizaj) in Persian and English. Then, in order to examine the diagnostic method and the importance of each of the criteria, a semi-structured face-to-face interview was conducted with 16 traditional medicine specialists. The data were analyzed through conventional content analysis. Then, the significance and diagnostic priority of each of the symptoms were assessed through a discussion group featuring 10-12 professors. Results: In this study, six major criteria and six minor criteria were identified for hot and cold dystemperament and eight major and ten minor criteria were identified for wet and dry liver dystemperament. Conclusion: This study is the first study to assess the importance of symptoms from the viewpoint of traditional medicine specialists and can be considered as an important step forward in integrating the methods of traditional Iranian medicine in terms of diagnosis and treatment. Further studies, as well as validation of the proposed diagnostic indicators and tools for liver dystemperament, are recommended.

Background: The effect of kind of dialysis solution on the control of blood pressure and adequacy and efficacy of hemodialysis is a most debated and controversial issue.Methods: Twenty six chronic hemodialized patients in Ghaem hemodialysis center, Mashhad, Iran, in winter of the year 2004, enrolled this study for one month. The patients were dialyzed with bicarbonate buffer and were dialyzed in the next month with acetate. The kind of membranes and the dialysis machines were the same in both months. Systolic and diastolic pressures were measured before and after hemodialysis in at least three hemodialysis sessions, and he means recorded. The mean of the body weight were also recorded. In the same sessions of hemodialysis by measuring the urea, before and after hemodialysis, urea reduction ratio (URR), was also calculated. Statistical analysis was done with paired student t test for paired measurement, and independent t test for evaluating the effect of the kind of dialysate buffer on the measured parameters.Results: There were no significant statistical differences between acetate and bicarbonate dialysis solution buffers in the control of diastolic blood pressure. But use of acetate buffer resulted in more significant systolic blood pressure reduction compared with bicarbonate buffer (p=0.045). When adequacy of hemodialysis were compared between two kinds of buffers there were no significant statistical differences between them. When the effect of dialysate sodium concentration in the range utilized in two buffers, was evaluated on the systolic and diastolic pressure reduction, no significant differences, between two types of buffers attributable to the difference between dialysates sodium concentrations were found.Conclusion: Hemodialysis with both, acetate and bicarbonate buffers results in significant reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, weight and urea ratio. Use of acetate buffer is more significantly associated with systolic blood pressure reduction compared to bicarbonate buffer (p=0.045), this effect is independent of the dialysate buffer sodium concentration.

"n Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Background: The preferred modality of dialysis is a controversial issue in nephrology. In this study we compare some demographic and epidemiological characteristics of hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients in an attempt to analyze this issue."n"n Methods: The results of the research protocol "A survey of the epidemiological characteristics of chronic dialyzed patients in Khorassan province", was used to compare some demographic and epidemiological aspects of chronic hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients in search of any statistically significant difference."n"n Results: A total of 836 chronic dialysis patients entered this study, 802 (95.9%) of which were under chronic hemodialysis, and 34 (4.1%) patients were undergoing peritoneal dialysis, with 339 (42.3%) and 12 (35.3%) being female, respectively. The mean age for each group was 47.57 and 46.75 years, respectively. The causes of end-stage renal disease in hemodialzed patients were most commonly hypertension (32.2%), followed by diabetes mellitus (22.3%), unknown causes (19.6%) and chronic glomeru-lonephritis (10.2%). In the peritoneal dialysis group, chronic glomerulonephritis (32.4%) was the most common reason for dialysis, followed by diabetes mellitus (26.5%) and unknown causes (11.8%). The mean serum hemoglobin creatinine, calcium, and phosphorus levels for hemodialysis patients were 10.42, 8.5, 8.93, and 6.03 mg/dL, respectively, and those for peritoneal dialysis patients were 11.28, 8.52, 9.41 and 5.40 mg/dL. There were no statistical differences between the median age, sexual distribution and mean levels of Hgb, Ca, phosphorus, creatinine, HCV antibody and HbsAg of the hemodialysis patients and those of the peritoneal dialysis patients."n"n Conclusions: The results of our study show that hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis are similarly effective treatments. "nKeywords: End stage renal disease, Diabetes Mellitus, epidemiology, demography, glomerulonephritis, Hypertention, creatinine.