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Purpose: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a major vector-borne disease that affects people globally, including Iran. Different factors are associated with leishmaniasis pathogenicity; recently, a link of the possible relationship between Leishmania RNA Virus (LRV) and disease severity was proposed, especially in the New World leishmaniasis (NWL). This study was aimed to investigate the presence of LRV2 in Leishmania isolates in Aran o Bidgol, Isfahan province. Methods: Samples were collected from 110 CL-suspected patients referred to the health center. In this study, we aimed to investigate CL cases (parasitologically and clinically), identify Leishmania species (by ITS1-PCR–RFLP), and finally detection of LRV2 (by RdRp-semi-nested PCR). Results: Parasitological methods showed 60 positive cases, based on the HaeIII enzyme restriction profile, 59 cases were caused by L. major and 1 case by L. tropica. Our project is the first study on LRV2 isolation in Aran o Bidgol city and the LRV was successfully detected from a single L. major isolated in a women's hand lesion. Using BLAST, 94.8–100% similarity was observed in the RdRp sequence of current LRV isolate with those available in GenBank from Iran or overseas. Conclusion: L. major was the main cause of CL in Aran o Bidgol, although L. tropica is also present in a much lower proportion in the area. This is the first report on the presence of LRV2 in Aran o Bidgol and the fifth in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between clinical symptoms and endoscopic findings among patients with duodenal ulcer. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in endoscopic center of Al-Zahra Hospital in Isfahan. We selected 200 patients older than 18 year who had Dyspepsia by simple nonrandom sampling. Finally Endoscopic findings and clinical symptoms data were collected and analyzed for 114 patients with active peptic duodenal ulcer. Finding: The mean age of the study sample was 46.5 ± 10.4 years. There were 44 females (38.6%) and 70 males (61.4%). The average of BMI was 27.2 ± 4.3. There was a significant association between endoscopic findings (site, size and quantity of ulcer) with clinical symptoms (weight loss and heartburn) and there was no association between other endoscopic findings and clinical symptoms. Conclusion: The results of present study showed that weight loss and heartburn can use as marker to determine site, size and quantity of duodenal ulcer. But these findings can not be enough and more study need to be done to determine the association between endoscopic findings and clinical symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]