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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Severe mitral valve regurgitation, which occurs primarily or secondary to various cardiovascular diseases, has undergone surgery and valve replacement and artificial valve insertion from several years ago. Within the last few years, severe mitral valve regurgitation has undergone repair surgery. This study was conducted to determine the results of mitral valve repair surgery. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 210 patients who had undergone surgery with the diagnosis of severe mitral valve regurgitation. Transesophageal Echocardiography (TEE) was performed for all patients before surgery, and echocardiography was performed one week after surgery and six months later and the results were evaluated in terms of regurgitation in three mild, moderate and severe cases. FINDINGS: The mean age of patients with secondary mitral regurgitation was 43 – 85 years. In patients with secondary mitral regurgitation, 143 (83%) patients did not have mitral regurgitation, 27 (15%) patients had mild mitral regurgitation and 3 patients had moderate to severe mitral regurgitation, whereas in patients with primary mitral regurgitation, 30 (81%) patients did not have mitral regurgitation, 5 (14%) patients had mild mitral regurgitation and 2 (5%) patients had moderate to severe mitral regurgitation. CONCLUSION: The results of the study showed that mitral valve repair with primary or secondary etiology had good results and can replace artificial valve in the future.

Background: Noninvasive techniques for the localization of the accessory pathways (APs) might help guide mapping procedures and ablation techniques. We sought to examine the diagnostic accuracy of strain imaging for the localization of the APs in Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Methods: We prospectively studied 25 patients (mean age = 32 ± 17 years, 58.3% men) with evidence of pre-excitation on electrocardiography (ECG). Electromechanical interval was defined as the time difference between the onset of delta wave and the onset of regional myocardial contraction. Time differences between the onset of delta wave (δ) and the onset of regional myocardial contraction (δ-So), peak systolic motion (δ-Sm), regional strain (δ-ε), peak strain (δ-εp), and peak strain rate (δ-SRp) were measured. Results: There was a significant difference between time to onset of delta wave to onset of peak systolic motion (mean ± SD) in the AP location (A) and normal segments (B) versus that in the normal volunteers (C) [A: (57.08 ± 23.88 msec) vs. B: (75.20 ± 14.75) vs. C: (72.9 0 ± 11.16); p value (A vs. B) = 0.004 and p value (A vs. C) = 0.18] and [A: (49.17 ± 35.79) vs. B: (67.60 ± 14.51) vs. C: (67.40 ± 6.06 msec); p value ( A vs. B) < 0.001 and p value (A vs. C) = 0.12, respectively]. Conclusion: Our study showed that strain imaging parameters [(δ-So) and (δ-Strain)] are superior to the ECG in the localization of the APs (84% vs. 76%).

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Inactivity is an important cause of chronic diseases. The level of ones physical activity depends on his or her age, sex, education, job, smoking and etc. This study was performed to assess the physical activity level and its relation to demographic characteristics in population of in Babol, Iran. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed on 2500 people in Babol, in 2007. In this multi stage sampling there were 20 clusters, each cluster contained 125 persons aged 20-65 years old. In each cluster data was gathered by convenience sampling by means of International physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ) contains information about level of physical activity in three levels (severe, moderate and light).FINDINGS: Mean hours of physical activity per week were 3.22±7.38 for severe, 5.7±8.5 for moderate, 1.7±2.47 for light physical activity and 36.1±17.45 for sedentary activities. Men had significantly more physical activities in every levels than women (p=0.000, p=0.000 and p=0.05). There were also significant differences between job and amounts of physical activities in every three levels (p=0.000). Illiterate persons and persons with elementary education had severe physical activity (p=0.000).CONCLUSION: This study showed that the level of sedentary activity was more than other activities that can result in many chronic diseases. So it is recommended to consider the public educational programs in order to encourage people to have regular physical activity and make it as a good habit during their life.