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Introduction: Quality of life (QOL) has become an important concept in medical research. Some research has shown a curvilinear relationship between QOL and glycemic control, but some did not so. The aim of this study is to investigate different aspects of QOL and also assess the hypothesis in diabetic patients. Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectional study, a random sample of adult diabetic outpatients (n=110) were selected and completed the WHO-QOL assessment instruments. In addition HbA1c was measured in these patients by calorimetric method. Patients were divided in to 3 groups: 1-good control (HbA1c<7), 2-fair control (7≥HbA1c<9) and 3-poor control (HbA1c≥9). QOL was assessed by measuring physical, psychological, social and environmental domains. Data were analyzed with one way ANOVA (Tukey as post hoc), Chi2 and Mann-Whitney, and correlation tests. Results: A significant correlation was seen between BMI and glycemic control, physical and social aspects, physical and environmental aspects, psychological and environmental aspects, and social and psychological aspects. No significant difference was seen between mean score of different dimensions of QOL in relation to HbA1c changes. The mean score of each dimension in relation to glycemic control showed that, better score of psychological, environmental and social dimensions is seen in patients with fair glycemic control. But regarding the overall score of QOL this is completely reverse. The mean score of physical dimension is decreased with increasing HbA1c. There was no correlation between other domains of QOL and glycemic control. Conclusion: In this survey higher quality of life was seen in fair glycemic control in social, environmental and psychological dimensions, but physical dimension in patients was decreased when HbA1c was increased. Regarding the overall score of QOL it can be seen that the lowest score of QOL is in patients with fair glycemic control which is in contrast with curvilinear hypothesis.

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Background: In the last few decades, quality of life (QOL) has become known as an important concept in medical research. In this study, two standard QOL questionnaires were chosen for evaluation of patients’ personality characteristics: 1) World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) and 2) Iranian Diabetics Quality of Life (IRDQOL). The main aim of this study was to compare two standard quality of life questionnaires for evaluation of the relationship between personality characteristics and glycemic control in diabetic patients. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 256 type 2 diabetic patients with a history of diabetes for more than one year. Validity and reliability measures were determined for the two questionnaires. HbA1c was measured through calorimetric method. Results: The mean of physical dimension scores on IRDQOL questionnaire was significantly lower than that on the WHOQOL questionnaire. No significant differences were observed between the other dimensions of the two questionnaires. Positive correlations were seen between different dimensions of each questionnaire. There was a high correlation between the different dimensions of each questionnaire and its related QOL. The two questionnaires did not indicate any correlations between glycemic control and different dimensions of QOL. Conclusion: The two questionnaires have reliability for the total QOL however, the distribution of questions in IRDQOL is not equal. The quality of the evaluation of patients’ personality characteristics by IRDQOL is less than that of WHOQOL. None of the questionnaires indicated any relationship between personal characteristics and glycemic control.

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Background: One of the main complications associated with arteriovenous fistula in hemodialysis patients is the median nerve ischemic neuropathy in the wrist. This study was conducted to examine the effect of arteriovenous fistula on the development of carpal tunnel syndrome. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 37 hemodialysis patients at Shahid Mohammadi Hospital of Bandar Abbas in 2007-2008. All of the patients had either a distal or a proximal arteriovenous fistula in one hand. Nerve conduction velocity and median nerve distal sensory and motor latency were applied to the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome. The limb with fistula (the case) was compared to the one without it. Data were analyzed through independent t-test and Pearson product correlation. Results: Overall, 17 patients had proximal and the rest had distal fistulas. Fistulas aging more than one year were seen in 15 patients and 22 patients had fistulas less than one year old. Carpal tunnel syndrome had developed in 25 wrists with fistula (17 motor and 8 sensory cases) and 27 wrists without fistula. A significant difference was observed in the median nerve distal sensory latency between the wrists with fistula and those without it. There was not a significant difference between the variables. In addition, there was a significant difference between the age of the fistulas and the incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome. Conclusion: The rate of the development of carpal tunnel syndrome in wrists with or without fistula is the same. Also, the site of the fistula does not have any effects on the incidence of the median nerve ischemic neuropathy.

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Background: Body Mass Index (BMI) is commonly used to determine overweightness and obesity in epidemiological studies regardless of the sex and age of the subjects. Golden Standards were presented by the World Health Organization to estimate obesity by measuring body fat percentiles. The primary purpose of this study was to estimate the accuracy of the BMI by Cut-points of gold standard.

 Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional and descriptive study. Measuring body composition was done by Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) method. Accuracy of the BIA method is documented in comparison with more complicated methods Diagnosis performance to estimate the accuracy of Body Mass Index was based on measuring specificity, sensitivity, percentile of the power of positive anticipation, and percentile of the power of negative anticipation to diagnose obesity, with due attention to the cut-points of world health organization gold standards and according to sex and age ranking. Data analysis was performed by T-test, Chi-Square and Roc curve. Two Roc curves were compared by Honely formule and regression analysis.

Results: According to the cut-point of gold standard, statistical findings showed that the amounts of sensitivity and specifity were 66% and 90.5% for all persons, respectively. With due attention to data analysis, the level of sensitivity was 50.2% to 73.3% in males and 28.9% to 69.7% in females. Also, with respect to age ranking, percentile of the power of negatire anticipation was reported between 26.7% to 63.6% in males and between 28.9% to 69.7% in females.

Conclusion: Body Mass Index could not accurately classify people in obesity and overweightness groups. The power of BMI for classifying obese and overweight people decreases with increasing age. Overall, comparing BMI and the cut-points of gold standard showed the medium effect of this index in classifying obese and overweight persons. The appropriate cut-point to diagnose obesity was 27.8.