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Background & Objective: Health evaluation and growth monitoring of the infant is a visual diagram of growth and primary health services are based on it. In the best option, these indices must be provided separately for each community. This study was done to evaluate growth indices of newborns in Gorgan- Northern Iran. Materials & Methods: In this observational descriptive study which was carried out during (Oct-Nov 2003), all healthy infants without any major abnormality born within 25-42 weeks of gestational age were evaluated in Dezyani Hospital, Gorgan growth indices (head circumference, length and height) were measured in 1011 infants. Gestational age was defined by Balard scoring and delivery type was recorded, too. After entering data into SPSS-10 software, data were analyzed using chi-square, t-test and correlation bivariate. Results: Mean gestational age (±SD) was 39.86±1.72 weeks and most of them were born by vaginal delivery. Amongst them, 3.2% were premature (less than 37 weeks), 4.4% were low birth weight and 0.69% were very low birth weight. Correlation between growth indices and gestational age was significantly positive in all cases (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study showed that growth indices are lower than other parts of Iran. Further investigations needed, especially longitudinally and cross-sectional, to determine the growth indices in this region and in other parts of country.

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Background and Objective: Acquired kidney cysts usually occur in end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing long-term hemodialysis. Increasing growth of cysts is also seen in asymptomatic patients and they can cause complications such as retroperitoneal and intrarenal bleeding, Erythrocytosis, infection of cysts and renal cell carcinoma with distant metastases. This study was designed to evaluate the prevalence of acquired kidney cysts and its related factors in hemodialysis patients.
Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, 123 patients (mean age 55.22+13.23 years) were selected from hemodialysis patients referred to dialysis center. Patients with autosomal polycystic kidney disease, medullary sponge kidney and medullary cystic kidney disease were not included. Diagnosis of acquired kidney cysts of Patients was performed by ultrasonography.
Results: The overall prevalence of kidney cysts was 44.6%. 30 percent of diabetic patients had kidney cysts, while kidney cysts were present in 51.2% of nondiabetic patients. 32.4% of patients were received twice a week dialysis and 42.4% of patients were received three times a week dialysis had kidney cysts. Mean±SD of duration of dialysis history in patients with cystic kidneys was 22.02±22.65 months, while these measures in patients with noncystic kidneys were 22.65±14.65 months. There was a relationship between kidney cysts and the numder of hemodialysis per week (P<0.05). There was a relationship between prevalence of kidney cysts and the qulity of hemodialysis (P<0.05)
Conclusion: This study showed that there was a relationship between prevalence of kidney cysts and the qulity of hemodialysis and the numder of hemodialysis per week.