Background: The high prevalence of hypertension and concomitant increase in the risk of its related disease makes it an important health concern all over the world. Hypertension is one of the 5 global leading causes of mortality in the world. Little is known about the current prevalence of hypertension in Iran, however. This systematic review aimed to investigate the current prevalence of hypertension in Iran.
Methods: A systematic review of hypertension was conducted using international databases, including Medline (PubMed) and Science Direct (Scopus), and Persian scientific databases. The searched keywords were "hypertension", "raised blood pressure", "prevalence", and "Iran". All original articles in English published from 1980 to 2012 were included. After data extraction, heterogeneity between studies and publication bias was assessed and effect size was pooled by the random effect model.
Results: Forty-two studies with 402 282 subjects were included. The estimated prevalence of hypertension varied all around Iran (I² = 99%). The overall pooled prevalence of hypertension was 22% (95%CI: 20.2 - 23.8). The prevalence of hypertension was 23.6% (95%CI: 21.1 - 26.1) in men and 23.5% (95%CI: 20.2 - 23.8) in women. In urban areas, the prevalence of hypertension was 22.1% (95%CI: 19.4 - 24.7). Ten studies investigated the prevalence of hypertension in rural areas and according to the random effect model, the prevalence of hypertension in rural areas was 18.6% (95%CI: 13.6 - 23.6). Nonsignificant publication bias was found in this review (p value = 0.18). In our meta-regression analysis, only mean age and study quality were associated with significant variability.
Conclusion: According to this study, hypertension is one of the most common health problems in Iran. Around one-quarter of the adult population is hypertensive and its prevalence increases by aging. Timely and appropriate public health strategies are essential for the improvement of the screening, treatment, and control of hypertension. 

Background: Psychological problems such as depression constitute a dilemma that patients with the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) usually encounter and may impact their quality of life. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of depression among adults with the ICD and the relationship between depression and associated factors.
Methods: Totally, 115 individuals with the ICD participated in this cross-sectional study in Tehran, Iran, and depression and other related risk factors were evaluated in them. Two questionnaires, one for demographic characteristics and the Beck Depression Inventory, were applied for data acquisition. The data were analyzed, and the factors associated with depression in the patients with the ICD were assessed.
Results: The mean age of the study population was 59.85 ± 11.46 years. Males comprised 88 (76.5%) and females 27 (23.5%) of the patients. The multivariate analysis on the 115 patients revealed that frequency of ICD shocks (OR = 1.08, 95%CI: 1.02 - 1.10), male sex (OR = 2.28, 95%CI: 1.027 - 5.07), more hospital admissions (OR = 1.19, 95%CI: 1.11 - 1.25), smoking cessation (OR = 9.8, 95%CI: 4.48 - 20.07), presence of ICD shocks (OR = 4.5, 95%CI: 2.45 - 7.38), dyslipidemia (OR = 2.8, 95%CI: 1.22 - 4.95), and family history of depression (OR = 6.4, 95%CI: 3.0 - 13.46) were significantly and independently associated with the Beck score classifications.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that a poor psychosocial outcome in patients with the ICD may occur as a result of a variety of associated factors, most of which are predictable and preventable. 

Background: Venoplasty and stenting is a minimally invasive therapy that can be used for patients with deep venous insufficiency in the lower extremities. This study aimed at investigating the effect of venoplasty and venous stenting in patients with chronic venous insufficiency in the lower limbs.
Methods: This prospective case-series study recruited patients with chronic deep venous insufficiency in the lower limbs candidated for venoplasty in the Vascular Clinic of Sina Hospital in Tehran, Iran. Venoplasty and stenting was done if the deep venous system in the lower extremities had stenosis or obstruction on venography. The patients were visited 1, 3, and 6 months after venoplasty to assess their symptoms, venous clinical severity, and venous disability. Primary and secondary patency was evaluated with Doppler ultrasound.
Results: Seventy-three patients were included in the study. The follow-up of the patients’ clinical symptoms showed significant improvement rates of about 90%, 88.7%, 92.5%, and 100% in claudication, edema, pain, and ulcers-respectively- only 1 month after the procedure. The stent patency rates were 93.2, 91.5, and 92.4 in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 6th postprocedural months, correspondingly. The venous clinical severity score and the venous disability score before the procedure were 14.2 and 2.73, respectively, which were decreased to 5 and 1.1, correspondingly, at 6 months’ follow-up (p value < 0.001).
Conclusion: Venoplasty and stenting in our patients with chronic deep venous insufficiency in the lower extremities conferred a significant improvement in clinical symptoms and a high percentage of patency.

Background: Reducing blood pressure through diet decreases the possibility of heart attacks, and lowering blood cholesterol can reduce the risk of coronary artery disease. The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of education based on the Health Belief Model on the dietary behavior of patients following coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) at the Heart Surgery Department of Shahid Beheshti Hospital of Qom.
Methods: In this semi-experimental clinical trial, data were collected on 64 patients, at an average age of 59.9 ± 7.26 years in the intervention group and 58.5 ± 7.6 years in the control group. Seventy percent of the study subjects were male and 30% were female. Intervention and control groups were given a questionnaire, comprising 56 questions in 5 parts. The educational intervention was aimed at creating perceived susceptibility and perceived severity in the intervention group. After 1 month. Both groups were tested, and the resulting data were analyzed to investigate the effects of the educational intervention on the nutritional knowledge and behavior of the patients. 
Results: According to the results, educational intervention caused a significant increase in the mean scores of knowledge (p value = 0.001), perceived severity (p value = 0.007), and perceived benefits and barriers (p value = 0.003) in the intervention group but did not cause a significant increase in the mean score of nutritional behavior (p value = 0.390).
Conclusion: Education based on the Health Belief Model seems to be effective in improving nutritional knowledge, but more consistent and comprehensive educational programs are necessary in order to change behavior and improve nutritional behavior.

Mulibrey nanism is a rare autosomal recessive syndrome caused by a mutation in the TRIM37 gene with severe growth retardation and multiple organ involvement. Early diagnosis is important because 50% of the patients develop congestive heart failure owing to constrictive pericarditis, and this condition plays a critical role in the final prognosis. A 37-year-old female patient presented with symptoms of dyspnea on exertion and shortness of breath. She had severe growth failure and craniofacial dysmorphic feature. Cardiac evaluation showed constrictive pericarditis, moderate pulmonary hypertension, and mild pericardial effusion. The patient underwent pericardiectomy, but her thick and adhesive pericardium forced the surgeon to do partial pericardiotomy. Our report underlines the importance of attention to probable Mulibrey nanism when confronting patients with primary amenorrhea, growth retardation, and dysmorphic features. Early cardiac examination is of great significance in the course of the disorder, and patients must be pericardiectomized to relieve the symptoms and increase survival.

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) is a congenital cardiac disease with myocardial involvement, most probably right ventricular (RV) dysfunction, accounting for 20% of sudden cardiac deaths. Characterized by the fibro-fatty infiltration of the RV free wall, ARVD/C presents in adolescents with ventricular arrhythmias and heart failure symptoms and as biventricular failure in adults. The coronary risk in these patients is not clear.
We present an incidental finding: the left anterior descending artery cut-off in a middle-aged man with ARVD/C. He had been under treatment for heart failure symptoms, which had decompensated frequently commencing 6 months earlier, and therefore he was scheduled for stem cell injection. He had no chest pain or coronary artery disease risk factors. Two-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography demonstrated RV enlargement with moderate to severe dysfunction and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of 35-40%, which was 45-50% two years before. Selective coronary angiography performed 8 years previously was normal but a new one revealed the cut-off of the left anterior descending artery at the proximal portion, for which percutaneous coronary intervention was performed and showed no significant lesion in the other vessels.
One should consider coronary artery disease in uncontrolled heart failure with LVEF reduction, even in the absence of typical chest pain. It may not be the natural course of the underlying disease.

Takayasu’s arteritis (TA) is a rare case of granulomatous arteritis which mainly involves the aorta and its large branches. Although arterial hypertension is the most common feature of the disease in both adults and children, patients with TA may present with numerous clinical manifestations. Our patient was a 45-year-old woman, known to have hypertension from 3 years earlier following assessments made for severe headache. One year after the diagnosis of hypertension, she developed a left-sided lower motor neuron facial palsy, which was treated with oral corticosteroids (Prednisolone). Notably, the patient's headache was relieved after she took corticosteroid therapy. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed severe aortic insufficiency and aneurysmal changes in the ascending aorta, and she was referred to our center for further evaluation. In multi-slice computed-tomography angiography, significant long stenosis of the left subclavian artery was seen and the diameter of the ascending aorta was 50 mm. The patient underwent the Bentall operation. The pathologic examination of the aortic wall specimen was compatible with giant cell aortitis and more in favor of TA with the ascending aortic aneurysm. At 6months' follow-up, the patient was in good condition and had almost recovered from facial palsy. 

Cardiac manifestations of the hydatid cyst are relatively uncommon. Cardiac involvement may lead to the compression of vital organs, pulmonary hypertension, pericardial effusion, and even anaphylaxis. A 45-year-old woman presented to the Emergency Department of Tehran Heart Center with chest pain. Cardiac examination revealed relatively muffled heart sounds. Echocardiography demonstrated a round echolucent well-defined mass (47 × 25 mm) on the base and the mid lateral wall of the left ventricle (LV) without septation. Computed tomography angiography and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging revealed a large (52 mm) exophytic mass originating from the lateral wall of the LV with upward growth between the left anterior descending artery (LAD) and the left circumflex artery with no LV cavity obliteration. Coronary angiography showed upward displacement in the LAD with significant compressive narrowing. The patient underwent mass resection and grafting of the LAD. During surgery after the incision of the pericardium, the hydatid cyst entity of the mass was revealed. Hydatid cysts covered the anterolateral surface of the LV with adhesion to the pericardium. The patient recovered from the surgery uneventfully. Pathology report and immunological assays confirmed the diagnosis. During a 6-month postoperative follow-up period, she remained asymptomatic with complete recovery and no recurrence.

Large intercoronary communications in the absence of obstructive coronary artery disease constitute a very rare coronary artery anomaly in which there is a readily visible connection between the 2 coronary arteries with a unidirectional or bidirectional blood flow; consequently, this anomaly may be misinterpreted as a functioning collateral vessel, indicative of an unrecognized proximal coronary artery occlusion. In contrast to collateral vessels that are seen in the presence of critical coronary artery stenosis and total occlusions, these arterial communications are vessels that are single, extramural, straight, and large in diameter. Myocardial ischemia could result from the coronary steal phenomenon by a unidirectional intercoronary communication. Herein, we describe a 57-year-old female with chest pain who was found in coronary angiography to have a single large intercoronary channel between the posterolateral branch of the right coronary artery and the distal left circumflex artery with a unidirectional flow.

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