Patient populations, disease severity (mild, moderate, or severe), therapeutic approaches, and treatment options (syrup, tablets, and dosage) differ between various studies, which might affect the observed outcomes of zinc supplements. The economic implication is another important factor that should be simultaneously weighted toward the clinical outcome. In the present study, the mean duration of hospitalization

was significantly Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical lower in the patients who received zinc supplements (2.5±0.7 vs. 3.3±0.8 days; P=0.001). The cost-effectiveness of zinc supplements in patients with acute Protease Inhibitor Library diarrhea has been widely discussed. Gregario GV et al.23 in a trial on subjects between 2 and 59 months old with acute diarrhea of durations shorter than 7 days receiving zinc plus ORS (60 patients) or ORS alone (57 patients) confirmed that disease duration was lower in the group receiving zinc plus ORS. Our findings showed the clinical (quantitative and qualitative) benefits of therapeutic zinc Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical supplements in patients with moderate

noninfectious diarrhea in terms of shorter hospital stays; these findings, however, cannot be generalized to other countries. The severity of disease at enrollment seems to be an important predictive Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical factor for diarrhea duration.7,35 It is wiser to classify patients with similar severity in order to diminish probable bias. All of our participants had moderate dehydration; however, we did not consider diarrhea frequency for the initial classification. And nor did we measure the serum zinc levels in our subjects at baseline, which is the salient limitation of the current study. Indeed, Iran is high-risk for zinc deficiency,36 and our patients were all hospitalized; Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical consequently, our patients might have suffered from zinc deficiency and this might give reasons for the study population’s Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical considerable response to zinc supplements. Conclusion Our study results imply the beneficial effects of therapeutic zinc supplementation in patients with acute diarrhea and moderate

dehydration in Iran. Further studies balancing the clinical significance of zinc supplements against economic implications in acute diarrhea are required. Acknowledgment Cell press The authors would like to thank the Office of Vice Chancellor for Research of Urmia University of Medical Sciences for financial support of this study and Farzan Institute for Research and Technology for editorial assistance. Conflict of Interest: None declared.
Background: Various regions in Iran, especially the Khuzestan Province, have been covered by dust and dirt during the past two years due to environmental changes in the Middle East. We sought to evaluate the effect of these pollutants on the coagulant factors of people residing in Abadan and Khoramshahr, two major cities of Khuzestan Province.