Tehran University Medical Journal

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Background: Dental amalgam, a mixture of approximately 50% mercury with silver, tin, zinc and copper in varying ratios, is a major source of mercury pollution in the general population not occupationally exposed. The toxicity of mercury is enhanced because it is so readily absorbed, with around 90-100% of mercury vapor being absorbed through the oral mucosa. The aim of the current study is to examine the mercury levels in hair and nails in subjects with amalgam fillings.
Methods: For a sample of forty university students reporting infrequent fish consump-tion, with their only known exposure to mercury from amalgam fillings, mercury levels were measured in hair and nail samples using the LECO AMA 254 Advanced Mercury Analyzer (USA), according to the ASTM standard No. D-6722 test method.
Results: Mercury concentration in hair ranged from 0.09 to 3.11 mg/kg, and in nail from zero to 1.35 mg/kg. We found that subjects with five or more amalgam fillings had significantly higher levels in their hair than subjects with zero to 5 amalgam fillings (CI 95% P=0.003). However, the number of amalgam fillings had no effect on the mercury concentration in nails in these two groups (P=0.26). There was no significant difference between the levels of mercury of males and that of females tested (P=0.26 for nail and P=0.15 for hair).
Conclusion: The mercury amount in hair was 1.5 times as much as that of the nail samples, may be due to the differences in the chemical compounds, particularly those with sulfur, or the deposition of those compounds that would be affected by blood circulation during formation of hair and nails. Although the amounts of mercury found in this study were below the WHO maximum acceptable level of 6 mg/kg for mercury in human hair, the levels were sufficient to warrant the use of other dental materials such as composites in order to decrease the overall rate of exposure to mercury.

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Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 !mso]> ject classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id=ieooui> Background: A high percentage of the patients at ENT or plastic surgery clinics have ENT abnormalities, either congenital or those developing later in life. Some are life threatening, while others cause disability and esthetic problems, with profound consequences for the affected child and the family. In addition, ENT abnormalities usually place stress on interpersonal relationships, causing social isolation, unhappiness and depression. The majority of these abnormalities is genetic and follows autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance. Geneticists believe that there is a higher frequency of autosomal recessive disorders among the offspring of consanguineous parents. The aim of this study was to find the frequency of ENT abnormalities among children born of consanguineous parents.
Methods: We studied 3503 files (pedigrees) of patients referred for genetic counseling at the Department of Genetics at Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran, Iran, from 1999 to 2000. We studied these cases according to degree of parental consanguinity, patterns of inheritance and gender using SPSS v.15.
Results: Of all 3503 files, 206 had ENT abnormalities, of which 157 had consangui-neous marriages. Among these 157 pedigrees, 496 cases had consanguineous parents. Out of the 496 cases, the four most frequent ENT abnormalities were: 115 cases (23.2%) of deafness, 53 cases (10.7%) of hearing loss, 12 cases (2.4%) of cleft lip and palate, and 5 cases (1%) of cleft palate.
Conclusion: This high frequency of ENT abnormalities indicates that consanguineous marriage should be discouraged by Iranian policy makers in order to reduce the burden of these disorders on society. Further research into the cultural problems that encourage consanguineous marriage and ways of resolving these problems is recommended. 

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Background: Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) starts between four and seven weeks after the first day of the last period, and ends at twenty weeks of pregnancy. The etiology of HG, is unknown. Recent studies worldwide show the Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection as a possible cause of the severe nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, recent studies showed H. pylori to have a role in occurrence of it during pregnancy. The current study assessed the immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) titer to H. pylori in pregnant women with HG. Methods: This is a case-control study of the pregnant patients of a gynecologist's office in the Marvdasht city from April to September 2013. One hundred and twenty three patients were randomly chosen based on their conditions and were divided into two groups (case n1= sixty three and control n0= sixty). The IgG and IgM titers against H. pylori were measured by ELISA method. Data analysis was performed using Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U-test, and T-test in SPSS software, version 20 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). The significant level of the test was considered (P= 0.05). Results: Totally, 123 pregnant women were evaluated 63 women with hypermesis gravidarum and 60 without HG. Forty nine women out of 63 in HG group and 48 women in the control group were IgG positive for H. pylori. Also, mean serum level of IgG was 51.6 in the HG group (P= 0.685). Twelve women out of 63 in HG group and 20 women in the control group were IgM positive for HP. Also, mean serum level of IgM was 27.7 in the HG group (P= 0.675) Except for the mother's blood type, there were no other statistically significant differences found between the two types of antibodies against H. pylori. Conclusion: There is no relationship between helicobacter pylori and hyperemesis gravidarum in pregnant woman. Considering the high prevalence of H. pylori infection in our country, there is a need for studies with more samples and more diagnostic methods.

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Background: Anemia disease is the most common hematological disorder which most often occurs in women. Knowledge discovery from large volumes of data associated with records of the disease can improve medical services quality by data mining The goal of this study was to determining and evaluating the status of anemia using data mining algorithms.

Methods: In this applied study, laboratory and clinical data of the patients with anemia were studied in the population of women. The data have been gathered during a year in the laboratory of Imam Hossein and Shohada-ye Haft-e Tir Hospitals which contains 690 records and 15 laboratory and clinical features of anemia. To discover hidden relationships and structures using k-medoids algorithm the patients were clustered. The Silhouette index was used to determine clustering quality.

Results: The features of red blood cell (RBC), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), ferritin, gastrointestinal cancer (GI cancer), gastrointestinal surgery (GI surgery) and gastrointestinal infection (GI infection) by clustering have been determined as the most important patients’ features. These patients according to their features have been seg-mented to three clusters. First, the patients were clustered according to all features. The results showed that clustering with all features is not suitable because of weak structure of clustering. Then, each time the clustering was performed with different number of features. The silhouette index average is 80 percent that shows clustering quality. Therefore clustering is acceptable and has a strong structure.

Conclusion: The results showed that clustering with all features is not suitable because of weak structure. Then, each time the clustering was performed with different number of features. The first cluster contains mild iron deficiency anemia, the second cluster contains severe iron deficiency anemia patients and the third cluster contains patients with other anemia cause.