Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: One of the most important causes of chronic liver disease is hepatitis C virus (HCV), which causes liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. To control the prevalence of the disease, knowledge and information in risk factor of HCV are required. The aim of this study was to compare the risk factors of infection between HCV patients with genotypes 1a and 3a.
Methods: This is an observational analytical study. HCV patients who referred to the clinic of hepatology, Rasoul-e-Akram University Hospital from July 2015 to July 2017, were assigned to the genotype 1a and 3a. Demographic (age, sex, family history), clinical (cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma) and laboratory data, history of intravenous drug and alcohol usage, and history of imprisonment were gathered and compared between two groups. All the patients completed the informed consent form. Data analysis was performed by SPSS software, version 22 (IBM SPSS, Armonk, NY, USA). P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: Overall, 97 HCV patients were included in this study. Mean age was 45±12 years and 78 (80%) of patients were male. Among them, 58 (60%) and 39 (40%) had genotype 1a and 3a. respectively. History of injection drug usage was recorded in 34/39 (87%) of patients with genotype 3a, and significantly higher in genotype 3a as compared to genotype 1a [OR adj: 3.1, CI (1.3-6.2)]. Also, in this study, genotype 3a was significantly recorded in younger patients [OR adj: 1.7, CI (1.2-4.1)]. However, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma was more common in patients with genotype 1a as compared to genotype 3a [OR adj: 2.05, CI (1.6-5.4) and OR adj: 2.8, CI (1.3-5.7)] respectively.
Conclusion: According to the results of this study, hepatitis C virus transmission risk factors differed in genotypes 3a and 1a. Genotype 3a is found among young patients with a history of intravenous drug usage and genotype 1a in patients with cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Pregnancy as a natural event leads to changes in various aspects of physiology, psychology, and social life. The adoption of a health promoting lifestyle is an important strategy for achieving the desired outcomes of pregnancy and is important on the future health of mother and child. The aim of this study was to assess the various aspects of health promotion behaviors during pregnancy. The data was obtained with advanced search in the Iranmedex, Magiran, Scientific Information Database (SID), IranDoc, PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science and Scopus databases. Articles containing full text were collected using the proper keywords for Persian articles and their equivalent in Mesh included “Health promotion" OR "Behavior health "OR “Health Promoting Lifestyle” AND pregnancy for English articles with a time limitation of 2010 to 2017. At first 3247 articles obtained after reviewing and evaluation of the references, 4 Persian and 25 English articles with observational and qualitative design were included. A review of studies showed that finding a way to pass pregnancy safely is the most important concern for mothers. Pregnant women do some actions to reach favorable outcomes and they have a high incentive to adopt health behaviors during pregnancy due to fear of fetal health, but there is some obstacle to adopt health behaviors including individual factors like that lack of time and inadequate information about pregnancy or health-related functions and social factors including health system problems and cultural factors. In addition age, level of education, individual’s beliefs and factors associated with pregnancy such as high-risk pregnancy and environmental factors such as social support and health system performance play an important role in the adoption of health behaviors. In order to increase the potential of pregnant women to adopt healthy behaviors, changing the health system approach and paying attention to social determinants of health, in order to carry out the necessary interventions, it is recommended to conduct qualitative studies and appropriate design for deep study of the subject in the cultural background.

Background: Diabetes is known to be linked with a high risk of liver stiffness in non-alcoholic fatty liver patients. Previous studies have faced challenges in examining the association between prediabetes and liver stiffness. This study aimed to compare liver fibrosis in diabetes and prediabetes patients.
Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on patients with diabetes and prediabetes who were referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ahvaz from March 2022 to March 2023. The study aimed to clear the relationship between liver stiffness and age, gender, BMI, AST, ALT, ALKP, Bilirubin, and the type of treatment. The normality of quantitative variables was checked using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The chi-square test examined two qualitative variables with more than two levels.

Results: Out of the total participants, 53 people (63.9%) had diabetes, while 30 people (36.1%) had prediabetes. There was a significant difference between the mean severity of liver fibrosis in diabetic and pre-diabetic patients (P=0.014). The frequency of liver stiffness in all levels except in the group with mild or no fibrosis (F0-F1) was higher in diabetic than pre-diabetic patients. In both diabetes and prediabetes groups, there was no significant relationship between gender, age, BMI, ALT, and ALKP with liver fibrosis. However, there was a significant direct relationship between HbA1C% and liver fibrosis (P≥0.003) in both groups. In diabetic patients, a significant relationship between FBS and liver fibrosis was observed (P=0.001). In pre-diabetic patients, significant direct relationship was seen between the severity of liver fibrosis and AST levels (P=0.026). Conclusion: Diabetic patients showed a higher severity of liver fibrosis compared to pre-diabetic patients. No statistically significant relationship was seen between liver fibrosis and age, sex, body mass index, ALT, and ALKP in both groups. Additionally, both diabetes and prediabetes groups showed significant relationship between liver fibrosis and HbA1C (P≥0.003). Prediabetes was also found to be associated with an elevated risk of liver fibrosis.