Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Infertility is clinically defined as failure of a couple to conceive after one year of regular sexual intercourse and occurs in both males and females for various reasons. About half of the infertility causes is due to male factors such as azoospermia and the lack of sperm in the ejaculate. Azoosperima is divided into two types: Non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) and obstructive azoospermia (OA). NOA is a type of male infertility caused by spermatogenesis defects. Therefore, investigating the factors involved in spermatogenesis, including hormones and genes, is one of the important aspects in understanding the mechanism of infertility in men. To this end, we aimed to investigate the expression of the clusterin gene expression and LH, FSH and testosterone hormone levels in the testicular tissue and blood of NOA patients, respectively.
Methods: The study population included 42 NOA infertile men referred to Royan Institute, Tehran, Iran in June 2016 to February 2017. Their blood samples were collected and testosterone, LH and FSH hormones were measured by ELISA. Afterwards, based on the biopsy results the patients were categorized into TESE+ (positive sperm retrieval) and TESE- groups. The genomic RNA was extracted from testicular tissue samples obtained from TESE surgery. After converting to cDNA, the clusterin gene expression was investigated by Real-time PCR technique. The achieved data was analyzed using SPSS software, version 18 (Armonk, NY, USA).
Results: According to Real-time PCR results, the expression level of clusterin gene in TESE+ group was significantly higher than TESE- group (P= 0.035). The mean of FSH and LH hormone levels in the TESE+ group was relatively lower than the TESE- group (P= 0.07 and P= 0.08), but there was no significant difference in the mean of testosterone hormone levels between the two groups (P= 0.66).
Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, the clusterin gene can have a role in spermatogenesis and by evaluating FSH and LH hormones in a larger non-obstructive azoospermic patient’s population significant statistical results can be achieved.

  SARS-CoV-2 emerging from Wuhan, China is a member of the Coronaviridae family, which has so far infected and killed many people. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic affected various aspects of life in Iran and Worldwide, and governments have imposed quarantines and travel bans on an unprecedented scale. The virus causes COVID-19, which can spread through close contact with the infected person, contaminated equipment, and suspended air droplets. The most common symptoms of the disease include fever, cough, shortness of breath, gastrointestinal symptoms, and diarrhea. In severe cases, the lung infection can occur, which causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that leads to ICU admission and even death.
  Besides, this infection can cause gastrointestinal, neurological, and renal impairments. Not merely, this new coronavirus has infected many more people worldwide in comparison to MERS and SARS, but also it has killed more people. Patients with underlying diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, respiratory problems, kidney disease, heart disease and Immunodeficiency are at higher risk of infection and potential death. Also, the risk of death and complication increases in older adults, while most of the infected children are asymptomatic. Some infected people may have mild or no symptoms but can still transmit the disease and spread it to others.
To diagnose COVID-19, serology tests, and level of ESR, CRP and other acute-phase reactants are helpful, whereas molecular tests, such as RT-PCR tests, that detect the virus’s genetic material are still the golden standard. Also, CT scan detects lung involvement; Ground-glass opacification, especially in lower lobes and subpleural region, is the most common CT characteristic, although it is not specific for COVID-19. Because the disease is difficult to diagnose, hard to prevent and challenging to treat, it has become a major concern for many countries. This review aims to gather existing information in the fields of virology, molecular pathogenesis, disease symptoms, epidemiology, clinical presentations, diagnosis, treatment, and the spread of the disease. This study also provides evidence-based prevention and treatment strategies for health policymakers, doctors, nurses, and practitioners in the field of public health, including researchers and students.

Background: Febrile seizures (FS) are the most common cause of seizure in children. In order to prevent FS and their recurrence, the recognition of the related factors to recurrence of FS is important. According to the high prevalence of FS and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) in children and that IDA is a possible risk factor for FS, as well as controversies in previous studies in this field, in this study, the relationship between iron deficiency anemia and FS in children was investigated.
Methods: This is a case-control study that investigates the relationship between febrile seizures with anemia in 150 patients aged six months to five years with fever who were admitted to Imam Sajjad Yasouj Hospital, from April to August of 2014. In this study, 75 patients with febrile seizures (case group) and 75 febrile patients without seizures (control group) were compared. Cause of fever (urinary infection, gastrointestinal infections, upper respiratory infection, lower respiratory infection and other causes), Information about blood cell count (white blood cell (WBC) and red blood cell (RBC), hemoglobin (HB), mean red blood cell volume (MCV) and serum ferritin level in patients with hemoglobin below 11 were recorded.

Results: The mean age of the study population was 21.4 14 months. 34.7% of the study population were girls and 65.3% were boys. In this study, 10.7% of the cases and 8% of the controls had IDA. Although the prevalence of IDA was higher in the FS group, this difference was not significant (P=0.58). Also, HB and MCV were not significantly different in the two groups (P=0.49, P=0.69). In addition, the mean serum ferritin level in the FS group with anemia and the FS group with anemia did not show a statistically significant difference (P=0.94). Conclusion: According to the result of this study, IDA is not a risk factor for seizures in febrile children.

Background: Febrile seizures are the most common cause of seizures in children under 5 years of age. Central nervous system infections are an important differential diagnosis of febrile seizures. Apart from infections, CSF characteristics are affected by many factors including the cause, type and duration of seizures. This study was designed to determine the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) indices, including white blood cells (WBC), polymorphonuclear cells (PMN) count, and levels of protein and glucose in the CSF of children with fever-induced seizures.
Methods: The present study is a descriptive study that evaluated the results of CSF analysis in 56 children with febrile seizures admitted to Imam Sajjad Hospital in Yasouj from March 2012 to 2013. In the present study, CSF analysis was performed in children with a diagnosis of febrile seizures. In order to collect information from a pre-designed form that includes demographic information (age and gender), degree of fever, and information related to CSF indices including WBC, PMN and levels of protein and glucose in CSF, which have been extracted and recorded, statistical methods are used in this study to express descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, number, percentage, etc.

Results: 56 children with a diagnosis of convulsive fever with a mean age of 21.4±14 months were evaluated. 37.5% (21 individuals) of the study population were females and 62.5% (53 individuals) were males. Among them, 33 individuals had low-grade fever and 23 individuals had high-grade fever. In 10.7%, the number of WBCs was more than 5. The amount of protein obtained was in the normal range, between 20 and 50 mg/dl, in 57.1% of cases. However, a significant percentage (39.3%) of CSF liquid protein was below 20 mg/dl. CSF fluid glucose levels were within the normal range at 91.1%. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, febrile seizures may be associated with low protein levels in the CSF. However, due to the limited sample size in our study, similar studies with higher sample sizes are recommended.