Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Whatever its etiology, the inflammatory reactions of preeclampsia lead to the activation of endothelium and result in vascular damage. CRP is considered a sensitive index of systemic inflammation, so it is used as predictive factor for disease. This study was carried out to test the screening and predictive abilities of the CRP test in order to detect and diagnose pregnant women prone to preeclampsia prior to the onset of symptoms.

Methods: In this prospective cohort study, conducted in Arash Hospital between 2005 and 2006, we determined the CRP levels of 201 pregnant women at 10-16 weeks of pregnancy. Based on exclusion criteria and illness, 31 patients were excluded and 170 patients were followed until the end of their pregnancies.

Results: In this study, the mean serum CRP values of those who had preeclamptic and those who had normal pregnancies were compared and the statistical differences were significant: 6.18 mg/L for preeclamptic patients compared with 4.12 mg/L for normal patients (p=0.003). Using a chi-square test, we found that patients whose CRP level was ≥4 were six times more likely to have preeclampsia than those with CRP levels <4 (k=9.4 p=0.002 OR=6.15 95% CI=0.69-22.28).

Conclusion: This study confirms the results of previous reports indicating a significant relationship between rising serum CRP in the first trimester of pregnancy and preeclampsia at third trimester. More studies consisting of other inflammation factors are necessary to find an acceptable and reasonable screening test to diagnose pregnant women who are prone to preeclampsia.

Background: Over the past 50 years, subtotal or supracervical hysterectomy has come to be viewed as a suboptimal procedure reserved for those rare instances in which when concern over blood loss or anatomic distortion dictates limiting the extent of dissection, the aim of this study was to compare total and subtotal laparoscopic hysterectomy.
Methods: The patients who were candidates for hysterectomy with benign disease, with no contraindication for laparoscopic surgery entered the study in Arash Hospital, from March 2007 to April 2009. By simple randomization 45 patients (25 for TLH and 20 for SLH) were selected. Demographic Details and intra and post operative complications, were recorded by the staff and were compared between two groups.
Results: The average time for TLH operations look significantly longer than SLH operation (148.6±29.7 minutes 128.5±25.64 minutes, p=0.03). Although, the hemoglobin (gr/dl) drop in TLH was significantly higher than SLH (1.54 Versus 0.9, p<0.05) Blood transfusion were common in SLH (1 case Versus 3 Cases). The total length of hospital stay, was significantly shorter after SLH than TLH (3.6±1.47 day and 2.85±0.59, p=0.04). The drug requirements to control pain during hospitalization after both surgeries with analgesic injection were not significantly different, but with suppositories analgesic in SLH more than TLH. The time of return to normal activity was reported (p<0.0001) significantly shorter after SLH than TLH (13.12±18.1 and 5.04±1.79, p=0.0001). Sexual function had no significant difference between two groups but dysparunia in SLH was significantly lower than TLH (p=0.02). Cyclic bleeding and cervical prolaps, was not reported in two groups. Finally intra and post operative complications were more frequent in TLH.
Conclusions: SLH is a safe and effective surgery. Our data suggest that SLH can replace TLH in selected cases.

Background: Gastric cancer is an important health problem across the world. Chemotherapy in combination with local treatment is the standard treatment for locally advanced gastroesophageal junction (EGJ) cancers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate response and tolerability to neoadjuvant regimen combining epirobicin, oxaliplatin and capecitabin (EOX) in locoregionally advanced gastric cancer.
Methods: We recruited 28 patients with histologically confirmed advanced gastric or EGJ adenocarcinoma in this study performed in the Cancer Institute of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran, Iran in 2010-2011. Staging workup included chest and abdominal computed tomography (CT) scans, upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS), measurement of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), complete blood cell count (CBC), and liver and renal function tests. After three treatment cycles with EOX regimen, we evaluated response to the neoadjuvant chemotherapy by performing endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) and chest and abdominal CT scans.
Results: The mean age of the patients was 56.64±11.08 years (ranging from 37 to 78 years). Most patients were classified as having stage III (98.8%) cancer before chemotherapy while most were classified as stage II (57.14%) after the treatment. Only 28.5% of tumors were resectable before chemotherapy, but 82.1% of them were resectable upon the treatment. 75% of tumors were downstaged after chemotherapy.
Conclusion: Regarding the acceptable response and downstaging of tumors and low toxicity of EOX regimen in locoregionally advanced gastric cancer, evaluation of this regimen as a neoadjuvant chemotherapy in larger phase III clinical trials in Iranian patients would be both necessary and logical.