Tehran University Medical Journal

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Background: This study was designed to investigate the process of bone formation caused by implantation of octa calcium phosphate (OCP) in rat tibiae.

Methods: We used 25 young male Sprague-Dawley rats. A full thickness standardized trephine defect, 3-mm in diameter, was surgically created on the superior end of right and left tibia. Amount of 6-mg synthetic Octa calcium Phosphate was implanted into a bony defect on the right tibia as a experimental group. No OCP particles were implanted in the left tibia as a control group that was otherwise treated identically. Bone formation was examined histologically on 7th, 10th, 14th, 21st, 28th days after implantation.

Results: In the experimental group, on the 7th day after implantation, a few clusters of cartilage cells were observed between the OCP particles near the defects margin. Osteogenesis was initiated locally between the OCP particles in central position of the defects on 10th day after implantation. By 14th day after implantation, Alcian blue staining showed hypertrophic chondrocytes that replaced by new bone. In addition to bone formation locally around the OCP particles, more apposition of new bone was observed near the defects margin on 14th and 21st days after implantation. At the end of study implanted OCP was surrounded by newly formed bone. In the control group, at the end of study, bone formation was observed only along and near the defects margin.

Conclusion: These results demonstrate that octa calcium phosphate could be used in the repair of the long bone defects.

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Background: Maternal mortality is one of the most important indicators of women health standard in developing countries. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of risk factors and etiology of maternal mortality in a geographic region of Iran. Methods: This descriptive- analytic cross sectional study included all pregnant women who died during pregnancy and six weeks after delivery due to pregnancy related fac-tor. The study was done in Sistan region in the north of Sistan and Baluchestan Prov-ince of Iran from April 2002 to March 2014. The immigrant women were excluded. Data were collected using 3 parts questionnaire. The validity and reliability of ques-tioner were approved by experts in this field. Data were analyzed using the statistical software SPSS version 18, Chi-square test and ANOVA analysis were performed. Results: The total number of deliveries during this time period was 60496. The total number of maternal mortality was 57 patients which means 94.2 out of 100.000 live births. Most of the dead mothers had more than 35 years old (46.9%), gestational age was more than 22 weeks (77.2%), gravidity more than 4 (21.1%), pregnancy interval lower than two years (46.9%) and 75.4% of death was in post-partum. The main cause of mortality was post-partum hemorrhage (19.3%). Conclusion: Based on our findings, some factors including multiparity, pregnancy his-tory more than 4 times, short interval between pregnancies lower than 2 years and ma-ternal age more than 35 years were some risk factors for maternal death. Maternal mortality in the postpartum period was more than pre-delivery period. Bleeding was the main cause of maternal mortality. Therefore monitoring of vital signs in the post-partum period and the proper management of bleeding are very important. It is sug-gested that risk assessment should be done for pregnant women in delivery ward for detecting high risk pregnant women. Suitable management for these women especially for patients with postpartum hemorrhage plays an important role to decrease the ma-ternal mortality.