Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Gastroesophageal reflux is a common condition among premature infants, which causes problems such as reduced weight gain and prolonged length of hospital stay. Body status is an appropriate way to reduce this condition. However, there have been few studies conducted in this regard. The objective of this study was therefore to investigate the effect of body status on gastroesophageal reflux in premature infants.
Methods: The present research was a crossover study conducted on premature infants with a gestational age of 33-36 weeks in Al-Zahra Hospital in Tabriz, Iran, from January to March 2015. In this clinical trial, thirty-two premature infants hospitalized in this center were selected as the sample. The initial selection of the participants was based on the simple random sampling. Then the participants were allocated to groups using randomized block procedure. Each infant was under study for 4 days. After each feeding and about two hours before the beginning of next feeding, the infants were randomly and not repeatedly put in one of the following four status for 12 hours (8 am -8 pm) every day: facilitated fetal tucking posture in lateral position, free body posture in lateral position, facilitated fetal tucking posture in supine position, and free body posture in supine position. Then, the incidence of gastroesophageal reflux was measured in each of these statuses. SPSS software, version 21 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used to analyze the data at significant level of P<0.05.
Results: The results showed that there was a significant difference between facilitated fetal tucking posture in lateral position and other status (P<0.001). The incidence of gastroesophageal reflux in facilitated fetal tucking posture was lower than free body posture, but there was no statistically significant difference in this regard. Moreover, the incidence of reflux in lateral position was significantly less than those in supine position (P=0.04).
Conclusion: The findings of this study revealed that facilitated fetal tucking posture and lateral positioning reduced the incidence of gastroesophageal reflux in hospitalized premature infants.
 

Background: One of the important effects of kangaroo mother care (KMC) in preterm baby is improvement in weight gain and so shortening in hospitalization, but it is not clear that how long of kangaroo mother care is effective in weight gain. The aim of this study was to determine the least effective duration of kangaroo mother care in weight gain in very low birth weights.
Methods: Preterm babies with birth weight less than 1500 gr, without chronic cardiopulmonary disease, congenital anomaly and other medical problem when receiving to 140 ml/kg/d enteral feeding enrolled the study. KMC was started when the baby has been stabled, on the mother’s appetency and ability at bedside. The mean daily weight gain in KMC period was compared with expected that (15 mg/kg/d) for the same baby. The babies with KMC≥ 7 days were divided in three groups on the basis of mean daily KMC duration (< 30 min, 30-60 min and> 60). Statistical study performed by using SPSS software, version 22 (IBM SPSS, Armonk, NY, USA) and P values of less than 0.05 were considered to be significant.
Results: In this study, 103 preterm baby (47 boys, 56 girls) less than 1500 gr were enrolled, with mean birth weight 1107.85±190.87 gr. Mean weight gain of boys in KMC period and expected that were 324.78±162.66 gr Vs. 127.46±54.66 gr (P< 0.001). In eighty-seven babies who received KMC (7-40 days) mean daily weight gain was 26.69±15.55 gr (P< 0.001). Mean weight gain in KMC period for group with< 30 min (n=19), 402.63±126.29 gr Vs. 167.21±74.20 (P< 0.001), group with 30-60 min (n=54) were 338.79±182.60 gr Vs. 220.36±66.98 (P< 0.001) and group with 60< (n=14) 352.14±236.02 gr Vs. 259.96±112.23 (P= 0.09).
Conclusion: On the basis of this study KMC less than 1 hour per day is effective in weight gain of very low birth weight preterm babies.

Background: Gestational diabetes is one of the common causes of maternal and fetal complications. Due to fetal and maternal complications of diabetes, it is very important to reduce the prevalence of diabetes and its consequences. The relationship between vitamin D deficiency and type 2 diabetes has been reported. There is little information about the relationship between serum vitamin D levels and the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the levels of vitamin D and gestational diabetes.
Methods: This case-control study was conducted in health centers of Urmia University of Medical Sciences in May 2015 until March 2016. A total of 100 pregnant women with gestational diabetes and 100 healthy pregnant women were entered into the study by nonrandom and available sampling. The level of vitamin D was measured and levels were divided into three levels. Vitamin D levels were considered less than 20 ng/ml, 20-30 ng/ml and more than 30 ng/ml as deficiency, insufficiency and sufficient, respectively. Exclusion criteria include pre-pregnancy glucose tolerance, history of medical disease, and supplementation with vitamin D.
Results: The mean age of women in the study group was 30.31±5 years and in the control group was 28.83±4.95 years (P=0.06). The vitamin D levels in GDM and control groups were 7.25±4.76 ng/ml and 11.93±16.12 ng/ml, which is lower in the gestational diabetes than the control group (P=0.01). The severe deficiency of vitamin D in the gestational diabetes group and in control group were 34% and 27% respectively (P<0.0001). There was a significant difference in mean fasting plasma glucose level between gestational diabetes group and healthy pregnant group (P<0.001). There was no relationship between vitamin D levels and body mass index of pregnant women (P=0.1).
Conclusion: In this study, the majority of patients had vitamin D deficiency and in the gestational diabetes group, vitamin D deficiency was significantly higher than the control group. The severe deficiency of vitamin D in the gestational diabetes group was higher than patients without gestational diabetes.

The presence of the antibodies against the main thyroid antigens, which include thyroid peroxidase (TPO) or microsomal antigen, thyroglobulin (Tg) as well as thyrotropin receptor or Thyroid Stimulating Hormone Receptor (TSH-R), is a hallmark and symbol of the autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITDs) as one of the most common autoimmune diseases (AD) around the world. The prevalence of the thyroid peroxidase antibodies (anti-TPO antibody) and the thyroglobulin antibodies (anti-Tg antibody) is considerably higher in patients suffering from Graves’ disease (GD) and Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT, chronic autoimmune thyroiditis, autoimmune hypothyroidism). While the TSH receptor antibodies (TRAbs) are common in the patients suffering from GD, they are relatively rare and infrequent in HT patients. This fact may indicate that TRAbs are more specific than other antibodies. In fact, TRAbs as one of the most important autoantibodies against the different thyroid antigens, are a set of the heterogeneous group of antibodies that based on the function, fall into three categories, including TSHR-stimulating antibodies (TSAbs), TSHR-blocking antibodies (TBAbs), and the neutral antibodies (no effect on receptor). TSAbs and TBAbs result in overproduction and reduction of intracellular cAMP respectively. Therefore the induction of the relevant signaling pathways can be the cause of different clinical symptoms in the form of hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism consecutively. The extra-thyroidal effects of TRAbs as the extra-thyroid GD manifestations, such as ophthalmopathy and dermopathy, often have an effect on the eyes as well as the skin with the relatively well-known immunological mechanisms of the antibodies functions. Hashimoto encephalopathy is an extra-thyroidal effects of anti-TPO that provokes the central nervous system. On the other hand, anti-TPO like anti-Tg can affect the reproductive organs of women and lead to infertility by an unknown mechanism. Moreover, the circulating antibodies against the thyroid antigens can also be detected in other autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), type I diabetes (T1DM) and celiac disease (CD). In this review article, the most important types of thyroid autoantibodies, their essential immunological processes in AITD as well as the main and important clinical extra-thyroidal manifestations of them have been discussed and reviewed.

Results: The findings of this research showed that the application of transcranial direct current stimulation was effective in reducing the severity of insomnia and improving positive and negative affect (P<0.001, F=19.87). The value of this effect (eta2) in the severity of insomnia, negative mood and positive mood is 0.64, 0.34 and 0.6 respectively. Conclusion: The results of the present study showed that the implementation of our designed tDCS protocol for the treatment of insomnia, significantly reduced the intensity of insomnia in women with chronic insomnia and improved their mood symptoms.