Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Each toxic agent results in unique presentations, depending on what neurophysiological changes occur following exposure. Scientific understanding of lead toxicity in the organ systems and at low levels of exposure continues to evolve. However, effects of lead poisoning on the thyroid gland function are controversial. In this descriptive study, changes in thyroid hormones in patients with lead poisoning were compared with patients with opioid addiction and healthy individual who were matched for age and sex.
Methods: In this descriptive study, which was conducted from March 2016 to February 2017 in Loghman Hakim Hospital in Tehran, ninety patients were evaluated using convenient sampling method for lead and thyroid hormones levels. The levels of lead and thyroid hormones were evaluated using standard laboratory method, in thirty male patients with lead poisoning, thirty male patients with opioid addiction referring to addiction treatment center and thirty healthy male referring to a blood donation center who were matched for age. Thyroid function parameters in patients with lead toxicity were compared with those of control groups.
Results: The lead level in the lead toxicity group was 57.5±23.5 µg/dl, in the first control group with opium addiction 7.8±3.8 µg/dl and in the healthy male referring to a blood donation center, 5.9±9 µg/dl. Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) was significantly lower in patients with lead poisoning (0.2±0.01 Milli-International Units Per Liter (mIU/L) than in the patients with opioid addiction (2.4±1/05 mIU/L) and healthy male referring to a blood donation center (2.3±0.01 mIU/L) (P= 0.04), and thyroxine hormone (T4) was significantly higher in patients with lead poisoning (17.8±2.6 µg/dl) than in the patients with opioid addiction (8.8±1/9 µg/dl) and healthy male referring to a blood donation center (7.4±3.5 µg/dl) (P= 0.02).
Conclusion: Lead toxicity has an effect on thyroid function and it reduces thyroid stimulating hormone and increases thyroxin levels. Clinicians should be aware of the potential hazardous effects of lead on the thyroid and mechanisms through which lead causes these effects on thyroid function need to be elucidated.

Background: Migraine is a complex neurological disease that has affected hundreds of people of different ages and races. Migraine causes changes in the white matter and may cause cognitive changes in affected patients, but studies in this field are still limited and sometimes have contradictory results. The purpose of this study is investigate and compare cognitive function in patients with migraine.
Methods: In this case-control study, which was conducted with the aim of investigating and comparing cognitive function in migraine patients with the control group, cognitive function in migraine patients (with and without aura) referred to the Luqman Hospital clinic in the year 2023 were evaluated and compared with the healthy control group. Patient information was recorded in SPSSv.25 and analyzed.
Results: A gender difference was observed between the two groups, and women were significantly more in the migraine group (P-value: 0.003). This issue was also seen regarding age, and people with migraine were significantly older than normal people (33.91 ± 10.86 vs. 30.43 ± 7.89, P-value: 0.013). The visual score had a significant difference between the two groups (P-value: 0.001). In general, it was seen that the cognitive status score had a statistically significant difference between the two groups and it was lower in the migraine group (P-value<0.001).
Conclusion: It is concluded that migraine patients have some degree of cognitive impairment and this is not associated with migraine. Based on our findings, there is a significant difference in gender and level of education between normal individuals and migraineurs, and migraineurs are usually women and have lower education than normal individuals, which could be due to impaired quality of life due to migraine and cognitive impairment. The current study did not examine chronic migraine, but it was found that there was no difference in cognitive impairment between migraine with and without aura. Whether chronic migraine differs from other migraines in the incidence of cognitive impairment needs to be investigated in future studies.