Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Urinary tract infections are very common in patients with high blood pressure. Hypertensive patients experience an average of three times of urinary tract infection per year. Blood pressure control is very important for preventing complications and also for identifying high-risk groups. Since, there is no national related study in this regard, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of chronic hypertension on the incidence and recurrence of urinary tract infections.
Methods: In this case-control study, the required data were collected from outpatient cases referring to Taleghani Hospital and Sina Hospital related to Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in Tabriz city, Iran. Data needed for the control group included patients accompanying patients who had no symptoms of urinary tract infection and with no history of blood pressure.

Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, there was a significant difference in systolic blood pressure in patients ESR 1 hour (red blood cell deposition rate in the first hour) with hypertension in case and control groups. There was a significant correlation between the ESR of the first hour and systolic blood pressure in the study, so that with an increase in ESR 1h, the systolic blood pressure increased in the examined patients, however, no significant correlation was found between ESR 1hour and diastolic blood pressure. Also, there was no meaningful correlation between the numerical value of white blood cell count and systolic or diastolic blood pressure in the studied patients. There was no significant correlation between systolic and diastolic blood pressure and age.

Background: The death certificate is a document consisting of the deceased individual’s basic information and identification which is filled out, registered and signed by a doctor. the World health organization’s policies in their health planning, provide a suitable database with knowledge of the required elements for planners and other authorized information demanders. During a multi-year cooperation between various organizations, the first uniformed death certificate according the ICD-10 standard got published in the country in the year 2004.
Methods: This is a retrospective study which is about all of the deceased individuals in  Tajrish and Modares Tehran hospitals from april 2013 until the march 2014 who had death certificates. In this study the data related to 777 individual’s death certificates and medical files was analyzed. The sampling method was census and all the cases in the study’s time period who had death certificates were studied. The cases that had a gap in their required information were ruled out of the study. The data that included age, sex, place of death, issuing doctor’s expertise, general information and the cause of death was extracted from the archived files.

Background: Studies indicate a prevalence of 39.2% diabetes mellitus (DM) as the most common underlying cause in patients with dialysis. Statistics showed that the rates of morbidity and mortality were higher in hemodialysis patients with diabetes compared with hemodialysis patients without diabetes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk factors responsible for infections in patient’s chronic renal failure on hemodialysis patients having diabetic foot ulcers.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data were collected from 30 randomly selected hemodialysis patients who were referred to Imam Reza hospital, Tabriz from April 2016 to April 2017. The patients' records were taken according to inclusion and exclusion criteria and data were collected in designed questionnaires for further analysis.
Results: 63.3% of patients were males and 36.7% were females. The average age of study population was 51.23±12.74. Duration of dialysis was 5.15±3.58 years. The average HBA1C was 9.08±1.48. Bacterial cause of feet ulcer was isolated only in 56.7% of cases. Isolated bacteria were anaerobic (47.05%), gram-positive (35.29%) and gram negative (17.64%). Amputation was performed in 26.7% of cases. Mortality was reported in 13.3% of patients. Low personal hygiene, presence of vasculopathy, mortality and amputation was higher in anaerobic infections. Most infections were seen in patients with inadequate dialysis. Low dialysis adequacy, amputation, vasculopathy, increased duration of dialysis, poor hygiene was seen in patients with higher HbA1C.
Conclusion: These results indicate the importance of diabetic foot ulcers caused by anaerobic infections, because of the outcome of amputation and higher mortality rates in these patients, the prognosis is worse than other cases. Also, due to the direct relationship between personal hygiene and the development of anaerobic infections, it is possible to prevent these infections significantly by following these considerations. Most infections were found to be inappropriate in dialysis adequately. Therefore, accurate monitoring of patient's diabetes in the long run and the importance of this can control the complications of diabetes, including vasculopathy, followed by the need for amputation for fighting against diabetic foot ulcers.
 

Background: Bloodstream infections are the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. Blood culture plays an important role in identifying most of bacterial agents of bloodstream infections. Knowledge about bacterial agents of bloodstream infections and also antibiotic resistance of these bacteria are important. Antibiotic resistance among bacterial agents of bloodstream infection including Acinetobacter, Klebisella, Pseudomonas, Escherichia coli, Enterobacter, Enterococcus, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus coagulase negative (CoNS) is one of the major challenges faced by physicians in treating. Therefore, this study was aimed to determine the frequency and antibiotic resistant patterns of bacterial isolates from hospitalized patient's blood cultured samples in the hospital, Tehran, Iran.
Methods: This research is a descriptive and retrospective study based on recorded data in Shariati hospital laboratory and under the supervision of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The bacterial isolates were collected from positive blood cultures from October 2013 to March 2014. The frequency of bacterial isolates were determined by phenotypic and biochemical tests. The antibiotic resistance patterns of isolated bacteria were found by disk diffusion agar method. The diameters of inhibition zone were recorded and interpreted according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) 2013.
Results: The frequency of bacterial isolates was determined among 595 positive blood cultures as followed: 41% Pseudomonas, 20% Staphylococcus epidermidis, 10% Escherichia coli, 6% Acinetobacter lwoffii, 6% Staphylococcus aureus, 5% Stenotrophomonas, 3% Acinetobacter baumannii. The antibiogram test showed that 96.2% of Acinetobacter lwoffii, 92.8% of Acinetobacter baumannii, 66% of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 85.7% of Staphylococcus epidermidis, 65% of Staphylococcus aureus, 75% of Klebsiella, 73.7% of Escherichia coli, and 50% of Stenotrophomonas were resistant to imipenem, piperacillin, piperacillin, erythromycin, erythromycin, ciprofloxacin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and ceftazidime respectively.
Conclusion: The most prevalent bacterial isolate among the blood cultures of patients was Pseudomonas. The patients more than 50 years were more susceptible to blood stream infections. The most bacteria were isolated from the internal medicine department of hospital. The antibiotic resistance was also increasing especially in Acinetobacter, Staphylococcus coagulase negative, Escherichia coil and Klebsiella

Background: Ovarian cancer is a leading metastatic disease. The epithelial ovarian cancer is one of the most common malignant cancers that usually remains asymptomatic up to metastasis stages, and most patient when diagnosed are in the advanced stage of the disease. Studies have shown that in the majority of epithelial cancers mesenchymal factor expression such as Vimentin increases, and the epithelial factor expression such as E-cadherin decreases, as a result, it causes an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). The aim of this study was to determine the expression level of these genes and association between EMT phenomenon and development of ovarian cancer based on clinical and morphological findings.
Methods: In the present case series study, 70 samples were chosen from the tumor Bank of Cancer Institute taken from patients at Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran, Iran. The amount of expression of two genes, E-cadherin and vimentin, was investigated by real-time PCR method from February 2016 to September 2017. The RNA extraction was done manually, and then cDNA synthesis was performed; In each sample the expression level of vimentin and E-cadherin was measured with real-time PCR method. The patient’s clinical information with other data were analyzed with nonparametric statistical methods in SPSS software, version 19 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).
Results: There was a significant relationship between expression of vimentin gene and the stage (P=0.026) of the disease and metastasis (P=0.009), There was no significant relationship between vimentin gene expression and tumor grade (P=0.207), age (P=0.11), tumor size (P=0.71) and family history (P=0.6). There was a significant correlation between E-cadherin gene expression and metastasis (P=0.027), no significant correlation was found between E-cadherin gene expression with tumor grade (P=0.690), stage (P=0.753), age (P=0.09), tumor size (P=0.537) and family history (P=0.56).
Conclusion: According to the changes in expression of vimentin and E-cadherin genes in ovarian tumor cells, and association between these two genes with clinical and morphological findings and the role of these genes in the migration and invasion, we can use the both genes, vimentin and E-cadherin, as genes involved in the EMT process to assess disease progression and incidence of cell invasion in ovarian cancer.

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is an endocrine disorder and one of the main reasons of infertility in women. PCOS causes many symptoms in women, one of the most important of them is ovulation failure. It affects the women at the age of fertility. Many factors are detected to exacerbate PCOS including insulin, anti-Mullerian hormone, obesity and androgen. The aim of this study was to evaluate endocrine and metabolic factors and its relation with obesity in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome in exacerbation of disease.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out at the Caucasus Infertility Treatment Center of Ardabil from July 2015 to March 2016 and on 321 patients with polycystic ovary syndrome. Blood samples were investigated to measure serum levels of fasting insulin, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), 17OHP, fasting blood sugar, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), anti-Mullerian hormone, vitamin D, total testosterone, free testosterone, prolactin, FSH, LH and TSH. Also, body mass index (BMI), duration of infertility and age were measured. BMI was evaluated to measure the obesity of patients.
Results: We were able to demonstrate significantly high level of total testosterone and fasting insulin in PCOS women by having weight gain (P< 0.05). Response to drug was significantly increased with reduced weight of these patients (P= 0.02). The level of fasting blood sugar (P= 0.01) and anti-Mullerian hormone (P< 0.05) were increased significantly with access in PCOS. On the other hand, our data showed that duration of infertility was increased by growing the age of patients (P< 0.05).
Conclusion: Insulin resistance, obesity, hyperandrogenism and metabolic syndrome are very important factors in pathogenesis of PCOS. These factors could affect the fertility of women by effecting the reproductive processes. Therefore, it is better in the patients who are older, treatment strategies further underline on reduce these factors (insulin resistance, obesity and hyperandrogenism) to prevent disease progression and increase duration of infertility.

Background: Although the treatment of bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ) is very difficult, it can be prevented. The aim of this study was to investigate the knowledge and practice of oral and maxillofacial surgeons in the treatment of bisphosphonates user patients.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out by census sampling of oral and maxillofacial surgeons in Tehran, Iran from March to June 2016. The employed instrument was a questionnaire including 4 sections. The first section was to collect the demographic information of the participants. In the second part including 7 questions, the knowledge of the participants was measured. The third section with 6 questions was to assess the participants’ practice in the treatment of patients using bisphosphates. Finally, the last sections contained 4 questions. The content validity of the questionnaire was evaluated by 5 specialists in the field (two oral and maxillofacial surgeons, two periodontists, and one endodontist). To assess the reliability of the questionnaire, it was given twice with a 10-day interval to 10 of target group members. The calculation of Spearman-Brown formula revealed a correlation coefficient of 0.79.
Results: In the treatment of BRONJ, most subjects responded to risk, 1 and 2 stages patient education and symptom relief. Treatment with antibiotics and debridement surgery was chosen for patients with higher stages. From 123 oral and maxillofacial surgeons, 102 answered the questionnaires. 77.2% of the surgeons answered correctly to questions about implant insertion. This percentage was higher than other therapeutic procedures.
Conclusion: The knowledge of oral and maxillofacial surgeons as final line of referral and treatment of patients using bisphosphonates should be increased.

Background: Diabetes Mellitus is a prevalent disease worldwide and foot ulcer is one of the serious complications of chronic uncontrolled diabetes which could lead to various complications such as amputation of the extremity if left untreated. Total contact casting (TCC) is the gold standard in treatment of neuropathic and neuro ischemic diabetic foot ulcers (DFU) on which less emphasize is seen on routine medical practice. The aim of this study was to emphasize on healing effect of this off-loading method and to study the possible influence of variants on the healing rate of this technique.
Methods: In this cohort study, 92 diabetic patients with complaint of plantar foot ulcer grade 0, 1 and 2 according to Wagner classification had participated in Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Babol City, Iran, from March 2014 to February 2016. The demographic and biochemical information along with dimensions of foot ulcers were carefully recorded. After the primary cleansing, surgical debridement and dressing, TCC was applied on foot by the specialist and they were requested to return weekly for changing the TCC and re-evaluation of ulcers. The healing rate was calculated as decline in ulcer surface area per week.
Results: 92 patients of study sample with mean age of 63.9±10.56 year consisted of 76 patients with DM type 2 with BMI of 31.16±3.8 kg/m² and 58 male patients. The average healing rate of ulcers treated with TCC was 0.406 ±0.168 cm²/week. The duration of diabetes on average was 17.23±6.93 years. Most of the patients (n=45) had an ulcer on the forefoot and the healing rate of midfoot ulcers was slower. The average amount of baseline HbA1c was 8.2±0.19%. There was no relation between smoking history (P=0.94) and anti-diabetic regimen used by patients (P=0.754) with the healing rate.
Conclusion: The healing rate is slower in elderly patients and those with longer duration of diabetes. So in these two groups, TCC is to be applied for a longer duration in order to achieve complete healing.

Background: Prostate cancer is currently the third malignant disease in Iran and fifth common cancer worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine the expression of GPRC6A, E.cadherin, and ZEB1 genes in prostate cancer in comparison with benign tumor. Since early detection of cancer plays an important role in treatment, this study aims to identify the role of GPRC6A, E.cadherin and ZEB1 genes in screening of prostate cancer.
Methods: In this case-control study, 30 samples including 15 samples of malignant prostate cancer and 15 samples of benign tumor were collected from the patients. RNA was extracted from the tissues, followed by cDNA preparation. In the last step, expression of GPRC6A, E.cadherin and ZEB1 genes was measured using the Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique and the Relative expression software tool (REST), Version 2009 (http://rest.gene-quantification.info/).
Results: In this study, the expression of GPRC6A genes compared to its benign tumor increased 3-fold, ZEB1 expression in prostate cancer, compared to its benign tumor, increased 2-fold, and expression of E.cadherin gene in cancerous samples compared to benign tumor declines 10 was equal. In this study, there was no significant relationship between the expression of genes in benign and malignant samples with common diagnostic factors in this type of disease such as age, Prostate-specific antigen (PSA), pathologic stage and Gleason score.
Conclusion: According to this study and similar studies, increased expression of GPRC6A in prostate cancer cells can stimulate the progression of cancer cells by regulating cell proliferation and invasive response to various ligands. Increasing the expression of ZEB1 and decreasing the expression of E.cadherin is also due to the lack of binding of cells and spread of metastasis. As a result, tumors express ZEB1 with absence of E.cadherin is associated with advanced disease or metastases, which indicates that ZEB1 induces EMT and tumor progression in clinical cancers. Therefore examined genes have potential for screening prostate cancer and they can be used as a diagnostic marker for prostate cancer with further investigation.

Background: Trauma is one of the main causes of maternal mortality and morbidity in societies, which annually causes millions of deaths worldwide and imposes a high financial burden on health facilities, the purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of physical trauma and its associated factors during pregnancy.
Methods: All data for this cross-sectional study were collected from medical records of pregnant women, who referred to the Mahdeeyeh Hospital in Tehran, Iran, as a result of trauma through 2015. Information related to the pregnant women with trauma was extracted from their medical records based on a researcher-made collection form. All patients who meet criteria for entering the study (based on entry and exit criteria from the study) were selected as samples. The significance level of the tests was considered as P<0/05, the Spearman correlation coefficient tests and Chi-square were used.
Results: A total of 68 people were enrolled on the basis of selected criteria, meanwhile, the mean age of subjects was 26 years and 100% had no history of abortion. In all cases the trauma was blunt and included 63% abdominal, 24% lower back, and 14% flank trauma. Abortion was reported in 3% and 8% of the cases with abdominal and lower back trauma, respectively. Also, according to the results of this study, in cases where the placental abruption (six cases) were lateral face pairs, in all of them physical trauma was also posed. It is necessary in the traumatic pregnant women referring with placental abruption symptoms and sign, due to the legal importance of doing a thorough examination and sonography, the type of placental abruption (lateral or central) is made sure and then documented in patients' files.
Conclusion: Physical trauma also is common in the pregnant women and the lateral aspect placental abruption can be one of the obvious evidence for physical trauma.

Background: Psychosocial issues and quality of life are important components at the patients diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B and C. Hepatitis is a chronic liver disease that can affect quality of life of patients. In this study, we compared the quality of life between patients with hepatitis B and C and finally presented a structural model about it.
Methods: In a prospective analytic study, 86 patients with hepatitis B and 86 with hepatitis C who referred to the Rasoul-e-Akram Hospital in Tehran from April 2015 to April 2018 were compared regarding the quality of life and health-related quality of life. The clinical and radiographic data of patients were extracted from their medical records. The 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36) was used for the evaluation quality of life and health-related quality of life. The questionnaire consisted of 36 questions in eight sub-scales (physical performance, physical role, physical pain, general health, vitality, social role, emotional role, and mental health).
Results: Generally, the quality of life score was significantly lower in patients with hepatitis C (34.13±9.37) than patients with hepatitis B (51.5±10.5) (P=0.001). Except for the physical role and vitality, all other SF-36 subscales were significantly lower in the HCV patients group (P>0.05). Based on the results of logistic regression, the emotional dimension of patients was reported as most important effect on the quality of life in patients [(OR=9.15, 95% CI=(4.11-15.41), P=0.001)]. Based on the results of linear analysis, hepatitis type [(B=4.21, P=0.001)], patient income [(B=2.57, P=0.001)], the level of education [(B=2.9, P=0.014)] and the gender of patients [(B=2.77, P=0.023)] were reported as most important factors affecting the quality of life of patients, respectively. There was no significant difference between age, body mass index and smoking reported in patients' quality of life (P>0.05).
Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the quality of life in patients with hepatitis C was significantly lower than the quality of life in patients with hepatitis B.

Background: Methotrexate is an anti-metabolite drug and one of the folic acid analog that it can play an important and functional role in the treatment of many malignancies and inflammatory diseases. However, the development of petechiae (maculopapular rash) is a very rare complication.
Case Presentation: The patient was a 77 years old woman, Aryan race, who was known a case of severe and progressive rheumatoid arthritis. She previously was treated by multiple drugs such as salicylates, gold, corticosteroids, because of unresponsiveness to these drugs, physician prescribed methotrexate once a day, but patient misunderstands and use three times per day for days. Patient with this history referred to a poisoning emergency. In a physical exam, she had oral and throat erythema and swelling of mucosa. In the funduscopy of eyes, bottom of the eyes was normal and conjunctival eyes were prurient she had multiple petechiae at the upper part of chest and base of neck and shoulders and arms with no swelling around petechiae. The lesion had no itching. She had no other sign besides laboratory analysis showed a high level of creatinine, leukopenia, decreased the level of platelets, patient with high suspicious of methotrexate poisoning underwent to granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and folic acid treatment. After treatment all of her signs recovered and laboratory tests became normal.
Conclusion: At the time of taking methotrexate by the patient, even with appointment of a specialist physician, with any skin signs such as maculopapular rash without itching, we should consider poisoning with methotrexate, and think appropriately about it. This suggests that methotrexate can cause side effects even at low doses.

Background: Growth disturbance is a common phenomenon in children with congenital heart diseases (CHD). Malnutrition and nutritional disturbances have a higher prevalence among children with down syndrome, especially children with Down syndrome; on the other hand, the prevalence of CHD is higher among syndromic children, which needs surgical repair as the definitive treatment. The nutritional status plays an important role in determining the postoperative complications and recovery. The purpose of this study was to investigate the growth status of children with Down syndrome and congenital heart disease before cardiac surgery.
Methods: This study was conducted as a retrospective study by evaluating the records of all syndromic patients undergoing cardiac surgery at Children’s Medical Center of Excellence, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, from March 2011 to March 2017. Age, weight, height, weight-for-age z-score (WAZ), weight-for-height z-score (WHZ), height-for-age z-score (HAZ), mortality and hospitalization rate in an intensive care unit (ICU) were recorded in these patients. The z-scores more than -1 were considered as normal, between -1 and -2 as mild malnutrition, between -2 and -3 as moderate malnutrition and below -3 as severe malnutrition.
Results: 35 (51.5%) patients were female and 33 (48.5%) were male. The mean age, weight, and height of these children were 26.9±24.9 months, 9.1±4.95 kg, and 79.55±17.95 cm, respectively. The mean of WHZ, WAZ, and HAZ in these children was -2.18+1.65, -1.95+2.25 and -1.22+3.11, respectively. Based on the values of WAZ, WHZ, and HAZ, 85.3%, 77.9% and 75% of patients have malnutrition (mild to severe forms, z-score less than -1). The most common cardiac defect was ventricular septal defect (VSD) accompanied by pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Conclusion: Considering the high prevalence of impaired nutritional status in these children and considering the effect of preoperative malnutrition on surgical outcomes, including mortality, assessing the nutritional status is much important. The adequate nutritional support in these patients leads to a reduction of the mortality, postoperative complications and morbidities.

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder in reproductive age women. The prevalence of PCOS among Iranian women is 14.6% based on the Rotterdam definition. PCOS can increase the risk of chronic metabolic complications. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is one of the most important of them. Insulin resistance is fundamental in PCOS and MetS pathophysiology. MetS is a collection of chronic metabolic derangements, which promotes the risk of serious diseases such as cardiovascular disturbances and diabetes. The quality of diet is inversely correlated with obesity, which is one of the consequences of PCOS and it is a risk factor for metabolic syndrome. As the first study, the present study aimed to compare the dietary intake of macronutrients in PCOS women with and without MetS.
Methods: In this nested case-control study, the convenience sampling method was used to select participants. The case group included 14 PCOS patients with MetS and the control group included 28 PCOS patients without MetS. The investigated macronutrients included fats (total fat, saturated fatty acids, mono and polyunsaturated fats, trans fatty acids), carbohydrate, protein, and fibers (total and soluble). The dietary intake assessment was carried out by a 168-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). This study was performed on Arash Women's Hospital under support of Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran, from August 2014 to September 2015.
Results: Dietary intake of total fat was significantly higher in PCOS women with MetS than the control group (P<0.001, 146.62±45.17 vs. 59.91±32.79 g/d). Dietary intake of saturated fatty acids (P=0.004, 11.44±11.08 vs. 19.73±6.76 g/d), monounsaturated fats (P<0.001, 14.15±12.66 vs. 26.16±7.76 g/d), polyunsaturated fats (P=0.002, 9.02±9.18 vs. 17.22±6.45 g/d), carbohydrate (P<0.001, 182.34±121.08 vs. 365.64±77.11 g/d), protein (P=0.001, 42.74±42.85 vs. 78.06±24.04 g/d), total fiber (P<0.001, 17.77±15.09 vs. 35.97±22.64 g/d) was significantly lower in PCOS women with MetS than the control group. All results are expressed in terms of grams consumed per day.
Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that dietary intake of macronutrients was significantly different in polycystic ovary syndrome patients with and without metabolic syndrome.

Background: Medical malpractice is one of the most important legal issues in medicine committed more or less by physicians. The medical staff has inadequate or deficient awareness of medical errors and their importance. Therefore, this study investigated the frequency of medical malpractices/errors resulting in death in files referred to the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization.
Methods: The study population in this descriptive cross-sectional research consisted of all doctors who had been sued in Tehran's Legal Medicine Organization (Forensic Committees of Tehran Province) from the first day of July 2018 to the end of December 2018. The study was carried out in and under supervision and support of the Legal Medicine Research Center. Data were collected using a checklist of the files from Tehran's Legal Medicine Organization.
Results: The results showed that most medical errors are of organizational types. Major medical failures occur in university-affiliated hospitals among the male technical staff aged 41-50 years with a work experience less than 6 years. Most complaints were recorded against general practitioners, general surgeons, and anesthesiologists, respectively. The smallest percentage of the complaints related to orthopedics, urologists, and ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialists.
Conclusion: The results of the study indicated that most of medical failures have of an organizational nature and occur in university hospitals among male technical officials who are in the fifth decade of life with a low work experience. So, paying attention to these issues can help the better selection of technical officials. The technical authorities of the hospitals must be careful about the responsibilities given to them. In order to reduce the failure of the technical authorities of the hospitals, doctors with a high standard of service should be appointed as technical officers. These doctors ought to possess legal knowledge and be familiar with the course of complaints filed in the judiciary.

Background: Amphotericin B is one of the most useful therapeutic modalities for the treatment of patients with invasive fungal infections, in spite of serious side effects, namely kidney injury, electrolyte imbalances, and infusion-related reactions. The goal of this study was to assess the different aspects of premedication practice and the incidence and types of infusion-related reactions in patients receiving amphotericin B.
Methods: This observational study was performed on 70 hospitalized patients who received amphotericin B in different departments of two university hospitals, affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran, from January 2017 to February 2018. Information on physicians’ performance regarding premedication administration for amphotericin B, including the types and doses of medications administered prior to amphotericin B infusion, as well as patients’ clinical data including infusion-related side effects were collected and then analyzed in comparison with the standard practice guidelines.
Results: The study population consisted of 70 patients with the mean age of 51.6±18.3 years, who received amphotericin B for 8.2±3.5 days. From 70 evaluated patients, 21 patients (30%) had encountered the infusion-related reactions, including chills, fever, urticaria, headache, and hypotension. These side effects were evident in 19 patients (27%) who received no premedication and 2 patients (3%) who received only one drug as premedication, before amphotericin B administration. Twenty patients (28%) experienced chills, fever and headache, while 7 patients (10%) had nausea and vomiting during amphotericin B infusion. Hydrocortisone 50-200 mg, was the most prescribed agent for premedication (in 67% of patients), while chlorpheniramine 10 mg (in 50% of patients) and promethazine 10 mg (in 35% of patients) were the second and third prescribed ones, respectively.
Conclusion: In this study, the patients who received no or only one drug as premedication experienced infusion-related side effects. This emphasizes the necessity for standard premedication practices to prevent this type of adverse reactions. Considering the higher price of liposomal form of Amphotericin-B, if prescribed correctly, even the conventional form would be an effective and tolerable treatment for invasive fungal infections.

Background: Since pulmonary angiography is the only non-invasive method for diagnosing pulmonary embolism, the use of radiation reduction methods without affecting the quality of images seems necessary. One of the simplest reasons for unnecessarily increasing of patient exposure is repetitive imaging due to poor image quality. Therefore, it is necessary to identify and eliminate the factors that reduce the image quality, which leads to duplication of imaging or reduced accuracy.  In this study, the reasons for decreasing the image quality of pulmonary computed tomography (CT) angiography were investigated.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed over a period of 6 months (May to November 2018) in a university-affiliated hospital. Data of 75 patients suspected of pulmonary embolism who were referred for CT angiography were collected. All CT scans were performed by a 16-slice CT scanner (Lights Speed, GE Healthcare) with fixed imaging parameters including 100 kVp and 100 mA. In order to evaluate the adequacy of pulmonary artery enhancement, the Hounsfield unit (HU) of the main pulmonary artery was measured in the aortic arch, upper, and lower segmental parts. Also, 8 factors affecting the image quality were examined.

Background: lumbar disc degeneration is a multifactorial degenerative disease which is affected by genetic inheritance and environmental factors. Type XI collagen is important for organization of the extracellular matrix and cartilage collagen construction. Rs1676486 is a SNP that causes the conversion of C-T, resulting in a change in the expression of the collagen 11 alpha chain. The T allele reduces the alpha 1 chain transcription of collagen 11 and ultimately leads to an imbalance in gene expression.
Methods: This study aims to determine the genetic variant of alpha1 type11 collagen is associated with the progress of intervertebral disc degeneration. All patients were selected from the AL-Zahra Hospital of medical university of Isfahan, Iran, between April 2016 and September 2017. SNP rs1676486 of alpha1 type11 collagen was genotyped in 100 patients and 100 healthy controls. The inclusion criteria for patients were: individuals who had typical clinical and imaging symptoms and signs of intervertebral disc degeneration. Exclusion criteria were: patients with trauma, metabolic and neuromuscular diseases, and congenital disorder of the spine. The Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples by a Whole Blood Genomic DNA Extraction Kit. The chi-square test and fisher’s exact test were evaluated to determine differences of genotype and allele distributions between intervertebral disc degeneration patients and healthy controls. To compare the relationship between genotypes and clinical features the Mann-Whitney U test was used.

Results: In this study, from 144 patients with penetrating trauma in the upper extremities, 56 patients were suspected with nerve injuries and 50 patients were suspected with tendon injuries. After evaluation with an ultrasound probe, 21 out of 23 cases suspected of nerve injuries were confirmed by local exploration. Local exploration confirmed that 27 out of 28 cases were suspected of tendon injuries. The accuracy of ultrasound in the assessment of nerve damage was estimated at 99.64% and in tendon damage at 92%, and the sensitivity of ultrasound in the diagnosis of nerve damage was 91.30% and in the diagnosis of tendon damage was 96.42%. Conclusion: By the results of this research it can be concluded, that ultrasound leads to a faster diagnosis. It provides a wider field of view, can reduce possible secondary injuries and increases the accuracy of the diagnosis.

Background: Since numerous chemotherapy regimens for the treatment of patients suffering from acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL) have been recently developed, having basic information about the previous results of using the Hyper-CVAD regimen in order to compare with other common chemotherapy regimens is essential. The aim of this study was to evaluate demographic, clinical and outcome of ALL patients receiving Hyper-CVAD regimen.
Methods: In this retrospective study, nighty eligible ALL patients treated with the Hyper-CVAD chemotherapy regimen in Omid Hospital, Isfahan, Iran during April 2016 till April 2019 were considered. We evaluated the demographic variables, pathological data and other clinical factors by an information sheet designed by main investigator. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate overall survival, progression-free survival, and overall response rate of patients along with patients’ clinical characteristics and other relevant factors using Kaplan-Meier or Cox-regression and other statistical analyses. 

Results: The mean overall survival and the median survival of patients were 44.8±2.93 and 36.7±7.47 months; respectively. Also the mean progression free survival of patients was 44.44±3.30 months. More than 84.4% of patients encountered complete remission (CR) after receiving Hyper-CVAD regimen. Reaching to CR had positive significant effects on patients’ overall survival and median survival. However, the bone marrow transplantation variable alone did not affect the patients’ overall survival. The variables such as being B/T Cell ALL, Philadelphia, myeloid marker, and central nervous system involvement did not affect the overall survival of patients but the relapse index indicated the significant effects. The median survival time is higher in patients with no relapse episode. None of the initial lab data had any significant effects on patients’ overall survival. Conclusion: For the first time in Iran, we have obtained the mean survival outcome of ALL patients after applying the Hyper-CVAD regimen. According to the results, the mean overall survival, progression free survival and other survival items in Iranian patients suffering from ALL and receiving Hyper-CVAD regimen were in consistent with previous studies in the world.