Tehran University Medical Journal

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.

Background: Nicolau syndrome is a rare condition that happens after intramuscular injection. All the intramuscular injections may have mild to moderate complications such as pain, focal abscess, nerve complication and anaphylactic reactions. Among these complications, wide necrosis of the skin like Nicolau syndrome happens very rarely. In this condition, Patients typically report acute, intense pain, immediately after drug injection and it is followed by an erythematous macular evolving after 24 hours into a livedoid violaceous patch with dendritic extensions. The study has been reported a case report of a 6-month-old infant who suffered from Nicolau syndrome after the injection of pentavalent vaccine.
Methods: A 6-month-old girl infant without a history of any disease was referred to the emergency department with the signs of erythema, edema and purple like discoloration in the vaccine injection site at the left tight, after vaccination. One hour after admission, in the lower limb severe edema along with an extension of a dark red to purple discoloration happened on different parts of foot and after 5 days they turned necrotic. The infant suffered from Nicolau syndrome after the injection of the pentavalent vaccine.

Background: Previous studies have shown that several factors affect the outcome of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In this study, we have evaluated the factors associated with the outcome of resuscitation in in-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest patients (IHCA) 002E.
Methods: This cross-sectional non-probability study was performed on patients with in-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest between 2015 and 2020 in the emergency department (ED) of Al-Zahra Hospital, Isfahan, Iran. Data were then collected from medical records to describe patient characteristics, arrest profile, and survival details. Factors associated with the dependent variable were examined Logistic regression.
Results: Among 848 in-hospital cardiopulmonary arrests, 18 patients (2.1%) survived and were discharged from the hospital. The mean age of patients was 62.74±21.17 years, 583 (68.8%) were male, and 265 (31.2%) were female. The mean age of patients with successful resuscitation and those with unsuccessful resuscitation was 62.33±21.79 (6 to 116 years) and 61.58±21.20 (1 month to 108 years) years, respectively. The rate of unsuccessful resuscitation increased with increasing age (P=0.04). Also, the rate of unsuccessful resuscitation increased if there was an underlying disease (P=0.01). In frequency analysis of resuscitation services, emergency medicine with 633 (57.3%) resuscitation is in the first place in the number of resuscitations, of which 22.9% of them have been successful (ROSC). In the anesthesia service, of 2 resuscitations performed, both were successful. In the general surgery service, 36.5% of 63 resuscitations were successful, and the success rate for the neurosurgery service was 32.4% of 102 resuscitations. Analyzing the duration of successful and unsuccessful resuscitation has great importance. In successful resuscitation, the average time was 18.98 minutes and in unsuccessful resuscitation was 39.20 minutes. Also, the maximum and minimum time for successful resuscitations was 63 and 1 minutes. The maximum and minimum time for unsuccessful resuscitations was recorded as 60 and 10 minutes.

Conclusion: The results showed that several factors were influential in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Increasing age and underlying disease reduced the success of cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Background: Based on the studies, variation in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number in peripheral blood leukocytes is associated with increased susceptibility to diseases including cancer. Opiate abusers are at high risk for diseases. In this study, we measured the mtDNA copy number in peripheral blood leukocytes in a group of opiate abusers compared with those in healthy individuals.
Methods: In a case/control study, three groups were selected consisting of 32 opium abusers, 24 heroin addicts and 25 healthy individuals. The amount of 5 ml of whole blood was collected from each individual who participated in the study and stored at -20 centigrade. The sample collection was performed from November 2018 to February 2020. Case groups were recruited from the Methadone maintenance therapy center. Contro group had no history of drug use and cigarette smoking. DNA was extracted from the whole blood samples using the salting out method. The DNA from a mitochondrial gene, dehydrogenase subunit1 (-ND1 gene) and a nuclear gene, human globulin (HGB gene), were quantified by a real-time PCR-based method to measure the relative mtDNA copy number of each group number.
Results: There was no significant difference in demographic characterization between the three study groups, opium abusers, heroin addicts and healthy individuals. We found that opium users had a higher mean of mtDNA copy number than those in the healthy control group (P=0.11). Heroin addicts had also higher mean of mtDNA copy number than those in healthy group (P=0.21). The mean mtDNA copy number in opium abusers was higher than that in heroin addicts (P=0.22), although the difference was not statistically significant.
Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that mtDNA copy number increased in a group of opiate abusers. Considering that alteration of mtDNA copy number is associated with increased susceptibility to several diseases including cancer, further research on mtDNA copy number with a high number of volunteers of opiate addicts may clear the effect of opiate abuse on the human genome.

Background: In addition to heart disease, ECG also changes in non-heart disease, which due to its similarity, can lead to misdiagnosis of heart disease in patients. ECG changes in brain lesions such as ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes, brain traumas, etc. and have been studied in many articles, but the effects of brain midline shift on ECG changes have not been studied. In this study, we want to examine these changes.
Methods: This is a prospective cross-sectional descriptive study. Patients with brain tumors who were referred to Al-Zahra and Kashani hospitals in Isfahan from April 2019 to March 2021 were selected. Patients with a history of heart disease, patients receiving medications that cause ECG changes, patients with ECG changes due to non-cardiac and cerebral causes, and individuals under 15 years of age were not included in the study. Patients whose ECG changes were due to electrolyte disturbances or acute heart problems were also excluded from the study. After obtaining informed consent from patients, a CT scan or brain MRI was taken and patients were divided into two groups with and without midline shift. Then the ECG was taken and ECG changes (T wave, ST segment, QTc Interval, QRS prolongation) were compared in two groups of brain tumors with and without midline shift.
Results: 136 patients were included in the study. Of these, 69 patients were in the without midline shift group and 67 patients were in the midline shift group. In the midline shift group, 3% of patients had ST segment changes and 23.9% had T wave changes, which were 1.4% and 10.1% in the without midline shift group, respectively. The mean QTc Interval in the two groups without and with midline shift was 338.26 (4 28.438) and 388.66 (37.855), respectively, and the mean QRS in the without midline shift group was 86.09 (88.9.88) ms and in the midline shift group was 94.63 (±12.83) ms.
Conclusion: Brain midline shifts can cause QRS widening, QTc interval prolongation, and T-wave changes in patients' ECGs.

Background: Today, the health of mothers and babies is of particular importance in health systems. So far, various interventions have been implemented to improve the health of pregnant mothers. The present study aimed to compare the effect of Entonox gas and Sufentanil epidural anesthesia in labor pain on the umbilical cord blood gas analysis and neonatal Apgar score.
Methods: The present study is a clinical trial on 800 pregnant women It was done in April 2020 to January 2022 at Shahid Akbarabadi Hospital. Mothers were divided into two groups: spinal anesthesia and the group receiving Entonox gas. To measure the effectiveness, Apgar scores were measured at 1 and 5 minutes along with BE, HCO3, and PCO2 parameters. Two independent sample t-tests and ANOVA were used in SPSS version 22 software to analyze the data.

Results: The results of the study showed that the average age of mothers participating in the study was 27 years, and the average Apgar score of 1 and 5 minutes in the group of mothers receiving Entonox gas and spinal anesthesia was 9.9 and 8.6, respectively. Also, the average Apgar score at minutes 1 and 5 in the group of mothers with spinal anesthesia was 9.8 and 8.2, respectively. The results of the analysis and comparison of the parameters obtained from the arterial gases of the umbilical cord of newborns were not significantly different between both groups of mothers. Also, no significant difference was found in Apgar scores between both groups of mothers. Conclusion: There is no significant difference between the effectiveness of using Entonox gas with spinal analgesia in the painless delivery of mothers; Therefore, considering the cost of each intervention along with their effect may cause a difference in the two interventions. This means that although both of the interventions have the same clinical and diagnostic effects, the one which costs less, will be more preferable from the point of view of the health system.

Background: Screening is a cost-effective method for prevention, early detection of the disease and reducing the burden of the third deadliest cancer in the world, i.e. colorectal cancer. This study aimed to analyze the cost-effectiveness of colonoscopy screening compared to sigmoidoscopy for colorectal cancer in high-risk individuals in Iran.
Methods: This economic evaluation study was conducted using the cost-effectiveness method between July 2016 and February 2017. Evaluation of the effectiveness of screening methods was done using a systematic review. Cost evaluation was also done using the costs obtained from the tariff approved by the Iranian Ministry of Health in 2015 for colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy. Finally, the combined model of decision tree and Markov was used to evaluate the cost effectiveness. Incremental Cost Effectiveness Ratio (ICER) formula was used for cost effectiveness analysis considering the final outcome of 5-year survival of high-risk individuals. Excel and TreeAge software were used for data analysis.

Results: The effectiveness of sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy in increasing 5-year survival is 11 and 15.7%, respectively, and colonoscopy screening is 4.7% more than sigmoidoscopy. The cost of colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy screening was calculated as 1000 and 19920 billion Rials, respectively. Based on cost-effectiveness analysis, the cost of treating patients in the case of screening with colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy is lower than without screening. The ICER ratio of colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy compared to no screening was -4/441/389/160 and -4/757/954/940 Rials respectively, and colonoscopy compared to sigmoidoscopy was -3/699/785/880 Rials, respectively. Finally, the use of colonoscopy leads to spending 3/699/785/880 Rials less in exchange for obtaining 4722 additional survivals with the prevention of colorectal cancer compared to sigmoidoscopy. Conclusion: Screening by colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy methods are effective in reducing the incidence and death of colorectal cancer compared to no screening. Screening by colonoscopy is a dominant option for the high-risk population in Iran. Colonoscopy screening is more cost effective compared to sigmoidoscopy. However, decisions about colorectal cancer screening and screening methods depend on local resources and personal preferences.