Tehran University Medical Journal

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Background: Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) is the most important viral agent of acute lower respiratory tract disease in infants and young children worldwide. This virus is responsible for 50% brochiolitis and 25% pneumonia in infants. There are limited data of molecular epidemiology of HRSV from developing countries. This is the report on the molecular epidemiology of human respiratory syncytial virus in Iran. Methods: In this study, RT-PCR for second hypervariable region of the HRSV G glycoprotein was performed on 72 throat swabs collected from children less than 5 years of age with acute respiratory symptoms in 1386. Results: Of the 72 throat swabs collected from children with acute respiratory symptoms, 14 (19.44%) were positive for HRSV. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all HRSV-positive samples clustered in three genotypes of subgroup A: 12 strains (85/71%) in genotype GA2, 1 strain (7/1%) in genotype GA1, and 1 strain (7/1%) in genotype GA5. In this study we couldn’t identify any genotype of subgroup B. Conclusion: Our results revealed that multiple genotypes of subgroup A were co- circulated during 1386 in children less than 5 years of age in Iran. Also this study revealed that genotype GA2 was predominant genotype in isolates were obtained from several cities (Tehran, Isfahan, Karaj, Qazvin, Bandar Abbas, Shahreza), so we speculate that this genotype may be predominant during 1386 in Iran. This study supported that RT-PCR for second variable region of G protein is an effective method for further studies of HRSV genotype designation in Iran.

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Background: Epilepsy is a common disease in the pediatric neurology. There are frequent anti-epileptic drugs which are used in management of epilepsy. Anti-epileptic drugs may have some complications on bone and vitamin-D metabolism. In this study we aimed to evaluate vitamin-D metabolism in epileptic children.
Methods: The study was a prospective and cross sectional one. A total 89 epileptic children who were taking anti-epileptic drugs for longer than six months with no underlying disorder in Imam Khomeini and Bahrami Hospitals in Tehran, Iran were enrolled in our study
Results: Forty nine boys and 40 girls were enrolled in this study mean age of the patients was 7.8±2.1 years. Mean duration of anti-epileptic drug therapy was 2.3 years (SD=0.4), 70 of patients were under monotherapy and 19 were under polytherapy. None of the patients had signs of rickets. Serum calcium and phosphor levels were within normal ranges. Serum alkaline phosphates levels were increased more than two times in 43%. 42% had vitamin-D deficiency (25-OH Vit D<10 ng/ml) and another 33% had vitamin-D insufficiency (10<25-oh Vit D<20 ng/ml). 29 patients (32%) were taking prophylactic supplemental Vit D (200-400 IU/day). There was significant difference between patients taking supplemental vitamin-D as prophylaxis and patients who did not (p=0.04). There was no significant difference in vitamin-D levels between patients according to age, gender or different drugs.
Conclusion: Periodic measurement of 25-hydroxy vitamin-D is recommended in epileptic children taking anti-epileptic dugs. Supplemental vitamin-D administration in such patients may be helpful.

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Background: Accidental ingestion of poisons in children is an important health problem all over the world. Over 90% of poisonings occur in household settings, and 40% happen during childhood. Recognition of the current etiologies of poisonings may be helpful in adoption of strategies for their prevention and prophylactic therapy.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the medical records of children aged 12 years or younger were collected from the 17th of Shahrivar Hospital in Rasht, Iran in 2010. The study was performed in collaboration with the Adverse drug reaction (ADR) Committee of Guilan University of Medical Sciences.

Results: Out of 3299 pediatric admissions, 4.27% were identified as accidental poisoning. 86.5% of children were below the age of five and the majority was in 1-5 year age group. Admission rates were higher during the spring season. The most common toxicities occurred by ingestion of drugs (56.73%) and kerosene (9.92%). Chlorine bleach (8.51%), rodenticides (5.67%), opium (4.25%) and mushrooms (3.54%) were other causes, respectively. No deaths had been recorded.

Conclusion: Informing parents about hazardous materials, especially kerosene, and medications which need to be kept out of reach of children seems to be helpful in reducing occurrences of poisonings and their subsequent complications.

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Background: Sepsis is a leading cause of death in infants and children. In this study, we determined sepsis risk factors in children admitted in Bahrami Hospital.

Methods: Medical records of 94 patients with septicemia and a positive blood culture were reviewed in this study. The patients had been admitted during 2010-2011 in different wards of Bahrami Pediatric Hospital. Variables including age, gender, underlying diseases, causative agents and use of medical devices were extracted from the medical records and analyzed statistically.

Results: 54.3% of the cases were male and 51% were below 1 year of age. 54.3% had underlying diseases including malignancy (18.1%) and renal disease (11.7%), which were the most common causes. Failure to thrive (FTT) was detected in 34% of the cases. 82% of the causative bacterial agents were gram positive bacteria and the most common organisms were coagulase negative staphylococci (63.8%) and staphylococcus aureus (10.6%). IV-catheters (100%), NG tubes (9.6%), urinary catheters (4.3%) had been used in the patients. The mortality rate was 6.3%.

Conclusion: This study showed that septicemia was more prevalent in infants and the most common underlying diseases were malignancy and renal disease, respectively. Gram positive bacteria were the most common cause of septicemia.

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Background: Tuberculin skin test (TST) is a readily available test for the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). This study was designed to evaluate LTBI in low-risk children aged 1-15 years.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in Shiraz, Iran, over six months during 2009. Totally, 1289 boys and girls were selected by stratified multistage random sampling from four municipality areas before allocating them to 15 groups. Inclusion criteria included age 1-15 years, documented history of BCG vaccination at birth, Iranian nationality and a healthy state of being. Children with acute febrile diseases, immunosuppression, on medication and immigrants were excluded. We considered a TST ≥ 10 mm of induration as positive.
Results: The prevalence of LTBI in 1-15 years old children was 4.5%. The percentage was 3.5% in 1-5 year old, 4.1% in 6-10 year old and 5.7% in 11-15 year old children. The highest rate of infection was 9.8% in 15 year olds and the lowest was 2.2% in 3-year old children. Gender had no effect on LTBI rate. There is no significant difference of LTBI prevalence between four municipality areas.
Conclusion: The prevalence of LTBI in this study was lower in comparison with other studies performed in Iran. Positive predictive value of TST decreases in low endemic areas for tuberculosis, especially in low-risk groups therefore, most positive results are false-positive created by nonspecific reactions and infection with environmental mycobacteria. Hence, there is a need for new diagnostic tools that are easy and cost-effective.

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Background: Toxoplasma gondii, is a mandatory intracellular protozoa, that many people worldwide are infected with. In children, the infection enters central nervous system and leads to inflammation of the gray matter. Autism, is a complex develop-mental disorder, altering social communication, with unknown origin. Neuropathologi-cal changes in autism are the same as those occurred in brain toxoplasmosis. The objective of this survey was to evaluate positive serology of toxoplasma gondii, in autistic children. Methods: This case-control study was done on 3-12 years old children, referring to the neurology and psychiatry sub-special clinics of Baqiyatallah hospital and also autistic children of Omid-e Asr and Navid-e Asr general rehabilitation centers in Tehran, Iran. The study performed at 2012-2013. Forty autistic children were placed in the case group and 40 children, suffering from no neuropsychiatric disease or other ones, were placed in the control group. A folder, containing demographic data, type of the disor-der, onset of diagnosis and child characteristics at birth, such as time of birth (preterm/ term) fulfilled for each child. Sampling was done with 5 ml blood, for determining IgM and IgG antibody levels against toxoplasma gondii, using ELISA method. Data ana-lyzed by the software SPSS ver. 17 and descriptive and analytic analysis were done, us-ing central and dispersion indexes and also chi-Square test. Results: The autistic group contained 34 boys and 6 girls (85 and 15 percent respectively), with the average age of 6 (±2.71) years old [minimum of 2.33 and maximum of 12]. The average age at the time of diagnosis was 4.01 (±1.87) years old. 87. The non-autistic group contained 17 boys and 23 girls (42.5 and 57.5 percent respectively), with the average age of 5.67 (±3.09) years old [minimum of two and maximum of 12]. IgM and IgG serology of all autistic children were negative, while in non-autistic group, 2.5 percent (1 child) were positive and 97.5 percent (39 ones) were negative. There were no statistically significant difference among these two groups according to the serology results. (P=0.31). Conclusion: There was no statistically significant difference in comparing positive se-rology of toxoplasmosis, between the two groups. However, to obtain a perfect result, a larger sample size are required.

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Background: Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA) is the most common chronic pediat-ric rheumatologic disease. There is a wide range of variation in disease subgroup distri-bution and evolution according to different populations, environments and genetic pre-disposition. This study was designed to evaluate epidemiologic characteristics of JRA in Iran. Methods: A cross-sectional studies was performed on children suffering from JRA ac-cording to American College of Rheumatology during 10 year (2002-2011). Patients' data was recorded in hospital questionnaires Patients' age at the first presentation and time of diagnosis, sex, ethnicity, early clinical and constitutional presentations, joint in-volvement pattern and presence of associated diseases were evaluated. Results: In this study, 171 children (91 boys and 80 girls) were enrolled. The mean age of patients was 5.2±3.5 years at the time of presentation and 5.7±3.6 years when the diagnosis was confirmed. The most common type of disease was polyarticular arthritis (41.9%). The prevalence of pauciarticular and systemic onset subtype were 31.6% and 19.3%, respectively. According to ethnicity, the most common incidence was seen in Fars and Turk populations respectively. The most common constitutional presentation was fever. Fever and morning stiffness was significantly higher in polyarticular pa-tients. Extra articular manifestation was seen in 40.4% patients. Among extra-articular manifestations, skin involvement was seen more than others. There was no correlation between sex and type of chronic arthritis. Uveitis was detected in 5.8% of our cases. The mean age was significantly higher in polyarticular group (6.04 year) in comparison to pauciarticular and systemic group (4.4 year in both groups) (P= 0.005). There was no correlation between sex and type of chronic arthritis. Conclusion: The prevalence of JRA subgroups was different in Iran comparing with western countries and polyarticular disease was the most common subgroup in this study. Uveitis was less common in this study in comparison to studies in other coun-tries. There is no sex predilection in each subgroup of JRA.

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Background: Functional constipation and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) are two common childhood digestive disorders which can cause a lot of complications among them if untreated. Since an overlap and relationship between functional gastrointestinal disorders have been shown in some studies, so present study was performed to investigate the frequency of functional constipation among children with reflux in compare with children without reflux. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on all children who referred to digestive diseases clinic of Ali-Asghar Hospital in Tehran, Iran, from April 2008 to January 2010. Patients that referred for follow up were excluded from study and a total of 474 children were included in this study. A questionnaire including symptoms of reflux and functional constipation was completed for all subjects by design’s executer after parental consent. Other data related to history, physical examination and results of paraclinic investigations for functional constipation diagnosis were also collected. Results: In general 247 children (52%) were male and 227 children (48%) were female. Nineteen children (4%) had gastroesophageal reflux disease in this study which 6 of them (31.5%) were less than 1 year old and 13 of them (68.5%) were greater than 1 year old. Opisthotonic posturing, abdominal pain, heartburn and recurrent vomiting were the most common symptoms in children with reflux. There was also functional constipation in 60 children. Twelve patients (63.2%) had functional constipation among 19 children with reflux, whereas 48 patients (10.5%) had functional constipation among 455 children without reflux. This different frequency ranges of functional constipation among children with and without gastroesophageal reflux was statistically significant (P= 0.001). Conclusion: The frequency of functional constipation in children with gastroesophageal reflux was significantly more than normal children. Further studies are recommended to investigate the relationship between functional constipation and gastroesophageal reflux in children.

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Background: Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) culture for distinction between aseptic and bacterial meningitis can be difficult and long-term, and other diagnostic methods are under studying. This study aimed to assess the diagnostic value for the levels of Interleukin 1 (IL-1), IL-6 and IL-8 of CSF in the children and adolescent with meningitis. Methods: Fifty-one patient with meningitis between one month and 18 year included in a Cross-Sectional Studies in the Rasul Hospital, Tehran, from 2012 to 2014. All of samples underwent aspiration of CSF. The routine tests performed that include culture coloring and biochemical of CSF. The concentrations of IL-1, IL-6 and IL-8 were determined by Enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) method and all of data were analyzed. Results: Frequency of bacterial and aseptic meningitis was equal (49%). 64.7% of samples were boys and gender had not different between two bacterial and aseptic group (P=0.7). Mean (±SD) of the age in total was 358.46±858.40, and bacterial group had a higher mean of age than aseptic group (P=0.047). The level of IL-1 was 10.87±37.04 pg/ml in bacterial and 0.55±1.64 pg/ml in aseptic group, that had not different (P=0.168). The level of IL-6 was 90.51±139.3 pg/ml in bacterial and 21.36±67.84 pg/ml in aseptic group, that had significant different (P=0.030). The level of IL-8 was 365.40±765.52 pg/ml in bacterial and 50.66±59.34 pg/ml in aseptic group, that had significant different (P=0.047). Diagnostic value of IL-1 was noted in the 80.77% of bacterial and 68.00% of aseptic group that had not different (P=0.349). Diagnostic value of IL-6 was noted in the 53.85% of bacterial and 64.00% of aseptic group that had not different (P=0.572). Diagnostic value of IL-8 was noted in the 80.77% of bacterial and 28.00% of aseptic group that had significant different (P=0.000). There was not different between two group of CSF variables include coloring degree, WBC and RBC index, glucose and protein. Conclusion: Although the concentration of IL-6 and IL-8 was higher in bacterial meningitis than in aseptic patients, only IL-8 had suitable diagnostic value for distinction between different types of meningitis.

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Background: Tumoral calcinosis is a hereditary disorder of metabolic dysfunction of phosphate regulation. It is an idiopathic calcinosis that characterized by the deposition of calcium phosphate in periarticular tissues that causes typically lobulated, well demarcated calcification around large joints particularly the extensor surfaces. It is usually painless. It is common in puberty age and adolescents. The involvement of the hand phalanges is very rare that can make a mistake in diagnosis if it is infected. Tumoral calcinosis is seen the same in both sexes. The electrolyte levels of calcium and phosphorus is normal and sometimes is hyperphosphatemia. It is the first report of tumoral calcinosis in Iran. Case report: A 7-year-old girl presented with redness, yellowish discharge and painful swelling of the left hip and the third web space of left hand admitted to Vali-e-Asr Hospital, Tehran, Iran, in 2013. The onset of the disease was 3.5 years ago. She did not mention the family history of the disease. The pain was at the left hip first. Six months later the third and fourth phalanges of the left hand was swollen. Physical examination revealed an erythematous mass in the extensor surfaces of the third and fourth metacarpals of the left hand. It was tender in palpation. The smear and culture of discharge was staphylococcus aureus. X-rays revealed calcification of the third and fourth metacarpals of the left hand. The entire lesion was managed by surgical excision. Successful postoperative medical management in the form of low calcium and low phosphorus diet and oral cloxacillin was performed. Conclusion: Tumoral calcinosis involves rarely the interphalangeal joints of hand. Because of its compression over adjacent nerves, it is painful. Sometimes it has a sterile discharge and rarely superimposed infections may occur. Radiologists can play a major role in early diagnosis and probable complications.

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Enuresis is the inability to control urination during sleep. It is one of the most common childhood urologic disorders. Nocturnal enuresis refers to the occurrence of involuntary voiding at night after 5 years. Persistent nocturia can decrease self-esteem, increase anxiety and other emotional problems in children. The aim of this study is to evaluate the factors affecting nocturia amongst school-aged children. Methods: This cross- sectional study was conducted on 200 children over a period of 3 months from 21 April to 22 July 2014 (. Subjects of this study included 200 children (100 boy and 100 girl) aged 6 to 12 years that referred to the urology clinic. Following the written consent, patients under study were divided into two groups according to gender. A questionnaire concerning the personal data was completed for each patient. Questionnaires were completed by interviewing parents. Results: Our investigation revealed that 32% of children had nocturnal enuresis. The Chi-square test demonstrated significant differences between the case and control groups in terms of gender (P= 0.002), positive family history (P= 0.004), deep sleep (P= 0.005) and high fluid intake (P= 0.00). Significant differences were not observed among enuretic children with parents' education level, income, number of family members, birth order, history of injury and hospitalization, birth of a new baby, moving house, problems at school and home, snoring, mouth breathing, urinary tract infections, constipation (P> 0.05). Conclusion: In order to control enuresis it seems essential to provide information about nocturia and its etiologic factors to the children and their parents by the physician.

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Background: Acetabular dysplasia is a well-known cause of early osteoarthritis of hip which may appear at any time (perinatal, breast-feeding and childhood). The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and radiographic outcomes of children with de-velopmental dysplasia of hip (DDH) after undergoing open reduction, capsulorrhaphy and Pemberton osteotomy procedures.

Methods: This study prospectively conducted on 13 patients with DDH who attended to Razi Hospital at Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences at Ahvaz, Iran, from April 2012 to March 2015. Inclusion criteria were children with age range of 18 months to 8 years and acetabular index≥ 40 degree. Exclusion criteria were the age less than 18 months or above 8 years, connective tissue diseases, secondary dislocation due to previous infection, and acetabular dysplasia with specific syndrome. All patients were evaluated before surgery and at least one year after surgery in terms of clinical evaluations, dislocation or subluxation of hip, congruity of hip and radiological out-comes according to grading systems of McKay, Tonnis grading system, Severin classi-fication and acetabular index, respectively. All patients underwent open reduction, capsulorrhaphy, and Pemberton’s osteotomy in single-stage surgery and if necessary femoral shortening was performed.

Results: Ten patients (12 hips) were evaluated. Of those, 4 patients (40%) had right hip involvement. The mean age score was 38.92±12.37 months (range: 24-65 months). Acetabular index showed significant reduction after surgery in compare to before sur-gery (P= 0.002). According to Tonnis grading, 91.6% of cases were in I-II classes. Moreover, 66.6% of cases at clinical examinations of McKay criteria had excellent and good results after surgery. According to Severin radiographic findings criteria, 83.2% of cases were in I-III classes after surgery. There was statistically significant improvement in patients according to different grading systems.

Conclusion: In conclusion, Pemberton osteotomy could be an effective procedure and also in conjunction with other surgical procedures for the treatment of patients with DDH who presented in higher age and late.

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Background: Acute osteomyelitis is one of pediatric emergency which can cause unpleasant complications among them. This is especially accurate if the diagnosis had been delayed or the treatment was inappropriate. There is some misunderstanding in the detection of patients’ hospital files and it’s difficult to detect the diagnostic and treatment malpractice. We performed an investigation of the clinical and paraclinical data in children with acute osteomyelitis.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cross-sectional study in pediatric department of Imam Khomeini University Hospital in Tehran, Iran, from April 1997 to March 2010. The hospital records of all neonates and children from 15 days old to 15 years old were investigated. Patients with any defect in records were excluded from the study. A total of 54 children were included in this study. A questionnaire including clinical features, paraclinical findings and treatment response was completed for all subjects by design's executer. Data were analyzed using the software package SPSS version 16 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA).

Results: In general, 35 children were male and 19 children were female. The average of age was 5.89 years. Children were divided into 4 groups based on age (less than 2, 2-7, 7-12 and 12-15 years) that majority of them were less than 2 years old (38.9%). The most common symptom and sign were pain (46.3%) and swelling (88.8%) respectively in this study. The most primary presenting symptoms were pain (46.3%) and swelling (24.1%). The comparison of frequency ranges of fever between children younger than 2 years and children 2-15 years old demonstrated a significant different (14.3% vs 84.8%, respectively) (P= 0.001). Staphylococcus aureus was the most commonly isolated organism (73.5%). Thirty-two patients (59.2%) needed surgical procedures in addition to antibiotic therapy that had successful outcome in all cases. The average of treatment duration with intravenous antibiotic was 28.14±12.84 days.

Conclusion: More than half of the children with acute osteomyelitis didn't response to antibiotic therapy and they needed different types of surgeries.

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Background: Most problems related to quality of care and patient safety are related to human negligence. One of the causes of these problems is forgetting to do something. This problem can be avoided with information technology in many cases. Some forgotten are very important. Among these is failure to comply with vaccination schedule by parents that can result in inappropriate outcomes. In this study, we developed and evaluated a SMS reminder system for regular and timely vaccination of children.

Methods: In this developmental-applied research, firstly, a child vaccination reminder system was designed and implemented to help parents reduce the forgetfulness. This system based on the child's vaccination history and the date of birth, offer time and type of future vaccines. Then the parents of 27 children, that their vaccination was between 22 June and 21 August 2015, referred to Children's Medical Center, were sent text messages by using this system. We evaluated the accuracy of the system logic by using some scenarios. In addition, we evaluated parents' satisfaction with the system using a questionnaire.

Results: In all cases but one, the system proposed the type and date of future children vaccines correctly. All the parents who have received text messages had good perception and satisfaction on the majority of questions (total mean score of 4.15 out of 5). Most parents (4.92 out of 5) stated that using the system to remind their visit for child immunization was helpful and willing to offer the system to their friends and other families.

Conclusion: Using the short message system is beneficial for parents to remind their children’s vaccination time and increases their satisfaction. So, it can be considered as an important and essential tool in providing healthcare services. SMS is an easy, cheap and effective way to improve the quality of care services.

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Background: Urinary tract infection is a common infectious disease in children and associated with the risk for renal scarring and long-term complications, usually consists of pyelonephritis and may cause complications such as scars in kidney, hypertension and renal failure. Some studies demonstrated association between urinary tract infection and electrolyte disturbances such as hyponatremia. The present study has been designed for assessment of association between urinary tract infection and hyponatremia in children.

Methods: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study has been conducted on 120 children have referred to the Golestan Hospital, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Science from 21 March 2011 until 20 March 2013. A total of 120 children who were aged 6 months to 12 years and had febrile urinary tract infection. The study population and were classified into two group of sixty children: hyponatremic and nonhyponatremic. We compared the laboratory findings in two groups with each other. The data included serum sodiom level, white blood cell (WBC) count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP) and ddimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) scan results collected from children with febrile urinary tract infections admitted in pediatric ward. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, chi-square and independent T-test with SPSS software, ver. 20 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA).

Results: In this study, 120 patients, 104 females (86.7%) and 16 males (13.3%) aged six months to 12 years were evaluated. All the patients were studied in terms of positive DMSA Scan. In the first group (hyponatremic) 31, and the second group (without hyponatremia) 13 patients were identified. There was a significant association between hyponatremia and WBC count, ESR, CRP, duration of fever and abnormal DMSA scan. Conclusion: We conclude that there is significant association between hyponatremia and severity of urinary tract infection in children.

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