Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Spasticity is a clinical deficit of upper motor neurons lesions that presented immediately or at delayed times after lesions and occurs in about 38% of stroke patients. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) has been recently reported as a safe and effective method for reducing spasticity in stroke patients. In the present study, we sought to investigate the impact of the ESWT on post stroke spasticity using a meta-analysis method.
Methods: All primary reports of spasticity indexed in PubMed, MEDLINE, Science Direct, Scopus and search engine of Google Scholar from January 2000 to December 2016 were searched. The following terms were used as keywords: Spasticity, muscle hypertonicity, ESWT, stroke and hemiplegia. Any report was included if it met the following criteria: involving clinical trials, full-version availability, and being written in english. Two reviewers selected articles independently and reviewed the studies considering quality and eligibility, and then they extracted general information on objectives, design, participants, and outcomes. The methodologic quality of each study was assessed using the Pedro Scale. In the statistical analyses, we considered two outcomes; Modified Ashworth scale (MAS) grade and passive rang of movement (PROM). The meta-analysis was done using random effect model in Stata, version 11 (Stata Corp., TX, USA).

Background: Nanoparticles are particles that have at least one dimension between 1 and 100 nanometers. Nanoparticles are a new generation of antimicrobial agents. Nanoparticles with antimicrobial activity, especially as a new class of biomedical materials for use in increasing the level of public health in daily life have emerged.  Zinc oxide nanoparticles have attracted a great attention due to the variety of their applications in medical science. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the antimicrobial activity of zinc oxide nanoparticles synthesized by green method.
Methods: This experimental study was done in 2017, from March to September in the Bam Research Center of University of Medical Sciences Kerman, Iran. Green synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles was investigated using cumin seeds. The physicochemical characteristics of synthesized nanoparticles were studied by UV-visible ultraviolet spectrometer (Analytik Jena AG, Germany), X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscope (TEM) (Carl Zeiss, Germany). Broth microdilution method was used to investigate the antimicrobial activity of zinc oxide nanoparticles. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of these nanoparticles were determined for Pseudomonas aerogenes and Enterococcus faecalis strains.
Results: The UV-visible ultraviolet spectroscopy showed an absorption peak in the range of 370 nm. Transmission electron microscopy shows the synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles, mostly spherical, with a size less than 50 nm. Minimum inhibitory concentration of zinc oxide nanoparticles against P. aerogenes and E. faecalis strains was determined at 6.25 and 12.5 μg/ml, respectively. Both bacteria were sensitive to zinc oxide nanoparticles. This sensitivity was higher for gram-negative bacteria.
Conclusion: Zinc oxide nanoparticles were produced using Iranian natural resources and our results showed significant antibacterial activity. Nanotechnology creates materials with novel properties every day, and creates new hope for improving environmental pollution. These nanoparticles can be used as a new generation of antimicrobial agents in various medical disciplines. For example, toothpaste containing zinc nanoparticles can be produced and prescribed for patients with immune deficiency to prevent the growth of microbial pathogens in the mouth and its transmission to the patient's body.
 

Background: Blood pressure decreases during sleep and is markedly increased in the morning in healthy individuals. Lack of nocturnal blood pressure fall (non-dipping) has been associated with cardiovascular morbidity, mortality and other organ damage. However, their importance in chronic renal failure is unclear. This study aimed to investigate relationship between circadian rhythm of blood pressure and renal failure severity in patients with chronic kidney disease.
Methods: This cross-section study was done in April 2016. The study population was 95 patients, more than 30 year old with hypertension and chronic renal failure. Patients were selected from clinics of two private and university hospitals affiliated to Qom University of Medical Sciences Shahid Beheshti Hospital and Vali-e-Asr Hospital, Iran. Checklist containing data such as age, sex, duration of renal failure and cause of renal failure were filled. Serum creatinine and serum urea levels were measured and entered in the checklist. The circadian rhythm of blood pressure in all patients was assessed by Holter monitoring. patients who had less than 10% decrease in blood pressure overnight were considered non-dipper and those who had 10% or more decrease in blood pressure overnight were considered dipper.
Results: Average (SD) 24-hour ambulatory systolic and diastolic of blood pressure was 136.56 (16.66) and 84.84 (10.86) mmHg, respectively. 70 patients (73.7%) had non-dipper blood pressure pattern and 25 patients (26.3%) had dipper blood pressure pattern. There was no significant difference between two groups (dipper and non-dipper) based on distribution of gender (P=0.744), age (P=0.407), serum creatinine (P=0.569), serum urea (P=0.689) and renal failure duration (P=0.812). Mean of glomerular filtration rate in dipper group was 68.64±4.13 and in non-dipper group was 65.09±16.27 (P=0.337).
Conclusion: The results of this study did not show a significant relationship between circadian rhythm of blood pressure and renal failure severity. In addition, patients with chronic renal failure showed higher rates of non-dipping pattern of blood pressure.

Cancer is the major cause of death in the world and the rate of mortality is higher in developed countries. Therefore, lifestyle could be effective in promoting the cancer. The pancreatic tumors, are 8th cause of mortality due to cancer, which have several types, among them ductal adenocarcinoma is the most common and includes 85% of cases. Since, it is almost impossible to diagnosis the tumor in early stages of the disease, it contributes to high rates of mortality, although if it diagnosis in early stage and the surgery performed for them only 10-20% of patients will be survived. Metastasis occurs when the tumor is smaller than 2 cm in size and because the pancreas is located in the depth of abdomen, typically, it happens after tumor is spread to other organs. A combination of medical imaging, blood tests, and examination of tissue samples are usually made for diagnosis and based on the cancer stage, surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are chosen as treatment options. Some rare genetic variations can cause pancreatic cancer and about 5-10% of cases are linked to inherited genes. However, major risk factors are including age, obesity, tobacco smoking and diabetes. Smoking counts for about 25% of cases, and the diabetes is the main symptoms of pancreatic cancer, which observed in about 80% of cases. But, it is still unclear whether diabetes is a predisposing factor in pancreatic cancer, or the outcome of tumor progression. Recent studies have shown that, diabetes is unique in pancreatic cancer which is not related to common types. Currently, CA 19-9 is the only reliable tumor marker for pancreatic cancer that its frequency also increases in non-bad conditions, such as pancreatitis and obstructive jaundice, so is not sensitive and specific enough for diagnosis of this cancer. Due to researches continue to find more specific markers. In this review the etiology of pancreatic cancer, diabetes associated with this type of cancer and significant biomarkers for diagnosis will be considered.

Before the recent outbreaks of Zika virus, few people have ever heard of its name. Even virologists had paid little attention to this member of the Flaviviridae family. Hence, up to January 2016, only 269 articles about Zika virus had been indexed in PubMed compared to the 9187 articles related to dengue virus. However, declaration of the World health organization (WHO) about the global Zika virus spreading, which has been associated with birth defects and some neurological problems, diverted more attention to this forgotten virus. Afterwards, the virus hit the headlines and became a research interest. Since then, up to 9 August 2017, the number of Zika related articles indexed in PubMed reached to 3214. Zika virus is a re-emerging arbovirus. The First detection of Zika virus was in Uganda in 1947. It belongs to the Flavivirus genus in the Flaviviridae family. Zika can typically cause a mild and self-limiting disease in a healthy person. However, in pregnant women, it might cause birth defects and occasionally it can be associated with peripheral neuropathy such as Guillain-Barre syndrome. Although many research have been conducted to find out the casual link between this virus and these disorders but this relationship is still dim and controversial. Considering its recent epidemics in 2015 and 2016 the geographical distribution of Zika virus seems to expand all over the world progressively. Interaction between virus and vector is dynamic. Variety of competent vectors and adaptability of virus to new arthropod vectors are the two major factors for this process. According to the last report published by WHO, 84 countries/territories in five continents have reported the circulation of Zika virus in their area. In the recent outbreak, WHO regional office in our region (EMRO) have reported no case of Zika virus transmission from this region. Nonetheless, because specific and competent vectors exist in some countries, this region has a potential of epidemic risk. Until now we have neither autochthonous nor imported case of Zika virus in our country but we should prepare for any unexpected situation. In this review, we will discuss new findings about the history, virological features, vectors, transmission routes and epidemiological aspects as well as laboratory diagnosis of Zika virus. In addition, the epidemiology of this virus in Iran will be discussed.

Background: In three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT), contrast-enhanced CT (CECT) image is commonly used to assist radiation oncologists in diagnosing regions of interest, so that normal and target tissues can be better delineated. CECT causes the temporary increase in the CT number and the corresponding electron density (ρe). Administrated contrast agents (CA) during CT simulation and altering the ρe of structures can be effective on radiation calculations and dose-volume histograms (DVHs) in radiotherapy treatment planning. Therefore, present study was designed and performed to determine the influence of the administrated CA on DVHs.
Methods: Current study performed as a self-controlled clinical trial study with before/after method at Imam Reza Hospital, Kermanshah City, during the period from June 2015 till August 2016. Ten patients with pelvic cancer included in this study through simple sampling. Cases with prior reactions to CA, diabetes, renal diseases, and asthma were excluded. Two sets of CT-scans were taken for each patient in the same position and coordinates. Primary study sets contained pre-contrast images and secondary study sets were performed post-contrast. Both sets of CT images were transferred to the treatment planning system (ISOgray® software, Version 4.1.3.23 L, DOSIsoft®, Cachan, France). All treatment plans were generated on pre-contrast and subsequently copied to the post-contrast CT. Quantitative calculations were performed in treatment planning including the difference in ρe before and after CA administration.
Results: The prostate (1.27%), the bladder (0.62-0.79%) and the rectum (0.43-0.56%) showed the largest changes in average ρe increase. The results confirm the expected relationship of increasing attenuation, CT number, and ρe with increased tissue density due to the CA. However, the DVHs showed insignificant difference between pre-and post-contrast CTs for 18 MV photon beam.
Conclusion: The results showed statistical insignificant difference between with and without CA CTs treatment plan in pelvic field for targets and OARs. These results may serve as a reference to justify the use of CECT data sets for 3D-CRT planning of pelvic region cancers using DosiSoft ISOgray system.

Background: The benefits of aspirin have been proven by repeated examinations, especially in secondary prevention in cardiac infarction, stroke, and after interventional angiography and stent insertion.
Methods: This is a retrospective study on all patients who underwent non-cardiac surgeries between June 2005 and March 2013 in Ghaem hospital in Mashhad and aspirin continued due to many reasons. Most frequent surgeries included laparoscopic appendectomy and cholecystectomy. Information such as bleeding and its amount both during surgery and post-operative, hematoma after surgery, requiring re-operation due to bleeding and cardiovascular events in hospital were recorded and analyzed. Moreover, all patients were followed within one month after discharge from hospital to check whether any cardiovascular events had been happened. Furthermore, bruising in the skin, and bleeding after discharge were evaluated. Data were analyzed using SPSS Version 16 (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA).
Results: One hundred seventy patients enrolled in the study and all of them underwent general anesthesia. Of all patients 37.06% were male and 62.94% were female. The mean age was 52.78±5.01 years. Majority of operations included laparoscopic cholecystectomy (41.62%). Also in most of the patients (58.38%) surgery were emergency and discontinuation of aspirin were impossible. 91.37% of patients were taking less than 80 mg aspirin per day. Mean bleeding amount during surgery was 100 ml. 13 patients (6.59%) who undergo laparoscopic cholecystectomy and one patients in appendectomy group had bleeding more than 110 ml due to inadequate artery ligation and they underwent conversion to open surgery and bleeding were controlled successfully. Other eight patients (4.06%) treated conservatively without need to conversion to open surgery. In 7.61% of patients, ecchymosis happened which were healed within one month. No patient underwent reoperation due to post-operative hemorrhage. No vascular event and hematoma had been reported during one month follow up after surgery.
Conclusion: Continuing aspirin in perioperative period of non-cardiac surgeries were without additional risk of bleeding and it also helped to reduce risk of vascular evets post-operatively.

Background: One common symptom of diabetes is diabetic retinopathy, if not timely diagnosed and treated, leads to blindness. Retinal image analysis has been currently adopted to diagnose retinopathy. In this study, a model of hierarchical self-organized neural networks has been presented for the detection and classification of retina in diabetic patients.
Methods: This study is a retrospective cross-sectional, conducted from December to February 2015 at the AJA University of Medical Sciences, Tehran. The study has been conducted on the MESSIDOR base, which included 1200 images from the posterior pole of the eye. Retinal images are classified into 3 categories: mild, moderate and severe. A system consisting of a new hybrid classification of SOM has been presented for the detection of retina lesions. The proposed system includes rapid preprocessing, extraction of lesions features, and finally provision of a classification model. In the preprocessing, the system is composed of three processes of primary separation of target lesions, separation of the optical disk, and separation of blood vessels from the retina. The second step is a collection of features based on various descriptions, such as morphology, color, light intensity, and moments. The classification includes a model of hierarchical self-organized networks named HSOM which is proposed to accelerate and increase the accuracy of lesions classification considering the high volume of information in the feature extraction.
Results: The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the proposed model for the classification of diabetic retinopathy lesions is 98.9%, 96.77%, 97.87%, respectively.
Conclusion: These days, the cases of diabetes with hypertension are constantly increasing, and one of the main adverse effects of this disease is related to eyes. In this respect, the diagnosis of retinopathy, which is the same as identification of exudates, microanurysm and bleeding, is of particular importance. The results show that the proposed model is able to detect lesions in diabetic retinopathy images and classify them with an acceptable accuracy. In addition, the results suggest that this method has an acceptable performance compared to other methods.

Background: One of the most important causes of chronic liver disease is hepatitis C virus (HCV), which causes liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. To control the prevalence of the disease, knowledge and information in risk factor of HCV are required. The aim of this study was to compare the risk factors of infection between HCV patients with genotypes 1a and 3a.
Methods: This is an observational analytical study. HCV patients who referred to the clinic of hepatology, Rasoul-e-Akram University Hospital from July 2015 to July 2017, were assigned to the genotype 1a and 3a. Demographic (age, sex, family history), clinical (cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma) and laboratory data, history of intravenous drug and alcohol usage, and history of imprisonment were gathered and compared between two groups. All the patients completed the informed consent form. Data analysis was performed by SPSS software, version 22 (IBM SPSS, Armonk, NY, USA). P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: Overall, 97 HCV patients were included in this study. Mean age was 45±12 years and 78 (80%) of patients were male. Among them, 58 (60%) and 39 (40%) had genotype 1a and 3a. respectively. History of injection drug usage was recorded in 34/39 (87%) of patients with genotype 3a, and significantly higher in genotype 3a as compared to genotype 1a [OR adj: 3.1, CI (1.3-6.2)]. Also, in this study, genotype 3a was significantly recorded in younger patients [OR adj: 1.7, CI (1.2-4.1)]. However, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma was more common in patients with genotype 1a as compared to genotype 3a [OR adj: 2.05, CI (1.6-5.4) and OR adj: 2.8, CI (1.3-5.7)] respectively.
Conclusion: According to the results of this study, hepatitis C virus transmission risk factors differed in genotypes 3a and 1a. Genotype 3a is found among young patients with a history of intravenous drug usage and genotype 1a in patients with cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Cancer immunotherapy refers to any intervention that leverages the immune system to eliminate a malignancy. Successful cancer immunotherapies generate an anti-cancer response that is systemic, specific, and durable and overcome to the primary limitations of traditional cancer treatment modalities. In this review paper, the effective methods in immune system to treat cancer, such as immunosuppression in tumor microenvironment (TME), cancer vaccines and T cell adaptive therapy are mentioned. Engineered T cells can use for destruction of the different cancer tissues to diagnose tumor surface antigens. Promotion in culture of T cell methods and their engineering with retroviral vectors that carry T cell receptors or chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) by co-stimulator domains, provide opportunity to treat tumor by T cells. The tumors with high genome mutation, such as lung and melanoma, have severe environmental mutagenesis that is induced by ultra violet light in melanoma and Tobacco in lung cancers. Expression of tumor specific receptors is increased by engineered T cells. The neo-antigens conduct the intensity of intra tumor T cell response. The present of CD8+ in tumor site with more mutation is higher and the mutation load is showed strong relation with the clinical response. In addition to the successful approaches to cancer immunotherapy, the other combination and molecular therapies by nanomaterials are listed. Nanomaterials as efficient modulators and diverse vaccine have been developed in the treatment of cancer. In recent cancer vaccine development has been on subunit vaccines that contain purified tumor antigens or antigenic epitopes as an antigen source. However, soluble bolus-based subunit vaccines typically induce weak cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses which limit their utility for cancer. To overcome this, nanoscale colloids can be used to promote more efficient antigen presentation by acting as phagocytic substrates. Nanomaterials are showed co-suppression and immunization in tumor microenvironment by multiple additive functions in preclinical models. In this manner, they exhibited good prospects because of the good results in overcoming the limitations of current therapies. In this review paper is tried to provide new prospect for therapies and hope it creates highest efficacy and lowest side effects for the treatment of patients in the near future.

Background: Osteoporosis is the most common metabolic disease of the bone in the world, and has hit about 200 million people around the world and it increases the risk of fractures. More than 5 million osteoporotic fractures occur annually in the world. Bone mineral density is the standard method of diagnosis of this disease. In this method, proximal of femur (neck) and lumbar vertebra bones (L2, L3, L4, L5) are typically evaluated. The aim of this study was determine the bone density profile of one third of distal radial bone in patients with primary osteoporosis.
Methods: This cross-sectional study conducted at Shahid Beheshi hospital in Hamadan city, from October 2015 to October 2016. Among of the patients, those over the age of 50 years old, 71 patients were selected by convenience sampling method taking into account if they have inclusion criteria (such as: age> 50 years, no systemic diseases, no history of corticosteroid use). For all patients that enter the study, lumbar, femoral neck and one third of distal radial bone densitometry was done by dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) method. Osteopenia and normal bone density the World Health Organization criteria were used to determine osteoporosis.
Results: In this research 71 people entered the study. The mean age of the patients was 62.25±9.36 (51-92) years. In term of gender 5.63% of patients were male and 94.37% female. Pearson correlation coefficient showed a positive and significant correlation between the results of one third of distal radius with neck and total femur bone and lumbar bones (P<0.05). Correlation between the T-score of one third of distal radius and total femoral neck was statistically significant (P<0.05). The mean age of patients was 62.25±9.36 years.
Conclusion: According to the findings of this study one third of distal radial bone mineral density has an acceptable sensitivity to detect osteoporosis. Radius bone density decreases much faster than lumbar, vertebra and femoral neck.

Background: Probiotics are living organisms that are beneficial for human health. Lactobacillus species has been considered as probiotic bacteria due to their adjustment of human immune responses and therapeutic effects in inflammatory disorders. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of Lactobacillus probiotic strains on toll-like receptors (TLR2 and TLR4) expression in HT29 cell line (a human colon cancer cell line) infected with S. enteritidis.
Methods: This experimental study was done in Food Microbiology Research Center of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran, from March 2016 to February 2017. In this study, two strains of Lactobacillus acidophilus PTCC 1643 and Lactobacillus casei PTCC 1608 were used. HT29 cells were cultured in RPMI medium containing fetal bovine serum and antibiotics. Then, the cells were treated with the Lactobacillus strains, after or before challenge with S. enteritidis. After total RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis, the capacity of probiotic lactobacilli to modulate TLR2 and TLR4 expression on treated and un-treated HT29 cells were assessed quantitatively using Real-time polymerase chain reaction technique with specific primers.
Results: Our findings indicated that after treatment of non-infected HT29 cells, with both the probiotics, the expression of TLR2 and TLR4 genes significantly increased. In contrast, the expression of these two genes in HT29 cells which were infected with S. Enteritidis was significantly reduced before and after treatment with each one of the probiotic bacteria. The anti-inflammatory effect of probiotic lactobacilli on S. enteritidis were confirmed in tests. This study showed that L. acidophilus and L. casei play a major role in boosting the innate immune responses, the TLR2 and TLR4 expression levels also decreased, pre and post-infection with S. enteritidis.
Conclusion: According to the results, both Lactobacillus strains have remarkable anti-inflammatory effect in pathogenicity of S. enteritidis, but L. acidophilus display greater anti-inflammatory activity than L. casei in this work. Additional in vivo and in vitro studies are required to further elucidate the mechanisms underlying this anti-inflammatory effect.

Background: The Multi state Markov models have extensively application with categorization of laboratory marker of CD4 cells for evaluation of HIV disease progression. These models with different states result in different effects of covariates and prediction of HIV disease trend. The main purpose of this study was comparison of four and five states models with the three- state in order to select the model with better prediction ability of occurrence of HIV and finally death in HIV positive people.
Methods: A total of 305 HIV positive people were included in this cohort study in the Iran AIDS center in Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran that entered during March 1995 to January 2005 and then fallowed up to October 2014. The three continuous- time Markov models of three-, four- and five- state models were fitted to data to describe the evolution of a HIV disease Trend over different states.
For comparison of models, two criteria of modification of Akaike’s criterion (DRAIC) and likelihood cross-validation criterion (DRLCV) along with their 95% tracking interval was used. For fitting of these models and estimation of transition matrix and the hazard ratio of gender and treatment independent variables, the msm package of R project for statistical computing, version R 3.2.4 (www.r-project.org) was used.
Results: The results showed that the four- state model has more prediction ability than five-state model for evaluation of HIV disease Trend. In the four-state model, the progression hazard ratio to death for people who received highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) was 0.64 lower than who didn’t get this therapy. Moreover, the progression hazard ratio for men was 2.33 fold in comparison to women. The disease progression hazard ratio to death was 4.9 fold for men in comparison to women.
Conclusion: The (DRAIC) and (DRLCV) criterions showed that the four-state model has more predictive ability of the progression trend of HIV disease in comparison of five-state model.

Background: The immune-mediated responses in vascular cells may include the increased expression of endothelial adhesion molecules, leukocyte rolling and infiltration, cellular lipid dysregulation and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) differentiation. Investigating the cellular and molecular events involved in the rolling process is useful for treatment or prevention of the vessel stenosis especially in coronary arteries. MiRNAs are small and single-stranded noncoding RNAs with about 19-23 nucleotides. In this study, the role of microRNA-125 was predictably selected and experimentally investigated on the changes of expression level of adhesion molecule in endothelial cells isolated from human aorta and on the monocyte cells isolated from whole blood human with endothelial cells adhesion. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of miRNA-125 repression on cell adhesion in leukocyte rolling process to reduce or suppress artery stenosis in susceptible individuals.
Methods: This experimental study was performed in Cellular-Molecular Research Center of Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran from July to December 2017. Normal aortic samples were prepared from subjects with brain death in Masih Daneshvari Hospital and under strictly sterile conditions, it was transferred as soon as possible. The endothelial cells were isolated from aorta of subjects with brain death using collagenase. The monocytes were isolated from whole blood. The microRNA-125 was transfected into ECs with use of polyethyleneimine (PEI). The expression level of adhesion molecule and monocyte recruitment were identified by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) technique and CytoSelect™ leukocyte-endothelium adhesion assay kit (Cell Biolabs, San Diego, CA, USA), respectively.
Results: The results showed the microRNA-125 suppresses significantly integrin beta 2 (ITGB2) expression level (P=0.008). In addition, the monocyte-EC adhesion was shown in the aortic miRNA-treated endothelial cells. The adhesive rate between cells reduced significantly with microRNA-125 as compared with miR-synthetic (P=0.02). Thereby, there were the associations between the ITGB2 and miR-125a. Downregulation of ITGB2 may be reduced the adhesion of endothelial cells and moderating the process rolling.
Conclusion: This study suggested that the suppression of leukocyte rolling process might be more due to the function of ITGB2. However, the functional effects of this miRNA should be directly investigated on the studied gene.

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: 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: QT dispersion means the difference between the minimum and maximum QT interval in a standard twelve standard electrocardiogram, which indicates ventricular repolarization and electrical instability of the heart. In this study, we try to find a link between methadone poisoning and the change in QT dispersion, so that we can accurately assess the patient's condition and medical needs in the future.
Methods: In a descriptive, randomized/ cross-sectional study in the poisoning ward of Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad from October 2013 to April 2015, all patients who referred to the emergency department because of their methadone toxicity or symptoms, had an ECG with 12 leads taken from them, at the time of the arrival. QT dispersion was calculated manually in comparison to other parameters. Also their blood sample were taken to the lab in order to measure different electrolytes (Mg, K, Ca). To ensure the accuracy of study, patient’s urine samples were taken and tested for methadone. There was no intervention in this study. The control group was also not considered QT scattering and dispersion was compared with normal reference in this study.
Results: In this study, 100 patients were studied, 65 of them males (65%) and 35 females (35%). Mean age of subjects entering the study was 33.87±14.5. The average dose of methadone in these cases was 35.5±35.7 mg. However, their usual dose was 1.11±4.85 mg prior to overdoses, and the average duration of use mentioned in patients who had a history of usage was 5.1 months, but 90% of the subjects did not mention any history. The average measured potassium was 3.99±0.5 meq/l, calcium was 8.94±0.5 meq/l, and magnesium was 1.98±0.26 mg/dl. Average measured oxygen saturation at the time of admission was 94.43±5.6%. Mean QT dispersion was 0.041±0.018 millisecond.
Conclusion: In our study, no significant correlation was found between QT dispersion and methadone poisoning.

Background: The position of each subject area in scientific production can indicate the ability of the scientific performance of that subject field. Since obstetrics and gynecology is one of the most important clinical sciences discipline of medical science, this study aimed to evaluate the scientific production in the field of obstetrics and gynecology before and after the Iran health reform plan.
Methods: This study is a scientometrics, time interval in the study was from 2008 to 2017 on Iranian articles based on the indexes of the number of documents, the number of citations received, the number of citations to each article, and the H-index of obstetrics and gynecology field based on the Web of Science database. It Indicators investigated, was extracted separately from the analysis section of the database.
Results: The average citation per article, the number of documents and the number of citations in the 5 years before the health reform plan respectively in the field of obstetrics and gynecology equal to 10.44, 196.6, 1750.6 and after the implementation of the health reform plan, equal to 3.89, 282.6, 1031.4. Also, the level of international collaboration before and after the project is 13.06 and 13.25, respectively. Also in the field of gynecology and obstetrics, Ramezani Tehrani, with 1.91% of all articles was the most reproductive writer, and Tehran University of Medical Sciences, with the highest scientific productions in the field of obstetrics and gynecology by 23.77% of all productions. Finally, the field of obstetrics and gynecology had the highest share of scientific production by 66.88%.
Conclusion: The findings showed that the scientific production of obstetrics and gynecology, in terms of quantity (number of documents), after the health reform plan, has been growing, but the quality (citation, H-index) is decreasing. Also, international collaboration has grown after the health reform plan. The findings also showed that before and after the health reform plan, the most cooperation was with the United States and the rate has been lower with Asian countries.