Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Gender differences in scientometric indicators among medical faculty members in Iran was investigated.
Methods: The Research performance of the faculty at all universities and institutes of medical sciences in Iran was assessed using the Iranian Scientometric Information Database (ISID) on June 12, 2021. Selected variables in our study were name, gender, university, degree, academic rank, type of faculty, the total number of articles, the total number of citations, self-citation percentage, h-index, citation per article, international cooperation percentage, and the number of research collaborators. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used. The extracted data were analyzed using R v4.0.1 statistical software.
Results: A total of 21064 faculty members in 77 universities and institutes of medical sciences were registered in the ISID database, of which 12093 (57.4%) were men. Men faculty members outnumbered women in all academic ranks, except for the “instructor” rank (1134 female instructors against 835 male). In both sexes, most faculty members were assistant professors. There were more articles (346837 vs. 146024) and citations (5177060 vs. 1639246) by men than women. Among the 1789 faculty members with zero articles, 902 (50.4%) were men. One-hundred-and-fifty-four people were among ESI's top researchers' list, with a majority of men (124 people equal to 80.5%). The medians of all the scientometric indicators were higher in men than women. Men had a higher number of articles, the number of citations, h-index, citation per article, percentage of international articles, and co-authors, however, women had lower self-citations (1.56% vs. 2.51%). In all academic ranks, men had higher scientometric indicators. The only exception was the associate professors’ self-citation, in which women’s citations were higher than that of men (3.5 vs. 3.3). The highest mean h-index was in men with a Ph.D. in Pharmacy (13), men with a Ph.D. by Research (12) and women with a Ph.D. by Research (8.5), respectively.
Conclusion: Gender differences were evident in research performance in Iran. Women faculty members of medical sciences in Iran generally had lower scientometric indicators.

Background: Time management is effective in controlling stress especially for medical residents. Time management in the surgical field and residential education is very important as they are directly involved in treating patients. Proper time management will help decrease work-related stress and increase efficacy, although there is no time management in medical courses. There are few studies in Iran in this field. So, we designed this study to assess the effects of time management on improvement of educational and therapeutic services in surgical residents of Imam Hospital.
Methods: This before–after study was done in Imam hospital between February-March 2015. In this before-after study, 18 surgical residents of Imam Hospital (residents of 1-4 years), were enrolled. Their activities were evaluated in 11 scopes. To evaluate the effects of this self-evaluation, 5 scopes were assessed by the staff. The time during two weeks spent on each item was claimed as a percentage of 336 hours in two weeks. The self-assessment results and their effects on their scores were considered. Data regarding age, sex, and marital status were also gathered. Data were analyzed using SPSS software.

Results: Female students whose mothers were illiterate were 3.51 times more likely to develop head lice. Students who bathed once a week were 0.03 times more likely, and those who shared personal items were 3.6 times more likely to develop the disease.   In terms of father occupation, the highest incidence of head lice among the subjects was 8 people (66.7%) related to people whose father job was free and the lowest was related to other occupations of 4 people (33.4%). There was no significant relationship between     father's job and head lice infection in the subjects (P=0.061). Conclusion: The results of this study indicate the high infection rate of head lice in elementary school students of Kerman. This high level of infestation can cause more contamination among female students consequently, and may cause students to drop out of the school. Serious attention to reducing this infection by holding educational classes for school principals and teachers, as well as parents, seems necessary.

Results: In the group of children with tic disorders, the highest number of patients were girls and in the group of children who were healthy, the highest number of patients were girls. The average age of patients in the case group was 10.37±0.31 years old and the average age of patients in the control group was 10.06±0.41 years old. The average age difference between the children with tic disorders and healthy children was not statistically significant (P=0.971). The average body mass index (BMI) in the case group was 16.98±0.35 and the average BMI in the control group was 16.0±84.56. The average body mass index difference between the children with tic and healthy children was not statistically significant (P=0.838). The mean serum Vit 25(OH) D3 levels in the control group were higher than the average serum level of vitamin D in the case group. The mean serum vitamin D level difference between the children with tic disorders and healthy children was statistically considerable (P=0.036). Conclusion: The results showed that the average serum level of vitamin D in children with tic disorders was significantly lower than in children who were healthy. To investigate and confirm this relationship, more long-term studies with a larger number of patients are needed.

Background: Preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) is one of the factors that can increase maternal and neonatal mortality, which is affected by several factors. This study aimed to investigate the factors affecting the frequency of preterm premature rupture of membranes in pregnant women.
Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted in Afzalipour Hospital in Kerman from January 2018 to January 2019. All pregnant women with PPROM and normal pregnant women referred to this Hospital were included in the study through convenient sampling. The data collection tool was a checklist containing patients' demographic information (age, education, occupation, gestational age, number of pregnancies, urinary tract infection (confirmed by the attending physician), history of premature rupture of the water sac, vaginal bleeding (bleeding in any period of pregnancy as the person had visited the doctor), history of premature birth, pregnancy care and trauma (any trauma)). To analyze the data, descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation), analytical (Chi-square test) and SPSS software version 22 were used.

Results: In this descriptive-analytical study, 400 pregnant women were studied. Two hundred of pregnant women had preterm premature rupture of membranes and 200 of pregnant women did not have such condistion and were normal. The mean age of pregnant women was 27.4±5.4 years old and the mean gestational age of pregnant women was 34.1±2.1 weeks. The mean parity of pregnant women was 2.3±1.4. Risk factors such as maternal age (P=0.011), number of pregnancies (P=0.035), maternal education (P=0.018), history of preterm premature rupture of membranes (P=0.046), history of preterm delivery (P=0.019), trauma (P=0.037) and pregnancy care (P=0.037) affected preterm premature rupture of membranes. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that maternal age, number of pregnancies, maternal education, and history of preterm premature rupture of membranes, history of preterm delivery, trauma, and prenatal care are risk factors for PROM. Therefore, by educating pregnant mothers about these risk factors, the incidence and complications of preterm premature rupture of membranes can be reduced.

Background: According to numerous research related to learning styles and also the difference of these styles in students, this study was designed in order to determine the status of learning styles in medical students in Iran.
Methods: This study was conducted as a systematic review and meta-analysis. Searching for articles in this study was done from September 24 to October 15, 2022 in databases: Proquest, PubMed, Iran medex, Scopus, Sid, Magiran, Google Scholar, Eric and medical education journals. The research environment of Iran has been Mashhad. Using the PICOTS model, the keywords: learning styles, clubs, medical students were used to search the mentioned databases. OR, AND operators and possible combinations of keywords were used when searching for articles in databases. The extracted articles were first evaluated in terms of the research title, then the abstract of the article, and finally the text of the article using the "PRISMA Checklist". In each stage, repetitive articles and articles that did not mention the percentage of learning styles were excluded from the study, and the articles that met the inclusion criteria were stored in the (EndNote software, version 20, Clarivate, USA), and at the end, 53 articles were analyzed.

Results: The results of the study showed that the most used learning styles among students of medical sciences in Iran was convergent learning style (32% with 95% confidence interval). In the investigation of the adaptive learning style in the fields of basic sciences during the years 2006 to 2021, the percentage of using this style increased and this trend was statistically significant (P=0.0078). Conclusion: According to the findings of the study, the most used learning style in medical sciences in Iran is convergent learning style, and considering the characteristics of convergent people, it is necessary to provide effective and efficient training in medical sciences to Students' learning styles should be given special attention so that training can be guided based on their learning styles.

Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common cause of congenital infections in newborns which can lead to long-term complications in more than half of the cases with symptomatic infection at birth time. Unfortunately, neonates with congenital CMV infection will mostly remain undiagnosed because the golden time for detection is limited to the first 3 weeks of infants' life. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of congenital CMV infection in newborns admitted to intensive care units of hospitals in Tehran, Iran and assess related risk factors associated with the infection.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study from April to October 2017, newborns within the first three weeks of life who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) of university-affiliated hospitals in Tehran, Iran, were eligible for enrollment. CMV infection in neonates was diagnosed through testing infants' Guthrie cards and detection of viral DNA via an in-house nested-PCR assay. Congenital CMV infection in neonates with positive results was confirmed by testing urine specimens as a sensitive and gold standard sample. Related data (demographic and maternal factors) were collected by questionnaires and analyzed.

Results: Congenital cytomegalovirus infection was diagnosed in 8 of 63 newborns (12.7%). Hearing loss was seen in 2 infected infants. The mean of head circumferences among infected neonates was significantly lower than that observed in uninfected cases. Infants with CMV related symptoms had statistically more chance to have infection (P=0.02). We also found Guthrie cards as a reliable sample with high sensitivity for CMV detection assays. Conclusion: The current study showed a high rate of symptomatic congenital CMV infection among neonates attending on NICU sections of hospitals in Tehran, Iran. It is of crucial importance to note that based on evidence, diagnosis of infants with congenital CMV infection at early stages could help to decrease the burden of long-term diseases if associated with prompt interventions and reduce the costs of late-ineffective treatment. Therefore, routine screening of newborns for congenital CMV infection via Guthrie cards is suggested.

Background: Vasculitis is a heterogeneous group of diseases that means an inflammatory process in blood vessels. Diagnosing vasculitis in children is challenging due to the variety of symptoms. Classification of childhood vasculitis is usually based on clinical phenotypes, size of affected vessels (small, medium, or large), and pathology of inflammatory infiltrates. The aim of this study is to investigate the epidemiological information on types of vasculitis and their clinical symptoms in children in eastern Iran.
Methods: This 3-year descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on all male and female patients with any vasculitis referred to the outpatient clinic and rheumatology department of Akbar Children's Hospital from the beginning of September 2017 to the end of September 2020. Has been. This study was based on information obtained from the checklist (information from the inpatient and outpatient records and information in the HIS). Checklist information included age, gender, drug history, history of surgery, clinical symptoms in different systems, season of disease onset, etc.
Results: Out of 263 children, 135 (51.33%) had Henoch-Schonlein and 100 (38/02%) of them had Kawasaki. The numbers of Behcet, Takayasu and Churg-Strauss patients were 20, three and two, respectively. In most subgroups, female patients were more common than male patients. Kawasaki and Takayasu had the lowest and highest age of onset, respectively. The most common seasons of appearance for Henoch-Schonlein and Kawasaki were autumn and summer respectively. In most subgroups, skin rashes are the most common clinical symptom, with, the most common types being petechiae and purpura.

Conclusion: In the present study, the most common type of vasculitis diagnosed in children in eastern Iran was reported by Henoch-Schonlein and Kawasaki respectively, which was completely different from the most common types of vasculitis in adulthood and indicated the importance of age in diagnosing the type of vasculitis. The necessity of clinical suspicion of these two diseases in children with skin rashes, along with matching with other clinical findings, is undeniable.

Background: Brucellosis is one of the most common infectious diseases transmitted from animal to human. Different methods of blood culture, serology, PCR and ELISA are used to diagnose brucellosis. The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic value of ELISA tests with Brucella serological tests in patients with brucellosis.
Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study that was conducted from the beginning of April 2018 to the end of March 2019, 231 patients referred to the Infectious Diseases Clinic of Sina Hospital in Hamadan with clinical symptoms and possible diagnosis of brucellosis were included in the study. 5 cc of blood was taken from the patients to prepare serum, at the same time as Wright, Combs Wright and 2ME serology tests, IgG and IgM ELISA tests were also performed using the ELISA kit of Pishtaz Teb Company (Made in Iran), which is designed with the cut-off method. Then the test results were analyzed with SPSS software, version 16 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).

Results: 231 patients suspected of brucellosis including 147(63.64%) men and 84(36.36%) women with an average age of 44.60±16.16 years and a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 80 years were examined. IgG and IgM results were positive with brucellosis in 80.1% and 30.30%, respectively. The results of IgG and IgM were positive in 1/80 and 30.30%, respectively, and they were diagnosed with brucellosis. In comparison with 2ME, Wright and Coombs-Wright serology tests, the sensitivity of IgG was between 83.80% and 94.28% and its specificity was between 20 and 33.34%, the sensitivity of IgM was also between 34.78 and 40.0% and its specificity was between 78.67% and 89.47% at different cut points. Conclusion: Compared to diagnostic serological tests for brucellosis, IgG is more sensitive and IgM is more specific. If serological tests are not available, ELISA can be used to diagnose brucellosis. But because of their lower diagnostic value, they cannot be replaced.

Background: Alkaptonuria is a rare disorder that leads to excessive production and accumulation of homogentisic acid in body tissues, and this increase causes tissue degeneration and organ dysfunction through a process called achromasia. Due to very few studies in the field of this disease and access to epidemiological data for the first time in Iran, the present study was conducted with the aim of epidemiological investigation of the mortality rate of patients with alkaptonuria during the years 2013 to 2022 in Iran.
Methods: The design of the present study was cross-sectional (descriptive-analytical). The data related to the deceased registered according to the international coding system of diseases (ICD-10) were extracted from the system of registration and classification of the causes of death of Iran for death due to alkaptonuria disease. The variables investigated in this study included: age, gender and residence status of the deceased. Chi-square and Fisher's exact test were also used to analyze the data.

Results: The specific death rate was calculated as 0.31 per one million people of the population. In this study, 90% of the deaths occurred at the age of less than five years. The age variable included two groups of less than five years and more than five years, where 90% of deaths occurred at the age of less than five years. 60% of the deceased were men and 40% were women. Regarding the residence status variable, 82% of the cases were urban and the rest were rural. Finally, there was no significant difference between the incidence of death due to alkaptonuria disease and the investigated variables, which are age (P=0.291), gender (P=0.958) and residence status (P=0.273). Conclusion: According to the findings in the present study, although no significant difference was observed between age and the number of cases of death due to alkaptonuria; But most cases of death have occurred in young age groups, which seems that more studies are needed to understand the different dimensions of this disease

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on all files of patients admitted to Qaem Hospital in Mashhad City, Iran, in a period of 10 years from March 2009 to February 2018 with a definitive diagnosis of benign or malignant tumors of the CNS, including tumors of the brain, cerebellum, spinal cord, or meningeal membranes. Information sources included the patients' physical files and the hospital information system (HIS). The statistical software SPSS version 28.0 for Windows (IBM SPSS, Armonk, New York, USA) was used for the statistical analysis. Results: In total, 775 patients with benign and 771 patients with malignant CNS tumors were included in the study. Regarding epidemiological aspects of benign tumors, the incidence rate of women was almost twice that of men (68.47% versus 31.53%), with an overall average age of 45.31±19.81 years. The most common benign tumors were meningioma (72.77%), followed by schwannoma (13.67%). Regarding malignant brain tumors, the mean age of affected patients was 36.64±19.67 years, with males accounting for 53.04% of cases and females for 46.96%. The most frequent type of tumor was glioblastoma (32.68%), followed by diffuse astrocytoma (16.47%). Both benign and malignant CNS tumors were associated with significant hospital mortality; in-hospital mortality rates for benign and malignant tumors were 10.1% and 17.5%, respectively. Tumor type and its grade were the main determinants of early death in malignant CNS tumors. Conclusion: The epidemiological characteristics of benign and malignant tumors in our study community were similar to the reports presented in other communities. Knowledge of these characteristics provides the possibility of managing patients and reducing morbidity and mortality related to these tumors.