Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Thyroid carcinoma is the most common endocrine malignancy and approximately accounts 2% of all cancer cases. Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is an endocrine tumor with differentiation of Parafollicular or C-cells and is categorized into hereditary or sporadic types. Medullary thyroid carcinoma approximately accounts for 5-10% of all thyroid carcinoma. Germ-line and somatic mutations in exons 10 and 11 RET (Rearranged during Transfection) proto-oncogene are responsible for the occurrence of the familial and sporadic types, respectively. Calcitonin is a key marker in MTC diagnose and has been demonstrated to be highly sensitive for differential diagnosis prognostic assessment, follow-up and evaluation of MTC treatment. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between plasma levels of calcitonin in MTC patients with or without RET mutation.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the population consist of MTC patients who have referred to the endocrine and metabolism research center of Shahid Beheshti University of medical sciences since October 2013 till October 2016. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood leucocytes using the standard salting out/proteinase K method. Nucleotide change detection in exons 10 and 11 was performed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and direct DNA sequencing methods. Participants were then divided into two groups with or without mutation (43 individuals in each group). Plasma calcitonin levels were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method in both groups.
Results: Evaluation of the level of plasma calcitonin in 43 patients with a molecular mutation in RET proto-oncogene (mean age 31 years) and 43 patients without molecular mutations in RET proto-oncogene (mean age 43 years) were 7.6 pmol/mL and 3.07 pmol/mL respectively. This difference is statistically significant (P=0.0014).
Conclusion: Routine measurement of calcitonin has been investigated as a screening method for the diagnosis of medullary thyroid carcinoma patients. Nevertheless, additional data are required to definitely support routine measurement of calcitonin due to the role of RET proto-oncogene.

Background: Copenhagen hip and groin outcome score (HAGOS) is the only valid and reliable self-reported questionnaire for assessing symptoms and activity limitations of subjects with hip and groin problems. The aim of this study was to translate and culturally adapt the English version of the HAGOS to Persian and to evaluate its reliability in young athletes with hip and groin pain.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in Tehran University of Medical Sciences, School of Rehabilitation, Iran, from June 2014 to May 2015. In order to develop the Persian HAGOS, the English HAGOS was translated and culturally adapted into Persian language based on the standard forward-backward translation and expert committee review. Then, for the test-retest reliability investigation, young male athletes suffering from hip and groin pain, recruited from sport physical therapy clinics, completed the Persian HAGOS two times with 1-2 weeks interval. Independent samples t‐test and Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to determine the test-retest reliability of the six subscales and the total score of Persian HAGOS. The SPSS statistical software (IBM SPSS, Armonk, NY, USA) was used for all analyses.
Results: Fifty young male athletes, mean age 26.12±3.37 years (range: 18-33), participated in this study. ICC value for test retest reliability of total score was 0.74 (95% CI: 0.59-0.84). ICC values for subscales scores ranged from 0.6 for participation in physical activities subscale to 0.79 (P<0.0001) for pain subscale (P<0.0001). There were no significant differences between the test and retest scores obtained for subscales and total scores (t-test, P>0.05).
Conclusion: The HAGOS was successfully translated and cross-culturally adapted from English into Persian language. The Persian version of HAGOS is a reliable questionnaire for the evaluation of young athletes with hip and groin pain in clinics and research.