Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Obstructive gastrointestinal (GI) malformations are one of the most important congenital problems and have different clinical manifestations, which depend on the severity and location. Although, complete obstructive lesions cause classic intestinal obstructive symptoms in infants, incomplete obstruction might be asymptomatic until adulthood and sometimes cause unusual symptoms, which need extensive work up. Moreover, this delay could produce significant complications. Near all of these lesions are surgically correctable therefore awareness of this possibility is important in order to prompt appropriate management and referral plan.

Case report: In this report, we introduce five infants who had congenital GI malformations with different presentations such as vomiting, hematemesis, growth failure and steatorrhea. Appropriate time of diagnosis caused surgical correction of lesions except in one patient with very unusual presentation who was diagnosed late. As a result, in this case, severe growth and developmental delay appeared.

Conclusion: Congenital gastrointestinal obstruction has different manifestations. Awareness can help to survive patients.

Background: Female genital tract sarcomas are rare but most aggressive tumors of mesodermal origin. Little is known about the pathogenesis, risk factors, optimal treatment and outcome of these diseases. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the clinicopathologic characteristics of patients with genital sarcoma.

Methods: This is a retrospective, cross-sectional study. The medical records of 43 female patients with genital tract sarcoma, hospitalized during a 16-year period (from 1991-2007) were retrieved from the medical records office of Ghaem Hospital in Mashad, Iran. The demographic data extracted from the records.

Results: The mean age of the patients was 46.95 years (ranging from 3-77 years). The chief complaint of the patients was abnormal vaginal bleeding (69.8%). The mean interval between the onset of symptom to the pathological diagnosis of sarcoma was 8.53 months (ranging from 1-36 months). Histologically, the tumors included: leiomyosarcoma (79.1%), endometrial stromal sarcoma (18.6%) and embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (2.3%). Three patients (7%) were in International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage I, 20(46.5%) in stage II, 6(14%) in stage III and 14(32.6%) in stage IV. 48.8% of the patients had undergone chemoradiotherapy.

Conclusions: In most cases, our patients were referred so late or the disease was recognized very late due to being rare. We should consider this disease for every patient with unusual vaginal bleeding especially in post menopause women who their sonography has reported uterine mass.

Background: Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is an inflammatory disease that mainly affects axial skeleton of the body and ankylosing spondylitis ligaments around the spine at the junction of the spine are inflamed, because the disease is progressive and can lead to significantly cause of disability and the studies could provide a mechanism for the early detection of the disease or help determine when to start treatment, the difference in clinical presentations of AS in men and women is indicative of potential effect of gender on severity of the disease. This study was conducted with the aim to investigate the effect of gender on severity of AS.

Methods: In a cross-sectional study, one hundred and fifteen patients with ankylosing spondylitis who referred to Yazd Rheumatology Clinic between 2001 and 2013 were evaluated. Sampling was performed using non-random convenient method. The most important variables studied included demographic data, clinical presentation, radiographic stage of sacroiliac involvement, and laboratory data extracted from patients’ files and recorded in questionnaires.

Results: Both groups according to age at diagnosis, presence of enteritis, peripheral joint involvement and laboratory data such as C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and hemoglobin were matched. Inflammatory neck pain was more prevalent in men than in women (77.2% against 51.8%; P< 0.05). Sacroiliac radiographic study revealed stage 1 involvement in 11.3% of men and 37% of women (P= 0.009), and stage 4 in 27.2% of men and 3.7% of women (P< 0.001), with a significant difference.

Conclusion: According to the results of the study, the time between age of onset and age at diagnosis, inflammatory pain in the neck and advanced stage in men than in women was higher. Although these findings suggest that gender may have an impact on the pattern and severity of AS but the time delay in diagnosis as a disease affecting the intensity and pattern should not be overlooked.