Tehran University Medical Journal

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Background: We conducted this study To find relationship between maternal glucose challenge test (GCT) levels and fetal body weight (BW).
Materials and Methods: We analyzed five hundred women with singleton pregnancy, who had GCT at 24-28 week during pregnancy. All of them had no history of hypertension and diabetes mellitus or other medical disease before pregnancy or during previous pregnancy, and all of them had weight gain appropriate with their pre pregnancy body mass index (BMI). Also nobody had history of drug abuse or smoking. In this descriptive–analytic survey, maternal age, gravidity, BMI,GCT level ,gestational age (GA) , sex of neonate, rout of delivery , newborn weight and apgar score were evaluated .The student’s T-test and logistic regression were used for statistical analysis. We used Pearson coefficient and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and chi-square test for determination GCT threshold.
Results: We found rate of small for gestational age (SGA) in newborns statistically was significant, who their maternal GCT level was ≤ 80mg/dl, P value: 0/018, specificity 89%, sensitivity 58% and confidence interval: 95% (0/162-0/545).
Conclusion: Low GCT level has association with SGA and can be used as a predictive test and may be an indication for dietary intervention.

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Background: Rotator cuff tendon tear injury is one of the most frequently seen orthopaedic conditions, and surgical repair of rotator cuff tears is a common procedure. The purpose of the present study was to determine the results of full-thickness rotator cuff repair and to look for predictors of outcomes.

Methods: we studied 27 patients (17 men and 10 women with a mean age of 57.7 years) who underwent open rotator cuff repair surgery for full-thickness tear between 2001 and 2005 at the Imam Khomeini Hospital and were subsequently followed-up for 6 and 12 months after surgery. The shoulder function was assessed by Constant classification and factors potentially associated with outcomes were

Results: The mean of preoperative Constant score (CS) was 45.8 ± 14.1 after 12 months, 6 patients (22.2%) had good results and 21 patients (77.8%) had excellent result according to CS. Pain relief was generally satisfactory. Using multiple regression analysis, treatment was significantly correlated preoperative CS and acromio-humeral interval (AHI) however, no correlation was found between the result of the treatment and pretreatment atrophy, tear size, acromial morphology, preoperative symptom duration and age.

Conclusion: In this study, a standard rotator cuff repair technique reduced pain severity and was associated with good results, however larger studies are necessary to define the long-term outcome of this procedure.

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At the middle of the 20th century, autopsy has a fundamental role in medical education in Iran, guided by the influential Oslerian philosophy “as is your pathology so is your medical practice”. Students not only attended autopsies, but also had learnt to conduct them. In contrast, today the use of autopsy in medical education is falling down to death. Although this falling is worldwide, but the situation in Iran is much worse. Rarely Iranian medical schools deal with educational autopsy and some of them are quite unfamiliar with autopsy. There are several reasons for this declining including sophisticated medical education with autopsy, community attitudes ,clinicians’ and pathologist’ reluctance, hospital concern about legal action, religious attitudes, consent from the family and funding priorities. Even with new diagnostic modalities, autopsy remains an important tool for quality and safety assurance. A systematic review of reports on autopsies from USA, European and Australian hospitals, revealed 9 to 40% (on average 23.5%) of clinically missed diagnoses and managements involving the principal or underlying cause of death. The key roles of hospital autopsies are Improving safety and quality in diagnosis and treatment, Providing benefits to families, Advancing understand-ing of disease, Allowing good programming for emerging disease and frequently seen disease, and Educating medical and allied health professionals. We have concluded that, reversing the decline of autopsies will require cooperative action at several levels of the healthcare system, particularly including clinicians and pathologists and also governmental and financial bodies and legal authorities.

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Background: Nutrition as an important factor in health can be effective in educational success of students. Malnourished students have less concentration and attention. Lack of breakfast consumption for a long period has negative effect in behavior and health. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of a nutritional teaching booklet about breakfast on the knowledge of fourth grade girls at Tehran’s 6th educational and teaching district.
Methods: This interventional study performed on 100 fourth grade girls from 10 schools in Tehran city, randomly divided into two groups case who received booklet and control group. Subject: At first a pretest of knowledge was done for all the students (case and control). The case group was given the booklet to read by themselves. No teaching provided for the control group. A knowledge posttest was performed two weeks later. Two types of questionnaires (general and knowledge) were used to collect data. The following methods were used: chisquare test for comparing case and control groups from the aspect of independent variables, pair t- test for comparing the knowledge scores between case and control groups and one-way ANOVA for assessment of independent variables effect on the mean difference of knowledge in samples.
Results: The mean score of knowledge in the case group against the control increased 2.22 (p<0.001). The one-way ANOVA method showed that none of the independent variables (family size, parents’ career and educational level, dinner breakfast sleeping and waking up time, the person who prepares breakfast at home, breakfast consumption status in other members of family) had significant effect on the mean of the knowledge scores’ difference.
Conclusions: The results of this study showed the nutritional teaching booklet about breakfast caused an increase in the knowledge of this age group of girl students.

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Background: Proper knee function is essential for daily activity. Since almost all complex tibial plateau fractures involve soft tissue compromise, there is some controversy as to the best treatment method. Currently, progress toward indirect reduction and external fixation, such as the hybrid external fixator, with minimal complications is underway. Herein we evaluate the outcomes of complex tibial plateau function repaired with hybrid external fixation at one of the most important trauma centers in Iran. 

Methods: This case-series study involved the postoperative follow up (>6 months) of 20 patients with complex tibial plateau fracture repaired using hybrid external fixator at Sina Hospital from 2002-2004. We evaluated surgery complications and outcomes including soft tissue and skin necrosis, knee range of motion, degenerative joint disease, infection, neurovascular injury, ::::union:::: time, and knee score at final visit, among others.

Results: Of the original 20 cases enrolled in this study, five dropped out. All subjects were men, with a mean age 38.6 (18-74) years. The most common injury mechanism was motor vehicle accident mean time from trauma to surgery was 4.7 (1-15) days. Mean follow up duration was 11.6 (6-26) months. At the end of the study, 80% had good knee range of motion (>90 flexion), with knee scores of 80 or more for 60% of the subjects. Although all patients had had soft tissue injury, there was no postoperative soft tissue compromise. Two patients (11%) had postoperative infection, but ultimately recovered. Less time between trauma and surgery, less periarticular soft tissue injury, less operative manipulation of soft tissues, better articular congruency, and more stable and anatomical knee alignment are associated with better outcome and prognosis.

Conclusions: This procedure reduces operative complications, especially infection and soft tissue necrosis, and requires less rest, all of which results in a stable, aligned and functional knee joint. Furthermore, adding minimal open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) may promote even better results.

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Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) includes steatosis, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, fibrosis and liver cirrhosis. The oxidative stress enzymes are the diagnostic markers to prediction of histologic status of liver in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis disease. The aim of the study was to assessment of relationship between serum Zinc (Zn) levels with pathologic manifestation in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

Methods: This cohort study was done in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis that had been visited in gastrointestinal clinic of Sina Hospital, Tehran, Iran from April, 2014 to April, 2015. Control group included the patients with no clinical manifestation of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and normal liver ultrasonography, lab test and liver biopsy. Serum Zn level was measured with atomic absorption spectroscopy. Normal Serum level of Zn was considered 10.7-22.9 µmol/L (70-150 µg/dL) and less than 7 µg/dL was considered as Zn deficiency. Pathological findings were grading according to NAFLD activity score.

Results: One hundred twenty patients were selected for the study in two equal groups. Six and 26 patients were excluded in case and control groups, respectively due to no consent to lab test. Finally, 54 patients (35 male/19 female) and 34 patients (22 male/12 female) in control group were participated in data analysis. The mean age on case and control group was 37.02±9.82 year and 33.24±12.01 year, respectively (P= 0.111). Zn level in case and control groups were 90.82±13.69 and 88.82±13.10, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences between two group in serum Zn level (P= 0.50). Also, there were no statistically significant differences between pathological grading in case group participants (steatosis: P= 0.640; Lobular inflammation: P= 0.882; fibrosis: P= 0.531).

Conclusion: The finding of the study showed no significant association between serum zinc level and hepatic steatosis, lobular inflammation and fibrosis of the liver in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

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Background: The use of pesticides is essential to pests control in horticultural crops for the production of an adequate food supply for an increasing world population and for the control of insect-borne diseases. Therefore, pesticide residues in environment and food have a negative impact on the health of living organisms especially human. In this regard, the present study was carried out for assessment and comparing of propineb residues in Iranian tea and imported consumed tea.

Methods: In this experimental study, according to the Cochran's sample size formula, 12 samples from 4 brand of imported tea and 6 samples from 2 brand of Iranian tea were collected from market basket of Hamadan City in 2015. After preparation and processing the samples in the laboratory, propineb residues in samples determined using a spectrophotometric method to a wavelength range of 400 nm in 5 replications. Recovery tests were carried out using pesticide-free samples. Also, all statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS statistical package version 19 (Chicago, IL, USA).

Results: The mean concentration of propineb residues in Iranian tea samples were 1.60±0.27 µg/kg and in imported tea samples were 0.78±0.63 µg/kg, respectively and lower than the maximum residue limit (MRL) provided by the European Commission (100 ppb). The results of the comparison of the mean concentration of pesticide residues between Iranian and imported tea samples revealed no statistically significant differences between all the samples together (P=0.17).

Conclusion: The results showed that the residues of propineb were found in all analyzed tea specimens. But according to the mean concentrations of propineb residues in tea samples marketed in Hamedan City were lower than MRL, therefore, no adverse health effects have been established from controlled consuming of tea. Also, concerning increased use of agricultural inputs especially kind of pesticides for pest management by farmers, regular periodic monitoring of chemical pollutants content in Iranian and imported tea are recommended for food safety.

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Results: The pre-test scores of groups A and B were 3.48±1.197 and 3.49±1.481, respectively. The post-test scores of groups A and B were 6.97±1.504 and 10.54±1.303, respectively. Therefore, although the pre-test scores of groups A and B were not much different (P>0.05), the post-test scores of the two groups showed a significant difference (P<0.001). Students also expressed that using this educational tool has made learning hand anatomy more interesting for them. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the proposed educational tool is effective in the field of hand anatomy education.