Razi Journal of Medical Sciences
Year:2012 | Volume:19 | Issue:99|Papers Count:9

Background: Adipokines are proteins secreted from adipose tissue that are involved in metabolism control. Adipsin is one of the adipokines that has a systemic role in lipid metabolism or physiological systems relating to energy balance. Serum levels are found to be associated with BMI, and insulin resistance in several studies. The aim of this study was to assess adipsins association with Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).Methods: This case-control study was performed on patients who referred to the clinic of the Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences of Shahid-Beheshti University in 2011. Forty five patients with PCOS and 45 normal individuals as control group were selected by easy given sampling method and studied. Fasting adipsin and insulin serum levels were measured by Elisa method and fasting glucose serum level was measured by enzyme-calorimetric method. Data were analyzed using independent t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient and one-way ANOVA by SPSS 16 software.Results: Adipsin serum levels did not correlate with insulin resistance in PCOS (15.93±7.24 ng/dl in PCOS patients and 14.21±7.53 ng/dl in control group). Glucose and insulin serum levels increased in PCOS (104.1±13.4 mg/dl and 10.8±5.2 mU/L respectively) in comparison with controls and these PCOS patients had insulin resistance.Conclusion: This study does not show the correlation between adipsin level and PCOS. It is possible to find a relationship between PCOS and adipsin through expanding the population or limiting the age levels.

Background: Identifying the risk factors of recurrence of a disease is important both for physicians and patients. Analyzing the first recurrence may lead to an inaccurate evaluation of risk factors as it may not reflect the history of disease completely and may result in the loss of some valuable information. This study was aimed to analyze the time up to the recurrent relapses of schizophrenia as well as determining the risk factors that lead to the recurrence of the disease.Methods: In this study 159 registered schizophrenia patients at Razi hospital were selected from a longitudinal study. The effect of age, sex, marriage, start of disease, and history of head trauma variables on recurrence of disease was assessed by a frailty model. Data analysis was made on by R 2.14.1.Results: Mean of patients’ age was 21.5±6.6 year. Based on the Gamma frailty model, sex of patients (p=0.045) and history of head trauma (p=0.028) had significant effect on the hazard of recurrent relapses of Schizophrenia. In addition, the correlation of first, second and third times of recurrence was significant (p<0.001).Conclusion: Based on the dependency between relapses, treatment and follow-up actions are suggested within the first recurrence time.

Background: Line bisection test is used for detecting inattention. In this test normal people usually show a rightward bias which indicates right hemisphere dominancy for visuo-spatial attention processing. The performance of people with Attention deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in these kinds of visuo-spatial tests is different from normal people. The difference could be as a result of right hemisphere deficit in cases with ADHD. The aim of this study is comparing visuo-spatial attention in children with ADHD-combined subtype and normal children.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the performance of 15 children with ADHD-combined subtype was compared with the performance of 15 children while matched for age, sex and IQ. The direction of each group bias was determined in line bisection test.Results: In ADHD-combined subtype group, bisected lines showed significant right side bias (p=0.005). Normal group also showed a rightward bias but it was not significant (p=0.08). In addition there was no significant difference between the two groups performance in this test.Conclusion: Both normal and ADHD-combined subtype groups showed a rightward bias in line bisection test and there was no difference between the two groups performance. More future studies are needed.

Background: Golpar plant contains chemicals including protein, fibers, reduction and non-reduction sugars, three types of coumarin, organic compounds of camphor family, Fitoestrols and 1, 2 Dimetoksil 4 methyl benzene. These compounds encompass anti-mitotic, estrogenic, anti-cancer, antidiabetic, anti-obesity and anti-mutation properties. In this study, the effect of Golpar extract on testicular tissue changes and the level of testosterone in mice were studied.Methods: The study was experimental. Thirty two male Wistar rats weighing approximately 280 ± 10 g were studied. The rats were randomly divided into five groups of eight: control group (received distilled water) and treated experimental groups that received Golpar alcoholic extract in amounts 0.05, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 g/kg, respectively. All groups at the end of the fourteenth day were bled and blood samples were collected to measure testosterone by radioimmunoassay (RIA). Results were evaluated with SPSS and Tukey test. Also the testicles were removed and after weighing, tissue studies were done.Results: Serum testosterone levels in 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 g/kg treated groups significantly decreased as compared to the control group. Sperm density in the tubules and the mean body and testes weight in 0.2 and 0.4 g/kg treated groups decreased significantly compared to the control group.Conclusion: According to the results of this study it can be concluded that consumption of Golpar alcoholic extract probably reduced plasma testosterone, body weight, and testis weight and sperm density and thus can be used to treat sexual dysfunction in males.

Background: Various studies indicate that gonadal hormones exert modulatory effects on pain threshold. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of estradiol or progesterone in the response by female rats to thermal nociceptive stimulation.Methods: In this laboratory experimental study, thirty 7 week old albino (Wistar) rats were randomly divided into control, sham and ovariectomised groups of 10 each. After 10, 20 or 40 days thermal pain threshold was measured through tail immersion test (55oC water bath). The pain threshold was measured as the time required eliciting a flick of the tail which was called analgesia time. Serum estradiol, progesterone or prolactin levels were also simultaneously measured by radioimmunoassay method. Data were statistically analyzed and compared between groups using ANOVA.Results: There was no significant change in serum estradiol or progesterone levels as well as analgesia time 10 days after ovariectomy; however, a significant decrease was observed 20 or 40 days after operation compared with control female rats (p<0.001, p<0.05 or p<0.001, respectively). Also there was no significant change in serum prolactin level 10 or 20 days after ovariectomy compared with control rats; however, a significant decrease was observed 40 days compared with 20 days after ovariectomy (p<0.05).Conclusion: Our findings clearly indicate that depletion of female gonadal hormones 20 or 40 days after ovariectomy modulates the pain-induced behavioral responses related to thermal nociception in female animals.

Background: Failure To Thrive (FTT) is the delay or suspension in child growth; not dealing with this disorder may lead to more serious consequences like increased death rate, appearance of other relevant diseases, reduced learning, and mental, emotional, or physical disabilities. Given the serious symptoms of failure to thrive in children’s future, this paper tries to identify and investigate factors affected in FTT.Methods: The study population included children below 2 years old visiting the Health Center of East Tehran from which 1660 infants using two-stage cluster sampling method were selected according to the input criteria (not suffering from any particular disease at birth, and having regular visit to health centers). After gathering data from the first two years of the infants’ lives, factors associated with FTT using SAS software and Random Effect Regression Model were analyzed.Results: Mean age (± SD) of mothers at birth time was 27.3 ± 5.46 years and 46% (764) of the mothers had an education lower than high school diploma but there was no significant relationship between mothers’ education and FTT (p=0.290). Mean weight (±SD) of children at birth was 3202 ± 463.03 g and 5.1% (85) of them were born with underweight (2500g) and 68.1% (1130) of the children were affected by FTT at least in one period. Factors associated with diarrhea, infection, teething, nourishment, weaning, and other diseases had significant role in causing FTT (p<0.05), out of which the cause of diarrhea was the most likely factor. In addition, the model’s random section became significant (p<0.05).Conclusion: Given the abundance and graveness of the symptoms of this disorder in child’s future and the high likelihood of occurrence of this disorder among infants below 2 years, a strong need is felt to deal with this impairment. Given the significance of the random effect, the known causes alone are not enough for prediction of FTT among infants and genetic and environmental factors play a role in occurrence of FTT as well.