TEHRAN UNIVERSITY MEDICAL JOURNAL (TUMJ)
Year:2019 | Volume:77 | Issue:7|Papers Count:10

Background: Coronary artery disease today is a major contributor to mortality and morbidity from cardiovascular disease. The drug, interventional and surgical methods are used to treat coronary artery stenosis. Statins are the most commonly used drugs for stenosis and coronary artery disease. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of atorvastatin on LDL and C-reactive protein (CRP) reduction in patients. Methods: This study was a systematic review and meta-analysis. Articles were selected using the keywords of atorvastatin, LDL, C-reactive protein (CRP) and reduction, and searches in Scopus, Google Scholar and PubMed databases from March 2003 to February 2018. For this purpose, all analytical, clinical trials, cross-sectional, and casecontrol studies were searched and collected in association with the efficacy of atorvastatin on low density lipoprotein and CRP. Results: In the initial search, 90 papers were found and evaluated. Finally, 20 papers were analyzed. The studies were published. The total sample size was 21609 persons with an average sample size of 1080 in each study. Twenty studies were entered into the final analysis. The LDL-lowering rate was 51 mg/dl with atorvastatin (I2=98. 48, P<0. 001). Also, CRP reduction before and after administration of atorvastatin was 1. 99 (0. 96-3. 03) and 0. 76 (0. 08-1. 43), respectively. The results of meta-regression of age-related studies showed that LDL levels were low in studies with lower age, and LDL levels were low in studies with higher age. The results of a meta-regression study of atorvastatin in terms of body mass and the association of low-density lipoprotein with atorvastatin showed that in those with a higher body mass, low-density lipoprotein decreased. Conclusion: According to the results, the use of atorvastatin reduces the amount of Creactive protein (CRP). The rate of low density lipoprotein (LDL) reduction was better and faster in young and obese people. It is recommended that people have a proper diet and regular exercise in their daily schedule.

Background: Alterations of neuroplasticity and cortical excitability are important pathophysiological factors in stroke. Modulation of the neuroplasticity has been proposed as an underlying mechanism of recovery in different neurological disorders. But it is not still clear how the CNS faces the complexity of muscle control. Neuroplastic processes may be used for the functional improvement of stroke, in particular for improving cortical functions. Neuromotor synergies is one of the most attractive hypotheses in motor control. Emerging evidence suggests that rehabilitation efforts that challenge to maximize the extent of neuroplastic changes can provide the greatest potential for rehabilitation success. A better understanding of the basic mechanisms of neuroplasticity will guide advances in neural repair and rehabilitation. Resolving the relationship of neural plasticity and individual field differences and may also have important clinical utility in developing appropriate neurorehabilitation outcomes and recovery. The objective of the present study was to review evidence of the effect of neuroplasticity on neuromotor synergies in healthy and stroke individuals on rehabilitation programs. Methods: In the present systematic review study, we investigated the neuroplasticity interventions in stroke individuals. Articles published between January 2005 and January 2017 were reviewed. We searched for five keywords (neuroplasticity, motor learning, muscle synergy, rehabilitation, and stroke) using ProQuest, PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Results: After initial screening and deleting irrelevant studies, 41 studies were chosen for the analysis. Studies were assessed and analyzed methodologically. Proper interventions were selected according to the least error criteria and outcome. Using a targeted selection approach. During the review process, eight articles were selected as the main articles for the review. Conclusion: Considering the results of the current study, it seems that the neuroplasticity affects the domain of rehabilitation and muscle synergy in individuals with stroke and provides a desirable environment for plasticity-based intervention aimed at motor learning in this population. Large studies with long follow-ups are needed to explain the beneficial effects of neuroplasticity based training combined with rehabilitation protocols.

Background: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is blood and bone marrow malignancy. Low-density oxidative lipoprotein (oxLDL) is a pro-inflammatory factor that has free radicals in its structure. OxLDL levels are also rising in diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers. Studies have shown that oxLDL and dyslipidemia are more common in patients with various cancers. This study aimed to evaluate the level of blood lipids and oxLDL in these patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Methods: In a descriptive study, 36 patients who were diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia from April 2016 to March 2017 were enrolled. This study was done in Shahid Ghazi Blood Department of Imam Reza Hospital, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Basic information including age, sex, type of disease, cause for referrals of the patients were collected. After obtaining informed consent from patients and 12 hours of fasting, 5 cc blood samples were sent to the Central Laboratory of Shahid Ghazi Hospital to measure the level of blood lipids including cholesterol, triglyceride, low density lipoprotein, high density lipoprotein (HDL), and oxLDL levels. Blood lipid and oxLDL levels were measured by automatic analyzer (Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL, USA) (ELISA method). Results: 23 patients (54. 8%) were male and 19 (45. 2%) were female. The mean age of the patients was 44. 06± 14. 48 years. The lowest age was 25 and the highest was 80 years. In the study, the mean serum cholesterol level was 147. 64± 42. 28 mg/dl, the blood triglyceride was 183. 28± 79. 34 mg/dl, the LDL was 84. 89± 26. 35, and the HDL 29± 14. 51, the mean oxLDL was 1482. 5± 6031. 85 ng/ml. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that dyslipidemia in patients with acute myeloid leukemia has not been evident. Concerning oxLDL, an oxidative stress factor involved in acute myeloid leukemia requires further investigation and studies.

Background: Molecular detection has recently been proposed by nucleic acid amplification, known as polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic method of smear and polymerase chain reaction with culture in terms of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, sputum samples were collected from 58 patients with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis referred to Ghaem Hospital in Mashhad from the beginning of April 2017 to the end of March 2018. The samples were delivered to the laboratory in less than 72 hours. Patients were sampled for three times. Bronchoscopy and Broncho alveolar lavage were performed in patients who were unable to produce sputum. The smear test was reported by Ghaem’ s Laboratory after 24 hours. In our study, the culture method was considered as the gold standard and the sensitivity and specificity of the PCR methods and smear were compared with it. Results: Patients ranged in age from 18 to 89 years. Among 58 suspected pulmonary tuberculosis, the method of cultivation confirmed the presence of the disease in 25 cases (43. 1%). However, with smear, the presence of the disease has been proved in 27 patients (46. 6%) and with the method of PCR in 24 patients was (41. 4%). Sensitivity of smear in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis was (100%), and its specificity was 93. 9%, the positive predictive value of this test was (92. 6%) and the negative predictive value was (100. 0%). The sensitivity of the PCR method in diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis was 88. 0% and its specificity was 93. 9%. The positive predictive value of this was (91. 7%) and the negative predictive value was (91. 2%). Conclusion: In this study, between the two methods of smear and polymerase chain reaction, the acid fast smear method was more sensitive to the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis than the polymerase chain reaction and the specificity of both methods were the same.

Background: Deep learning has revolutionized artificial intelligence and has transformed many fields. It allows processing high-dimensional data (such as signals or images) without the need for feature engineering. The aim of this research is to develop a deep learning-based system to decode motor intent from electromyogram (EMG) signals. Methods: A myoelectric system based on convolutional neural networks (CNN) is proposed, as an alternative to conventional classification methods that depend on feature engineering. The proposed model was validated with 10 able-bodied subjects during single and combined wrist motions. Eight EMG channels were recorded using eight pairs of surface electrodes attached around the subject’ s dominant forearm. The raw EMG data from windows of 167ms (200 samples) in 8 channels were arranged as 200×8 matrices. For each subject, a CNN was trained using the EMG matrices as the input and the corresponding motion classes as the target. The resulting model was tested using a 4-fold cross-validation. The performance of the proposed approach was compared to that of a standard SVM-based model that used a set of time-domain (TD) features including mean absolute value, zero crossings, slope sign changes, waveform length, and mean frequency. Results: In spite of the proven performance and popularity of the TD features, no significant difference (P=0. 19) was found between the classification accuracies of the two methods. The advantage of the proposed model is that it does not need manual extraction of features, as the CNN can automatically learn and extract required representations from the EMG data. Conclusion: These results indicate the capacity of CNNs to learn and extract rich and complex information from biological signals. Because both amplitude and frequency of EMG increases with increasing muscle force, both temporal and spectral characteristics of EMG are needed for efficient estimation of motor intent. The TD set, also includes these types of features. The high performance of the CNN model shows its capability to learn temporal and spectral representations from raw EMG data.

Background: Growth disturbance is a common phenomenon in children with congenital heart diseases (CHD). Malnutrition and nutritional disturbances have a higher prevalence among children with down syndrome, especially children with Down syndrome; on the other hand, the prevalence of CHD is higher among syndromic children, which needs surgical repair as the definitive treatment. The nutritional status plays an important role in determining the postoperative complications and recovery. The purpose of this study was to investigate the growth status of children with Down syndrome and congenital heart disease before cardiac surgery. Methods: This study was conducted as a retrospective study by evaluating the records of all syndromic patients undergoing cardiac surgery at Children’ s Medical Center of Excellence, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, from March 2011 to March 2017. Age, weight, height, weight-for-age z-score (WAZ), weight-for-height zscore (WHZ), height-for-age z-score (HAZ), mortality and hospitalization rate in an intensive care unit (ICU) were recorded in these patients. The z-scores more than-1 were considered as normal, between-1 and-2 as mild malnutrition, between-2 and-3 as moderate malnutrition and below-3 as severe malnutrition. Results: 35 (51. 5%) patients were female and 33 (48. 5%) were male. The mean age, weight, and height of these children were 26. 9± 24. 9 months, 9. 1± 4. 95 kg, and 79. 55± 17. 95 cm, respectively. The mean of WHZ, WAZ, and HAZ in these children was-2. 18+1. 65,-1. 95+2. 25 and-1. 22+3. 11, respectively. Based on the values of WAZ, WHZ, and HAZ, 85. 3%, 77. 9% and 75% of patients have malnutrition (mild to severe forms, z-score less than-1). The most common cardiac defect was ventricular septal defect (VSD) accompanied by pulmonary arterial hypertension. Conclusion: Considering the high prevalence of impaired nutritional status in these children and considering the effect of preoperative malnutrition on surgical outcomes, including mortality, assessing the nutritional status is much important. The adequate nutritional support in these patients leads to a reduction of the mortality, postoperative complications and morbidities.

Background: Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) frequently occurs in women at fertility age. One of the cornerstones in treating this malignancy is Radioactive Iodine (RAI) therapy following thyroid resection. In this study, we evaluated the effect of RAI therapy on the fertility rate and pregnancy complications. Methods: This is a retrospective study on 41 patients with differentiated thyroid cancer, with at least one experience of pregnancy after standard treatment (thyroid resection followed by radioiodine therapy). All patients have been signed a written consent form in initial admission to our department. Furthermore, we asked our patients to fill in a questionnaire about their thyroid cancer and its treatment as well as pregnancy and its complication. As a control group with no different mean age, the same checklist has also been filled in for the patient’ s healthy sister too, just related to gravidity and its complications. The complications of pregnancy were registered in these patients and compared with the control group consisted of their healthy sisters. Also, the association of abortion rate with other underlying factors has been assessed. All data has been included in SPSS software, version 22 (IBM SPSS, Armonk, NY, USA) and analyzed using logistic regression. This study conducted at the Nuclear Medicine Department of Ghaem Hospital in Mashhad, from May 2017 to February 2018 with the support of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Results: No significant difference was noted in the mean age between case (differentiated thyroid cancer) and control groups (P=0. 9). The two groups were also statistically similar in terms of pregnancy frequency (P=0. 05) and number of alive children (P=0. 8). Abortion seems to be the only item in DTC patients which was more than healthy sisters (0. 2 versus 0. 7) (P=0. 003). However, this statistical difference showed no direct relationship with radioiodine treatment (RIT). As in DTC patients before and after RIT, no significant difference has been detected in DTC patients before and after RIT (P=0. 48). Birth weight was not statistically different in DTC patients before and after RIT (P=0. 66) and between DTC patients and their healthy sisters (P=0. 2). Conclusion: Radioiodine therapy for differentiated thyroid carcinoma has no considerable negative impact on pregnancy, whether on fertility rate or on gravity complications.

Background: QT dispersion means the difference between the minimum and maximum QT interval in a standard twelve standard electrocardiogram, which indicates ventricular repolarization and electrical instability of the heart. In this study, we try to find a link between methadone poisoning and the change in QT dispersion, so that we can accurately assess the patient's condition and medical needs in the future. Methods: In a descriptive, randomized/ cross-sectional study in the poisoning ward of Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad from October 2013 to April 2015, all patients who referred to the emergency department because of their methadone toxicity or symptoms, had an ECG with 12 leads taken from them, at the time of the arrival. QT dispersion was calculated manually in comparison to other parameters. Also their blood sample were taken to the lab in order to measure different electrolytes (Mg, K, Ca). To ensure the accuracy of study, patient’ s urine samples were taken and tested for methadone. There was no intervention in this study. The control group was also not considered QT scattering and dispersion was compared with normal reference in this study. Results: In this study, 100 patients were studied, 65 of them males (65%) and 35 females (35%). Mean age of subjects entering the study was 33. 87± 14. 5. The average dose of methadone in these cases was 35. 5± 35. 7 mg. However, their usual dose was 1. 11± 4. 85 mg prior to overdoses, and the average duration of use mentioned in patients who had a history of usage was 5. 1 months, but 90% of the subjects did not mention any history. The average measured potassium was 3. 99± 0. 5 meq/l, calcium was 8. 94± 0. 5 meq/l, and magnesium was 1. 98± 0. 26 mg/dl. Average measured oxygen saturation at the time of admission was 94. 43± 5. 6%. Mean QT dispersion was 0. 041± 0. 018 millisecond. Conclusion: In our study, no significant correlation was found between QT dispersion and methadone poisoning.

Background: Determination of mortality causes precisely, is very important in developing countries. Mortality rate is a helpful index for evaluating the quality of health in every society. However, recording of life events as well as mortality rates are difficult and conducted only in a few developing countries which account for a large percentage of the world’ s mortality. Thus, it was attempted to conduct a study on mortality cases of under 18 year’ s old corpses referred to the dissection laboratory of forensic medicine in Tehran from 2014 to 2015. Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, all cases of accidental deaths less than 18 years old which were referred to forensic medicine in Tehran have examined. All mortality data between April 2014 and April 2015 was completed by a questionnaire. This data were classified by age, sex, cause of referral, type of death, underlying disease, and cause of death based on autopsy results and positive findings of autopsy, pathology, and toxicology. Results: In 2014 and 2015, 495 and 508 cases of under 18 years old were sent to the dissection laboratory of forensic medicine in Tehran, consequently. The mortality rate of 520 males and 483 females was recorded and it has risen from 2014 to 2015. The most common mortality causes are accidents, suspicious death, suicide, and car accidents. Conclusion: The results showed that the mortality rate in males was higher than females, which is in line with the global findings. This may be due to cultural issues or the vulnerability of males. Study on causes of deaths, which recorded over two years showed that deaths in Tehran province are due to accidents, falls, strangulation, lifethreatening poisoning and electrocution, birth disorders and suicides, which requires more studies on these subjects.

Background: Abnormal placental invasion in pregnancy is one of the most important dilemmas in gynecology and obstetrics medicine and because of the high potential risk of life-threatening massive bleeding, it has been considered as one of the most important causes of maternal morbidity and even mortality. According to the fact that previous cesarean section is the most highlighted and well-known risk factors for developing these types of abnormal placental invasion, and despite comprehensive recommendations for decreeing of this kind of surgery, the rate of caesarian delivery is raising worldwide, detecting the safer methods of management for optimizing the outcome is mandatory. Case Presentation: In this report, we are discussing a patient in Firoozgar Hospital, Tehran, Iran, with twin pregnancy accompanying with placenta previa with abnormal invasion, which has got the best possible outcome after performing a multidisciplinary approach without any need to blood transfusion or general anesthesia during cesarean hysterectomy as the standard management of placenta increate. In this case, we have performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before surgery. We found out that we can use the exact site of placental margin and the distance between placental margin and uterovesical junction. So we have done the uterine incision horizontally without damaging to the placenta. Generally, Doppler ultrasonography has enough accuracy for detecting all kinds of placenta creates. Conclusion: By selecting a safe uterine incision, we can prevent such a sudden and massive bleeding during the operation and also avoid occurring end-organ damage due to hemorrhage for instance, acute tubular necrosis, disseminated intravascular coagulation resulted in maternal morbidity and mortality. In this report, we also discuss the points needed for management and treatment of abnormal placental invasion by reviewing the recent literatures.