Breast tuberculosis in Northeast Iran: Review of 22 cases

Background: Breast tuberculosis (breast TB) is an extremely rare disease, so case reviews are also rare.Methods: This study is a retrospective review of patients with breast TB who were treated between 2002 and 2012 at the Health Center of Gorgan City.Results: All 22 patients were females, their mean age was 32.4 years, and all were new cases. Patients presented with swelling of the breast (22%), lump (55%) and excretion from the involved breast (27%), and breast pain (55%). The highest rate of breast TB occurred in 2011 (27%). All patients received the DOTS regimen for a mean duration of 7.3 ± 0.7 months; in addition, segmental resection was performed on 11 patients (50%).Conclusions: The findings confirmed that breast TB in Iran should be considered as a differential diagnosis of breast masses. All patients in our study received the daily and 'Directly Observed Treatment Short-course' (DOTS) regimens. Anti-tubercular therapy for six months with or without minimal surgical intervention currently is the main treatment. © 2014 Khodabakhshi and Mehravar; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Possible role of TORCH agents in congenital malformations in Gorgan, northern Islamic Republic of Iran

This descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out to explore the frequency of contamination with TORCH agents in neonates with congenital malformations in a referral centre in Gorgan city, Islamic Republic of Iran. Blood samples were taken from 64 neonates and their mothers over a 20-month period in 2003-04. Serologic tests showed that 4/64 infants born with congenital malformations (6%) had positive IgM antibody titres for Toxoplasma gondii (2 cases), rubella virus (1 case) and cytomegalovirus (1 case). IgM was positive in 9/63 mothers (14%), also for T. gondii (3 cases), rubella virus (3 cases) and cytomegalovirus (3 cases). No cases of herpes simplex virus type II or Treponema pallidum were found

Knowledge about AIDS among medical students in Iran

Young people are among the high risk group who are susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases. Several educational programs are scheduled to raise awareness about risky behaviours and to decrease the rate of the HIV pandemic. This cross sectional study showed that in young medical students, the level of awareness about HIV/AIDS increased during the years of academic education (not significant) and that males have a higher level of awareness than females. Higher awareness is desirable in this group due to their key role in the community

Environmental mycobacteria in areas of high and low tuberculosis prevalence in the Islamic Republic of Iran

This research compared the numbers and types of different Mycobacterium species in soil samples taken from 2 areas of Golestan province, Islamic Republic of Iran, 1 with a high prevalence of tuberculosis and 1 with a low prevalence. From 220 samples, 91 grew positive cultures (41.4%) and 161 different strains were diagnosed. The most common species isolated were Mycobacterium fortuitum, M. flavescens and M. chelonae. The frequencies of environmental Mycobacterium in the low-prevalence area were much higher than in the high-prevalence area, perhaps due to different environmental factors

Complications leading to hospitalization due to consumption of anti-TB drugs in patients with tuberculosis in Gorgan, Iran (2007-12)

Background and Objective: Anti tuberculosis drugs therapy is the most effective method for controling the tuberculosis (TB). Early detection and appropriate treatment can prevent the TB-drug resistance. This study was carried out to determine the complications leading to hospitalization due to consumption of anti-TB drugs in patients with tuberculosis. Methods: In this descriptive-analytic study, 1550 records of patients with TB in urban and rural health centers of Gorgan, north of Iran were assessed during 2007-12. Checklist consists of demographic and clinical data for each patient was recorded in a questionare. Results: 44 cases experienced the complications of anti-TB drugs. 27 (61.4%) of cases with complications were women. 77.3% and 22.7% of patients affected with pulmonary and extra pulmonary tuberculosis,respectively. 38.6% of patients were diabetic. The hepatic complication was seen in 37 cases (84.1%). Skin and other complications were seen in 5 and 2 cases, respectively. There was not any relationship between drug complications and other disases. Conclusion: Hepatic damage is the most common complication leading to hospitalization in tuberculosis patients using anti-TB drugs. Keywords: Tuberculosis, Anti-TB drug, Live

Correlation between hepatitis B G1896A precore mutations and HBeAg in chronic HBV patients

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is an important health concern worldwide, with critical outcomes. Hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) negative chronic hepatitis B is frequently caused by a mutation (G1896A) in the hepatitis B virus (HBV) precore (PC) reading frame, which creates a stop codon, causing premature termination of the HBe protein. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the G1896A PC mutation and its effect on HBeAg detection in chronic HBV patients. Patients and Methods: In this study, 120 chronic HBV patients neither vaccinated or who had benefited from immunoglobulin therapy, were recruited. The HBV-DNA was extracted from plasma and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed. Positive PCR products were subjected to automated sequencing. The HBV serological markers hepatitis B s antigen (HBsAg), HBeAg were tested. Results: One hundred out of 120 (83.3%) patients were HBeAg negative and 100% were HBsAg positive. The comparison of nucleotide sequences with the reference sequence (Accession number: AB033559) in HBeAg negative patients showed that there was a high rate of mutations in G1896A (93.18%). Conclusions: This study indicates that the rate of G1896A mutation at the PC region among HBeAg negative patients, in the Golestan province of Iran, was similar to the average rate encountered in other parts of Iran. The PC stop codon mutation was detected in 93.18% of HBeAg negative patients. Further studies with larger sample sizes are required to elucidate the exact role of these mutations in the clinical course of chronic HBV infection. © 2015, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences

Group a streptococcal serotypes isolated from healthy schoolchildren in iran

Serotypes of group A streptococci are still a major cause of pharyngitis and some post-infectious sequelae such as rheumatic fever. As part of the worldwide effort to clarify the epidemiological pattern of group A streptococci in different countries, the present study was conducted to assess the prevalence of Streptococcus pyogenes serotypes in Iran. A total of 1588 throat swabs were taken from healthy school children in the city of Gorgan during February and March 1999. Of those isolates, 175 resulted positive for group A streptococci. The distribution pattern was similar for girls and boys, with 10.8 and 11.2, respectively. Urban school children showed a higher rate of colonization compared to those in rural areas. Serotyping was performed on 65 of the positive isolates using standard techniques, and only 21 (32) were M-type isolates. Their profiles fell into four types with M1 predominating, which could reflect the presence of rheumatic fever in the region. However, when isolates were challenged for T-antigen types, nearly all were positive (94). The pattern of T types was diverse (18 types), with the most common T types being T1 (26), TB3264 (15), TB\1-19 & B\25\1-19 (9.2) and T2 & 2\28 (7.7). When isolates were tested for opacity factor, only 23 (35) were positive while 34 (52) responded to the serum opacity reaction test. Although the number of isolates in this study was not sufficient to make any epidemiological conclusions, the scarcity of serotyping studies in Iran could render these data useful for future attempts to develop a streptococcal vaccine

Silica-Supported Yttrium Nitrate Hexahydrate as a Heterogeneous Catalyst for the Synthesis of 2-Amino-4H-Chromenes in Water

Silica-supported yttrium nitrate hexahydrate (Y(NO3)3.6H2O/SiO2) has been found to be an efficient and reusable catalyst for the synthesis of 2-amino-4H-chromenes via a one-pot aqueous three-component reaction between arylaldehydes, malononitrile and â-naphthol in high yields. This method has many appealing attributes such as excellent yields, short reactions time, reusability of the catalyst and simple work-up procedure.KEYWORDS: Silica-supported yttrium nitrate hexahydrate, 2-amino-4H-chromene, malononitrile, arylaldehyde, β-naphthol