A Review on Serum Level of Vitamin D in Atopic March

Recent studies have reported a relationship between vitamin D and atopic diseases such as asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis, which is due to the recently discovered vitamin D receptors on many immune system cells. Among all atopic diseases, asthma has been studied the most in this regard. However, the role of vitamin D in other atopic diseases such as allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis is a matter of controversy. In this paper, we review the literature on the association between atopic diseases and vitamin D level with a focus on the childhood period. As of today, the role of vitamin D in atopic march is not clear and studies show controversial results. Therefore, further studies with adequate sample sizes and correction for perplexing factors are needed since this could be an innovative treatment in atopic children. It is also advisable to examine high-risk groups of children for vitamin D deficiency. According to the extracted data, vitamin D has a protecting effect against atopic diseases. At the same time, no evidence was found for such an association in some studies, thus, further studies are needed to clarify this issue

Quality of Life in Children with Asthma versus Healthy Children

BACKGROUND: Asthma is the most prevalent chronic disease in the pediatric age group. The disease affects different aspects of the children's lives, such as physical, emotional, social and educational aspects. Thus, more focus has been on the quality of life in these patients rather than the duration of their illness in recent years.AIM: This study examined the different aspects of quality of life in asthmatic children for the first time in this geographic area.METHODS: The study was cross-sectional conducted in 2015-2016. The asthmatic group was 100 patients aged 8 to 12 admitted to the Asthma and Allergy Clinic of Ghaem Hospital (as) in Mashhad with the control group composed of 100 healthy children of the same age and gender. The standard questionnaire pedsQLTM was used for comparing the quality of life of children in the two groups. Statistical analysis was SPSS23 with P-value less than 0.05, which was statistically significant.RESULTS: In each group, 58 patients were boys, and 42 were girls. In a comparison of the quality of life of children, the asthma group with a mean total score of Peds QL 20.99 ± 12.54 compared to the healthy children with a mean total score of Peds QL of 8.8 ± 5.41 had a lower quality of life (P < 0.001). Moreover, regarding various aspects of quality of life asthma group had a lower quality of life in physical performance, emotional performance and performance in school (P < 0.001). Nonetheless, there was no significant difference between the two groups considering social function (P = 0.267). Examining the relationship between Peds QL score of patients with asthma with various variables was indicative of the fact that Peds QL scores were significantly correlated with the gender of the patients, showing better quality of life in the girls (P = 0.001).CONCLUSION: The results indicated that children with asthma have a significantly lower quality of life compared with healthy children of the same age. Also, in examining the different aspects of quality of life, these children had a lower quality of life in physical performance, emotional performance, and performance at school, and were at the level as that of healthy children only in social performance

Family Planning Practice by Patterns of Marriage in the North of Iran

Background: The fertility experience in Iran suggests that the family planning programs had an effective role in the fertility reduction. This study aimed to specify patterns of marriage in Iran and especially in a northern city of Iran and to investigate the association between patterns of marriage and contraceptive use before first pregnancy and current contraceptive use. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, following the implementation of an expert panel in order to investigate marriage patterns, 880 women aged 15-49 yr old, were selected by multistage cluster sampling and completed the "reproductive practices" questionnaire in Babol City, northern Iran, in 2013. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS ver.16 and descriptive and analytical parameters. Results: There are three patterns of marriage in the northern part of Iran: Traditional, Mixed and Modern marriage and between different patterns there is no statistically significant difference in the contraceptive use. Conclusion: According to the lack of significant relationship between patterns of marriage and the contraceptives use, which is one of the proximate determinants of fertility, the policy makers should pay attention to other determinants of fertility in order to manage the problems and implications of population decline in the country

Substance Abuse and its Associated Factors among Pregnant Women: A Cross-Sectional Study in the Southeast of Iran

Background: The data on the prevalence of substance abuse in Iranian pregnant women is scarce in the current literature. This study investigated the prevalence of and the factors associated with substance abuse among pregnant women, and compared self-reported use with urine test results. Methods: This cross-sectional study included data for 2000 pregnant women admitted to a tertiary care hospital in the southeast of Iran. Data were collected on socio-demographic characteristics and the patterns of substance use. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with opiate use. A subsample (200 women) was randomly selected to provide urine samples for toxicological screening. Findings: The lifetime prevalence of substance abuse and tobacco smoking was 15% and 31%, respectively. Overall, 3.3% of the participants reported using at least one substance during the previous month. One third of pregnant women reported using substances as a home remedy for treatment of pregnancy related health problems. Overall, 23% of the urine screening tests were positive. The agreement between self-reported substance abuse and the results of the urine tests was poor. Factors associated with opiates use in pregnant women were age at the first pregnancy of less than 20 years, living in rural areas, unwanted pregnancy, lack of healthcare during pregnancy, and having a spouse and/or first-degree family member with substance abuse. Conclusion: This study showed a high prevalence of substance abuse among the studied women. Thus, a multidisciplinary approach to provide preventive educational programs during pregnancy, and interviews and urinary screening of all pregnant women is recommended

Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency; Case Report

Objective: Leukocyte adhesion deficiency (LAD) disorders, LAD-1 and LAD-2 are rare disease of leukocyte function. LAD-1 results from a lock of leukocyte cell surface expression of b2 integrin molecules (CD11 & CD18) that are essential for leukocyte adhesion to endothelial cells and chemo taxis. Case Presentation: Our patient a 23-month-old male infant was brought with recurrent skin infections. On examination, the infant was pale with multiple scars in his body. Investigations revealed persisting leukocytosis, serum Immunoglobulin profile and complement were normal. Flow cytometry showed decreased in CD11 and CD18 marker of PMN a diagnosis of LAD1 was made. Conclusion: The accompaniment of persistent leukocytosis and recurrent skin infections will guide us to the primary immune deficiency specially leukocyte adhesion deficiency

The Outcomes in Fresh and Frozen-thawed Embryo Transfer Cycles in Infertile Women

Introduction: Along with the expansion of embryo freezing methods, there have been studies comparing the fertility outcomes in two methods of fresh and frozen embryo transfer, which had conflicting results, so the present study was conducted with aim to compare the fertility outcomes between these two techniques. Methods: This retrospective study was performed in 2020 on 1247 infertile couples referring to Dezful Om-Albanin infertility center. A total of 716 couples were studied in the fresh embryo transfer group and 531 couples in the frozen embryo transfer group within ten years. The two groups were compared in terms of age of women and men, history of fertility failure, endometrium thickness, duration of infertility, age of transferred embryos, number of transferred embryos, cause of infertility and fertility outcomes. Data analysis was done by SPSS software (version 21) and chi-square, Fisher’s exact and Mann-Whitney tests. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: In demographic findings, age of women and men, duration of infertility, number of transferred embryos and cause of infertility were not significantly different in two groups (P< 0.05), but history of fertility failure, endometrium thickness and age of transferred embryos showed a significant difference in the two groups (P<0.05). Pregnancy outcomes including chemical and clinical pregnancy, ectopic pregnancy, chemical and clinical abortion, live birth and multiple  did not show significant difference in the two groups (P<0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that in terms of pregnancy outcomes, there is no significant difference between the two groups of frozen and fresh embryo transfer

Autoantibody Profile in Systemic Sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis is a generalized disorder of connective tissue clinically characterized by thickening and fibrosis of the skin and by distinctive forms of involvement of internal organs. One of the hallmarks of systemic sclerosis is the presence of serum autoantibodies against a variety of nuclear and cytoplasmic antigens. The primary purpose of this study was to identify the autoantibodies profile in the scleroderma sera and the secondary goal was to determine the correlation and discrepancy of autoantibody profile. Autoantibody profile was determined in 118 samples stored in the Advanced Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of Calgary. 78 sera were provided from Canadian and 40 sera were provided from Ukraine. We used the following techniques to identify autoantibodies profile in scleroderma patients: 1. Antinuclear antibody (ANA) by indirect immunofluorescence on human epithelial cell substrate 2. Detection and identification of specific autoantibodies by Innolia strip assay 3. Detection and identification of specific autoantibodies against extractable nuclear antigens. 111 out of 118 patients showed positive ANA results by indirect immunofluorescence and 7 patients had negative ANA results. Anti-ENA analyses by Inolia were positive in 84 patients, while by western blotting 81 patients showed positive results. In this study, we compared the results of anti-ENA antibody by Innolia with SLR technique. A significant correlation was found between anti-SCl-70 antibodies (P=0.000) and anti- RNP antibodies (P=0.001) and JO-1 antibodies (P=0.014). Thus, we may propose that SLR and Innolia techniques could be used for the detection of autoantibody in systemic sclerosis