A systematic review and meta-analysis on incidence of prostate cancer in Iran

Background: Prostate cancer is a global health concern. In Iran, its epidemiology is not precisely recognized. We aimed to evaluate incidence of prostate cancer among Iranian populations. Methods: In this systematic review, we searched the databases PubMed, Web of Sciences, Scopus and Google Scholar for English studies and the databases Magiran, Scientific Information Database, IranMedex and IranDoc for Persian studies, using related keywords. The cross-sectional articles published from inception to 31 December 2018 were included. Meta-analysis was conducted on the collected data with STATA software using random effects model. Results: Out of 763 articles initially obtained, 9 articles were finally included after applying the predefined exclusion criteria. Analysis of 9 studies on the incidence of prostate cancer showed a crude rate of 7.1 per 100 000 population (95 confidence interval CI: 5.6-8.6). Also, the pooled age-standardized incidence rate was 8.7 per 100 000 (95% CI: 6.7-10.4). Studies performed in the period 2004-2012 had significantly a higher pooled estimate of the crude incidence rate (9.2 per 100 000 95% CI: 7.9-10.4) compared with those conducted in the period 1996-2003 (4.5 per 100 000 95% CI: 2.8-6.2). This trend was also observed based on the age-standardized incidence rate (11 per 100 000 95% CI: 9.4-12.5 versus 6.3 per 100 000 95% CI: 4-8.5). Conclusion: Despite low rate of prostate cancer occurrence in Iran, it is recommended that preventive measures be taken against this disease by health policy makers. Also, more epidemiological studies are needed to better find out the pattern of prostate cancer among Iranian populations. © 2019 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Home birth and barriers to referring women with obstetric complications to hospitals: a mixed-methods study in Zahedan, southeastern Iran

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>One factor that contributes to high maternal mortality in developing countries is the delayed use of Emergency Obstetric-Care (EmOC) facilities. The objective of this study was to determine the factors that hinder midwives and parturient women from using hospitals when complications occur during home birth in Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran, where 23% of all deliveries take place in non- hospital settings.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In the study and data management, a mixed-methods approach was used. In the quantitative phase, we compared the existing health-sector data with World Health Organization (WHO) standards for the availability and use of EmOC services. The qualitative phase included collection and analysis of interviews with midwives and traditional birth attendants and twenty-one in-depth interviews with mothers. The data collected in this phase were managed according to the principles of qualitative data analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The findings demonstrate that three distinct factors lead to indecisiveness and delay in the use of EmOC by the midwives and mothers studied. Socio-cultural and familial reasons compel some women to choose to give birth at home and to hesitate seeking professional emergency care for delivery complications. Apprehension about being insulted by physicians, the necessity of protecting their professional integrity in front of patients and an inability to persuade their patients lead to an over-insistence by midwives on completing deliveries at the mothers' homes and a reluctance to refer their patients to hospitals. The low quality and expense of EmOC and the mothers' lack of health insurance also contribute to delays in referral.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Women who choose to give birth at home accept the risk that complications may arise. Training midwives and persuading mothers and significant others who make decisions about the value of referring women to hospitals at the onset of life-threatening complications are central factors to increasing the use of available hospitals. The hospitals must be safe, comfortable and attractive environments for parturition and should give appropriate consideration to the ethical and cultural concerns of the women. Appropriate management of financial and insurance-related issues can help midwives and mothers make a rational decision when complications arise.</p

Biallelic variants in ZNF142 lead to a syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder.

Biallelic variants of the gene encoding for the zinc-finger protein 142 (ZNF142) have recently been associated with intellectual disability (ID), speech impairment, seizures, and movement disorders in nine individuals from five families. In this study, we obtained phenotype and genotype information of 26 further individuals from 16 families. Among the 27 different ZNF142 variants identified in the total of 35 individuals only four were missense. Missense variants may give a milder phenotype by changing the local structure of ZF motifs as suggested by protein modeling; but this correlation should be validated in larger cohorts and pathogenicity of the missense variants should be investigated with functional studies. Clinical features of the 35 individuals suggest that biallelic ZNF142 variants lead to a syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder with mild to moderate ID, varying degrees of delay in language and gross motor development, early onset seizures, hypotonia, behavioral features, movement disorders, and facial dysmorphism. The differences in symptom frequencies observed in the unpublished individuals compared to those of published, and recognition of previously underemphasized facial features are likely to be due to the small sizes of the previous cohorts, which underlines the importance of larger cohorts for the phenotype descriptions of rare genetic disorders

A Rare Case of Intravesical Foreign Body(Pencil): A Case Report

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The presence of foreign body in the bladder is a rare occurrence, which is often caused by the exposure of the individual him- or herself, or remaining part of the catheter, and the migration of medical equipment from adjacent organs or by a penetrating wound. Here is a case of a pencil in the bladder of a woman with mental retardation. CASE REPORT: The patient is a 34-year-old woman who referred to a gynecologist with vague symptoms of abdominal and lower abdominal pain and a foreign body was detected in ultrasound on bladder. The patient was then referred to a urologist. There was no noteworthy point in the radiography. Computed tomography (CT) of the abdomen and pelvis was performed to confirm the nature, shape and position of the probable foreign body, and a 71 mm long object was observed. The patient then underwent cystoscopy and finally, after observation of the foreign body (which was a pencil), the pencil tip was fractured by a mechanical crusher and through the hole created in the tip of the pencil, it was held by a grasper and was removed longitudinally. The patient was discharged with oral antibiotics. The symptoms were resolved and the patient had no complaints in the follow-up. CONCLUSION: Considering the case reported here, it is necessary to examine abdominal and pelvic pain or urinary symptoms (even nonspecific ones) in people with mental retardation in terms of the presence of foreign body in the bladder and pelvis

Assessment of visibility and extension rate of incisive branch of the inferior alveolar nerve in cone beam computed tomography imagings

Background and Objective: Many surgeries are performed on anterior region of mandible. Incisive branch of the inferior alveolar nerve is located in the anterior region of mandible. The identification of various form of nerve is important for diagnosis and treatment plan. This study was carried out to the assessment of visibility and extension rate of incisive branch of the inferior alveolar nerve in cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) imagings. Methods: This descriptive – analytic study was performed on 105 CBCT images. The presences or absence of incisive branch of the inferior alveolar nerve and assessment of visibility and extension rate of mandibular incisive canal were studied. Results: In 79% extension of the incisive branch of the inferior alveolar nerve were observed. 18.07% of extensions were observed in one-side and 78.31% were bilateral. Extension of the incisive branch of the inferior alveolar nerve was observed to central, lateral and canine tooth in 59%, 26.5% and 14.5% respectively. There was no significant relation beween gender and age of subjects with extension of the incisive branch of the inferior alveolar nerve. Conclusion: Regarding the high visibility of the incisive nerve branches in the lower dental CBCT images this method can be used to evaluate the anterior region of mandible

Relationship Between The Breast Cancer History And Prostate Cancer In Relatives With Prostate Cancer

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The family history of breast and prostatism cancer is a risk factor for prostate cancer. Considering the common pathogens for prostate and breast cancers, the aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the patient's prostate cancer and their first and second-class relatives with the history of breast cancer. METHODS: This case-control study was conducted on 300 patients who underwent biopsy in Shahid Beheshti hospital due to prostate enlargement. Patients were divided into two groups based on biopsy: a) prostate cancer in case group and benign prostate enlargement in control group. Additional information of the first and second-class relatives of patients was collected in the checklist and evaluated. The patients (150 control, 150 experimental) were selected using simple sampling method. The experimental and control groups who underwent biopsy suffered from prostate cancer and benign prostate enlargement, respectively. Additional information was collected in the checklist and evaluated for patients in the first and second grade families. FINDINGS: The mean age of patients was 72.17±9.788 and 70.01±9.921 in case and control group, respectively. The frequency of breast cancer in the family of patients with prostate cancer and healthy persons was 16 (59.3%) and 11 (40.3%), respectively and the frequency of prostate cancer was 26(17.3%) and 2(1.3%), respectively (p <0.001). The frequency of breast cancer was greater in first than second grade familie in both groups. In both groups, the history of breast cancer was higher in patients older than 40 years. CONCLUSION: The results of the study indicated that the frequency of prostate cancer is probably higher if the first and second-class relatives affect with prostate cancer than breast cancer

Evaluation of the Anatomical Relationship between the Mandibular Canal and Roots of Third Molars Using Cone-beam Computed Tomography (CBCT)

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Injury to the inferior alveolar nerve during extraction of mandibular third molars is one of the serious complications after surgery. Therefore, the precise localization of IAN in relation to the third molar is one of the critical issues before extraction of this tooth. The aim of this study was to evaluate the position of mandibular canal in the mandible and its relation to the roots of the third molar using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) in a selected Iranian population. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, the CBCT images of 168 patients (214 mandibular third molars) were evaluated. The position of the mandibular canal in the mandible (lingual, central, buccal) and the position of the mandibular canal with respect to the root apex (lingually, centrally and buccally), were recorded. FINDINGS: Mandibular canals were located lingually in 68.5% of cases, centrally in 27.3% of cases, and buccally in 4.2% of cases(p<0.001). Also, of 355 third molar roots evaluated, 5.4% were located lingually, 26.5% centrally, and 68.2% buccally with respect to the mandibular canal (p<0.001). Furthermore, the position of the mandibular canal in relation to the mesial and distal roots of third molars with separate roots (141 teeth) was different in 25 cases. CONCLUSION: Considering the results of this study that in most cases the mandibular canal is not in line with the roots of third molars, the use of three-dimensional imaging techniques such as CBCT is essential to the investigation of the relationship between the mandibular canal and the roots of this tooth

A Study of Dentists’ Knowledge about Dental Radiology Principles

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The use of dental radiography is inevitable in order for disease diagnosis, assessment and monitoring. Radiogeraphy is potentially harmful due to the use of ionizing radiation. This study was conducted to evaluate dentists&rsquo; knowledge about the principles of dental radiology. &nbsp;METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed on 600 general dentists willing to cooperate with this study in Amol, Noor, Mahmoodabad and Sari cities located in Mazandaran province, Iran, in 2014. All the data were obtained by means of a questionnaire. The questionnaire included two parts the first part surveyed demographic information, and the second part included 11 items about radiographic technique and equipments. FINDINGS: 500 questionnaires were completed. Among the surveyed population, 335 (67%) and 165 (33%) dentists were male and female, respectively. The mean of practical experiences was 12.35&plusmn;6.68 years. 469 dentists (93.8%) used the dental X-ray machine with digital timer and 404 dentist (80.8%) used the dental X-ray machine with long cone tube. Additionally, 470(94%) X-ray machine had round. Generally, 367 (73.4%) and 374 (74.8%) dentists used bisecting technique and E-speed films, respectively. Also, annual calibration of X-ray devices was suggested by 416 (83.2%) dentists. CONCLUSION: According to our study, dentists&rsquo; knowledge about the dental radiography principles was fair