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Background: In addition to numerous general health problems, drug dependents manifest various oral health disorders. Our aim was to investigate the oral health status and its determinants among in-treatment opiate dependents. Methods: As part of a comprehensive cross-sectional survey on opiate dependents admitted to methadone maintenance centers in Tehran, Iran, we conducted a clinical study in two centers from different socioeconomic areas. A trained dentist conducted face to face interviews and clinical oral examinations based on World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for Decayed, Missing, Filled Teeth (DMFT) index and Community Periodontal Index (CPI) on volunteer patients. Student’s t-test, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis, and Chi2 tests, in addition to linear and logistic regression models served for statistical analysis (p

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HDV infection between HBV chronic patients referred to gastroenterology ward of Taleghani hospital Tehran, Iran and also investigating the risk factors in acquiring the HDV infection. Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Hepatitis D virus (HDV) are major public health issues. Worldwide there are approximately 350 million individuals chronically infected with the HBV. A significant part of them, including 15 to 20 million coinfected with HDV. Hepatitis Delta virus is transferred mostly through blood and body fluids. Patients and Methods: HBV and HDV infections were evaluated by Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Liver functional tests were assessed through auto analyzer. Patients were interviewed and data along the test results were entered into SPSS program. We used chi-square, independent t-test and logistic regression for statistical analysis. Results: 278 (54.6%) patients of the study group were male and 231 (45.4%) were female and the mean age of patients was 40.03 ± 14.93. From 509 patients, 39(7.7%) had anti-HDV antibody. In a uni-variable analysis, age (p=0.001), periodontal procedures (p=0.015), endoscopy (p=0.024) and colonoscopy (p=0.012) were significantly related to HDV seropositivity. After adjustment by logistic regression, age remained the only significant factor in acquiring HDV infection. Conclusion: We highly recommend the health care workers to strictly follow the disinfection protocols of medical instruments. Since HDV seroprevalence changes over time, regular epidemiological studies are necessary to monitor the epidemiological trend of infection.

Aim Since data about prevalence of JC virus in Iranian population is scarce, this study was designed to evaluate the prevalence of JC virus in healthy individuals who had attended Fajr hospital and Farjam clinical laboratory in Tehran, Iran. Background JC virus is the causative agent of progressive multifocal encephalopathy (PML) in individuals with suppressed immune system. There are some evidences that this virus is responsible for some forms of cancers for example colorectal and gastric cancers in humans. Patients and methods Urine samples from 133 healthy individuals older than 18 years old were collected and after extraction of viral DNA, PCR was performed to determine the presence of virus. Results of the test and demographic data of subjects were entered into SPSS program and were analyzed by it. Results 71 subjects were male and 62 individuals were female. Mean age of the population was 42.23 ± 13.47. From the total number of 133 subjects, 51 (38.3%) individuals were positive for the presence of JC virus. Gender had statistically significant relationship with JC virus presence (p= 0.042). Age was not significantly related to JC virus presence status (p= 0.3). Conclusion Obtained rate of JC prevalence in this study is similar to the results of studies in India and Philippine. Because of this virus's role in AIDS and the role of this virus in gastrointestinal cancers have been revealed in recent years, the more extended studies on the prevalence of this virus in different populations in Iran is necessary.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) has an inhibitory role in homeostasis of T-cell response and regulatory T cells and regulation of immune response against viral infections. Codon 10 of protein is located in the signal peptide and involved in secretion of cytokine. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of leu-pro polymorphism of codon 10 and hepatitis C susceptibility in patients.METHODS: This case-control study was performed on 112 chronic hepatitis C patients and 122 healthy control subjects. TGF-β1 gene was amplified with PCR method and genotypes were determined using Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) with MspA1I restriction enzyme.FINDINGS: The frequency of CT genotype in both groups was higher than CC and TT. Genotyping results for CC, CT and TT states in patients was 50%, 19.6% and 30.4% and in healthy controls was 59%, 13.9% and 27.1% respectively. We found no significant difference between patients and healthy controls according to codon 10 polymorphism. CONCLUSION: According to the results of this study, no relationship was found between this protein’s genetic variations and chronic hepatitis C infection susceptibility.

Elevated serum level of bilirubin is a common manifestation which is occurred in several diseases. Hyperbilirubinemia can manifest either conjugated or unconjugated. Conjugated or direct hyperbilirubinemia usually are caused by hepatocellular diseases or cholestatic liver diseases. Merely conjugated hyperbilirubinemia is the main manifestation of two congenital syndromes, including Dubin-Johnson and rotor syndrome; however it can be seen in some patients with recurrent benign intrahepatic cholestasis. This article reports a patient with Dubin- Johuson syndrome as a benign and rare condition.

Introduction: Molecular and cellular research is one of the important aspects for the development of novel treatment modalities in tumor management. A high recurrence rate has been observed after vestibular schwannoma surgery. Thus, an intraoperative method for exact border definition and distinction[for full text, please go to the a.m. URL], 85. Jahresversammlung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie

In previous studies, mebudipine, a dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker, showed a considerable potential to be used in cardiovascular diseases. The aim of the current study was to develop a valid method using reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry to assay mebudipine in the human plasma. Separation was achieved on a Zorbax Eclipse(®) C18 analytical column using a mobile phase consisted of methanol/water (90:10, v/v). The flow rate was 0.6 mL/min and carbamazepine was used as an internal standard (IS). This method involved the use of [M +Na](+) ions of mebudipine and IS at m/z 411 and 259, respectively with the selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. There were no interfering peaks from endogenous components in blank plasma chromatograms. Standard curves were linear (r(2)0.99) between 5 to 100 ng/mL. The mean extraction efficiency was about 84% and the limit of quantification for mebudipine was 5 ng/mL in plasma. The coefficient of variation and error at all of the intra-day and inter-day assessments were less than 11%. The results indicated that this method is a fast, accurate, sensitive, selective and reliable method for the determination of mebudipine in the human plasma. The assay method has been successfully used to estimate plasma concentration of mebudipine after the oral administration of 2.5 mg tablet in healthy adults.

Metabolome analysis is used to evaluate the characteristics and interactions of low molecular weight metabolites under a specific set of conditions. In cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatotic hepatitis (NASH) the liver does not function thoroughly due to long-term damage. Unfortunately the early detection of cirrhosis, HCC, NAFLD and NASH is a clinical problem and determining a sensitive, specific and predictive novel method based on biomarker discovery is an important task. On the other hand, metabolomics has been reported as a new and powerful technology in biomarker discovery and dynamic field that cause global comprehension of system biology. In this review, it has been collected a heterogeneous set of metabolomics published studies to discovery of biomarkers in researches to introduce diagnostic biomarkers for early detection and the choice of patient-specific therapies.

Objective: To determine the role of global genome methylation in gastritis lesionand its relation with clinicopathologic finding.Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on 44 gastritis and normaladjacent specimens using a technique composed of restriction enzyme digestionand pyrosequencing known as LUMA (LUminometric Methylation Assay). Atfirst, DNA extracted from gastritis lesion and normal tissue was digested withHpaII (sensitive to methylation in recognition site) and MspI (insensitive). Theseenzymes leave an overhang after cutting which are then filled in a polymerase extensionassay with stepwise addition of dNTPs using pyrosequencing. The comparisonof the height of picks obtained form both enzymes provides the possibilityto evaluate and compare global genome methylation level of normal and gastritistissues. If the target site is fully methylated, the HpaII /MspI will approach towardzero .If not, this ratio will go around one. In the other conditions the ratio variesbetween 0-1.Results: According to our findings, gastritis tissue was significantly more hypomethylated(p=0.04) than the nornal tissue and Global genome methylation had nocorrelation with sex, age, microsatellite instability (MSI) and gastritis severity.Conclusion: Global DNA hypomethylation occurs in the gastritis lesion. Presumablythe process of hypomethylation keeps falling in the next steps leading togastric cancer.