مجله دانشکده پزشکی اصفهان
پیاپی 587 (هفته سوم مهر 1399)

We aimed to examine the atherosclerotic patterns of lower limb arteries in patients with diabetes mellitus undergoing angiography in Razi hospital, Rasht, Iran, in 2016.

In this retrospective cross-sectional study, patients with diabetes mellitus underwent angiography in an endovascular surgery center in Razi Hospital in Rasht in 2016, were evaluated. Demographic characteristics, disease-related factors, and angiographic findings were recorded. Proximal Pattern in this study was defined as significant involvement of suprageniculate arteries, and the distal pattern was defined as significant involvement of infrageniculate arteries. The extent of vascular involvement in this study was measured by trans-atlantic inter-society consensus 2 (TASC2) scale.

169 patients were included in this study. 60.9% of the patients were men, and the average age was 64.34 ± 10.26 years. Chief complaint in 58% of the patients was non-healing ulcer (58.0%). 47.3% of the patients had dyslipidemia, 65.1% had hypertension, and 22.5% of them had no other underlying diseases. 24.3% of the patients were smokers. In general, in 62.7% of all patients, the pattern of atherosclerotic involvement was distal. There was no significant relation between atherosclerotic involvement pattern and sex, body mass index (BMI) range, history of renal disease, or dyslipidemia.

The findings showed that the most prevalent pattern of atherosclerotic vascular involvement in patients with diabetes mellitus was distal pattern. There was no significant relationship between atherosclerotic pattern and sex, BMI, history of renal disease, and dyslipidemia.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the calretinin and nitric oxide (NO) immunohistochemical (IHC) staining in ganglionic segment of colon of children with Hirschsprung's disease (HD).

 In a cross-sectional study, 60 children with HD entered the study, and underwent surgery to pull out the bowel from the anus to take biopsy from every 5 cm. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and IHC methods were evaluated, and the results were reported to be poorly positive or severely positive for calretinin. All patients were followed up 1 and 6 months after the operation, and the results were compared between the two groups.

 From 60 children with HD, 14 patients (23.3%) were symptomatic. In 14 symptomatic patients, all colorectal samples from ganglionic segments were negative for NO staining in comparison of placental NO staining as sham group. In the IHC examination, nuclear and cytoplasmic calretinin staining revealed ganglion cells in 52 patients as strongly positive, and weakly positive in 8 patients. Six patients in strongly positive group (11.5%) were symptomatic, while 8 patients whose calretinin staining was reported as weakly stained, had symptoms (P = 0.001). Overall accuracy of prediction of postoperative constipation for calretinin staining was 96.67%.</div>

 According to the findings of our study, it seems that in children with HD who undergo surgery, proximal ganglion immunohistochemical staining may be effective in determining postoperative bowel dysfunction.

Emergence of Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) infection (coronavirus disease-2019 or COVID-19) in China since late 2019 and its global distribution has attracted a big international attention. As 2019-nCov is an emerging pathogen, extending our knowledge about the similarities/differences of this virus with other members of the Coronaviridae family, its genetic characteristics, and pathogenesis could be beneficial to develop better strategies of diagnosis, control, and treatment. This pandemic disease is still so new to be fully identified, and there is a long way ahead for complete characterization of SARS-COV-2 and its disease.

 In this study, we investigated the most recent publications from December 2019 to April 2020 on general and genetic features of SARS-COV-2, evaluating the results with primarily approved data about coronaviruses.

 Genetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 comparing with primarily introduced species indicated high similarity with SARS and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) indicating bat source of the emergence.

 Approving the molecular biologic and pathologic similarities between SARS-CoV-2 and previously studied viruses provides prospective for pathogenesis, therapeutics, and development of vaccines, which is more valuable in emergencies of this new pandemic infection.