ابوالقاسم رحیم دل

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease of central nervous system. Lack of regulation in inflammatory responses is considered to be a key element in the auto reactive immune response in MS. The FOXP3 transcription factor is predominantly expressed by the Treg cell lineage and appears to act as a master regulator of effector T cell activation. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the possible association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the FOXP3 gene and predisposition to MS. This case-control study consisted of 115 MS patients and 115 healthy controls, which were genotyped for the SNP rs 3761549. RFLP analysis was performed using AluI restriction enzyme. The frequency of A allele was 15.6% in patients and 98.3% in normal controls (p=0.33). Moreover, allele G was identified as 98.1% in MS cases and 11.3 in controls. The rs 3761549(GG) was found in 84.3% of MS patients and in 88.7% of controls (p=0.33), rs 3761549 (AA) was found in 0.9% of MS cases and in 1.7% of controls (p=0.5), rs 3761549 (AG) was observed in 84.4% of MS cases and in 88.7% of controls (p=0.27). No significant difference was observed between patients and controls in regard with alleles and genotypes. The results of the present study suggest that the mentioned functional polymorphism is not likely to cause susceptibility to MS.(OR= 0.678 95% CI= 1.477-0.0319)

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common psychiatric disorder that 16. 2 of population in developed countries experience it at least once in their lifetime; it is a major cause of social disability according to WHO reports. This study was designed to compare the efficacy of fluvoxamine and sertraline in treating major depressive disorder.

During this randomized clinical trial، 110 patients with certain diagnosis of major depressive disorder were divided in two parallel groups: fluvoxamine 200 mg daily and sertraline 100 mg daily. Beck test was done before and after intervention and the data were analyzed by chi-square and independent-sample t tests.

58 patients (52. 72%) received fluvoxamine and 52 (47. 28%) received sertraline. Fluvoxamine had better therapeutic effects than sertraline (P = 0. 002). Although، women (P = 0. 007) and age group of 43-67 years (P = 0. 015) had better response to fluvoxamine.

According to current findings، it is recommended that gender and age group be noticed in administrating the selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI) drugs in patients with major depressive disorder.

Thymoma is the most common neoplasm of anterior mediastinum with incidence peaks during the fourth, fifth and sixth decades of life. Two-thirds of patients are asymptomatic and identified accidentally by chest x-rays . Of the total, 40-70 % of patients have one or more parathymic syndromes of which Myasthenia Gravis (MG) is the most common and reported in 10-50% . Gullain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) has not been reporterd as a parathymic presentation in present literature. We report a 37 years old woman who presented with GBS after thymoma resection. There is one question: Is there any association between thymoma and GBS or is it a complication of surgery (thymectomy)?

Even though there is a high prevalence of carpal tunnel syndrome patients, there are very few reliable papers on the study of normal values and changes in sensory and motor latency parameters of the median nerve in the wrist region on the basis of age of patients .This retrospective study was on the basis of 5 years data (1998 -2003) from the electro diagnostic department of Sh. Sadoughi teaching hospital of Yazd.

In this analytic and observational study, subjects included 1200 patients referring to the electrodiagnostic clinic and also randomly selected healthy patients. Exclusion criteria included systemic diseases such as diabetes, radiculopathy of cervical spine , peripheral neuropathy , positive Phallen test or Tinel sign and atrophy in the thenar region of the hand. Subjects were divided to ten groups on the basis of age. ( 10-80 years ) Sensory and motor latency parameters of median nerve were studied in each age group. All data was evaluated using SPSS statistical software and ANOVA , LSDREST curve regression tests were used for analysis. All values less than 0.05 were considered significant.

In this study, normal values for distal motor latency of median nerve were between 2.5-4.2ms with a ±2SD and mean value of 3.3ms. Increment in this value was mild (0.1ms per decade) after 5th decade of life. This value was calculated using the formula: Distal motor latency: Normal value for distal sensory latency of median nerve was 2.7-3.7ms with a ±2SD and mean value of 3.2ms. Increment in this value also was 0.1ms per decade after 5th decade of life. This value was calculated by the formula: Distal sensory latency:

It seems that age has a meaningful relationship with distal motor and sensory latencies in the wrist region and therefore in the future, electro diagnostic evaluation along with other increments in these parameters according to age should be considered when evaluating patients with carpal tunnel syndrome.