سید محمد جزائری

In order to prevent the further spread of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, there is a need to develop rapid and reliable diagnostic tests. Given that there is currently no effective antiviral drug for COVID-19, the most important current strategy is to identify patients as soon as possible. Therefore, scientists and researchers are conducting experiments for rapid detection of asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19, to control and prevention of this epidemic. Although some aspects of the structural and molecular characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 are unknown, various strategies for the correct diagnosis of COVID-19 have been proposed by research laboratories and medical companies, some of which are presented in the present study. According to studies, rapid antigen and antibody tests, immunoenzymatic serological tests, and RT‑PCR-based molecular tests are the most widely used and valid diagnostic methods worldwide. In addition to these common methods, other methods include; techniques based on nucleic acid isothermal amplification, CRISPR/Cas based methods, new generation sequencing (NGS) techniques and biosensors are used in research fields to identify SARS-CoV-2. In the present study, the recent technologies and techniques of various research institutes, as well as devices and commercial kits produced by companies for the diagnosis of COVID-19 are presented, so that familiarity with these efficient diagnostic methods is an important step in advancing scientific goals.

Regarding the reported abnormalities in the immune system of people with autism, it is likely that these people do not respond appropriately to the hepatitis B vaccine or do not become immune to the hepatitis B virus following the injection of hepatitis B vaccine. There is no information available on the quality and response of the hepatitis B vaccine in children with autism. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of primary hepatitis B vaccine in children with autism in preventing of hepatitis B 3-15 years after primary vaccination and investigate the of HBs-Ab waning along with age and the existence of an immune memory against hepatitis B vaccine in these children compared with the healthy control child as contrl.

Total 254 HBsAg-negative objective with ages between 3-15years. from ASD and normal population were recruited, HBV seromarkers (HBc-Ab & HBs-Ag & HBs-Ab) were assessed and subsequently, molecular tests were employed on all subjects for detection of hepatitis B virus DNA in the serum samples and positive cases were investigated for mutations in the HBs-Ag coding region. A booster dose of vaccine was injected for those who showed low levels (<10 mIU/mL) of anti-HBs and their antibody levels was measured 4 weeks afterwards.

The mean ages for ASD and control groups were 7.14±2.42 and 8.68±1.96 respectively. In ASD group 7 (6.5%) of children were positive for anti-HBc and one child was positive for occult hepatitis B infection (HBsAg negative, HBV DNA positive). From the normal control group, nobody was found to be positive for this parameter. There was no mutation in the HBS-Ag coding region. In ASD and Control groups 49.6% had low anti-HBs levels (HBs-Ab < 10 mIU/mL), One month After injection of a booster dose for all children with low antibody, 100% of ASD and 92% (59 of 64) of control pupils contained >10 mIU/mL of antibody, respectively. In both groups, the HBs-Ab titer increased similarly in response to the booster injection (P<0.05).

According results, vaccine-induced immunity should be checked until puberty and thereafter. Despite previous investigations regarding immune impairment in individuals with autism, the immune system of these individuals was able to manage the hepatitis B vaccine challenge.

Considering the increasing number of musculoskeletal disorders, insufficiency of current assessment tools, and successful reports about SMFA (short musculoskeletal function assessment) questionnaire in evaluating and assessing these disorders, this study was designed.

The original questionnaire was in English. At first, SMFA was translated to Farsi and then back to English. Then the questionnaire was evaluated for validity and reliability, regarding content validity, visual validity and concurrent validity. For concurrent validity, the SF-36 health survey which had been translated to Farsi and had been adapted to Iranian culture was used.

326 patients (56.77% male) with mean age of 51±16 years contributed in this study. The translation to Farsi and back to English was done successfully. The content validity was assessed by 20 orthopedic surgeons and was approved. Simplicity and clearance was evaluated by physicians and patients and was confirmed. Also visual validity was confirmed by the same group. Concurrent validity was 0.91 and in subscales was 0.89-0.93 (p<0.001). ‍

A reliable and valid Farsi version of the SMFA was developed. It will facilitate assessing functional performance within a large patient population and allows cross-cultural comparisons.