سیده سپیده حسینی

Prolonged labor increases adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes. Very few interventions are known to shorten labor duration. The present study was performed with aim to evaluate the effect of intravenous dextrose-saline infusion compared with intravenous normal saline infusion on the duration of the active phase of labor in nulliparous women.

In this double-blind randomized clinical trial (blinding of patients and data analyst), which was performed in 2020-2021, 60 nulliparous women in the active phase of labor who had referred to the teaching hospitals of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences were randomized by block randomization method and allocated to two groups of receiving normal saline at a rate of 150cc per hour and dextrose at 5% saline at the same rate. The primary outcome was evaluating the duration of the active phase of the labor. Secondary outcomes included the duration of second phase of labor and the rate of cesarean section, maternal and neonatal outcomes. Data analysis was performed using SPSS statistical software (version 25) and Chi-square tests and Fisher's exact test. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

The basic variables were similar in the two groups. The active phase of labor and the second stage of labor was statistically lower in saline dextrose compared to the normal saline group (P<0.001). There was no significant difference between the two groups in the rate of cesarean section, the need for oxytocin, maternal complications, first and fifth minutes Apgar score, neonatal complications and the need for NICU (P> 0.05).

It seems that the use of dextrose-containing solutions in nulliparous women during labor shortens the duration of labor compared to normal saline.

Thyroid masses are one of the most common reasons for patients to visit endocrinology clinics. Fine needle aspiration (FNA) is used to reduce thyroid surgery for benign lesions. This study was done to determine the diagnostic accuracy of FNA of thyroid mass(s) compared with histological results in Medical Centers, Gorgan, Iran.

In this descriptive-analytical study, 102 patients (12 males and 90 females) were diagnosed with a thyroid mass and referred for surgery to Medical Centers, Gorgan, Iran during 2020-21. FNA was performed, and the samples were sent to the pathology department for examination. The result of cytology was recorded in the checklist. According to cytology results, some patients were referred for surgery. Then, the surgical pathology results were compared with the cytology findings. In addition, the sensitivity and specificity of the results of the cytology of thyroid masses were calculated compared to the results of pathology.

FNA, mass size, and the patient’s main complaint had a significant relationship with histological results (P<0.05). According to FNA findings compared to pathology, sensitivity was 74%, specificity was 88.1%, positive predictive value was 88.1%, negative predictive value was 74%, false positive rate was 12%, false negative rate was 26%, and accuracy was 80.4%.

FNA remains a key tool in evaluating thyroid nodule(s). Improving FNA techniques is necessary to increase the accuracy of FNA.