ABSTRACT
Objective:To study the neurological symptoms of psoriasis patients who used infliximab. Methods: We studied psoriasis patients who used infliximab in two referral general hospitals in Tehran from January 2013 to January 2014. We completed neurological symptoms checklists by questioning the patients. Results: Sixty patients with psoriasis were included in this study. Among them, 3 patients had sensory symptoms as side effect and one patient showed motor symptoms as side effect. There was no statistically significant difference between age, gender, and session count with the sensory and motor side effects (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Neurological symptoms can be detected among 6% of patients under treatment with infliximab and there is no significant association between symptoms and gender, duration of drug use as well as age.
ABSTRACT
Objective: To identify the frequency of syphilis among Iranian HIV-positive patients. Methods:A cross-sectional study on the prevalence of syphilis and HIV co-infection among 450 patients diagnosed with HIV infection was conducted between 2004 and 2008 at Imam Khomeini hospital, Tehran, Iran. The lab tests including CD4 cell count, cerebrospinal fluid, veneral disease research laboratory (VDRL), fluorescent treponema antibody-absorption (FTA-Abs) and viral load were performed for all the patients. Data regarding medical history and their demographics were also collected. Results: Of all 450 HIV-positive patients, 24 (5.3%) had a positive VDRL test and only two men had a FTA-Abs positive test which means 0.45% of them had a definite co-infection of syphilis. 65.3% of the HIV-positive patients were injection drug users that the co-infection prevalence of them was 0.7%. We did not find any patient with neurosyphilis. Conclusions: Considering the increasing prevalence of HIV and also extensive use of highly active antiretroviral therapy in developing nations, the diagnosis of syphilis should be timely established using screening tests among such patients.