ABSTRACT
Introduction: In the last three decades, national twins registries have been developed throughout the world with the aim of studying unique genetic characteristics and the possibility of determining the genotypic effects. This structured information can provide new vision in relation to the causes of diseases and psychological disorders
Method: In this analytic review, all active twins registries around the world were identified and their properties were examined by researchers. Additionally, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct and Google Scholar databases were searched based on our search strategy. Finally, 69 articles related to the aim of study were selected
Results: Thirty founded national twins registries were analyzed in terms of the country, the goal and type of study, time of foundation, methods for information gathering, biobank samples, outcomes and unique characteristics
Conclusion: Considering the valuable results of twins registries in other countries, high potential of production of scientific documents and obtaining valid results and on the other hand, and the presence of more than 1,300,000 existing twins in Iran, developing a national Iranian twins registry and creating a biobank could be lead to creating one of the biggest national twins registries in the world. This, in turn, could be resulted in producing scientific publications in relation to the identification of cause of different diseases and mental disorders
ABSTRACT
Tuberculosis is considered a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. According to the WHO report 9.4 million individuals were suffering from active TB in 2009 [1]. Diagnostic methods for active pulmonary TB include: clinical suspicion, tuberculin skin test, acid fast bacilli stain, cultures for maycobacterium, and in recent years NNA [nucleid acid amplification]. An ideal test for pulmonary active tuberculosis should be easily performed with rapid results, it should have high sensitivity and specificity, low cost,technically easy to operate and reproducible results in a variety of settings, have the possibility of drug-susceptibility testing and could distinguish Mycobacterium tuberculosis from other mycobacteria. Direct smear sputum microscopy is the primary method for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis but it lacks enough sensitivity and only about 44% of all new cases are detected by this method [2]. Culture technique is still seen as the gold standard for active TB. Although, the sensitivity and specificity of culture is high, this method is slow and time consuming and needs special laboratory equipments [3,4,5]. It not only provides the detection of various mycobacterial species but also the examination of drug sensitivity. It also provides the examination of genotype for epidemiological purposes if needed. Nucleic acid amplification tests [NAATs] can be performed in one day. But NAAT are not [fully] standardized and the diagnostic accuracy is highly heterogeneous, and need experienced personnel and expensive equipments