[Neonatal screening of congenital toxoplasmosis. Prospective study]

While toxoplasmosis infection in women is often benign, transmission of maternal infection to the fetus can lead to severe sequelae. Because the majority of patients with acute toxoplasmosis are asymptomayic, a systematic serologic screening program will needed with monthly serologic screening of all seronegative pregnant women until delivery. The aim of this study was to identify cases of congenital toxoplasmosis among all live births of women found to be seronegative in pregnancy once at least. During a prospective study period of 16 months [from 07/02/2003 to 30/06/2004] we conduct a neonatal screening of all live births of women found to be seronegative in pregnancy once at least. Peripheral samples were obtained from every couple mother/ infant. Serological methods performed for diagnosis of toxoplasma specific IgM and IgG antibodies were Hemaglutination and Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA]. Four cases of congenital toxoplasmosis were diagnosed after birth. All cases were asymptomatic and a specific treatment was started soon after diagnosis. The clinical and serologic evolution was normal in three cases. A serologic rebound at two years was reported in one case with a chorioretinitis in the examination of the ocular fundus. Neonatal as well maternal screening during pregnancy and at birth should be systematic to prevent, diagnose and treat early the affected neonates usually asymptomatic

Study of the P53 gene expression by immunohistochemistry in patients with gastric cancer at 5th azar hospital in Gorgan, Iran

Background and Purpose: P53 gene is a tumor suppressive gene and its product, P53 protein, is a protective factor against tumor formation that inhibits the extension of genetically damaged cells. P53 aggregation in tumoral cell nucleus is related with p53 gene mutations, which can be detected by immunohistochemical methods. This study was designed to investigate the protein aggregation in patients with gastric cancer in Gorgan, Iran

Methods and materials: All paraffin-embedded blocks of gastric cancer cases during the years 2000 to 2004 in the pathology ward of the 5th Azar Hospital in Gorgan, Iran [111 cases altogether] were evaluated and stained, for detecting microtome cutting. The obtained data were entered into SPSS and chisquare was used for analysis

Results: 111 cases with gastric cancer were investigated. The most frequent type of gastric tumor was adenocarcinoma [66.7%]. In 59.5% of the affected cases, P53 protein was detected. No significant relationship was observed between P53 expression and factors such as age, gender, and histological type of the tumor

Conclusions: In this study, P53 protein rate was high but it showed no significant relationship with other variables. We suggest further studies to discover the relationship between protein aggregation in tumor cells and other variables in affected cases