Parathyroid hormone measurement in prediction of hypocalcaemia following thyroidectomy

To determine the risk of postthyroidectomy hypocalcaemia by measuring parathyroid hormone [PTH] level after thyroidectomy. Cross-sectional study. Baqiyatallah Hospital, Tehran, Iran, from March 2008 to July 2010. All included patients were referred for total or near bilateral thyroidectomy. Serum Calcium [Ca] and PTH levels were measured before and 24 hours after surgery. In low Ca cases or development of hypocalcaemia symptoms, daily monitoring of Ca levels were continued. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20 software [SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA]. A p-value less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. To assess the standard value of useful predictive factors, we used receiver operating characteristic [ROC] curves. Of total 99 patients who underwent bilateral thyroidectomy, 47 patients [47.5%] developed hypocalcaemia, out of them, 12 [25.5%] became symptomatic while 2 patients developed permanent hypoparathyroidism. After surgery, mean rank of PTH level within the normocalcaemic and hypocalcaemic patients was 55.34 and 44.1 respectively, p=0.052. Twenty four hours after surgery, 62% drop in PTH was associated with 83.3% of symptomatic hypocalcaemic. For diagnosis of symptomatic hypocalcaemia, 62% PTH drop had sensitivity and specificity were 83.3% and 90.80%. The area under the ROC curve for the PTH postoperative and PTH drop for diagnostic symptomatic hypocalcaemia were 0.835 and 0.873 respectively. Measuring PTH levels after 24 hours postthyroidectomy is not reliable factor for predicting hypocalcaemia itself. For predicting the risk of hypocalcaemia after thyroidectomy it is more reliable to measure the serum PTH level before and after operation and compare the reduction level of percentage of PTH drop for predicting the risk of hypocalcaemia

[Knowledge and attitude concerning first aid and community education strategies among university student volunteers of Iranian Red Crescent's Society, 2007]

First aid education constitutes a major priority area for the Iranian Red Crescent. The present study assesses student volunteers' knowledge of first aid procedures and their attitudes concerning strategies for community education. This survey involved 5287 volunteers selected by simple random sampling in 6 different provinces of Iran. Statistical analysis, based on a complex sampling design, was performed with the Stata 8.0 software package. At the time of the study, 3736 subjects [63.8%] were members of the Red Crescent and the remaining students worked in the Freelance section. A total of 3736 students [70.6%] had attended the Red Crescent's first aid training courses. The mean knowledge score of the sample was estimated at 8.53 out of a maximum of 18 [CI[0.95]=7.36-9.46], with only 773 subjects [14.6%] showing a high level of knowledge. Only previous training showed a statistically significant relationship with the knowledge score [p=0.01]. The mean score in the attitude section was 34.73 out of a maximum of 45 [CI[0.95]=33.57-37.33], and it was found to be related to previous training [p=0.01] and higher economic status [p=0.01]. Our research showed that the Red Crescent must extend the coverage of its first aid training programs targeted at the student volunteers. An effective way to ensure an adequate level of knowledge in volunteers would be to organize regular continuing education programs adapted to the needs of different target groups

Triage of war-injured troops in the Iran-Iraq War

This study compared the triage of Iran-Iraq war-injured troops within the first two years of the war with that after the first two years. This was a retrospective study, which compared the triage of the admissions for abdominal injuries during the first two years of the Iran-Iraq War with that in the next 6 years. Out of nearly 50, 000 cases, 1, 176 ones were randomly selected and their triage information was recorded and analyzed. About 12.5% of patients were operated on within less than 8 hours during the first two years. From 1982 towards the end of the conflict [1988], the patients were treated within progressively shorter periods of sustaining injury; 68.8% were operated on within less than 4 hours of injury. The mean delay between injury and treatment in the first two years of war was 12 hours while it was 5 hours between 1982 and 1988. The difference was significant [P<0.05] but the mortality rate was not significantly different. Patient triage was conducted differently at various stages of conflict. Better patient triage after 1982, may have been due to improved care and more specialized triage of injured troops