Clinical correlations between chronic hepatitis C infection and decreasing bone mass density after treatment with interferon-alpha

Objective To compare the bone mass density in chronic hepatitis patients before and after interferon-α treatment. Methods A total of 70 patients with chronic hepatitis C were treated with interferon-α and were evaluated. The treatment dosage was three million IU three times a week for one year. All the patients underwent bone mass density detection at lumbar spine and femoral neck before and after the interferon-α treatment. All the necessary information such as age, sex, and laboratory test, history of occurrence of fractures, lifestyle, and menopause status was collected by interviewers face-to-face from participants at the research visit. Smoking was categorized by whether participants were nonsmokers or smokers. Menopause was designated if there had been complete cessation of menses for more than 12 months. All statistical analyses were performed by SPSS version 14 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Results Among 70 patients, 52% were male, 48% were female and the mean age was (57.0 ± 9.6) years (range: 24–79). Twenty-nine percent of the patients had a history of smoking. The mean body mass index was (24.4 ± 3.6) kg/m

overview of inflammatory bowel disease: general consideration and genetic screening approach in diagnosis of early onset subsets

Inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] is the consequence of an aberrant hemostasis of the immune cells at the gut mucosal border. Based on clinical manifestation, laboratory tests, radiological studies, endoscopic and histological features, this disease is divided into three main types including Crohn's disease [CD], Ulcerative colitis [UC], and IBDunclassified [IBD-U]. IBD is frequently presented in adults, but about 20% of IBD cases are diagnosed during childhood called pediatric IBD [PIBD]. Some patients in the latter group emerge the first symptoms during infancy or under 5 years of age named infantile and very early onset IBD [VEO-IBD], respectively. These subtypes make a small fraction of PIBD, but they have exclusive phenotypic and genetic characteristics such that they are accompanied by severe disease course and resistance to conventional therapy

In this context, understanding the underlying molecular pathology opens a promising field for individualized and effective treatment. Here, we describe current hypotheses on IBD pathophysiology then explain the new idea about genetic screening technology as a good potential approach to identify the causal variants early in the disease manifestation, which is especially important for the fast and accurate treatment of VEO-IBD

CYBB gene mutation detection in an Iranian patient with chronic granulomatous disease

In this study, we report a mutation in CYBB gene in a patient with X-CGD [diagnosed on the base of family history, NDT test, DHR 123 assay]. Mutation in CYBB gene was detected using SSCP analysis [single-strand conformation polymorphism] followed by sequencing. During screening for mutations in the CYBB gene we observed 880 C T in exon 8. This mutation resulted in 290 Arg Stop. We also observed a change [-270 C A] in the promoter region which needs further investigation. We would like to pursue this study by analyzing more X-CGD patients to find out the CYBB mutation spectrum in Iranian patients