Comparison of mean platelet volume levels in coronary artery ectasia and healthy people: systematic review and meta-analysis

Coronary artery ectasia (CAE) is defined as the dilation of a segment of a coronary vessel to at least 1.5 times the diameter of its normal adjacent segment. Mean platelet volume (MPV) plays a role in acute coronary syndromes, with high MPV correlating to poor prognosis for acute thrombotic events and CAE. Several studies investigated the relationship between MPV and CAE, resulting in conflicting results. These results led us to systematically review all studies investigating the relationship between MPV and ectatic heart diseases by performing a meta-analysis study in order to report a unified result. This meta-analysis study investigated all case-control articles examining the relationship between MPV and CAE. All studies in the following databases published until January 31, 2018, were investigated: Science Direct, Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science. Following a quality control evaluation, 14 articles, all of which were published following studies performed in Turkey from 2007 to 2016, met the criteria for study inclusion. After pooling the results from all of the articles, a total standardized mean difference (SMD) value of 0.584 (95% CI, 0.219, 0.95) was obtained using the D+L pooled SMD, indicating a significant difference (P=0.002) between the two groups, with higher MPV values in ectatic patients when comparing to healthy individuals. Therefore, increased MPV levels were significantly related to CAE, suggesting that platelets, with their inflammatory and thrombotic activities, play a role in this disease. Therefore, anti-platelet and anti-inflammatory therapies may be effective in treating CAE.

Frequency of Lyme arthritis in patients with unknown subacute arthritis

Arthritis is a most common manifestation of lyme disease, which is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi. The birds may be carriers of disease-carrying ticks from Asia to Iran. The aim of this study was to evaluate frequency of lyme arthritis in patients with unknown subacute arthritis. This cross-sectional study was evaluated 180 patients with unknown subacute arthritis. Patients were asked about age, sex, foreign travel history, jungle travel history, animal contact, tick bites. Then, IgG, IgM Ab ELISA test were done. In patient with positive IgG or IgM ELISA test, Western Blot test was done. SPSS was used to analyze data. 20 [11.9%] patients had positive ELISA serologic test, in which 12[60%] had IgM Ab, 5 [25%] IgG Ab and 3 [15%] both IgM Ab and IgG Ab. Western Blot was positive in 2[1.1%] and equivocal in 5[2.8%] patients. The results of this study showed that lyme disease should be considered in each patient with unknown subacute arthritis in Iran