Employing real time PCR for the diagnosis of Huntington disease

Huntington disease [HD] is a dominantly inherited, neurodegenerative disease characterized by choreiform movement disturbances and dementia. The onset age of this disease is varied but usually is between the ages 40-50. Huntington's disease is caused by a triplet-repeat expansion in the IT15 gene [also known as huntingtin or HD] which is located on chromosome 4p3.1. Since many clinical picture of HD are indistinguishable from other distinct genetic disorders molecular test such as PCR is the only way to confirm the disease. The aim of this study was to introduce a new and fast technique for the diagnosis of Huntington disease. Blood specimens were collected from individuals suspected for Huntington disease and also people with no symptoms and family history of this disease. DNAs were extracted according to standard protocol. Using conventional PCR, patient positive for Huntington disease were diagnosed. Then employing real time PCR on the basis of difference between melting temperature [Tm] a new and fast diagnostic method was introduced. Among 29 patients suspected to be HD only 8 HD patients were confirmed using PCR and real time PCR. The numbers of CAG repeat were between 42-50 and melting temperatures were between 89-92. The concept of using melting temperature in real time PCR protocol presented in here could be employed for the rapid diagnosis of the diseases caused by the increased in triple repeat sequences. It is fast, robust and has the potential use for the prenatal diagnosis

[ effect of auto acupressure on reliefing headache in migraine]

Auto-acupressure is an effective pain treatment method in various conditions. The aim of this study was determining of Auto-acupressure efficacy in patients with migraine. 48 voluntary subjects were selected using convenience sampling method and randomized into two, auto-acupressure [25 patients] and control [23 patients], groups. Intervention for the treatment group included training the participants to apply acupressure on effective area and in control group patients applied acupressure on non-effective area [placebo]. The pain intensity and duration in auto-acupressure and control groups were measured using a 0 - 10 numerical scale form .Data was collected before and after intervention in both groups using demographic questionnaire and self-report forms for pain characteristics and application of auto-acupressure and was analyzed using statistical methods. The results showed that there was no statistical significant difference between mean of headache intensity [P=0.054] and mean of headache duration [P=0.359] before and after interventions in acupressure group. There was not significant difference between two groups for headache intensity [P=0.222] and headache duration [P=0.837]. The effect of auto-acupressure on reduction of headache intense and duration in patients suffering from migraine was not confirmed. This may be related to placebo or empathic effect of acupressure in number of subjects