Yafteh

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Background: Asthma is recognized as a common cause of disability, of great economic cost, and of preventable deaths. In this study we aimed to test our hypothesis to evaluate the relationship between the Human Platelet Antigen-1(HPA-1) polymorphism and bronchial asthma and its severity, which would suggest genetic variances that may be responsible for expression or activation of these receptors, so play a role in explaining the suggested genotypic differences in the risk of bronchial asthma occurrence. Materials and methods: To investigate the relation between the HPA-1 polymorphism and bronchial asthma, we con‌ducted a case-control study of 110 patients with bronchial asthma and 129 non-asthmatic outpatient controls, which were participated voluntarily in this study. After the participants answered a questionnaire aimed at identifying their age, sex, clinical signs and symptoms to identify asthma severity, a trained observer assessed airway reversibility in asthmatic patients. To determine HPA-1 allele frequencies (Ia, Ib) and genotyping for Ia+Ia, Ia+Ib and Ib+Ib in both patients and controls, a blood sample was sent to the laboratory. Results: It was found that the dyspnea was the most common symptom in asthmatic patients, recurrent episodic wheezing (93.6%), cough (90%) and nocturnal symptom (89.1%) were other more common symptoms respectively. Assessment of HPA-1 allele frequencies (Ia, Ib) and genotyping for Ia+Ia, Ia+Ib and Ib+Ib showed no differences in both patients and controls (P>0.05). The rate of Ia allele frequency and Ia+Ia genotype had a direct relationship with asthma severity. Conclusion: We observed strong association between HPA-1a allele and asthma severity, but no association between the presence of HPA-1 polymorphism and bronchial asthma.

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Background: Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute febrile vasculitis of childhood occurs worldwide, with Asians at highest risk. Approximately 20% of untreated patients develop coronary artery abnormalities including aneurysms, myocardial infarction and sudden death. KD is the common cause of acquired heart disease in children in the United States and Japan. The aim of this study was to determine the severity of kawasaki disease based on laboratory and echocardiographic findings. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional research, we studied records of all patients (n=61) admitted to Mofid Children’s hospital with Kawasaki disease from December 21, 2004 to January 21, 2008. Patients with exclusion criteria were omitted (n=11) and other 50 patients were entered the study. At least three CFM echocardiograms were performed for all of these children with Kawasaki disease: at diagnosis, after 2-3 wk and 6-8 wk after onset of illness. These CFM echocardiograms was performed only by one Paediatric cardiologist (he didn’t have any information about severity and other characteristics of the disease in these patients). All patients were followed up for 12 weeks after discharge. Results: There were 32(64%) boys and 18(36%) girls in this study (total number: 50). The male to female ratio was 1. 8: 1. 100% of the patients had fever, 82% changes in oral cavity & lips, 78% bilateral bulbar conjunctival injection, 64% changes of the peripheral extremities, 58% polymorphous rash and 40% cervical adenopathy. Coronary artery aneurysm was seen in 2% of the patients. No recurrence of KD was observed among these children. Based on laboratory and echocardiographic findings, the patients divided into two groups: severe (n=24) and non-severe (n=26). Mean age of the children, mean duration of hospitalization and rash were significantly higher in the severe group. There was no significant difference between number of patients with K<3. 4mEq/L in two groups. Number of patients with Na<135mEq/L was significantly higher in the severe group (p=0. 01). Mitral regurgitation and 2-times receiving IVIG were significantly higher in the severe group (p=0. 02 and p=0. 008, respectively). Conclusion: Our data demonstrated that sooner performance of CFM echocardiogram and ESR, CRP, Platelet count and Na levels can help us to detect severe Kawasaki disease easer & faster.

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