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Background: Despite significant advancements in the care of premature infants, it must be acknowledged that premature infants, especially low birth weight infants, are prone to problems such as sensory, cognitive, neuro-motor, visual, and hearing problems. Their objective future difficulties are behavioral abnormalities, socio-emotional difficulties, and impaired school performance. Methods: This research aimed to predict behavioral problems based on attachment styles and sensory processing in children with a history of prematurity at birth. The research method was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The study population consisted of all 5 to 12-year-old children in Tehran in the year 2022; among them, 154 children aged 5 to 12 years old with a history of prematurity at birth were selected by the convenience sampling methods. Data were collected using the Sensory profile2-child, Kinship Center Attachment Questionnaire, and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis. Results: The findings demonstrated a significant negative correlation between adaptive development and children's behavioral problems (r=-0.65, p<0.05). Moreover, a significant positive relationship was found between attachment styles and emotional reactivity (r=0.64, p<0.05), negative behaviors, and avoidance of attachment figure support (r=0.67, p<0.05), as well as sensory processing and behavioral problems in children with a history of prematurity at birth (r=0.67, p<0.05). Additionally, motor processing (β=0.22, p<0.05), emotional reaction (β=0.17, p<0.05), and avoidance of attachment figure support (β=0.17, p<0.29) were capable of predicting behavioral problems in children with a history of prematurity at birth. Conclusion: It was concluded that as the levels of attachment styles, emotional reactions, negative behaviors, and avoidance of attachment increase in children with a history of prematurity, their behavioral problems increase as well. Conversely, increased positive adaptive development is associated with decreased behavioral problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ocular dryness is a well-recognized adverse side effect of many medications. The purpose of this study was to compare tear film stability between psychiatric patients that use lithium carbonate or carbamazepine and normal cases Materials and Methods: Tear film break up time test was performed in three groups, 30 patients using lithium carbonate, 30 patients using carbamazepine and 30 normal cases. Values of the TBUTs were compared among groups by the independent t-test. Results: Differences between both of patients and control groups were significant (p<0.0001). Conclusion: The results show that these drugs contribute to decrease of tear film break up time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Ocular dryness is a well-recognized adverse side effect of many topical and systemic medications. In psychiatry, patients who have consumed such drugs as lithium carbonate and sodium valproate frequently experience dry eye symptoms. The purpose of this study was to compare tear film stability between patients who use these drugs with those patients who are not on medication. Methods: After obtaining informed consent, the tear film break up time (TBUT) test was performed in 96 eyes of 48 subjects. The subjects were placed in to three groups. Participants included two groups of euthymic bipolar disorder patients (16 cases each) with history of pharmacotherapy for more than two years. Patients in each group were taking only one type of mood stabilizer (lithium carbonate or sodium valproate). In addition,16 age-matched bipolar patients who did not take any topical or systemic medications were included in a control group. Values of TBUT were compared between the three groups using the student's t-test. Results: The mean tear film break up time (TBUT) in test groups were 4.88 seconds± 0.34(lithium group), 4.81 seconds ± 1.60 (valproate group) and 15seconds± 2.0(control group), respectively. No statistically significant differences were observed between the first and the second groups in TBUT values, but significant differences were found between the two groups and the control group (P< 0.0001). Conclusion: The results of this study show that lithium carbonate and sodium valproate contribute to decrease of tear film break up time, resulting from dryness of the eyes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Rapid diagnosis of Trisomy 21 Syndrome (Down Syndrome) patients using Real-Time quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (Real-Time qPCR) in order to establish a novel method for prenatal diagnosis in the future. Materials and Methods: A total of 5 ml of peripheral blood was obtained from each patient and normal controls (NR). Then, genomic DNA from lymphocytes was extracted using the salting out procedure. Gene dosage levels of DSCAM and (PMP22, DSCAM) in Down Syndrome and NR were analyzed using real-time quantitative PCR. The DSCAM/ PMP22 ratio was calculated according to the 2-ΔΔCt formula for all samples. Results: Real-time PCR showed a DSCAM/PMP22 ratio of 1.48 ± 0.18 and 1.01 ± 0.10 (p<0.001) in Down Syndrome and normal samples, respectively, demonstrating three copies of the target (DSCAM) gene in Trisomy 21 Syndrome. Conclusion: DSCAM/PMP22 ratio is increased significantly in Down Syndrome patients than NR (1.5 times). Therefore, the real-time quantitative PCR technique can be used as a sensitive, accurate and reliable technique for rapid and prenatal diagnosis of Trisomy 21 Syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: To compare the gene dosage results achieved by a novel multiplex quantitative assay with cytogenetic and quantitative fluorescent polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR) analysis for prenatal screening of trisomy 21 syndrome on corresponding fetal samples. Design and methods: Fetal samples (n =134) were collected from pregnant women considered high risk for having trisomy 21 affected fetus. Cytogenetic analysis and QF-PCR were performed. Then, the relative gene dosage of DSCAM and DYRK1A2 genes was determined on corresponding samples using comparative delta cycle of threshold (ΔCT) method. Results: The mean gene dosage ratio was 1.55±0.11 (95% CI:1.51–1.58) in trisomy 21 cases and 1.01±0.12 (95% CI:0.98–1.03) in normal samples (p value<0.001). The results were in agreement to the results of cytogenetic and QF-PCR analysis with the overall specificity of 0.96 (95% CI:0.91–0.98) and the sensitivity of 0.80 (95% CI:0.49–0.94). Conclusions: This gene dosage assay is appropriate for the screening of high risk pregnant women and is readily amenable to automation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Automatic classification of different behavioral disorders with many similarities (e.g. in symptoms) by using an automated approach will help psychiatrists to concentrate on correct disorder and its treatment as soon as possible, to avoid wasting time on diagnosis, and to increase the accuracy of diagnosis. In this study, we tried to differentiate and classify (diagnose) 306 children with many similar symptoms and different behavioral disorders such as ADHD, depression, anxiety, comorbid depression and anxiety and conduct disorder with high accuracy. Classification was based on the symptoms and their severity. With examining 16 different available classifiers, by using “Prtools”, we have proposed nearest mean classifier as the most accurate classifier with 96.92% accuracy in this research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]