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Background: Head and neck masses are common in infants, children and adolescents. Etiologically, these masses are divided into three groups of inflammatory, congenital and neoplastic lesions. Their incidence rate has been variable in different parts of the world. This study aimed to determine the frequency of head and neck masses in Iranian children during a 21-year period. Methods: This retrospective, descriptive study was performed on medical files of patients between 2 to 12 years with pathological head and neck masses derived from the archives of the Pathology Department of Children's Medical Center of Tehran from 1995 to 2016. Age, gender, time of presentation, location of the lesions and final diagnosis were collected from patients' medical records and descriptively analyzed. Results: Of 594 children, 63.3% were males and 36.7% were females (male to female ratio of 1.7:1, P < 0.001). The mean age was 6.5 years (range 2 years and 2 months to 12 years). The highest prevalence belonged to inflammatory/reactive/infectious lesions (41.7%) followed by neoplastic lesions (35.7%) and congenital/developmental lesions (22.6%). In the neoplastic group, malignant and benign lesions had 26.6% and 9.1% prevalence, respectively. Lymphoma (22.4%; 16.3% Hodgkin and 6.1% non-Hodgkin), lymphadenitis (16.2%) and thyroglossal cyst (11%) were the most prevalent lesions. Conclusions: Based on the results, inflammatory lesions had the highest incidence among the head and neck masses in children. Malignant lesions were not uncommon among Iranian children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) is one of the most common chronic rheumatic diseases in children with unknown etiology and pathogenesis. It also has no diagnostic test and its clinical diagnosis is made through ruling out other types of arthritis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of ADA (Adenosine Deaminase) in the serum of JIA patients and to compare it with that of patients with Reactive Arthritis (RA). Evaluation of sensitivity and specificity of serum ADA level in JIA was another objective. Methods: The study included 120 children with JIA (mean age=7.6 ± 4.3 years) and 40 children with RA (mean age=5.5 ± 3.1 years). The ADA was measured in the active phase of both diseases. Results: The mean ADA serum level was obtained as 15.8 ± 11.8 U/l in JIA patients and 14.3 ± 7.5 U/l in RA patients. The difference was statistically insignificant (p=0.4). Another finding of this study was the significant specificity (77.5%) of this laboratory parameter for JIA in comparison with its low sensitivity (36.7%). Positive predictive value was 83% and negative predictive value 29%. Conclusion: Determination of ADA serum levels is a noninvasive reliable and easy biomarker for diagnosis of JIA and it can be used as alternative parameters representing disease activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Sweat chloride measurement is considered a standard diagnostic tool for cystic fibrosis (CF). This study was performed to compare sweat chloride values obtained by quantitative pilocarpine iontophoresis (classic test) with sweat crystallization detected by direct observation of a drop of perspiration under light microscopy in patients with and without CF. Methods: The tests using both techniques were performed simultaneously in patients with and without CF. Cutoff values of ≥60 mmol/L of chloride concentration for the classic sweat test was considered for diagnosis of CF. In crystallization method, observation of typical dendritic forms of salt crystals under light microscopy was interpreted positive. Findings: Sixty patients suspected to CF (31 males and 29 females) with age range of 9 months to 2 years underwent the sweat test using both techniques. Median sweat chloride values was 26.13+10.85 in group with negative and 72.76+12.78 mmol/L in group with positive sweat test, respectively. AH the patients who had positive sweat test in classic method showed typical dendritic forms of salt crystal in sweat crystallization test, which provided the test with 100% sensitivity (95%C1: 93.1-100). Only one of the 31 subjects with negative results for classic sweat test had positive result for crystallization sweat test, which provided the test with 96.7% specificity (95%CI: 92.9-100). Time spent to perform the crystallization test was significantly shorter than the classic method whereas its cost was also lower than the second method. Conclusion: There was a good correspondence between two studied methods of sweat test These results suggested the sweat crystallization test as an alternative test for detecting CF disease with high sensitivity and specificity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]