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Cushing's syndrome is a condition leading to overproducing of cortisol by the adrenal glands. If the pituitary gland overproduces cortisol, it is called Cushing's disease. Cushing's syndrome and even Cushing's disease during and after pregnancy are rare events. There is not enough literature and guidance for managing and treating these patients. The diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome in pregnancy is often delayed because the symptoms overlap. We presented a thin 31-year-old woman, admitted 2 months after a normal-term delivery, with an atypical presentation of Cushing's disease, unusual clinical features, and a challenging clinical course. She had no clinical discriminatory features of Cushing's syndrome. Given that the patient only presented with psychosis and proximal myopathy and had an uncomplicated pregnancy, our case was considered unusual. The patients also had hyperpigmentation and severe muscle weakness which are among the less common presentations of Cushing's syndrome. Our findings suggest that an early diagnosis of Cushing's disease is important in pregnancy period for its prevalent fetal and maternal complications, and it should be treated early to optimize fetal and maternal outcomes as there is an increasing trend toward live births in treated participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predictors of suicide attempts in Iran, to distinguish any similarities and differences of these predictors between suicide attempts in Iran and other developed and developing countries and to investigate the relation between general psychiatric symptoms and repetition of suicidal attempts were assessed. The validated Farsi version of the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) was used to assess multiple dimensions of quality of life of suicide attempters as depression, anxiety, social dysfunction, and somatic symptoms. Pivotal differences emerged in the clinical profiles of suicide attempters living in a developing country versus developed countries. In developing countries, those who attempt suicides are more likely to have no psychiatric disorder and are less likely to have used alcohol as part of the suicide attempt, but are more likely to have been assaulted physically or verbally. The results on the GHQ-28 indicate that the process through which individuals move from suicidal thought to action may decrease multiple dimensions of quality of life.

Introduction: Low testosterone level has strongly been correlated with body fat accumulation and abdominal obesity in men. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate testosterone level in men with and without metabolic syndrome to determine the relationship between testosterone and metabolic syndrome. Patients and Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 172 cases of metabolic syndrome and 172 participants as a control group in Rasoul Akram hospital, Tehran, Iran. Demographic characteristics, fasting blood sugar (FBS), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), and testosterone levels were recorded. SPSS version 21.0 and SAS version 9.1 were used for statistical analysis. Level of significance was considered 0.05. Results: The mean age of the two groups were 45.1 ± 9.3 years and 41.5 ± 11.2 years, respectively. There was a significant difference in serum testosterone levels between both groups and low testosterone levels were associated with metabolic syndrome (P < 0.001). Serum testosterone levels showed a significant negative correlation with age in the metabolic syndrome group (r = -0.16, P = 0.02). The relationship between metabolic syndrome and total plasma testosterone level using logistic regression model showed that, by increasing the total plasma testosterone level, the odds ratio for metabolic syndrome was 0.076 (95% CI: 0.027-0.216; P < 0.001). Conclusion: According to the results, low level of testosterone was related to the presence of metabolic syndrome in adult males. Future studies can investigate diagnostic value of testosterone level in this syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Diabetes is one of the most common diseases in the world that is accompanied with many microvascular complications. Any chronic disease such as diabetes can cause types of mood disorders such as depression in patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of depression in type 2 diabetics with microvascular complications. Execution Method: In this cross-sectional study, type 2 diabetics with microvascular complications that referred to Hazrat Rasoul Akram Hospital during 2016–2017 were studied. After verification of retinopathy and nephropathy in patients, 100 patients were enrolled in the study and correlated between variables such as age, sex, body mass index, medication, education, retinopathy, nephropathy, marital status, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL), blood pressure, and fasting blood sugar was investigated in patients given the possibility of depression. Results: The results of this study showed that 72% of patients were with depression and by evaluating the mentioned variables with depression disorder it was found that there was a significant relationship between fasting blood sugar, HbA1C, retinopathy, medication, and LDL with depression. Conclusion: Given the high prevalence of depression (72%) in diabetics in this study, it seems that psychiatric consultation is needed to diagnose depression in diabetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, electrospun nanofiber membranes (ENMs) of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) were modified by dispersing α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles, synthesized using a thermal solvent process, in a PAN solution. The morphology and physiochemical properties of the prepared ENMs and the α-Fe2O3 were characterized using FESEM, EDX, BET, XRD, FTIR, porosity, and contact angle measurement. XPS was used to investigate the interaction of ENM with arsenate (As(V)) during the adsorption. Moreover, the effect of pH, the equilibrium isotherm, and the kinetics were investigated in batch experiments. The Langmuir isotherm best correlated the experimental results, indicating monolayer adsorption on ENMs, and the kinetics was best fitted, R2 > 0.99, by the pseudo-second-order model. In addition, the effects of certain conditions on the filtration performance were examined, such as feed concentration and transmembrane pressure (TMP). By passing sodium hydroxide (0.1 M) for 20 min, the membrane was regenerated. The increase in TMP, along with the presence of co-ions including chloride, nitrate, and sulfate, had negative impacts on the removal of As(V). The results show that the modified ENMs with α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles are applicable for As(V) ion removal and possibly for eliminating other heavy metals from aqueous media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]