A multicenter study of long-term outcomes of relapsing polychondritis in Iran.

Relapsing polychondritis (RP) is a systemic immune mediated disease characterized by recurrent episodes of inflammation in various cartilage-rich areas. RP may cause extensive tissue destruction and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. In this multicenter study, we considered the remission status and long-term outcomes of RP in patients who were followed-up in six referral rheumatology centers in Iran. Outcomes of disease was assessed by remission status and RP induced damage. A total of 29 patients with RP were examined for enrollment in the study, and 26 patients with a minimum follow-up period of 6 months were included in the RP outcome analysis. Median time to control of symptoms and sustained remission were 5 and 23 weeks, respectively. Prednisolone was discontinued in 8 (30.8%) patients and medication-free remission was achieved in 7 (23.1%) patients. Regarding the disease course, 34.6% of patients had a relapsing-remitting course, 42.3% had a monophasic course, and 23.1% had an always-active course. Despite extensive treatment with immunosuppressive medications, RP induced damage was developed in 21 (80.8%) patients. Ear deformity and osteoporosis were the most common RP induced damage. Long-term remission and medications-free remission in RP is accessible. However, RP related damage occur in majority of patients.

Social risk factors and outcome analysis of poisoning in an Iranian referral medical center: A toxico-epidemiological approach.

OBJECTIVE: Suicide is the second major reason of death in the age range of 15-24 and is the eighth reason for overall death of adults. Because of high accessibility of people to different medications in our society, one of the easiest ways for suicide is intentional self-poisoning with medications. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the rate of suicide with respect to influencing social factors on patients with intentional self-poisoning. METHODS: This was an analytic-descriptive prospective study. All study data were collected through a checklist in patients with intentional self-poisoning who had been referred to referral hospital within 2011-2012. FINDINGS: A total of 400 patients (60% female) were evaluated. Age average ± standard deviation of participants was 22.57 ± 9.20 years. About 78.2% had high school degree or less. Nearly 27.8% of all happened suicides take place as a result of family disputes, marital problems (21%) and poverty (11.5%). Love issues with a rate of 10.3% were set in the next step. About 23.2% had a history of a past psychological disorder. Around 97.5% of the patients survived. The shorter the time of hospitalization is for each patient, the better survival rate is obtained through post-suicidal medical care. A statistically meaningful relationship was observed between self-poisoning to commit suicide and absence of academic education (P = 0.02). CONCLUSION: Suicide attempt through self-poisoning is more common in female, married individuals, people without academic education and those with a poor socio-economic status. Furthermore, results announce family disputes as the most pre-disposing factor for suicide.