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Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and patterns of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) usage amongst multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in Iran and to evaluate the perceived effectiveness. Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Data were collected from 194 patients with MS at the neurology clinics affiliated with Shiraz University of Medical Sciences by a semi-structured questionnaire. Results: The prevalence of CAM usage was 67.9%. Herbal medicine was the most common CAM used among the patients (64.2%). Cupping therapy, relaxation therapies, acupuncture, leech therapy were the other common CAM modalities used. Although less commonly used, yoga had the highest perceived effectiveness. Conclusions: Due to the high prevalence of CAM usage, physicians should inform their patients about the advantages and disadvantages of CAM so as to help the patients make an informed choice.

Background: Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM) is a rare non-specific inflammatory breast disease and is usually considered a kind of autoimmune disease. There are several controversies regarding its standard treatment. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of local corticosteroid injection for the treatment of breast-limited idiopathic granulomatous mastitis.Methods: This randomized prospective clinical trial study evaluated the clinical response rate of local steroid injection to treat breast-limited IGM in women. The subjects received local steroid injection of long-action (LA) Betamethasone combined with standard systemic treatments (prednisolone, Methotrexate) (Combine therapy group), standard systemic treatments alone (Systemic group), or local steroid injection alone (LA Betamethasone, Injection group). Clinical benefits and recurrence rates were compared in the three groups.Results: All of the patients were women, and their mean age was 34 years. The excellent clinical or radiological response was observed in 20/31 (64.5%), 24/38 (63.1%), and 17/30 (56.6 %) patients in the injection, combined, and systemic therapy groups, respectively. During the follow-up of 10 months in patients who received local steroid injection alone, recurrence was observed in six patients (16.4%, 6/31), and no side effects or injection steroid-related complications occurred. The local recurrence rate in systemic and combined therapy groups were 3.3 % (1/30) and 13.2 % (5/38) patients, respectively.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that local betamethasone LA injection in breast limited IGM is as successful as current standard treatment and shortens the complete healing time compared to treatment with systemic therapy. Short time recurrence rate was not statistically significant among the groups. Local injection could be a beneficial option in the treatment of IGM. Trial registration: The trial registry number was IRCT20200608047694N1. Registration date: 2020-07-21.

Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM) is a rare benign infectious disease of the breast, commonly presenting with a unilateral breast mass. Since GM's clinical presentation and imaging can be very similar to breast cancer, diagnosing GM can be challenging. So far, various reports have demonstrated the probable correlation and co‐occurrence of granulomatous mastitis and breast cancer. This report presents a 38‐year‐old female with invasive ductal carcinoma, previously diagnosed as IGM.