The aim of the study was to determine the frequency of different injuries caused by penetrating chest traumas, and also the cause and type of trauma and its accompanying injuries. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study, carried out on all patients referred to the emergency room of Shahid Bahonar Hospital, Kerman, from March 2000 to September 2008, due to penetrating chest trauma. The required information including age, sex, cause of trauma, type and site of injury, and accompanying injury was obtained and used to fill out a questionnaire and then was analyzed. 828 patients were included in the study; most of them were in the age range of 20-29. Of the patients, 97.6 % were males. The most frequent cause of trauma was stabbing, and the most frequent injuries following the trauma were pneumothorax and hemothorax. Orthopedic trauma was the most frequent accompanying injury. The most commonly used diagnostic method was plain chest radiography. In 93 % of the patients, the chest tube was placed and thoracotomy was performed for 97 % of the patients. Shahid Bahonar Hospital is a referral Trauma Centre and treats large number of chest trauma patients. Most patients need only chest tube placement as a definitive treatment.

Background: According to the importance of the clinical pathology for diagnosis, decision making regarding preventive and minimally invasive methods, and treatment follow-ups, it is useful to familiarize medical students with better utilization of laboratory tests before clinical practice and incorporate them into the curriculum. Objectives: The current study aimed at investigating the quality of education and satisfaction with clinical pathology course among medical students at physiopathology level initiated since 2014 at Kerman University of Medical Sciences for further systematization of the curriculum, and its efficacy in increasing students' knowledge. Methods: In the current interventional study, medical students at physiopathology level were enrolled and, after making necessary coordination with the Deputy of Education, a one-unit clinical pathology course was added to routine (five-unit) physiopathology course for the students attending the second semester of 2013-2014 academic year. Two groups of students attending internship program including 42 subjects that took the clinical pathology course and 42 other ones that did not take the course were consecutively enrolled. A questionnaire was distributed among the subjects in the two groups and the obtained data were analyzed with SPSS version 19.0 using chi-square test. Results: Overall, the medical students in both groups believed that clinical pathology course was essential for both theoretical and practical education. Most of the students in the two groups perceived that the inclusion of clinical pathology course in physiopathology course was good. Both groups perceived the course as useful for better management of patients in postgraduate studies. Conclusions: There is no theoretical and applied academic course with rational systematic training objectives in the clinical pathology field for better utilization of laboratory tests. It highlights the need for paying further attention and planning in this field.

Carotid body paraganglioma is a neuroendocrine neoplasm of the mandibular region. Due to its prominent stromal alternations, carotid body paraganglioma is a great emulator of other neoplasms in the head and neck region especially in metastatic tumors and its definite diagnosis is a great challenge. To the best of our knowledge, the most frequently reported variant is sclerosing and paraganglioma with a prominent lymphoplasmacytic infiltration is extremely rare. We report a rare case of a carotid body lymphoplasmacytic paraganglioma presented as a single asymptomatic mass of the right mandibular region in a 45-year-old woman. In order to exclude other possibilities, the use of immunohistochemistry is essential which shows a strong positive immunoreaction for chromogranin and synaptophysin. Surgical resection is the treatment of choice which is replaced with radiotherapy in contraindications. Overall, the tumor has a favorable clinical outcome.

Background: Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is a heterogeneous hematological disease and certain serum factors are assumed to be involved in its pathogenesis and progression. Given this, our aim was to comparatively investigate the copper, zinc, and iron levels in MDS patients and healthy individuals. Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 31 patients with MDS (according to the WHO criteria after investigating laboratory tests such as peripheral blood smear and bone marrow aspiration) attending Bahonar Hospital, Kerman, Iran, and 31 healthy subjects from 2016 to 2018. The levels of copper, ceruloplasmin, zinc, ferritin, and iron were compared between the two groups. Results: Among the MDS patients, five individuals (16.13%) had low serum copper level (mean: 67.8 ± 4.35 µg/dl). Serum copper level was 111.3 ± 27.7 and 138.3 ± 26.6 in case and control groups, respectively (P = 0.0001). The serum zinc level and bone marrow iron level were also significantly different between the two groups (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Overall, it can be concluded that because only a small proportion of the MDS patients enrolled in this study were found to have lower copper levels compared with the MDS patients population, further studies with a larger sample size and also clinical trials in MDS patients with serum zinc, and copper deficiency are recommended, and post-treatment hematological reassessment would also be beneficial to achieving more definitive results.