No abstract

Context:We are going to face an epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) virus in our country. The main manifestation of this viral infection is respiratory and cardiovascular; however, up-to-date knowledge of its probable neurologic complications is highly needed. Evidence Acquisition: To provide up-to-date information on neurologic manifestation on coronaviruses, we concisely reviewed the neurologic manifestations and their complications. Using the keywords, coronavirus, corona, human coronaviruses (HCoVs), SARS, Middle East respiratory syndrome-related (MERS), coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), manifestations, complications, and neurologic, all the relevant articles were retrieved from PubMed, reviewed, and critically analyzed. Results: Although the main clinical manifestation of human coronaviruses is respiratory involvement and the main cause of death is acute respiratory failure, extra respiratory manifestations such as neurologic findings have been reported. Fortunately, the neurologic manifestations in COVID-19 have not been reported yet. Conclusions: We need well-designed studies to monitor neurologic manifestations of COVID-19 in adults and children.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are lifelong heterogeneous set of neurodevelopmental conditions with strikingly profound male prevalence. Differences in sex biology and hormones are thought to play key roles in ASD prevalence and outcome, but the underlying molecular mechanisms responsible for ASD sex-differential risk are not well understood. Two recent studies reported a significant association between shortened telomere length (TL) and autistic children. However, the role of gender bias has been overlooked. Here, we carefully examined the status of average TL among non-syndromic male and female children with autism, and we also took a close look at the data from earlier reports. A total of 58 children were recruited for this project, including 24 apparently non-syndromic autistic children (14 males and 10 females), their healthy siblings (n = 10), and 24 sex-, age, and location-matched healthy controls. Relative TLs (RTL) were assessed by the monochrom multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction (MMQPCR) technique, using genomic DNA extracted from saliva samples. Data analysis showed that gender and age had strong impacts on average RTLs among the study groups. In a sex stratified manner, autistic male children had significantly shorter average RTL than their female counterparts. Only male children with autism showed a homogeneous pattern of shorter RTLs compared with their respective healthy controls. Our findings are indicative of a sexually dimorphic pattern of TL in childhood autism. The data presented here have important implications for the role of telomere biology in the molecular mechanisms responsible for ASD male bias prevalence and etiology.

Background: Any mismatch between the production and absorption of CSF results in hydrocephalus. In most cases, the selected choice of treatment is the ventriculoperitoneal shunt insertion. Although, the surgery could have complications such as infection, shunt malfunction, subdural hematoma, seizure and Shunt immigration; so, the early and proper detection of these complications could result in better prognosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the efficacy of CT scan, CSF analysis and X-ray radiography in detection of shunt complications and problems in shunt placement and further follow-up in hospitalized children.Methods:The medical records of children in Rasul Akram hospital in Tehran were reviewed retrospectively in the last 10 years, from 2006 to 2016. All data were recorded in the prepared form including the age, sex, shunt complication, CT scan and CSF characteristics.Results:The total number of 95 patients were interfered in this study including 56 males (58.9%) and 39 females (41.1%). The mean age at the onset of complications were 2.8±2.2 years-old. The shunt obstruction (60%) and infection (25.3%) were the most common complications. The CT scan was able to detect 36.5% of shunt complications. The CT scan had the sensitivity and specificity of 50 and 87%, respectively in detection of shunt obstruction. The all cases of brain hematoma and hemorrhage were revealed by CT scan. On the other hand, the CT scan had 20% of sensitivity and 60% of specificity in the detection of shunt infection. The CSF evaluation in shunt infection revealed 92% hypoglycemia, 87.5% pleocytosis, and 62.5% positive CSF culture. CSF had the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of 92, 82, 63 and 97%, respectively. The patient's symptoms and signs were helpful in obtaining higher test accuracy.Conclusion: The CT scan was not a good sensitive and specific study in the detection of shunt obstruction and infection, but it was very accurate in detection of hemorrhage and hematoma. On the other hand, CSF evaluation was a reliable test in shunt infection disclosure.