The mermaid syndrome (sirenomelia) is an extremely rare anomaly, an incidence of 1 in 100,000 births, in which a newborn born with legs joined together featuring a mermaid-like appearance (head and trunk like humans and tail like fish), and in most cases die shortly after birth. Gastrointestinal and urogenital anomalies and single umbilical artery are clinical outcome of this syndrome. There are two important hypotheses for pathogenesis of mermaid syndrome: vitelline artery steal hypothesis and defective blastogenesis hypothesis. The cause of the mermaid syndrome is unknown, but there are some possible factors such as age younger than 20 years and older than 40 years in mother and exposure of fetus to teratogenics. Here, we introduced 19-year-old mother's first neonate with mermaid syndrome. The mother had gestational diabetes mellitus and neonate was born with single lower limb, ambiguous genitalia, and thumb anomalies, and 4 days after birth, the neonate died due to multiple anomalies and imperforated anus.

The case of thiamine‐responsive megaloblastic anemia (TRMA) presented here speculates the need early diagnosis, continuous monitoring, follow‐up, and regulated treatment plan for the patients. Complications and systemic manifestations are likely to enhance in otherwise circumstances.

This study aims to evaluate the seroprevalence and risk factors for Toxocara canis infection in children (2–15 years old) referred to health centers of Lorestan province, Iran. This cross-sectional study was performed from August 2016 to March 2017 on 316 children. All serum samples were tested using the commercially available anti IgG-Toxocara kit (IBL, Germany) according to manufacturer's instructions. Of the 316 children, 14 (4.4%) tested seropositive for anti-T.canis IgG antibody. The variables used to evaluate association between risk factors and status of anti-T. canis IgG antibodies were age, gender, area of residence, eosinophilia, contact with dogs, and consumption of raw or unwashed vegetables and fruits. Risk factors that were significantly related to T. canis seropositivity included living in rural regions (p = 0.018) and contact with dogs (p = 0.001). However, other demographic and risk factors did not demonstrate any association with T. canis seropositivity. To conclude, we found that T. canis infection is prevalent among children (2–15 years old) referred to health centers of Lorestan province, Iran with an overall seroprevalence rate of 4.4%. These findings may be a warning for health centers to pay special attention to toxocariasis among children (2–15 years old) and design screening programs for its prevention.

Aims Croup is a clinical syndrome which included inspiratory stridor, coughing with a dog-like sound, noise obstruction and respiratory distress symptoms. This present study was conducted to compare the effects of cold drink and dexamethasone, and the effects of their co-administration on children’s croup. Materials and Methods In this study, all patients with croup admitted to the emergency ward of Madani Hospital Khorramabad were divided through the simple randomized method into 3 groups after informed consents were taken from their parents. The first group was given cold drink, second group with dexamethasone (DM), and the third group were given the combined treatment simultaneously. The patients in the first and second groups who did not show signs of improvement received the simultaneous treatment similar to the third group. The data were analyzed using the SPSS software through descriptive statistics and inferential statistics including multi-field variance analysis and co-variance analysis. Result The results of the study indicated a statistically significant between the 3 group in terms of improvement time-scale of croup clinical symptoms (P=0.001). There was no significant difference observed between the effects of other variables on improvement time-scale of croup clinical symptoms. Conclusion The cold drink has less treating effect than DM and combined simultaneous treatment method. Also, DM had more influence than simultaneous treatment method. In addition, other variables including age, sex, birth weight, BMI, respiratory allergy and previous croup history did not influenced improvement time-scale and only type of intervention influenced improvement time-scale of croup clinical symptoms.

Pentalogy of Cantrell (PC) is an uncommon congenital disorder characterized by severe defects in the chest and abdomen, including abdominal visceral prolapsed via umbilical cord (omphalocele), defect in the lower part of the sternum, defect in the front of the diaphragm, defects in the anterior part of the pericardium, and the ectopiacordis. Here, we report a 2-hour-old girl, weighing 3,500 g, who was referred to Shahid Madani Hospital in Khorramabad due to the large omphalocele on her chest with pulsating mass above it. The baby was the first child of a 24-year-old mother who was born with an uncomplicated vaginal delivery. Very rare cases of PC are born as a term new-born.