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Background and Objective: Hirschsprung’s disease is a congenital disorder, characterized by the absence of ganglion cells in the intramural and submucosal plexus in distal parts of large bowel. Diagnosis is based on the histopathologic examination of hematoxilin and eosin stained sections. Due to diagnosis limitation by Hematoxylin and Eosin staining (H&E), this study was done to identify the ganglion cells by BCL-2 immunoreactivity and compared it with H&E staining. Materials and Methods: In this laboratory study, paraffin blocks of 36 specimens demonstrating ganglion cells on original H&E stained sections and 35 specimens lacking ganglion cells on H&E staining, were selected. Recuts were stained by H&E and BCL-2 methods. Results: Ganglion cells were observed in 36 cases by H&E staining but in BCL-2 staining ganglion cells were detected in 29 cases. In 35 cases reported negative for ganglion cells on H&E staining, ganglion cells were detected in 5 cases by BCL-2 method. Sensitivity, spesificity, positive and negative predictive values for BCL-2 method for diagnosis of hirshsprung’s disease were 81%, 86%, 85% and 86% respectively.discordancy (positive BCL-2, negative H&E) was 14%. Conclusion: Immunohistochemistry method using BCL-2 improve the accuracy of diagnosis in hirschsprung’s disease, when accompanied with H&E staining, particulary for negative slides.

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Background and Objective: The vaccination against hepatitis B is a front line defence for all at-risk groups. Conventional methods of hepatitis B vaccination (0, 1 and 6 months) is considered a long process. But vaccination at shorter intervals (0, 10 and 21 days) is suggested to achieve rapid immunity. This study was carried out to compare for the protective antibody level against hepatitis B in accelerated and conventional vaccination. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive and analytical study 160 health personnel of Imam Reza hospital of Kermanshah, Iran with no history of vaccination against hepatitis B were selected and divided into two groups during 2009. The volunteers were received vaccination according to accelerated (0, 10 and 21 days) and convetional (0, 1 and 6 months) methods. The antibody titer measured two years after the final dose of vaccination. The acceptable level of antibody was considered higher than 10 IU/ml. Results: After two years the acceptable level of antibody was observed in 94.5% and 97.9% of subjects in accelarated and conventional methods, respectivley. This difference was not significant. Conclusion: This study showed that there is not significant differences between accelerated and conventional methods in antibody production against hepatitis B antigen.