Comparison between complementary dietary treatment of Alzheimer disease in Iranian traditional medicine and modern medicine

Dietary notifications have been introduced recently for Alzheimer Disease [AD]. In Iranian old medical manuscripts, there are some nutritional recommendations related to Nesyan [AD equivalent]. The aim of this article was to compare dietary recommendations of Iranian traditional medicine [ITM] with novel medical outcomes. 1] Searching for dietary recommendations and abstinences described in ITM credible manuscripts; 2] Extracting fatty components of ITM diet according to the database of the Department of Agriculture of the USA; 3] Statistical analysis of fatty elements of traditionally recommended foods via Mann-Whitney Test in comparison with elements of the abstinent ones; 4] Searching for AD dietary recommendations and abstinences which currently published in medical journals; 5] Comparing traditional and new dietary suggestions with each other. 1] Traditionally recommended foods are fattier than abstinent ones [P<0.001]. There are meaningful differences between unsaturated fatty acids [UFAs] [P<0.001], saturated fatty acids [P<0.001], and cholesterol [P<0.05] of recommended foods and abstinent ones. 2] Traditionally recommended diet is also fattier than the abstinent diet [4.5 times]; UFAs of the recommended diet is 11 times more than that of the abstinent one; it is the same story for cholesterol [1.4 times]; 3] Recent studies show that diets with high amounts of UFAs have positive effects on AD; a considerable number of papers emphasizes on probable positive role of cholesterol on AD; 4] Traditional recommended diet is in agreement with recent studies. ITM recommended diet which is full of unsaturated fatty acids and cholesterol can be utilized for complementary treatment of AD

[Comparison of influential factors affecting survival of patients with colon and rectum cancer using competing risks model]

Colorectal cancer is the most common cancer of digestive system and also fourth cause for death of cancer around the world. Different studies indicate that survival of patients suffering from colorectal cancer has recently developed in some areas of the world. However, it is not clear which factors involve in this improvement. This study aims at investigating some clinical and pathologic factors in prognosis of these patients with colon and rectum cancers separately. Data recorded from 1194 patients with colorectal cancer in Cancer Record Center of Research Center for Gastroenterology and Liver Disease, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences [Tehran, Iran] was used in this study. Data analysis was performed using competing risks model. Software used for data analysis was STATA, 11 version, and significance level was regarded as 0.05. Body mass index, alcohol consumption, tumor site, inflammatory bowel disease, metastasis to lymph nodes and metastasis to other organs had significant effect on death of colon cancer, while body mass index, metastasis to other organs and kind of the first treatment had significant effect [P<0.05] on rectum cancer. Median survival was 7.75 +/- 1.118 and 3.917 +/- 0.26 years for patients with colon cancer and rectum cancer respectively. Also, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years of survival rates for colon cancer were 88.7%, 77.9%, 68.5%, 61.4% and 56.8%, respectively, while they were 89.1%, 74.2%, 60.7%, 47.1% and 41.9% for rectum cancer, respectively. According to the results of this study, some variables may have different impacts on colon and rectum carcinoma; therefore it is needed that the effects of the factors on different parts of the large bowel be considered separately in the future studies

Application of SYBR-Green Real Time RT-PCR for quantification of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 [HIV-1] and comparison with COBAS AMPLICOR test

In this study, a SYBR Green real-time RT-PCR assay for quantification of HIV-1 viral RNA was developed. This assay was performed based on amplification of the pol region of HIV-1 and product analysis by an ABI 7500 system. We quantified HIV-1 viral load in 26_seropositive patients by this system and the data were subsequently compared with results obtained with a reference technique represented by COBAS AMPLICOR HIB-1 Monitor test. The results demonstrated that this technique could detect up to 500 HIV-1 RNA copies/ml of plasma. The linearity of this approach was conserved over a wide range of HIV-1 copy numbers [5x10[2]- 5x10[9]]. Since no positive signal was observed in seronegative volunteers, the specificity of the test was calculated as 100%. Comparison of the results with those obtained by the reference quantification method, revealed a significant correlation between the results [R[2] =0.95]. On the basis of the most recent recorded cases for HIV-1 infection and AIDS in Iran, the prevalence of this disease is rising rapidly and the situation has been called to be alarming by national health representatives. Determination of HIV-1 viral load in plasma has been considered as the most effective single prediction tool for monitoring HIV-1 patients treated with antiviral drugs. In this study, we have developed a SYBR-Green Real Time RT-PCR assay for quantitative analysis of HIV-1 in infected patients. Since a synthetic RNA standard was used in this assay, the upper limit of detection was detected to be higher than the standard test [5x10[9] versus 7.5x10[5]]. This can be important in patients with acute high viral load infections. Reproducibility was assessed by Intra assay and Inter assay analysis, Coefficient of variations Ct, in reproducibility tests for Intra assay and Inter assay variability were less than 3% and 4.5% accordingly. The above results, indicates that the new developed test can be a used in substitution of the commercial assay for quantitative analysis of HIV-1

Factors affecting patients' compliance to metered-dose inhaler drugs in two asthma clinics in Tehran, Iran

Asthma affects an estimated 300 million people worlwide. Poor compliance with the prescribed medication leads to increased morality and morbidity. Various determinants of compliance have been described. The purpose of this study was to determine factors that can influence patients' compliance with prescribed Metered Dose Inhaler drugs. 179 patients with diagnosis of asthma were selected from two asthma clinics in Tehran. 160 of them met the inclusion criteria. Collected data consisted of patients' demographic data, asthma symptoms and severity, medical history of patients and their attitude towards asthma control and using drugs. Compliance was assessed by four questions regarding using metered Dose Inhaler drugs. There was a significant correlation between compliance and patient's literacy level, attitude about using drugs, and their knowledge about asthma [p=0.012, p=0.0001, p=0.001 respectively]. However there was significant negative correlation between symptom control score and compliance [r=-0.270, p=0.004]. Other factors including sex, patients' attitude about asthma control and severity of asthma did not show any significant relation. There are four major factors influencing the patients' compliance: level of literacy, attitude towards asthma management, knowledge about asthma, and symptom control. The negative relation between compliance and symptom control may be caused by patients' inadequate knowledge towards continuing treatment after improvement in their conditions. The study emphasizes on the importance of enhancing the patients' compliance. This could be done by providing patients with adequate information about their disease and treatment

[Assessing validity of dentists evaluations in measuring Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need using modeling agreement]

In assessment orthodontic treatment need, for the same group of people, dentists usually have different ideas with respect to a gold standard. The most common way of determining validity of the assessments is computing coefficients of agreement like Kappa and Weighted Kappa. In this article we first present shortcomings of the coefficients and then propose a more appropriate alternative method for evaluating of agreement. This analytic cross-sectional investigation has been done with the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need [IOTN]. This index which independently was measured on 51 study models by an expert dentist [as gold standard] and 10 other dentists [as raters], has 5 ordinal levels [no need, little/mild need, moderate/borderline need, severe need, extreme need]. Diagonal parameter model and uniform association model were used for modeling agreement to evaluate validity of the assessments. In 6 cases, diagonal parameter model [with significance level at least 0.34] and in 4 other cases, uniform association model [with significance level at least 0.36] were appropriate to the relevant data. The best assessments belong to the dentists for whom uniform association model was fitted and the worst of them to the dentists for whom diagonal parameter model was fitted. All of the dentists tended to rate casts higher than the gold standard, so that local odds ratio for dentist who had the least[most] tendency to rate casts higher than the gold standard was 6.4[121.5], So all of them needed to be further educated to assess the index

study of malnutrition in Iranian patients with primary antibody deficiency

Nutrition is an important factor that influences immunity, and nutritional deficiencies can impair resistance to infections. Malnutrition is the most common cause of immunodeficiency worldwide. Trace elements such as zinc, selenium, iron, and copper can influence several components of immunity. Primary antibody deficiency disorders are a group of disorders characterized by an unusual susceptibility to infections and malnutrition. Impaired nutritional status has been reported in immunodeficient patients. The aim of this study was to determine anthropometric indices and trace elements status in these patients. Thirty-eight children [28 males, 10 females, aged 2-18 years] with primary antibody deficiency referring to Children's Medical Center of Tehran University of Medical Science were enrolled in this research. Primary immunodeficiency disorders consisting of CVID, XLA, IgA deficiency, IgG subclass deficiency, and hyper IgM were assessed. Anthropometric indices, comprised of height, weight that were measured and body mass index [BMI] was calculated. Height-for-age [HAZ], weight-for-height [WHZ] and weight-for-age [WAZ] were determined according to Z-score to study mild, moderate and severe malnutrition. Serum copper, zinc, selenium and iron levels were measured by an atomic absorption spectrometer. The most common disorders were CVID 52.5% and X-linked agammaglobulinaemia 27.5%. Based on BMI measurements 21.1% of patients had malnutrition. According to HAZ, 13.2%, 13.2% and 36.8% had severe, moderate and mild malnutrition, respectively. According to WAZ, 10.5%, 18.4% and 28.6% had severe, moderate and mild malnutrition, respectively. Regarding to WHZ, 14.3% and 28.6% had moderate and mild malnutrition, respectively. Low selenium levels and high copper levels were observed in 37.5% and 70.3%, respectively. Anthropometric data showed that the frequency of malnutrition in these patients was higher than the CDC standard. Low serum selenium levels and high serum copper levels were observed, suggesting further research is needed on these parameters. Most of the patients had serum zinc and iron levels within the normal range. It is recommeded that clinical immunologists and nutritionists should make a collective effort to provide these patients with standard or specialized diets so as to decrease the risk of infection