Rhazes' prescriptions in treatment of Gout

Among the diseases that clinicians deal with, few do have a documented medical history that can be traced back to several centuries ago. A careful study of Rhazes' Treatments on Gout reveals a lot about the nature and therapy of gout. We managed to study the perceptions about pathogenesis, symptomatology, diagnosis, and treatment of gout that have changed over time. We also discussed some of the past and present fallacies regarding this disease. Rhazes provided a detailed description on the vital role of genetics and the relationship between the development of gout, an indulgent way of living, and tophi at a period of time between 1st and 6th centuries AD. This study showed that the findings of Rhazes about treatments of gout were consonant with modern medical theories

[Incidence of osteoporotic hip fracture in above 50 year old peoples of Tabriz in years 2004-2006]

Nontraumatic hip fracture due to osteoporotic is one of the most serious complications of this significant worldwide health problem. Osteoporotic hip fracture constitutes almost 20% of orthopedic ward admissions in most countries, with significant health related budgets being spent for care of these patients. Considering the lack of precise statistical data of osteoporotic hip fracture rates in our country, and any previous investigations regarding the problem in Tabriz [a large city in northwestern part of Iran], we investigated the frequency of this epidemic in residents aged over 50 years of Tabriz. In a retrospective - descriptive study, we reviewed medical records of all patients over 50 years inhabitants of Tabriz, admitted with hip fracture in city hospitals, during 24 months, from March 2005 to February 2007. Data regarding age, sex, type of trauma, type of fracture, and in-hospital morbidity and mortality were extracted, and analysis was performed using SPSS14 software. During the study period there were 878 admissions for hip fracture in subjects aged over 50 years there were 779 patients with nontraumatic hip fracture [398 males and 381 females] mean age 75.1 +/- 9.1. It is estimated that the rate of nontraumatic hip fracture in these citizens of Tabriz is 175 per 100000 population, 174 for females and 176 for males, with a female to male ratio of 0.96. The frequency of nontraumatic osteoporotic hip fracture among individuals aged over 50 years of Tabriz, is high, although these rates are lower than those reported from Sweden and the Netherlands, and similar to France and Portugal. The age related surge of osteoporotic hip fracture occurs 10 years earlier in our country, and female to male ratio is lower than those of other countries

[ effect of chronic oral feeding of Apium graveolens on learning and memory in diabetic rats]

Diabetes mellitus [especially type I] is accompanied with disturbances in learning, memory, and cognitive skills in the human society and experimental animals. Considering the beneficial effect of Apium graveolens [AG] on lipid peroxidation in hyperlipidemia and on serum lipids in diabetes mellitus, this research study was conducted to evaluate the effect of chronic oral administration of AG on learning and memory in diabetic rats using passive avoidance test. For this purpose, male Wistar diabetic rats were randomly divided into control, AG-treated control, diabetic, and AG-treated diabetic groups. AG treatment [at a weight ratio of 1/15 mixed with rat chow] continued for 6 weeks. For induction of diabetes, streptozotocin was injected i.p. at a single dose of 60 mg/kg. For evaluation of learning and memory, initial latency [IL] and step-through latency [STL] were determined at the end of study using passive avoidance test. Meanwhile, alternation behavior percentage was determined using Y maze. There was a significant increase [p<0.05] in IL in diabetic and AG-treated diabetic groups after 6 weeks as compared to control group. In this respect, there was no significant difference between diabetic and AG-treated diabetic groups. On the other hand, STL significantly decreased [p<0.05] in diabetic group and significantly increased [p<0.05] in AG-treated diabetic group as compared to control group at the end of study. In addition, STL did not significantly change in AG-treated control group in comparison with control group. Results of Y-maze showed that alternation was significantly higher [p<0.05] in AG-treated diabetic rats relative to untreated diabetic ones and AG treatment did not have any significant effect in control group. Chronic oral administration of AG could enhance the consolidation and recall capability of stored information and improve spatial memory in diabetic animals

[Effect of oral morphine administration on fertility of Balb/c mice]

In addition to have side effects on adults and embryos, abused drugs by affective sex and hypophysial hormones can reduce germ cells and sexual drive resulting infertility in human. Aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of addiction to morphine-induced infertility in Balb/c mice. For these purpose, a control [n=6] and 21 experimental [n=363] groups were used. Then oral morphine with initial doses [0.01, 0.05 and 0.1 mg/ml of water] in a 3 weeks period was administered to the animals and then the animals were crossed to each other. On 17th day of pregnancy, female rats were anesthetized by ether and the embryos were taken out surgically. Results showed that in all groups the birth chance were reduced according to the control group. The reduction was observed in group, which was treated with 0.01 morphine. Therefore it is concluded that morphine extremely reduced the birth chance in mice and may reduce fertility in animals and this may be reliable for human