ABSTRACT
Abstract Introduction: Maternal immunization provides potential means for protecting infants against some infections with universal application
Objective: This study was designed to determine the levels of immunity against Diphtheria and Tetanus in mothers and their two mounths old infants who reffered for vaccination, and evaluate the relation of mothers vaccination on their infants immunity and determine the ratio of mothers who didn't observe the vaccination during pregnancy
Materials and Methods: Sera were collected from 110 mother-infant pairs before DTwP vaccination and from 69 infants after receipt of three doses of DTP vaccine. Anti diphtheria, anti tetanus toxins IgG levels were measured by ELIZA. History of DT vaccination of mothers at pregnancy was recorded. The mean concentration of antibodies against diphtheria and tetanus in mother and their infants before vaccination and in infants after receipt of 3doses of DTwP vaccine were measured and compared by paired t-test
Results: Of 110 mothers, 22 [20%] did not receive dT vaccine. Of these 22 unvaccinated mothers, one [4.5%] and six [27.2%] were serologically susceptible to tetanus and diphtheria respectively. The mean concentrations of antibodies titers of unvaccinated mothers were significantly lower than vaccinated mothers. All infants acquired immunity against both infections after receipt of three doses of DTP vaccine. Infants' immune response to DTP was not affected by maternal immunization
Conclusion: Diphtheria - tetanus toxoids components of DTP vaccine were highly immunologenic, According to lack of vaccination in pregnancy, more effort must be made to increase the coverage rate of this highly immunogenic vaccine to sustain protection against diphtheria and tetanus
ABSTRACT
Background: In radiotherapy, wedge filters are used for optimizing the tumor dose distribution in patients. The attenuation in beam intensity due to the presence of wedge filter is compensated by means of a wedge factor measured at the central axis of the beam. The field size, depth and SSD dependence of wedge factor have been assessed for 9MV radiations of Neptun PC linear accelerator
Materials and Methods: Wedge factors [WF] at different SSD, field size [FS] and depth [d] in water were measured for 8 steel wedges with different sizes and angles of 15, 30, 45, and 60 degree. Experimental data were obtained using Neptun 10PC, Linac 9MV X-ray machine, a 3D water phantom, dosimeters and an electrometer. To study the effect of field size on WF, the wedge factor was measured for square field sizes from 5×5 to 20×20 cm, with 1 cm increment intervals for all wedges; and, at the depth of 10 cm, SSD of 100 cm with monitor unit [MU] of 80. Effects of depth on WF were studied by measurement in various depths from 3-19cm for all wedge angles at SSD of 100cm, field size of 10×10cm and 80 MU irradiation. Effects of SSD on WF were investigated by a variation of SSD from 90-110cm with 5cm increment intervals; while the dosimeter was set at depth of 10cm and field size of 10×10cm were irradiated for 80MU
Results: Linear dependence of WF with field size and depth of measurements were confirmed with 95% certainty. Shapiro-Wilk test, showed that the residual data of the regression tests have normal distributions [P>0.05]. There was also found no linear relationship between WF and SSD [P>0.05]
Conclusion: WF has linear dependence with field size and depth of measurements, but the rate of variations are less than 2.2% per 10cm variation in field size and less than 1.3% per 10 cm variation in depth of measurements, therefore, correction of WF for field size and depth of treatments in clinical trials is negligible
ABSTRACT
The levels of free and conjugated 1, 3-diaminopropane and putrescine in human plasma of normal and schizophrenics, are determined by initial purification using cation exchange resin followed by paper chromatography and/or enzymatic analysis. 1, 3-Diaminopropane, putrescine and their conjugates are found in the plasma of schizophrenic patients in concentration higher than in the plasma of normal subjects. The difference between the diamine [free and conjugated] concentrations of normal and schizophrenic subjects were found to be statistically significant