Metabolomic analysis of human cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis diseases

Metabolome analysis is used to evaluate the characteristics and interactions of low molecular weight metabolites under a specific set of conditions. In cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease [NAFLD] and non-alcoholic steatotic hepatitis [NASH] the liver does not function thoroughly due to long-term damage. Unfortunately the early detection of cirrhosis, HCC, NAFLD and NASH is a clinical problem and determining a sensitive, specific and predictive novel method based on biomarker discovery is an important task. On the other hand, metabolomics has been reported as a new and powerful technology in biomarker discovery and dynamic field that cause global comprehension of system biology. In this review, it has been collected a heterogeneous set of metabolomics published studies to discovery of biomarkers in researches to introduce diagnostic biomarkers for early detection and the choice of patient-specific therapies

effect of core stability training with and without whole body vibration in chronic low back pain patients

The subjective of this study was to explore and compare the effects of Whole Body Vibration [WBV] and conventional spinal stabilization exercises on persons with non-specific chronic low back pain [CLBP]. Thirty patients with non-specific chronic low back pain randomly received 6 sessions of spinal stabilization therapy with and without whole body vibration over 2 weeks. The severity of pain, functional disability, abdominal and lumbar multifidus muscle endurance were assessed prior to, midway and after two week WBV or spinal stabilization intervention program sequentially by using VAS score, Oswestry disability index and stabilizer pressure biofeedback unit. Repeated measure ANOVA was used for data analysis. A p-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Findings show that multifidus muscle endurance and general functionality increase significantly over time in both groups [P <0/05]. Both groups didn't show any statistically significant change in perception of pain, supine and prone time after the treatment period [P>0/05] .Neither of the two exercise interventions wasn't superior in producing more significant results except for multifidus and transverse abdominus muscles endurance where the vibration group showed significant improvement over the non-vibration group. Findings revealed that a slight difference existed in favor of the vibration training group, but not sufficient enough to conclude that it is more effective than core muscle exercises alone

[To investigate the general practitioners recognition about the role of physiotherapy in treating and improving the confined patients]

Background: The objective of this study was to investigate the amount of medical society's knowledge about the role of physiotherapy in treating and improving the confined patients

Methods: A questionnaire has prepared with five clinical questions by multiple choice items. The volunteers have one or more items to choice. These questionnaires have randomly completed by the medical students of the Medical Universities around Iran

Results: Our results have shown that only 47.5% of physicians are familiar with the role of physiotherapy for treating and improving restricted patients, on the other hand 18.6% prescribed unsuitable, expensive, and even harmful techniques for curing these patients

Conclusion: The results of our study emphasis on the limited knowledge and information of the medical society about physiotherapy. Even in some cases that the role of physiotherapy has proven, they are not familiar with it. It may reflect the lack of medical training program and their educational syllabus

Sport injuries in squash

Investigating the squash injuries in the Iranian Squash Federation players. We prepared a questionnaire and interviewed fifty-two players. The majority of injuries were due to LBP [36.5%], which may result from the combination of rotational and sagittal plane activity of the back motion. The higher percentage of tennis elbow [21%] shows the significant function of the wrist. The knee problems may be due to playing with flexed knees and sudden changes in direction as well as to twisting movements because of the small court and the speed of ball. The most of female and male players suffered from ball and racket kicking, respectively. The reason for the first one might be due to the lack of good racket control and the second one could be owing to the incorrect motions in the court. Low Back Pain [LBP] is the most common injury in squash players

Sports versus non-sports persons with spinal cord injury.

In this study, 10 sports-active male paraplegics were compared with 2 non-sports paraplegic subjects. Oxygen consumption, heart rate and rate of perceived exertion were investigated during both seated and upright [frame-supported] arm crank ergometry, at work rates up to 40 watts. Sports-active paraplegic subjects were selected in the hope that they would be free of physiological characteristics associated with lack of fitness. The results of tests on 10 sports-active paraplegics were therefore compared with the data of the only 2 patients who were not members of the basketball team but who volunteered to perform seated and upright arm crank ergometry. Due to the small number of non-sports paraplegics, no statistical analysis has been carried out. Actually, at the same power output, the means of heart rate and perceived exertion [i.e., mean of all 3 work rates for both seated and upright arm crank ergometry] were respectively 6.5% and 20% lower in non-sports than in sports-active paraplegics, whereas the training effect of sports participation would have led one to expect that they would be lower in the sports group. Since both the non-sports paraplegics had incomplete lesions, it may be suggested that completeness of injury in paraplegics has a more important effect on their physiological responses to exercise than the regularity of their sports participation. However, it must be remembered that the sample size is small, and a definite conclusion cannot be drawn