Ethnopharmacological evaluation of Poppy seed oil in combination with Tramadol on behavioral paradigm and on dopamine, and cytokines levels.

OBJECTIVE: The present study was taken up to evaluate the combination of two drugs in the management of behavioral disorders such as locomotor activity, muscle relaxation, analgesic, and anxiolytic activity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the methodology, Wistar rats weighing (150-180 g) were divided into six groups of 6 each (n=6). All the animals (groups II to VI) were subjected to stress and analyzed for anxiolytic activity using an elevated plus maze. The animals were treated for 28 days with poppy seed oil in lower and higher doses (1,000 and 2,000 mg/kg), tramadol in lower and higher doses (1.5 and 3 mg/kg) as individual groups, and one group with a combination of both drugs in lower doses. RESULTS: The results depicted showed that the combined treatment had significantly (**p <0.001) improvised behavior deficits, extemporized, and diminished anxiety-like attitude in rats, and showed the analgesic property in a significant manner. The pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-1ß were evaluated in the serum and were observed to be lessened the values of both in a significant manner with the co-administration of both the test drugs. The dopamine concentrations were also determined in the serum, which disclosed a decline (**p <0.001) significantly. CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded from the results that a combined effect of drugs might be beneficial in the management of behavioral disorders and pain management.

Best parameters selection for wavelet packet-based compression of magnetic resonance images.

Transmission of compressed medical images is becoming a vital tool in telemedicine. Thus new methods are needed for efficient image compression. This study discovers the best design parameters for a data compression scheme applied to digital magnetic resonance (MR) images. The proposed technique aims at reducing the transmission cost while preserving the diagnostic information. By selecting the wavelet packet's filters, decomposition level, and subbands that are better adapted to the frequency characteristics of the image, one may achieve better image representation in the sense of lower entropy or minimal distortion. Experimental results show that the selection of the best parameters has a dramatic effect on the data compression rate of MR images. In all cases, decomposition at three or four levels with the Coiflet 5 wavelet (Coif 5) results in better compression performance than the other wavelets. Image resolution is found to have a remarkable effect on the compression rate.