Studying the effect of donor kidney volume ratios to recipients' body surface area, body mass index, and total body weight on post-transplant graft function.

OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to retrospectively investigate the relationship between renal transplanted volume indexes (Total kidney volume (TKV)/Body surface area (BSA), Renal parenchymal volume (RPV)/BSA, Renal cortical volume (RCV)/BSA, RPV/Body mass index (BMI), RCV/BMI, RPV/Weight, RCV/Weight), and short- and long-term function of the graft. METHODS: One-hundred and twelve live donor-recipient pairs from 2017 to 2018, whose donors underwent preoperative renal computed tomography angiography and recipients survived during 12 months of follow-up, were included in this study. RESULTS: The crude and adjusted linear regressions for the effect of volume measurements by voxel and ellipsoid methods on the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) at different post-transplantation times demonstrated that the RPV/weight ratio had the most substantial crude effect on the eGFR 12 months and 4 years after renal transplant. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for six different renal volume ratios demonstrated no significant difference between these ratios in terms of discriminative ability (p value < 0.05). A strong direct correlation between TKV calculated by the ellipsoid formula with RPV and RCV measured using OsiriX software was noted. Analysis of ROC curves for renal volume indices has demonstrated fair to good discriminative ability of our cut-off points to estimate 4-year post-transplantation eGFR > 60 mL/min. CONCLUSION: Renal transplant recipients' volume indices, such as RPV/weight, had strong correlations with eGFR at different points in time, and renal transplant recipients with the volume ratios higher than our cut-off points had a good chance of having a 4-year post-transplantation eGFR higher than 60 mL/min.

Persian manual therapy method for chronic low-back pain with lumbar radiculopathy; a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Manual therapy is a non-surgical approach for management of musculoskeletal symptoms. This study investigated safety and efficacy of a Persian manual therapy method (Fateh technique) for management of chronic low-back pain (LBP) and radiculopathy. METHODS: In this controlled trial, 52 eligible patients with chronic LBP and lumbar radiculopathy were randomly assigned into two intervention groups; one received a 16-min soft tissue manipulation for four weekly sessions and did two daily home active exercises. The other group only did the two daily exercises for four weeks. Roland-Morris disability score, Visual Analogue Scale scores of LBP, radiculopathy and paresthesia, and finger-to-floor test result were assessed at the baseline, and in fourth and eighth weeks of trial. RESULTS: Data of 48 participants was analyzed. Distributions of age, sex, and duration of symptoms in two groups were the same. Fateh technique respectively decreased pain, radiculopathy, paresthesia, and disability, by 4.28 [95% confidence interval: 3.36-5.19], 3.85 [2.67-5.03], 1.32 [0.37-2.27], and 4.58 [3.23-5.93] units, and increased body flexibility by 35.42 [6.91-63.92] millimeters. Compared with home exercise, Fateh technique was associated with greater changes in all outcomes. No adverse event has occurred. CONCLUSIONS: Fateh technique is safe and effective for management of LBP and radiculopathy in patients without severe progressive symptoms.

A new approach to cardiac fat volume assessment and the correlation with coronary artery calcification.

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the foremost cause of death in the most developed societies. Plaque formation in epicardial coronary arteries and ensuing inflammation are a known pathophysiologic factor of CAD. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to separately and simultaneously evaluate the correlation between pericardial fat pad volume and overall peri-coronary epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) thickness with coronary calcium score (CCS) to improve risk stratification of CAD. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed patients who underwent a non-invasive contrast-enhanced coronary multidetector CT (MDCT) angiography. Peri-coronary EAT thickness, pericardial fat pad volume and CCS were obtained by an expert radiologist from the patients coronary multidetector CT (MDCT) angiography. RESULTS: We included 141 symptomatic patients (86 men, 55 women) with an average age of 53.53 ± 12.92. An increment of overall peri-coronary EAT thickness (1/3 × (left anterior descending artery (LAD) + left circumflex artery (LCx) + right coronary artery (RCA)) was associated with a 49% increase in the odds for the presence of coronary artery calcification (CAC) (P = 0.004). Significant predictability of peri-coronary EAT-average was seen in diagnosing calcified plaque. Pericardial fat pad volume was positively correlated with overall peri-coronary EAT thickness in age and body mass index (BMI)-adjusted linear regression models, (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our results amplify previous idea that peri-coronary EAT and pericardial fat pad volume might act as useful markers and better indicators of CCS based on Agatston score in comparison with BMI or body weight in order to reveal subsequent CADs.

Autoimmune hepatitis in children: experiences in a tertiary center.

OBJECTIVE: Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a necroinflammatory liver disease of unknown etiology that occurs in the children of all ages. The present study aimed to evaluate the clinical and paraclinical presentations, including pattern of autoantibodies, response to treatment, mortality, and liver transplantation outcome in the Iranian children with AIH. METHODS: The medical records of 87 children (56 girls and 31 boy) diagnosed with AIH between 2001 and 2010 were retrospectively analyzed for clinical and paraclinical profiles and also treatment outcome. FINDINGS: The mean age of the patients was 10.1±4.5 years (64.4% females). The most common clinical findings were jaundice (70.1%), splenomegaly (67.8%), and hepatomegaly (51.7%). Antinuclear, anti-smooth muscle, and anti LKM antibodies were positive in 14/62, 22/53 and 6/40 patients, respectively (36 patients had type 1 AIH, 6 patients had type 2 AIH, 26 patients were seronegative, and autoantibodies were not available in 19 cases). The most common histological finding in the liver biopsies was chronic hepatitis with interface activity that was seen in 65 (74.7%) patients. The complete response was seen in 52 (59.8%) patients and 24 (27.6%) patients underwent liver transplantation. One-year and five-year survival rates were 87.5% and 80% in the transplanted patients. CONCLUSION: AIH should be kept in mind in the differential diagnosis of both acute and chronic liver diseases in the children and treatment with combination of corticosteroids and azathioprine is a good treatment option. In the patients with end stage liver cirrhosis that did not respond to medical therapy, liver transplantation is the treatment of choice.