Changes in Serum Alkaline Phosphatase, Calcium, and Parathyroid Hormone with Different Doses of Iodine Therapy:.

Background: Despite the benefits of radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy as an adjunctive treatment for thyroid cancer, it can be associated with several side effects. The main purpose of this study was to determine the changes in serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP), calcium (Ca), and parathyroid hormone (PTH) at different doses of RAI therapy among patients who were referred to the nuclear medicine department of Namazi Hospital, Shiraz. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 60 patients with papillary thyroid cancer who underwent RAI therapy at different doses of 100, 150, and 200 mCi. The ALP, Ca, and PTH levels of patients were measured before and 60 days after RAI therapy. Results: Our study revealed that RAI therapy at all doses significantly increased ALP level in comparison with baseline amounts (P≤0.05). However, changes in PTH and Ca levels were not significant among patients who received different doses of RAI (P˃0.05). Conclusion: RAI therapy could affect important hormones and enzymes such as ALP and PTH. This issue can be considered in diagnostic and therapeutic prescriptions of RAI for the treatment of thyroid cancer.[GMJ.2022;11:e2397].

Head and Neck Restoration in Scar Alopecia: Hair Transplantation in Scalp, Eyebrows, Beard and Mustache.

BACKGROUND: Surgical management of hair loss has become an increasingly challenging procedure, when dealing with scar alopecia. We investigated the efficacy of hair transplantation in patients with head and neck scar alopecia. METHODS: From 2016 to 2018 in Shiraz, Iran, all patients with scar alopecia in head and neck were evaluated for efficacy of follicular unit extraction (FUE), follicular unit transplantation (FUT) or a combination of two methods from donor sites in scalp and beard various hair-grafts were compared. RESULTS: Fifty-six patients were enrolled. Most of them were between 31 and 40 yr old (48.3%) and male (71.4%). Trauma, burn, surgical excision of adjacent skin, radiotherapy and leishmaniasis were the registered causes. Scars were visible in scalp (39.3%), beard (28.6%), eyebrow (21.4%), and moustache (10.7%) regions. FUE (87.5%), FUT (10.7%) and a combination (1.8%) were the used methods. One-hair-grafts were used in eyebrows (100%), moustache (100%), beard (88%) and scalp (7.9%), while 2-hair-grafts in beard (6%) and scalp (47.4%) and 3-haired grafts in beard (6%) and scalp (44.7%) transplantations. CONCLUSION: In head and neck scar alopecia, hair transplantation was selected based on type and depth of scar. FUE was targeted when huge grafts were not needed, including beard, moustache, and eyebrow, while FIT was used when extensive scars were present in scalp. One-hair-grafts were mostly applied for eyebrow, moustache and beard, 2-hair- and 3-hair- grafts for beard and scalp transplantation. These findings can be added to the literature when FUE, FIT, or their combination are targeted in hair restoration of scar alopecia in head and neck.

Growth performance, immune response, and digestive enzyme activity in Pacific white shrimp, Penaeus vannamei Boone, 1931, fed dietary microbial lysozyme.

The present study investigates the effects of the dietary microbial lysozyme (ML) as an immunostimulant, on the growth performance, some immune parameters and digestive enzyme of Pacific white shrimp, Penaeus vannamei. Six hundred shrimps were obtained and randomly allocated into four groups as follows with three replicates. The shrimps were fed diets supplemented with 0 (control), 0.5, 1, and 2 g kg-1 ML for 4 months. The results indicated that dietary supplementation of ML significantly improved final weight, weight gain, average daily weight gain rate (ADG), feed conversion rate (FCR), and feed efficiency rate (FER) compared to the control (P ˂ 0.05). However, weight gain specific growth rate (SGR) and survival rate were not significantly affected by dietary ML (P ˃ 0.05). Dietary ML had a progressive effects on some immune parameters status including total antioxidant capacity (TAOC), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), lysozyme (LYZ), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), phenoloxidase (PO) and acid phosphatase (ACP) activity as well as differential haemocyte count (DHC) and total haemocyte count (THC), in shrimps treated with the lysozyme than untreated shrimps (P ˂ 0.05). However, feeding with ML had no significant effect on plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) level (P ˃ 0.05). Furthermore, intestinal digestive enzymes (lipase, protease, and amylase) in shrimp fed with dietary ML were significantly (P ˂ 0.05) higher than those fed with non-supplemented control basal diet. Thus, the results indicate that oral administration of ML can be recommended for shrimp feed to improve immune response as well digestive enzymes activity modulation.

Determination of antimicrobial susceptibility patterns in Staphylococcus aureus strains recovered from patients at two main health facilities in Kabul, Afghanistan.

BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a major pathogen implicated in skin and soft tissue infections, abscess in deep organs, toxin mediated diseases, respiratory tract infections, urinary tract infections, post-surgical wound infections, meningitis and many other diseases. Irresponsible and over use of antibiotics has led to an increased presence of multidrug resistant organisms and especially methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as a major public health concern in Afghanistan. As a result, there are many infections with many of them undiagnosed or improperly diagnosed. We aimed to establish a baseline of knowledge regarding the prevalence of MRSA in Kabul, Afghanistan, as well as S. aureus antimicrobial susceptibility to current available antimicrobials, while also determining those most effective to treat S. aureus infections. METHODS: Samples were collected from patients at two main Health facilities in Kabul between September 2016 and February 2017. Antibiotic susceptibility profiles were determined by the disc diffusion method and studied using standard CLSI protocols. RESULTS: Out of 105 strains of S. aureus isolated from pus, urine, tracheal secretions, and blood, almost half (46; 43.8%) were methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) while 59 (56.2%) were Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). All strains were susceptible to vancomycin. In total, 100 (95.2%) strains were susceptible to rifampicin, 96 (91.4%) susceptible to clindamycin, 94 (89.5%) susceptible to imipenem, 83 (79.0%) susceptible to gentamicin, 81(77.1%) susceptible to doxycycline, 77 (77.1%) susceptible to amoxicillin + clavulanic acid, 78 (74.3%) susceptible to cefazolin, 71 (67.6%) susceptible to tobramycin, 68 (64.8%) susceptible to chloramphenicol, 60 (57.1%) were susceptible to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, 47 (44.8%) susceptible to ciprofloxacin, 38 (36.2%) susceptible to azithromycin and erythromycin, 37 (35.2%) susceptible to ceftriaxone and 11 (10.5%) were susceptible to cefixim. Almost all (104; 99.05%) were resistant to penicillin G and only 1 (0.95%) was intermediate to penicillin G. Interestingly, 74.6% of MRSA strains were azithromycin resistant with 8.5% of them clindamycin resistant. Ninety-six (91.4%) of the isolates were multi-drug resistant. CONCLUSIONS: There was a high rate of Methicillin resistance (56.2%) among S. aureus strains in the samples collected and most (91.4%) were multidrug resistant. The most effective antibiotics to treat Staph infections were vancomycin, rifampicin, imipenem, clindamycin, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, cefazolin, gentamicin and doxycycline. The least effective were azithromycin, ceftriaxone, cefixim and penicillin. We recommend that, where possible, in every case of S. aureus infection in Kabul, Afghanistan, Antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) should be performed and responsible use of antibiotics should be considered.

Effect of Hydroalcoholic Extract of Rosmarinus officinalis L. Leaf on Anxiety in Mice.

In today's stressful world, psychopathy (especially anxiety) is receiving increased importance. Most of the drugs used to treat this disease have several side effects. Medicinal plants derived from natural products have fewer side effects and can be used in the treatment of this disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the hydroalcoholic extract of Rosmarinus officinalis L. on anxiety in mice. In this experimental study, 50 male mice were randomly divided into 5 groups. To evaluate anxiety, the Elevated Plus Maze test was performed. The control group received normal saline, the positive control group received diazepam (1 mg/kg) as intraperitoneal injection, and the experimental groups received doses of 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg body weight of rosemary extract. The data were analyzed using SPSS 15 and ANOVA statistical tests. The results show that rosemary extract dose-dependently increases the mice spending time and the entries number of mice in plus maze open arms (indicating less stress). This effect at a dose of 400 mg/kg was similar to diazepam, which, in comparison to the control group, was statistically significant (P < .01), while the evaluation of locomotor activity in treated groups, compared with the control groups, showed no significant difference (P > .05). On the other hand, the rosemary extract, similar to the standard drug diazepam, showed an anti-anxiety effect. This effect is probably due to the presence of flavonoids in this plant and their antioxidant property.