A comparative study of kojic acid cream and hydroquinone in treatment of melasma

چکیده: زمینه و هدف: ملاسما به هیپرپیگمانتاسیون اکتسابی صـورت اطلاق می شـود که به طور عمده در خانم های 55-30 سال دیده می شود که در صورت عدم درمان به موقع، می تواند سبب بروز مشکلات زیبایی در آنان شود. هـدف از این مطالعه، تاثـیر مقایسه ای کرم کوژیک اسید و هیـدروکینون در درمـان ملاسما بود. روش بررسی: این پژوهش به صورت یک کار آزمایی بالینی بر روی 100 نفراز زنان مبتلا به عارضه ملاسمای اپیدرمی، مراجعه کننده به درمانگاه پوست بیمارستان 22 بهمن مشهد انجام شد. تمام واحدهای مورد پژوهش، حداقل دارای دو ضایعه ملاسمایی به صورت قرینه بوده که شدت و وسعت ضایعات دو طرف نیز نسبتاً یکسان بود. برای هر بیمار در طول مطالعه، کرم کوژیک اسید 4 موضعی جهت ضایعه ملاسمایی یک طرف صورت و کرم هیدروکینون 2 برای ضایعه ملاسمایی سمت دیگر صورت، به طور همزمان تجویز شد. در طول 3 ماه مصرف دارو، میزان بهبودی توسط محققین مورد بررسی قرار گرفت و داده ها با استفاده از آزمون آماری غیر پارامتری ویلکاکسون تجزیه و تحلیل گردید. یافته ها: یک ماه پس از مطالعه، 7 به کرم کوژیک اسید و10 به داروی هیدروکینون و دو ماه پس از درمان 24 به کرم کوژیک اسید و 22 به هیدروکینون پاسخ خوب دادند (05/0

Shorter Notices

Download the PDF fil

N-(2-Hy­droxy-1,1-dimethyl­eth­yl)­benzene­sulfonamide

In the title mol­ecule, C10H15NO3S, the S atom is bonded in a distorted tetra­hedral geometry. In the crystal structure, inter­molecular N—H⋯O, O—H⋯O and weak C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds connect the mol­ecules to form a two-dimensional network parallel to (100). The 2-methyl­propan-1-ol group is disordered over two orientations with occupancies of 0.570 (3) and 0.430 (3)

N-(2-Hy­droxy-1,1-dimethyl­eth­yl)-4-methyl­benzene­sulfonamide

In the title mol­ecule, C11H17NO3S, the S atom has a distorted tetra­hedral geometry [maximum deviation: O—S—O = 119.08 (9)°]. In the crystal, mol­ecules are connected by inter­molecular N—H⋯O, O—H⋯O and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming layers of mol­ecules aligned parallel to (110). The 2-methyl­propan-1-ol group of the mol­ecule is disordered over two positions with an 0.592 (4):0.408 (4) occupancy ratio

Cryoprotectant kinetic analysis of a human articular cartilage vitrification protocol

AbstractWe recently published a protocol to vitrify human articular cartilage and a method of cryoprotectant removal in preparation for transplantation. The current study’s goal was to perform a cryoprotectant kinetic analysis and theoretically shorten the procedure used to vitrify human articular cartilage. First, the loading of the cryoprotectants was modeled using Fick’s law of diffusion, and this information was used to predict the kinetics of cryoprotectant efflux after the cartilage sample had been warmed. We hypothesized that diffusion coefficients obtained from the permeation of individual cryoprotectants into porcine articular cartilage could be used to provide a reasonable prediction of the cryoprotectant loading and of the combined cryoprotectant efflux from vitrified human articular cartilage. We tested this hypothesis with experimental efflux measurements. Osteochondral dowels from three patients were vitrified, and after warming, the articular cartilage was immersed in 3 mL X-VIVO at 4 °C in two consecutive solutions, each for 24 h, with the solution osmolality recorded at various times. Measured equilibrium values agreed with theoretical values within a maximum of 15% for all three samples. The results showed that diffusion coefficients for individual cryoprotectants determined from experiments with 2-mm thick porcine cartilage can be used to approximate the rate of efflux of the combined cryoprotectants from vitrified human articular cartilage of similar thickness. Finally, Fick’s law of diffusion was used in a computational optimization to shorten the protocol with the constraint of maintaining the theoretical minimum cryoprotectant concentration needed to achieve vitrification. The learning provided by this study will enable future improvements in tissue vitrification

Chemical composition and antimicrobial activities of the essential oil from Myrtus communis leaves

Abstract: Nosocomial pathogens are associated with increased hospital stay lengths and mortality rates. Increasing resistance to antibiotics makes the treatment of these infections more difficult. Novel antimicrobial compounds derived from natural sources may be useful for addressing antiobiotic resistance. The objective of this study is to determine the chemical composition and antimicrobial activities of essential oils from Myrtus communis L. (Myrtaceae) leaves against pathogens causing nosocomial infections. The chemical composition of essential oil from M. communis leaves was analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The antimicrobial activity of the essential oil against bacteria and fungi was evaluated by broth micro-dilution as per the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) methods. GC-MS analysis revealed that the major constituents of the essential oil were α-pinene (39.2 %), 1,8-cineole (22.0 %), and linalool (18.4 %). The essential oil exhibited antimicrobial activity against all Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria with MICs in the range of 0.5-32 μL/mL and 8-64 μL/mL, respectively. MICs for the tested clinical and standard fungi were in the range of 0.03-16 μL/mL. The essential oil exhibited strong antibacterial and antifungal activities against all the causative agents of nosocomial infections examined, particularly against strains with antibiotic resistance. The essential oil from M. communis leaves is a potential source of novel antimicrobial agents for the treatment of nosocomial infections

A transfer learning based approach for brain tumor classification

In order to improve patient outcomes, brain tumors—which are notorious for their catastrophic effects and short life expectancy, particularly in higher grades—need to be diagnosed accurately and treated with care. Patient survival chances may be hampered by incorrect medical procedures brought on by a brain tumor misdiagnosis. CNNs and computer-aided tumor detection systems have demonstrated promise in revolutionizing brain tumor diagnostics through the application of ML techniques. One issue in the field of brain tumor detection and classification is the dearth of non-invasive indication support systems, which is compounded by data scarcity. Conventional neural networks may cause problems such as overfitting and gradient vanishing when they use uniform filters in different visual settings. Moreover, these methods incur time and computational complexity as they train the model from scratch and extract the pertinent characteristics. This paper presents an InceptionV4 neural network architecture-based Transfer Learning-based methodology to address the shortcomings in brain tumor classification methods. The goal is to deliver precise diagnostic assistance while minimizing calculation time and improving accuracy. The model makes use of a dataset that contains 7022 MRI images that were obtained from figshare, the SARTAJ dataset, and Br35H, among other sites. The suggested InceptionV4 architecture improves its ability to categorize brain tumors into three groups and normal brain images by utilizing transfer learning approaches. The suggested InceptionV4 model achieves an accuracy rate of 98.7% in brain tumor classification, indicating the model’s remarkable performance. This suggests a noteworthy progression in the precision of diagnosis and computational effectiveness to support practitioners making decisions

Detection of Early Myocardial Dysfunction by Imaging Biomarkers in Cancer Patients Undergoing Photon Beam vs. Proton Beam Radiotherapy: A Prospective Study

1. Background: We sought to determine acute and subacute changes in cardiac function after proton beam (PBT) and photon beam (PhT) radiotherapy (RT) using conventional and two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (2D-STE) in patients with malignant breast and thoracic tumors. 2. Methods: Between March 2016 and March 2017, 70 patients with breast or thoracic cancer were prospectively enrolled and underwent transthoracic echocardiography with comprehensive strain analysis at pretreatment, mid-treatment, end of treatment, and 3 months after RT. 3. Results: PBT was used to treat 44 patients; PhT 26 patients. Mean ± SD age was 55 ± 12 years; most patients (93%) were women. The median (interquartile range) of the mean heart dose was lower in the PBT than the PhT group (47 [27-79] vs. 217 [120-596] cGy, respectively; p \u3c 0.001). Ejection fraction did not change in either group. Only the PhT group had reduced systolic tissue Doppler velocities at 3 months. 2D-STE showed changes in endocardial and epicardial longitudinal, radial, and circumferential early diastolic strain rate (SRe) in patients undergoing PhT (global longitudinal SRe, pretreatment vs. end of treatment (p = 0.04); global circumferential SRe, pretreatment vs. at 3-month follow-up (p = 0.003); global radial SRe, pretreatment vs. at 3-month follow-up (p = 0.02) for endocardial values). Epicardial strain values decreased significantly only in patients treated with PhT. Patients in the PhT group had a significant decrease in epicardial global longitudinal systolic strain rate (GLSRs) (epicardial GLSRs, at baseline vs. at end of treatment [p = 0.009]) and in GCSRe and GRSRe (epicardial GCSRe, at baseline vs. at 3-month follow-up (p = 0.02); epicardial GRSRe, at baseline vs. at 3-month follow-up (p = 0.03)) during treatment and follow-up. No changes on 2D-STE were detected in the PBT group. 4. Conclusions: Patients who underwent PhT but not PBT had reduced tissue Doppler velocities and SRe values during follow-up, suggesting early myocardial relaxation abnormalities. PBT shows promise as a cardiac-sparing RT technology

Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 359 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background How long one lives, how many years of life are spent in good and poor health, and how the population's state of health and leading causes of disability change over time all have implications for policy, planning, and provision of services. We comparatively assessed the patterns and trends of healthy life expectancy (HALE), which quantifies the number of years of life expected to be lived in good health, and the complementary measure of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), a composite measure of disease burden capturing both premature mortality and prevalence and severity of ill health, for 359 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories over the past 28 years. Methods We used data for age-specific mortality rates, years of life lost (YLLs) due to premature mortality, and years lived with disability (YLDs) from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 to calculate HALE and DALYs from 1990 to 2017. We calculated HALE using age-specific mortality rates and YLDs per capita for each location, age, sex, and year. We calculated DALYs for 359 causes as the sum of YLLs and YLDs. We assessed how observed HALE and DALYs differed by country and sex from expected trends based on Sociodemographic Index (SDI). We also analysed HALE by decomposing years of life gained into years spent in good health and in poor health, between 1990 and 2017, and extra years lived by females compared with males. Findings Globally, from 1990 to 2017, life expectancy at birth increased by 7.4 years (95% uncertainty interval 74-7.8), from 65.6 years (65.3-65- 8) in 1990 to 73.0 years (72.7-73.3) in 2017. The increase in years of life varied from 5.1 years (5.0-5.3) in high SDI countries to 12.0 years (11.3-12.8) in low SDI countries. Of the additional years of life expected at birth, 26.3% (20.1-33.1) were expected to be spent in poor health in high SDI countries compared with 11.7% (8.8-15.1) in low-middle SDI countries. HALE at birth increased by 6.3 years (5.9-6.7), from 57.0 years (54.6-59.1) in 1990 to 63.3 years (60.5-65.7) in 2017. The increase varied from 3.8 years (3.4-4.1) in high SDI countries to 10.5 years (9.8-11.2) in low SDI countries. Even larger variations in HALE than these were observed between countries, ranging from 1.0 year (0.4-1.7) in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (62.4 years [59.9-64.7] in 1990 to 63.5 years [60.9-65.8] in 2017) to 23.7 years (21.9-25.6) in Eritrea (30.7 years [28.9-32.2] in 1990 to 54.4 years [51.5-57.1] in 2017). In most countries, the increase in HALE was smaller than the increase in overall life expectancy, indicating more years lived in poor health. In 180 of 195 countries and territories, females were expected to live longer than males in 2017, with extra years lived varying from 1.4 years (0.6-2.3) in Algeria to 11.9 years (10.9-12.9) in Ukraine. Of the extra years gained, the proportion spent in poor health varied largely across countries, with less than 20% of additional years spent in poor health in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, and Slovakia, whereas in Bahrain all the extra years were spent in poor health. In 2017, the highest estimate of HALE at birth was in Singapore for both females (75.8 years [72.4-78.7]) and males (72.6 years [69 " 8-75.0]) and the lowest estimates were in Central African Republic (47.0 years [43.7-50.2] for females and 42.8 years [40.1-45.6] for males). Globally, in 2017, the five leading causes of DALYs were neonatal disorders, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, lower respiratory infections, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Between 1990 and 2017, age-standardised DALY rates decreased by 41.3% (38.8-43.5) for communicable diseases and by 49"8% (47.9-51.6) for neonatal disorders. For non-communicable diseases, global DALYs increased by 40.1% (36.8-43.0), although age-standardised DALY rates decreased by 18.1% (16.0-20.2). Interpretation With increasing life expectancy in most countries, the question of whether the additional years of life gained are spent in good health or poor health has been increasingly relevant because of the potential policy implications, such as health-care provisions and extending retirement ages. In some locations, a large proportion of those additional years are spent in poor health. Large inequalities in HALE and disease burden exist across countries in different SDI quintiles and between sexes. The burden of disabling conditions has serious implications for health system planning and health-related expenditures. Despite the progress made in reducing the burden of communicable diseases and neonatal disorders in low S DI countries, the speed of this progress could be increased by scaling up proven interventions. The global trends among non-communicable diseases indicate that more effort is needed to maximise HALE, such as risk prevention and attention to upstream determinants of health. Copyright (C) 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

Population and fertility by age and sex for 195 countries and territories, 1950–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background Population estimates underpin demographic and epidemiological research and are used to track progress on numerous international indicators of health and development. To date, internationally available estimates of population and fertility, although useful, have not been produced with transparent and replicable methods and do not use standardised estimates of mortality. We present single-calendar year and single-year of age estimates of fertility and population by sex with standardised and replicable methods. Methods We estimated population in 195 locations by single year of age and single calendar year from 1950 to 2017 with standardised and replicable methods. We based the estimates on the demographic balancing equation, with inputs of fertility, mortality, population, and migration data. Fertility data came from 7817 location-years of vital registration data, 429 surveys reporting complete birth histories, and 977 surveys and censuses reporting summary birth histories. We estimated age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs; the annual number of livebirths to women of a specified age group per 1000 women in that age group) by use of spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression and used the ASFRs to estimate total fertility rates (TFRs; the average number of children a woman would bear if she survived through the end of the reproductive age span [age 10–54 years] and experienced at each age a particular set of ASFRs observed in the year of interest). Because of sparse data, fertility at ages 10–14 years and 50–54 years was estimated from data on fertility in women aged 15–19 years and 45–49 years, through use of linear regression. Age-specific mortality data came from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 estimates. Data on population came from 1257 censuses and 761 population registry location-years and were adjusted for underenumeration and age misreporting with standard demographic methods. Migration was estimated with the GBD Bayesian demographic balancing model, after incorporating information about refugee migration into the model prior. Final population estimates used the cohort-component method of population projection, with inputs of fertility, mortality, and migration data. Population uncertainty was estimated by use of out-of-sample predictive validity testing. With these data, we estimated the trends in population by age and sex and in fertility by age between 1950 and 2017 in 195 countries and territories.Background Population estimates underpin demographic and epidemiological research and are used to track progress on numerous international indicators of health and development. To date, internationally available estimates of population and fertility, although useful, have not been produced with transparent and replicable methods and do not use standardised estimates of mortality. We present single-calendar year and single-year of age estimates of fertility and population by sex with standardised and replicable methods. Methods We estimated population in 195 locations by single year of age and single calendar year from 1950 to 2017 with standardised and replicable methods. We based the estimates on the demographic balancing equation, with inputs of fertility, mortality, population, and migration data. Fertility data came from 7817 location-years of vital registration data, 429 surveys reporting complete birth histories, and 977 surveys and censuses reporting summary birth histories. We estimated age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs; the annual number of livebirths to women of a specified age group per 1000 women in that age group) by use of spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression and used the ASFRs to estimate total fertility rates (TFRs; the average number of children a woman would bear if she survived through the end of the reproductive age span [age 10–54 years] and experienced at each age a particular set of ASFRs observed in the year of interest). Because of sparse data, fertility at ages 10–14 years and 50–54 years was estimated from data on fertility in women aged 15–19 years and 45–49 years, through use of linear regression. Age-specific mortality data came from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 estimates. Data on population came from 1257 censuses and 761 population registry location-years and were adjusted for underenumeration and age misreporting with standard demographic methods. Migration was estimated with the GBD Bayesian demographic balancing model, after incorporating information about refugee migration into the model prior. Final population estimates used the cohort-component method of population projection, with inputs of fertility, mortality, and migration data. Population uncertainty was estimated by use of out-of-sample predictive validity testing. With these data, we estimated the trends in population by age and sex and in fertility by age between 1950 and 2017 in 195 countries and territories