Screening of chlamydia trachomatis infection in men, is it necessary in Iran?

Background: Chlamydia trachomatis is one of the most prevalent causative bacteria in sexually transmitted infections with adverse effects, which almost remain asymptomatic in society. Objectives: This project designed to determine the prevalence of Chlamydial infection in men and comparing the related risk factors in two groups of referrals based on the study inclusion criteria. Materials and Methods: Two hundreds of men who attended in the Mehrad hospital in Tehran Iran were selected and classified into two groups (symptomatic and asymptomatic). 10 mL of first void urine from each person collected and tested by polymerase chain reaction for the presence of C. trachomatis cryptic plasmid gene. association between condom usage as a variable and infection in asymptomatic group (P � 0.05). Results: In total, 8.5 of all subjects were positive (11 of symptomatic and 6 of asymptomatic men). Statistical analysis revealed an Conclusions: Findings of this study show that Chlamydial infection screening especially in males with urogenital symptoms is necessary (at least in Tehran) and we recommend more epidemiological studies in other cities of Iran. © 2013, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences

The decrease in NKG2D+ Natural Killer cells in peripheral blood of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer

Background: Natural killer (NK) cells play important roles in the immune defense against tumors such as colorectal cancer. In humans, NKG2D is an activating immune receptor constitutively expressed in most cytotoxic lymphocytes including NK and CD8+ T cells. In this study, the expression of NKG2D molecule was investigated in peripheral blood NK cells from colorectal cancer patients and compared with healthy subjects. Methods: We studied 21 non-metastatic (low-grade), 17 non-metastatic (high-grade), 16 metastatic colorectal cancer patients, and 24 healthy controls. Peripheral blood samples were obtained to isolate peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and the percentage of peripheral blood NKG2D+CD3-CD56+ NK cells was analyzed by flow cytometry. The expression of NKG2D at mRNA level was also measured by real-time PCR in both, patients and control subjects. Results: The results showed a significant reduction in the percentage of NKG2D+NK cells as well as NKG2D mRNA expression in peripheral blood of metastatic colon cancer patients. Conclusion: This result suggests that decreased expression of activating NKG2D receptor in metastatic colorectal cancer might compromise NK cell function and allow tumor to evade immunity (Tab. 3, Fig. 4, Ref. 33). Text in PDF www.elis.sk

Wide distribution of carbapenem resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in burns patients in Iran

Antimicrobial resistance in carbapenem non-susceptible Acinetobacter baumannii (CNSAb) is a major public health concern globally. This study determined the antibiotic resistance and molecular epidemiology of CNSAb isolates from a referral burn center in Tehran, Iran. Sixty-nine CNSAb isolates were tested for susceptibility to antimicrobial agents using the E test methodology. Multiple locus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA), Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and multiplex PCR were performed. PCR assays tested for ambler classes A, B, and D β-lactamases. Detection of ISAba1, characterization of integrons, and biofilm formation were investigated. Fifty-three (77) isolates revealed XDR phenotypes. High prevalence of blaOXA-23-like (88) and blaPER-1 (54) were detected. ISAba1 was detected upstream of blaADC, blaOXA-23-like and blaOXA51-like genes in, 97, 42, and 26 of isolates, respectively. Thirty-one (45) isolates were assigned to international clone (IC) variants. MLVA identified 56 distinct types with six clusters and 53 singleton genotypes. Forty previously known MLST sequence types forming 5 clonal complexes were identified. The Class 1 integron (class 1 integrons) gene was identified in 84 of the isolates. The most prevalent (33) cassette combination was aacA4-catB8-aadA1. The IC variants were predominant in the A. baumannii lineage with the ability to form strong biofilms. The XDR-CNSAb from burned patients in Iran is resistant to various antimicrobials, including tigecycline. This study shows wide genetic diversity in CNSAb. Integrating the new Iranian A. baumannii IC variants into the epidemiologic clonal and susceptibility profile databases can help effective global control measures against the XDR-CNSAb pandemic. � 2015 Farshadzadeh, Hashemi, Rahimi, Pourakbari, Esmaeili, Haghighi, Majidpour, Shojaa, Rahmani, Gharesi, Aziemzadeh and Bahador

Wide distribution of carbapenem resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in burns patients in Iran

Antimicrobial resistance in carbapenem non-susceptible Acinetobacter baumannii (CNSAb) is a major public health concern globally. This study determined the antibiotic resistance and molecular epidemiology of CNSAb isolates from a referral burn center in Tehran, Iran. Sixty-nine CNSAb isolates were tested for susceptibility to antimicrobial agents using the E test methodology. Multiple locus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA), Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and multiplex PCR were performed. PCR assays tested for ambler classes A, B, and D β-lactamases. Detection of ISAba1, characterization of integrons, and biofilm formation were investigated. Fifty-three (77) isolates revealed XDR phenotypes. High prevalence of blaOXA-23-like (88) and blaPER-1 (54) were detected. ISAba1 was detected upstream of blaADC, blaOXA-23-like and blaOXA51-like genes in, 97, 42, and 26 of isolates, respectively. Thirty-one (45) isolates were assigned to international clone (IC) variants. MLVA identified 56 distinct types with six clusters and 53 singleton genotypes. Forty previously known MLST sequence types forming 5 clonal complexes were identified. The Class 1 integron (class 1 integrons) gene was identified in 84 of the isolates. The most prevalent (33) cassette combination was aacA4-catB8-aadA1. The IC variants were predominant in the A. baumannii lineage with the ability to form strong biofilms. The XDR-CNSAb from burned patients in Iran is resistant to various antimicrobials, including tigecycline. This study shows wide genetic diversity in CNSAb. Integrating the new Iranian A. baumannii IC variants into the epidemiologic clonal and susceptibility profile databases can help effective global control measures against the XDR-CNSAb pandemic. � 2015 Farshadzadeh, Hashemi, Rahimi, Pourakbari, Esmaeili, Haghighi, Majidpour, Shojaa, Rahmani, Gharesi, Aziemzadeh and Bahador

Modulating attentional load affects numerosity estimation: evidence against a pre-attentive subitizing mechanism

Traditionally, the visual enumeration of a small number of items (1 to about 4), referred to as subitizing, has been thought of as a parallel and pre-attentive process and functionally different from the serial attentive enumeration of larger numerosities. We tested this hypothesis by employing a dual task paradigm that systematically manipulated the attentional resources available to an enumeration task. Enumeration accuracy for small numerosities was severely decreased as more attentional resources were taken away from the numerical task, challenging the traditionally held notion of subitizing as a pre-attentive, capacity-independent process. Judgement of larger numerosities was also affected by dual task conditions and attentional load. These results challenge the proposal that small numerosities are enumerated by a mechanism separate from large numerosities and support the idea of a single, attention-demanding enumeration mechanism

Grafting Carbon Nanotubes on Glass Fiber by Dip Coating Technique to Enhance Tensile and Interfacial Shear Strength

The effects of noncovalent bonding and mechanical interlocking of carbon nanotubes (CNT) coating on tensile and interfacial strength of glass fiber were investigated. CNT were coated over glass fiber by a simple dip coating method. Acid treated CNT were suspended in isopropanol solution containing Nafion as binding agent. To achieve uniform distribution of CNT over the glass fiber, an optimized dispersion process was developed by two parameters: CNT concentration and soaking time. CNT concentration was varied from 0.4 to 2 mg/mL and soaking time was varied from 1 to 180 min. The provided micrographs demonstrated appropriate coating of CNT on glass fiber by use of CNT-Nafion mixture. The effects of CNT concentration and soaking time on coating layer were studied by performing single fiber tensile test and pull-out test. The obtained results showed that the optimum CNT concentration and soaking time were 1 mg/mL and 60 min, respectively, which led to significant improvement of tensile strength and interfacial shear stress. It was found that, at other concentrations and soaking times, CNT agglomeration or acutely curly tubes appeared over the fiber surface which caused a reduction of nanotubes interaction on the glass fiber

Decline in peripheral blood NKG2D+CD3+CD56+ NKT cells in metastatic colorectal cancer patients

OBJECTIVE: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the main causes of cancer deaths in the world. This cancer can be divided into non-metastatic and metastatic CRC stages. CD3+CD56+ NKT cell subsets are a minor T cell subset in peripheral blood and conduct the killing of tumor cells in direct manner. Little is obvious about levels and surface markers of these cells such as NKG2D in different cancers, especially in CRC. METHODS: We included 15 non-metastatic (low-grade), 11 non-metastatic (high-grade), 10 metastatic colorectal cancer patients and 18 healthy controls. The percentages of CD3+CD56+ NKT cells and NKG2D+CD56+ NKT cells from samples were analyzed by flow cytometry in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of samples. RESULTS: We found that there was a significantly lower number of NKG2D+CD3+CD56+ cells in peripheral blood of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer compared with normal controls (77.53 ± 5.79 vs 90.74 ± 9.84 ; p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The fact that frequency of NKG2D+CD56+ NKT cells was significantly lower in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer compared to healthy controls strengthens the hypothesis that NKT cells can play a substantial role in the protection against human colorectal cancer, and this opens up avenues for novel studies about elucidating the other aspects of tumor surveillance in CRC progression and immunotherapy

Manipulation of human verticality using high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation

Background: Using conventional tDCS over the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) we previously reported that it is possible to manipulate subjective visual vertical (SVV) and postural control. We also demonstrated that high-definition tDCS (HD-tDCS) can achieve substantially greater cortical stimulation focality than conventional tDCS. However, it is critical to establish dose-response effects using well-defined protocols with relevance to clinically meaningful applications. Objective: To conduct three pilot studies investigating polarity and intensity-dependent effects of HD-tDCS over the right TPJ on behavioral and physiological outcome measures in healthy subjects. We additionally aimed to establish the feasibility, safety, and tolerability of this stimulation protocol. Methods: We designed three separate randomized, double-blind, crossover phase I clinical trials in different cohorts of healthy adults using the same stimulation protocol. The primary outcome measure for trial 1 was SVV; trial 2, weight-bearing asymmetry (WBA); and trial 3, electroencephalography power spectral density (EEG-PSD). The HD-tDCS montage comprised a single central, and 3 surround electrodes (HD-tDCS3x1) over the right TPJ. For each study, we tested 3x2 min HD-tDCS3x1 at 1, 2 and 3 mA; with anode center, cathode center, or sham stimulation, in random order across days. Results: We found significant SVV deviation relative to baseline, specific to the cathode center condition, with consistent direction and increasing with stimulation intensity. We further showed significant WBA with direction governed by stimulation polarity (cathode center, left asymmetry; anode center, right asymmetry). EEG-PSD in the gamma band was significantly increased at 3 mA under the cathode. Conclusions: The present series of studies provide converging evidence for focal neuromodulation that can modify physiology and have behavioral consequences with clinical potential

Radiation dose reduction at a price: the effectiveness of a male gonadal shield during helical CT scans

BACKGROUND: It is estimated that 60 million computed tomography (CT) scans were performed during 2006, with approximately 11% of those performed on children age 0–15 years. Various types of gonadal shielding have been evaluated for reducing exposure to the gonads. The purpose of this study was to quantify the radiation dose reduction to the gonads and its effect on image quality when a wrap-around male pediatric gonad shield was used during CT scanning. This information is obtained to assist the attending radiologist in the decision to utilize such male gonadal shields in pediatric imaging practice. METHODS: The dose reduction to the gonads was measured for both direct radiation and for indirect scattered radiation from the abdomen. A 6 cm(3 )ion chamber (Model 10X5-6, Radcal Corporation, Monrovia, CA) was placed on a Humanoid real bone pelvic phantom at a position of the male gonads. When exposure measurements with shielding were made, a 1 mm lead wrap-around gonadal shield was placed around the ion chamber sensitive volume. RESULTS: The use of the shields reduced scatter dose to the gonads by a factor of about 2 with no appreciable loss of image quality. The shields reduced the direct beam dose by a factor of about 35 at the expense of extremely poor CT image quality due to severe streak artifacts. CONCLUSION: Images in the direct exposure case are not useful due to these severe artifacts and the difficulties in positioning these shields on patients in the scatter exposure case may not be warranted by the small absolute reduction in scatter dose unless it is expected that the patient will be subjected to numerous future CT scans