A Comparison of the Effect of Ajwain (Trachyspermum ammi (L.) Sprague) and Mefenamic Acid for Alleviating the Symptoms of Primary Dysmenorrhea: An Open-Label Randomized Controlled Trial

Trachyspermum ammi (L.) Sprague (commonly known as ajwain) contains ingredients that attenuate menstrual problems, especially cramping. In this study, we evaluated the impact of ajwain on the pain intensity in a sample of Iranian female college students with primary dysmenorrhea (PD) in comparison to mefenamic acid (MFA). This study was an open-label, randomized, parallel-group clinical trial conducted in the university dormitories in Tehran, Iran, from September 2018 to May 2019. Seventy patients were randomly assigned to two groups of ajwain and MFA. The participants in the ajwain group were treated with a 500 mg ajwain capsule three times a day for seven days, from the 26th cycle day to the 3rd day of the menstrual cycle, for three consecutive cycle periods. The other group received MFA capsules with the first dose of 500 mg and then 250 mg every eight hours, if necessary, from the first day of the menstrual cycle. The two groups were compared in terms of the pain intensity by the visual analog scale (VAS) in pre-intervention cycle and three consecutive cycles during the study. Maximum pain intensity, mean pain, and duration of pain after the intervention were significantly reduced in both groups. The mean VAS score significantly decreased in the ajwain group compared to the MFA group post-intervention (p < 0.02). Moreover, passing blood clots was significantly reduced in the ajwain group (p < 0.03). The findings of this study suggest that ajwain may be effective in pain relief in PD without adverse effects

A Survey on Cortical Bone Trajectory for Spinal Fusions

There have been a number of developments in screw design and implantation techniques over recent years, including proposal of an alternative trajectory entitled as cortical bone trajectory (CBT). Cortical bone trajectory has been investigated in recent medical treatments as an alternative for screw fixation aimed at increasing purchase of pedicle screws in higher density bone. CBT screw insertion follows a lateral path in the transverse plane and caudocephalad path in the sagittal plane. This technique has been advocated because it is reportedly less invasive, improves screw−bone purchase and reduces neurovascular injury. Furthermore CBT pedicle screw fixation provides stabilization to multilevel lumbar segment with low-grade spondylolisthesis comparable to the standard trajectory pedicle screw construct. However, these claims have not been supported by robust clinical evidence. Recent investigations focus on evaluations of CBT as a pioneer method.

Investigation of metabonomics technique by analyze of NMR data, which method is better? Mean center or auto scale?

The factors such as disease can disrupt homeostasis, resulting in perturbations of endogenous biochemicals that are involved in key metabolic profiles. Metabonomics is useful technique to quantitative description of endogenous metabolites present in a biological sample such as urine, plasma and tissue. High resolution 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabonomics is a technique used to analyze and interpret multivariate metabolic data that correlate with changes of physiological conditions. Before any explanation for metabolite data, preprocessing the spectroscopic data is essential. In this paper, we show scaling effects in metabonomics investigation of patients diagnosed with Crohn's and Celiac disease. two techniques of scaling were applied as follows: mean centering and auto scaling. Results reveal that the mean centering is more useful to segregate patients from healthy subjects in the data set of Crohn's and Celiac disease

The Effect of Percutaneous Laser Disc Decompression on Reducing Pain and Disability in Patients With Lumbar Disc Herniation

Introduction: As low back pain incidence is increasing, noninvasive modalities are gaining attention for their ability to achieve the best possible outcome with the least complications. Percutaneous laser disc decompression (PLDD) is currently popular for this purpose. This study aims to evaluate the effect of PLDD on disability and pain reduction in patients with lumbar disc herniation.Methods: Thirty patients were enrolled in this study. Spinal nerve blocks were conducted by laser discectomy single stage injection of a needle into the disc space. The nucleus pulposus of herniated discs were irradiated with laser in order to vaporize a small part of the nucleus pulposus of the intervertebral discs and reduce the voluminosity of diseased discs. Patients were treated with 1000 J of 980 nm diode laser with 5 W energy. In order to measure the severity of pain, visual analog scale (VAS) and also ODI (Oswestry Disability Index) were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 12.Results: Thirty patients participated in this trial including 11 men and 19 women with a mean age (SD) of 40.8 (10.8) years. The mean patients VAS score and ODI level before and after discectomy showed statistically significant differences. The mean VAS and ODI scores showed no statistical difference between males and females (P &lt; 0.05) and percutaneous laser discectomy decreased the VAS and ODI at both groups of patients similarly.Conclusion: We found the use of PLDD reduces pain and disability in patients as a noninvasive procedure

Description of Epidemiological Features, Symptoms and Mortality of the Patients with COVID-19 in Some Provinces of Iran

Background: Clinical manifestations of COVID-19 are different. There are some risk factors for COVID-19. This study aimed to describe the epidemiological features, symptoms and mortality of the patients with COVID-19 in Iran. Methods: This were a cohort study performed on 103,179 patients with COVID-19. The demographic and clinical data were collected in selected provinces. The required data of all patients was extracted from the COVID registry system and analyzed using STATA version 14 and Excel 2016. Results: The mean age was 52.40 years for men and 52.41 years for women. About 55.2% of the study population were male and 44.8% were female. Totally, 60.9% (5085) of deaths happened in men and 39.1% (3263) in women. The mean time from onset of symptoms to hospitalization in men and women were 3.47 and 3.48 days, respectively. The mean time from onset of symptoms to isolation was 2.81 days in men and was 2.87 days in women, from onset of symptoms to death was 9.29 and 9.54 days, respectively, from onset of symptoms to discharge was 7.47 and 7.39 days, and from hospitalization to death was 6.76 and 7.05 days. Cough and shortness of breath were the most common symptoms in the patients. Conclusion: According to the results, the overall mortality rate was higher in men than women. Women with cardiovascular disease and diabetes were more likely to die. The mean time from onset of symptoms to hospitalization, isolation, and discharge was similar in men and women

Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol

High blood cholesterol is typically considered a feature of wealthy western countries(1,2). However, dietary and behavioural determinants of blood cholesterol are changing rapidly throughout the world(3) and countries are using lipid-lowering medications at varying rates. These changes can have distinct effects on the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, which have different effects on human health(4,5). However, the trends of HDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels over time have not been previously reported in a global analysis. Here we pooled 1,127 population-based studies that measured blood lipids in 102.6 million individuals aged 18 years and older to estimate trends from 1980 to 2018 in mean total, non-HDL and HDL cholesterol levels for 200 countries. Globally, there was little change in total or non-HDL cholesterol from 1980 to 2018. This was a net effect of increases in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreases in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe. As a result, countries with the highest level of non-HDL cholesterol-which is a marker of cardiovascular riskchanged from those in western Europe such as Belgium, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Malta in 1980 to those in Asia and the Pacific, such as Tokelau, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand. In 2017, high non-HDL cholesterol was responsible for an estimated 3.9 million (95% credible interval 3.7 million-4.2 million) worldwide deaths, half of which occurred in east, southeast and south Asia. The global repositioning of lipid-related risk, with non-optimal cholesterol shifting from a distinct feature of high-income countries in northwestern Europe, north America and Australasia to one that affects countries in east and southeast Asia and Oceania should motivate the use of population-based policies and personal interventions to improve nutrition and enhance access to treatment throughout the world.Peer reviewe

Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BackgroundDisorders affecting the nervous system are diverse and include neurodevelopmental disorders, late-life neurodegeneration, and newly emergent conditions, such as cognitive impairment following COVID-19. Previous publications from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor Study estimated the burden of 15 neurological conditions in 2015 and 2016, but these analyses did not include neurodevelopmental disorders, as defined by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11, or a subset of cases of congenital, neonatal, and infectious conditions that cause neurological damage. Here, we estimate nervous system health loss caused by 37 unique conditions and their associated risk factors globally, regionally, and nationally from 1990 to 2021.MethodsWe estimated mortality, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs), by age and sex in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2021. We included morbidity and deaths due to neurological conditions, for which health loss is directly due to damage to the CNS or peripheral nervous system. We also isolated neurological health loss from conditions for which nervous system morbidity is a consequence, but not the primary feature, including a subset of congenital conditions (ie, chromosomal anomalies and congenital birth defects), neonatal conditions (ie, jaundice, preterm birth, and sepsis), infectious diseases (ie, COVID-19, cystic echinococcosis, malaria, syphilis, and Zika virus disease), and diabetic neuropathy. By conducting a sequela-level analysis of the health outcomes for these conditions, only cases where nervous system damage occurred were included, and YLDs were recalculated to isolate the non-fatal burden directly attributable to nervous system health loss. A comorbidity correction was used to calculate total prevalence of all conditions that affect the nervous system combined.FindingsGlobally, the 37 conditions affecting the nervous system were collectively ranked as the leading group cause of DALYs in 2021 (443 million, 95% UI 378–521), affecting 3·40 billion (3·20–3·62) individuals (43·1%, 40·5–45·9 of the global population); global DALY counts attributed to these conditions increased by 18·2% (8·7–26·7) between 1990 and 2021. Age-standardised rates of deaths per 100 000 people attributed to these conditions decreased from 1990 to 2021 by 33·6% (27·6–38·8), and age-standardised rates of DALYs attributed to these conditions decreased by 27·0% (21·5–32·4). Age-standardised prevalence was almost stable, with a change of 1·5% (0·7–2·4). The ten conditions with the highest age-standardised DALYs in 2021 were stroke, neonatal encephalopathy, migraine, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, epilepsy, neurological complications due to preterm birth, autism spectrum disorder, and nervous system cancer.InterpretationAs the leading cause of overall disease burden in the world, with increasing global DALY counts, effective prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation strategies for disorders affecting the nervous system are needed

Phylogenetic Analysis of Salmonella spp. Isolated from Clinical Samples of Tehran\'s Hospitals Based on 23S rRNA Gene Sequence

Background and Aims: Salmonella Spp. is one of the most common causes of bacterial gastroenteritis and foodborne diseases. More than 2500 serotypes of Salmonella have been identified which most of them cause infections in humans. Phylogenetic analysis of the family Enterobacteriaceae has not been subjected to extensive variation based on 16S rRNA sequences. In fact 16S rRNA gene was not thought to solve taxonomic problems concerning closely related species because of its highly degree of conservation in own structure. So, 23S rRNA gene which has a potential to classified related strains under sub-species level were candidate to analysis of Salmonella spp. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical Salmonella strains’ relationship using 23S rRNA gene sequence. Materials and Methods: DNA of identified Salmonella spp. from patients with acute diarrhea was extracted. Sequences of 23S rRNA were determined after PCR tests. The whole gene sequences were used to generate phylogenetic trees based on Neighbor-joining method by MEGA 5.05 5. Results: Helix (25 and 45) structures were detected in the most of different serotypes isolates. All S.Typhi included helix-25 in ribosomal structure, but in the other strains, helix-45 was also observed. The similarity between Salmonella spp. was 99-100% based on 23S rRNA.  Conclusions: 23S rRNA gene sequence data was better to analyze at subspecies level and differentiation between serovars. According to variety in Salmonella serotypes based on difference in Anti gene O and H, application of new molecular methods and substituting them with traditional assays are needed

A smart low molecular weight gelator for the triple detection of copper (II), mercury (II), and cyanide ions in water resources

Novel supramolecular gelators based on quinoline-indolin-2-one structure were synthesized. These gelators formed stable organogels in a mixture of DMSO/H2O (1:1). The scanning electron microscopy (SEM), IR and NMR spectroscopies, and rheological measurements were used to study the properties of the gels. Among the synthesized compounds, G2 was chosen as the best gelator and utilized as a naked eye chemosensor for the selective detection of Cu2+ and Hg2+ ions alongside and CN- ion as toxic and hazardous materials. The gelator G2 was selectively transformed into a sol state in the presence of Cu2+ ion alongside with a vivid change of color from orange to cherry red. Hg2+ ion showed a notable change in color from orange to brick red, but the gel state remained intact. The detection limit for the gelator G2 toward Cu(2+)and Hg2+ were 7.25 x 10(-6) mol. L-1 and 4.80 x 10(-6) mol. L-1 respectively. All the tested anions had no distinct effect on the gel state and/or the color of G2, while, in the presence of CN-, although the gel state was again unchanged a drastic color change from orange to dark purple was observed. The detection limit for G2 toward CN- was 1.36 x 10(-4) mol. L-1. The gelator G2 also operated simultaneously the roles of INH and OR gates in which water, Hg2+, Cu2+ ions are inputs, and the gel state and absorbance around 600 nm (color change) are outputs