Neurofeedback Training in Schizophrenia: A Study on Executive Functioning

The present study was designed to investigate the viability of neurofeedback training which entails the acquisition of effortful learning skills to gain volitional control on electrocortical activity in order to ameliorate executive function of schizophrenic patients. In this pre-test post-test design 30 schizophrenic male inpatients were selected out of which fifteen were trained to inhibit delta and theta at frontal cortex and reward SMR at vertex. Wisconsin Card Sorting Test was administered prior and after the training stage. Descriptive methods were used and P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. The results revealed significant improvement in executive functioning measures in experimental group relative to the control group. Our finding suggests that being the prime feature of the disorder does not necessarily imply intractability.  It was once believed that schizophrenic patients could not learn to modify their bioelectrical functioning while the findings of the current research prompted a re-thinking

Neurofeedback Training in Schizophrenia: A Study on Executive Functioning

The present study was designed to investigate the viability of neurofeedback training which entails the acquisition of effortful learning skills to gain volitional control on electrocortical activity in order to ameliorate executive function of schizophrenic patients. In this pre-test post-test design 30 schizophrenic male inpatients were selected out of which fifteen were trained to inhibit delta and theta at frontal cortex and reward SMR at vertex. Wisconsin Card Sorting Test was administered prior and after the training stage. Descriptive methods were used and P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. The results revealed significant improvement in executive functioning measures in experimental group relative to the control group. Our finding suggests that being the prime feature of the disorder does not necessarily imply intractability.  It was once believed that schizophrenic patients could not learn to modify their bioelectrical functioning while the findings of the current research prompted a re-thinking

Retrocaval Ureter: A Study of 13 Cases

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>Introduction:</strong> The aim of this study was to report our 23-year experience in the diagnosis and treatment of retrocaval ureter.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>Materials and Methods:</strong> Data from 13 patients with retrocaval ureter were reviewed. Intravenous urography and retrograde pyelography had been used for confirming the diagnosis. All of the patients had been symptomatic and undergone surgery. A control intravenous urography had been performed 6 months postoperatively.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>Results: </strong>The mean age of the patients was 23 years (range, 12 to 37 years). Twelve patients (92.3%) were men. The clinical manifestations were pyelonephritis in 7 (53.8%), right flank pain in 4 (30.8%), gross hematuria in 1 (7.7%), and ureteral calculus in 1 (7.7%). All of the patients had type 1 right-sided retrocaval ureter. Associated anomalies were seen in none of the patients. The control intravenous urography showed improvement of renal function.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>Conclusion:</strong> In our patients<strong>,</strong> the most common cause of referral was pyelonephritis. In symptomatic cases, operation is needed and can improve renal function.</span></span></p&gt

HIV incidence among people who inject drugs in the Middle East and North Africa: mathematical modelling analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Emerging HIV epidemics have been documented among people who inject drugs (PWID) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This study estimates the HIV incidence among PWID due to sharing needles/syringes in MENA. It also delineates injecting drug use role as a driver of the epidemic in the population, and estimates impact of interventions. METHODS: A mathematical model of HIV transmission among PWID was applied in seven MENA countries with sufficient and recent epidemiological data and HIV prevalence ≥1% among PWID. Estimations of incident and/or prevalent infections among PWID, ex-PWID and sexual partners of infected current and ex-PWID were conducted. RESULTS: The estimated HIV incidence rate for 2017 among PWID ranged between 0.7% per person-year (ppy) in Tunisia and 7.8% ppy in Pakistan, with Libya being an outlier (24.8% ppy). The estimated number of annual new infections was lowest in Tunisia (n = 79) and Morocco (n = 99), and highest in Iran and Pakistan (approximately n = 6700 each). In addition, 20 to 2208 and 5 to 837 new annual infections were estimated across the different countries among sexual partners of PWID and ex-PWID respectively. Since epidemic emergence, the number of total ever acquired incident infections across countries was 706 to 90,015 among PWID, 99 to 18,244 among sexual partners of PWID, and 16 to 4360 among sexual partners of ex-PWID. The estimated number of prevalent infections across countries was 341 to 23,279 among PWID, 119 to 16,540 among ex-PWID, 67 to 10,752 among sexual partners of PWID, and 12 to 2863 among sexual partners of ex-PWID. Increasing antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage to the global target of 81% - factoring in ART adherence and current coverage - would avert about half of new infections among PWID and their sexual partners. Combining ART with harm reduction could avert over 90% and 70% of new infections among PWID and their sexual partners respectively. CONCLUSIONS: There is considerable HIV incidence among PWID in MENA. Of all new infections ultimately due to injecting drug use, about 75% are among PWID and the rest among sexual partners. Of all prevalent infections ultimately attributed to injecting drug use as epidemic driver, about half are among PWID, 30% among ex-PWID and 20% among sexual partners of PWID and ex-PWID. These findings call for scale-up of services for PWID, including harm reduction as well as testing and treatment services

Reliability and validity of opiate use self-report in a population at high risk for esophageal cancer in Golestan, Iran

Objective: To assess the reliability and validity of self-reported opium use in a rural Iranian population at high risk for esophageal cancer in preparation for a large cohort study. Method: 1,057 subjects ages 33 to 84 years were recruited from Gonbad city and three surrounding villages in Golestan province of Iran and completed a questionnaire and provided biological samples. The history and duration of using opium, smoking tobacco, chewing nass, and drinking alcohol were measured by questionnaire in the entire cohort. A subgroup of 130 people was reinterviewed after 2 months to assess reliability. Validity of the opium question was assessed by comparing the questionnaire responses with the presence of codeine and morphine in the urine of 150 selected subjects. Results: Self-reported opiate use is reliable and valid in this population. The reliability of ever opium use and duration of opium use had κ′s of 0.96 and 0.74, respectively. The validity of self-reported opium use was also high. Using urine codeine or morphine as the gold standard for use of opium, self-report had a sensitivity of 0.93 and a specificity of 0.89. Conclusions: The self-reported use of opium can provide a reliable and valid measurement in this population and will be useful for studying associations between opium use and occurrence of esophageal cancer and other diseases

Cytotoxic Effect of Saffron Stigma Aqueous Extract on Human Transitional Cell Carcinoma and Mouse Fibroblast

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>Introduction:</strong> Saffron has been suggested to have inhibitory effects on tumoral cells. We evaluated the cytotoxic effect of aqueous extract of saffron on human transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) and mouse non-neoplastic fibroblast cell lines.<strong></strong></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>Materials and Methods: </strong>Human TCC 5637 cell line and mouse fibroblast cell line (L929) were cultivated and incubated with different concentrations of aqueous extract of saffron stigma (50 </span><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">m</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">g/mL to 4000 </span><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">m</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">g/mL). Cytotoxic effect of saffron was evaluated by morphologic observation and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide colorimetric assay after 24, 48, 72, and 120 hours in each cell line. <strong></strong></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>Results: </strong>After 24 hours, morphological observations showed growth inhibitory effects at saffron extract concentrations higher than 200 µg/mL for L929 cells and at concentrations of 50 µg/mL to 200 µg/mL for the TCC cells. These changes became more prominent after 48 hours. However, significant growth inhibitory effects of the extract were shown at concentrations of 400 µg/mL and 800 µg/mL. Higher concentrations of saffron correlated inversely with cell population of both cell lines. Significant reduction of the survived cells was seen at concentrations of 400 µg/mL and 2000 µg/mL for TCC and L929 cell lines, respectively. After 120 hours, decrease in the percentage of survived cells at higher concentrations of saffron extract was seen in both cell lines. At a concentration of 800 </span><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">m</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">g/mL, the survived L929 cells plummeted to less than 60% after 120 hours, while no TCC cells survived at this time. No L929 cells survived at 2000 </span><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">m</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">g/mL.</span></span></p><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: ";Times New Roman";; mso-bidi-language: FA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Conclusion: </span></strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: ";Times New Roman";; mso-bidi-language: FA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Saffron aqueous extract has inhibitory effects on the growth of both TCC 5637 and normal L929 cell lines. This effect is dose dependent.</span&gt

Intravenous acetaminophen versus morphine sulfate in pain management of acute renal colic: a randomized clinical trial

Objective: The main purpose in the treatment of renal colic patients in emergency department is pain management. This study aimed to compare the analgesic effects of intravenous (IV) acetaminophen and morphine sulfate in this regard. Methods: This double blind clinical trial was conducted on >18 years old renal colic patients in need of pain management in emergency department. Pain severity was recorded as 15, 30, and 60 minutes before injection, and 120 minutes after injection. In addition, side effects were compared between IV acetaminophen and morphine sulfate groups using SPSS version 16. Results: A total of 355 patients were randomly allocated to one of the treatment groups. There were no significant differences between the two groups regarding baseline characteristic of participants. There was no significant difference in the pain intensity of the groups; 15 (P = 0.13) and 30 (P = 0.15) minutes after treatment. Although, the difference in pain severity was statistically significant between the two groups; 60 (P = 0.02) and 120 (P = 0.003) minutes after the infusion. This was not clinically important. The prevalence of side effects in morphine group was higher than the acetaminophen group (RR: 2.14, 95% CI: 1.53-2.98, P< 0.0001). Conclusion: Based on the findings, IV morphine sulfate and acetaminophen had equal effectiveness regarding acute renal colic pain management, but considering the significantly higher frequency of side effects, IV acetaminophen seems to be a more reasonable choice in this regard

Preliminary report of a nationwide case-control study for identifying risk factors of tuberculosis following renal transplantation

Background. Tuberculosis (TB) is an important infection encountered posttransplantation, especially among patients in developing countries, where there are high incidences of morbidity and mortality. Materials and Methods. One hundred and twenty subjects (1) from 15 major kidney transplantation centers in Iran from 1984 to 2003 were compared with 440 controls who were matched for operative time, treatment center, and surgical team. Results. Mean ages of research subjects and controls were 38.6 and 36.6 years (P = .04), respectively. The mean duration of pretransplantation hemodialysis was 29 months (range, 2 to 192 months) in research subjects and 20 months (range, 1 to 180 months) in controls (P = .003). Positive past history of tuberculosis was detected in 4 (3.3) research subjects and in 7 (1.5) controls (P = .2). Fifty-two research subjects (43.3) and 241 controls (54.8) had pretransplantation purified protein derivative of tuberculin less than 5 mm (P = .02). Mean dosages of initial and maintenance immunosuppressive drugs in research subjects and in controls were not significantly different. Sixty research subjects (50) and 152 controls (34.5) had rejection prior to diagnosis of TB (P = .03). Conclusion. To our knowledge, this is the first study that demonstrates an increased risk of posttransplant TB by prolonged duration of pretransplant hemodialysis and number of posttransplant rejection episodes. Further study is needed to clarify these findings specifically with respect to various immunosuppressive regimens. © 2005 by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Crocins with high levels of sugar conjugation contribute to the yellow colours of early-spring flowering

Crocus sativus is the source of saffron spice, the processed stigma which accumulates glucosylated apocarotenoids known as crocins. Crocins are found in the stigmas of other Crocuses, determining the colourations observed from pale yellow to dark red. By contrast, tepals in Crocus species display a wider diversity of colours which range from purple, blue, yellow to white. In this study, we investigated whether the contribution of crocins to colour extends from stigmas to the tepals of yellow Crocus species. Tepals from seven species were analysed by UPLC-PDA and ESI-Q-TOF-MS/MS revealing for the first time the presence of highly glucosylated crocins in this tissue. beta-carotene was found to be the precursor of these crocins and some of them were found to contain rhamnose, never before reported. When crocin profiles from tepals were compared with those from stigmas, clear differences were found, including the presence of new apocarotenoids in stigmas. Furthermore, each species showed a characteristic profile which was not correlated with the phylogenetic relationship among species. While gene expression analysis in tepals of genes involved in carotenoid metabolism showed that phytoene synthase was a key enzyme in apocarotenoid biosynthesis in tepals. Expression of a crocetin glucosyltransferase, previously identified in saffron, was detected in all the samples. The presence of crocins in tepals is compatible with the role of chromophores to attract pollinators. The identification of tepals as new sources of crocins is of special interest given their wide range of applications in medicine, cosmetics and colouring industries.The laboratory is supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (BIO2009-07803) and participates in the IBERCAROT network (112RT0445). Dr. Ahrazem was funded by FPCYTA through the INCRECYT Programme. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Rubio-Moraga, A.; Ahrazem, O.; Rambla Nebot, JL.; Granell Richart, A.; Gómez Gómez, L. (2013). Crocins with high levels of sugar conjugation contribute to the yellow colours of early-spring flowering. PLoS ONE. 8(9):71946-71946. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071946S719467194689Auldridge, M. E., McCarty, D. R., & Klee, H. J. (2006). Plant carotenoid cleavage oxygenases and their apocarotenoid products. Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 9(3), 315-321. doi:10.1016/j.pbi.2006.03.005AKIYAMA, K. (2007). Chemical Identification and Functional Analysis of Apocarotenoids Involved in the Development of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis. Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry, 71(6), 1405-1414. doi:10.1271/bbb.70023Lendzemo, V. W., Kuyper, T. W., Matusova, R., Bouwmeester, H. J., & Ast, A. V. (2007). 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Phytochemistry, 21(5), 1039-1042. doi:10.1016/s0031-9422(00)82412-7Bathaie, S. Z., & Mousavi, S. Z. (2010). New Applications and Mechanisms of Action of Saffron and its Important Ingredients. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 50(8), 761-786. doi:10.1080/10408390902773003Abdullaev, F. I., & Espinosa-Aguirre, J. J. (2004). Biomedical properties of saffron and its potential use in cancer therapy and chemoprevention trials. Cancer Detection and Prevention, 28(6), 426-432. doi:10.1016/j.cdp.2004.09.002Zhang Z, Wang CZ, Wen XD, Shoyama Y, Yuan CS (2013) Role of saffron and its constituents on cancer chemoprevention. Pharm Biol.Schmidt, M., Betti, G., & Hensel, A. (2007). Saffron in phytotherapy: Pharmacology and clinical uses. Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift, 157(13-14), 315-319. doi:10.1007/s10354-007-0428-4Howes, M.-J. R., & Perry, E. (2011). The Role of Phytochemicals in the Treatment and Prevention of Dementia. Drugs & Aging, 28(6), 439-468. doi:10.2165/11591310-000000000-00000Castillo, R., Fernández, J.-A., & Gómez-Gómez, L. (2005). Implications of Carotenoid Biosynthetic Genes in Apocarotenoid Formation during the Stigma Development of Crocus sativus and Its Closer Relatives. Plant Physiology, 139(2), 674-689. doi:10.1104/pp.105.067827Moraga, Á. R., Rambla, J. L., Ahrazem, O., Granell, A., & Gómez-Gómez, L. (2009). Metabolite and target transcript analyses during Crocus sativus stigma development. Phytochemistry, 70(8), 1009-1016. doi:10.1016/j.phytochem.2009.04.022Rubio-Moraga, A., Trapero, A., Ahrazem, O., & Gómez-Gómez, L. (2010). Crocins transport in Crocus sativus: The long road from a senescent stigma to a newborn corm. Phytochemistry, 71(13), 1506-1513. doi:10.1016/j.phytochem.2010.05.026Moraga, A. R., Nohales, P. F., P�rez, J. A. F., & G�mez-G�mez, L. (2004). Glucosylation of the saffron apocarotenoid crocetin by a glucosyltransferase isolated from Crocus sativus stigmas. 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