Association of plasma total testosterone level and metabolic syndrome in adult males

Introduction: Low testosterone level has strongly been correlated with body fat accumulation and abdominal obesity in men. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate testosterone level in men with and without metabolic syndrome to determine the relationship between testosterone and metabolic syndrome. Patients and Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 172 cases of metabolic syndrome and 172 participants as a control group in Rasoul Akram hospital, Tehran, Iran. Demographic characteristics, fasting blood sugar (FBS), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), and testosterone levels were recorded. SPSS version 21.0 and SAS version 9.1 were used for statistical analysis. Level of significance was considered 0.05. Results: The mean age of the two groups were 45.1 ± 9.3 years and 41.5 ± 11.2 years, respectively. There was a significant difference in serum testosterone levels between both groups and low testosterone levels were associated with metabolic syndrome (P < 0.001). Serum testosterone levels showed a significant negative correlation with age in the metabolic syndrome group (r =-0.16, P = 0.02). The relationship between metabolic syndrome and total plasma testosterone level using logistic regression model showed that, by increasing the total plasma testosterone level, the odds ratio for metabolic syndrome was 0.076 (95 CI: 0.027-0.216; P < 0.001). Conclusion: According to the results, low level of testosterone was related to the presence of metabolic syndrome in adult males. Future studies can investigate diagnostic value of testosterone level in this syndrome. © 2020 The Author(s)

A New Method for Surgical Abdominal Mass Closure After Abdominal Fascial Dehiscence Using Nasogastric Tube and Hemovac Perforator: A Case-Series Study

Background: As the challenge for finding the best abdominal incision closure technique continues, surgeons are aiming to minimize postoperative wound complications such as wound dehiscence and hernia as an acute or late manifestation. In order to achieve this goal, several abdominal opening and closure techniques have been tried. In this article, we describe a method in which we used a nasogastric tube (NGT) in mass closure for patients with fascial dehiscence. Methods: In this case-series study, a total number of 25 patients participated. All of the patients had abdominal dehiscence after a surgery and had to undergo for another. An NGT was used for abdominal closure. The patients were followed for a month and were examined for any signs and symptoms of fever, infection, pain, material expenses, closing time, and laboratory data. The data were analyzed using SPSS software V.22. Mean ± SD and frequencies were used for describing the variables. Results: The mean NGT mass closure material expenses for each patient were 8400.00 ± 0.00 IRR (around 0.25 US dollars). The mean closure time after the operation was 13.08 ± 3.09 min. There was no evidence of infection among the patients as well as no other complications after the surgery in the 1-month study period. Conclusion: Abdominal mass closure with NG tube suturing technique is associated with reduced time required for closure of the incision, incidence of wound dehiscence, and the incidence of incisional hernia as well as infection, with a considerable low cost. © 2018, Société Internationale de Chirurgie