Fourth lumbar vertebral parameters in predicting the gender, height and age in Iranian population

Introduction: Lumbar vertebral dimensions can be considered as a criterion to diagnose unidentified individuals with severe burning or corpses. The aim of this study was to evaluate gender, age, and height using the parameters of fourth lumbar vertebral (L4). Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 106 volunteers. Lumbar diameters of L4 were measured in the two sagittal and horizontal sections by three-dimensional CT scan with reconstruction and volume rendering. The measured parameters were Upper end plate depts (EPD); Upper end plate widths (EPW); Anterior height of vertebral body (VBH); Foramen diameter (depts.) (FDS); Foramen diameter (widths) (FDC); Pedicle height (PH); Pedicle widths (PW); Articular process height (APH); Maximum distance between (ADM); Transverse process distance (TDM); Spinal process height (SPH); Spinal process lengths (SPL); and Vertebral lengths (VL). These parameters were compared. The relationship of each parameter was evaluated with age, height and gender. Results: Totally, the mean parameters of L4 was higher in men compared to women, but this difference was not significant in FDS, APHI, and SPL. In the study of the correlation of diameters with age, only EPD and SPL parameters were significant, but in the linear regression model to predict age, only the FDS index showed a significant relationship. All parameters except APHS, APHI, SPL, and VL showed a significant and positive correlation with height. But in the linear regression model to predict height, only a significant relationship was reported for EPD. Conclusion: It was shown that the parameters of the fourth lumbar vertebra can be helpful to determine the age, height, and gender. © 2021 The Author

Does high-dose metformin cause lactic acidosis in type 2 diabetic patients after CABG surgery? A double blind randomized clinical trial

Metformin is a dimethyl biguanide oral anti-hyperglycemic agent. Lactic acidosis due to metformin is a fatal metabolic condition that limits its use in patients in poor clinical condition, consequently reducing the number of patients who benefit from this medication. In a double blind randomized clinical trial, we investigated 200 type 2 diabetic patients after coronary artery bypass surgery in the open heart ICU of the Mazandaran Heart Center, and randomly assigned them to equal intervention and control groups. The intervention group received regular insulin infusion along with 2 metformin 500 mg tablets every twelve hours, while the control group received only intravenous insulin with 2 placebo tablets every twelve hours. Lactate level, pH, base excess, blood glucose and serum creatinine were measured over five 12 h periods, with data averaged for each period. The primary outcome in this study was high lactate levels. Comparison between the 2 groups was made by independent Student’s t-test. To compare changes in multiple measures in each group and analysis of group interaction, a repeated measurement ANOVA test was used

TIME COURSE OF CHANGES IN OPTIC DISK NEOVASCULARIZATION AFTER A SINGLE INTRAVITREAL BEVACIZUMAB INJECTION

PURPOSE: To evaluate the longitudinal changes in optic disk neovascularization (NVD) after intravitreal bevacizumab injection using optical coherence tomography angiography. METHODS: In this prospective, interventional, case series, eyes with NVD secondary to diabetic retinopathy were enrolled. En face optical coherence tomography angiographic images were obtained from the optic disks before and 3 hours, 6 hours, 24 hours, 7 days, and 30 days after intravitreal bevacizumab injection. The size and flow area of the neovascularization were measured by two graders. RESULTS: Eleven eyes of 9 patients with a mean age of 52.11 ± 9.48 years were included. The reduction in the NVD size and flow area was statistically significant at 24 hours, 7 days, and 30 days after injections compared with the baseline measurements (all P 0.05). CONCLUSION: In this study, statistically significant regression in the NVD size and flow area was observed as early as 24 hours after a single intravitreal bevacizumab injection, with a continued decreasing trend for at least a 1-month period

STO: Stroke Ontology for Accelerating Translational Stroke Research

Introduction: Ontology-based annotation of evidence, using disease-specific ontologies, can accelerate analysis and interpretation of the knowledge domain of diseases. Although many domain-specific disease ontologies have been developed so far, in the area of cardiovascular diseases, there is a lack of ontological representation of the disease knowledge domain of stroke. Methods: The stroke ontology (STO) was created on the basis of the ontology development life cycle and was built using Protégé ontology editor in the ontology web language format. The ontology was evaluated in terms of structural and functional features, expert evaluation, and competency questions. Results: The stroke ontology covers a broad range of major biomedical and risk factor concepts. The majority of concepts are enriched by synonyms, definitions, and references. The ontology attempts to incorporate different users� views on the stroke domain such as neuroscientists, molecular biologists, and clinicians. Evaluation of the ontology based on natural language processing showed a high precision (0.94), recall (0.80), and F-score (0.78) values, indicating that STO has an acceptable coverage of the stroke knowledge domain. Performance evaluation using competency questions designed by a clinician showed that the ontology can be used to answer expert questions in light of published evidence. Conclusions: The stroke ontology is the first, multiple-view ontology in the domain of brain stroke that can be used as a tool for representation, formalization, and standardization of the heterogeneous data related to the stroke domain. Since this is a draft version of the ontology, the contribution of the stroke scientific community can help to improve the usability of the current version. © 2021, The Author(s)

Prevalence of Stroke Risk Factors and Their Distribution Based on Stroke Subtypes in Gorgan: A Retrospective Hospital-Based Study - 2015-2016

Background. Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. According to the Iranian Ministry of Medical Health and Education, out of 100,000 stroke incidents in the country, 25,000 lead to death. Thus, identifying risk factors of stroke can help healthcare providers to establish prevention strategies. This study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of stroke risk factors and their distribution based on stroke subtypes in Sayad Shirazi Hospital, Gorgan, Northeastern Iran. Material and Methods. A retrospective hospital-based study was conducted at Sayad Shirazi Hospital in Gorgan, the only referral university hospital for stroke patients in Gorgan city. All medical records with a diagnosis of stroke were identified based on the International Classification of Diseases, Revision 10, from August 23, 2015, to August 22, 2016. A valid and reliable data gathering form was used to capture data about demographics, diagnostics, lifestyle, risk factors, and medical history. Results. Out of 375 cases, two-thirds were marked with ischemic stroke with mean ages (standard deviation) of 66.4 (14.2) for men and 64.6 (14.2) for women. The relationship between stroke subtypes and age groups (P=0.008) and hospital outcome (P=0.0001) was significant. Multiple regression analysis showed that hypertension (Exp. (B) =1.755, P=0.037), diabetes mellitus (Exp. (B) =0.532, P=0.021), and dyslipidemia (Exp. (B) =2.325, P=0.004) significantly increased the risk of ischemic stroke. Conclusion. Overall, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia were the major risk factors of stroke in Gorgan. Establishment of stroke registry (population- or hospital-based) for the province is recommended. © 2018 Mahdi Habibi-koolaee et al

Anticancer and antibacterial activity against clinical pathogenic multi-drug resistant bacteria using biosynthesized silver nanoparticles with Mentha pulegium and Crocus caspius extracts

The utilization of environmentally friendly synthesized nanoparticles (NPs) has gained significant popularity due to their versatile applications. In this study, silver nanoparticles were synthesized utilizing Mentha pulegium (M. pulegium; MP-AgNPs) and Crocus caspius (C. caspius; CC-AgNPs) extracts, without the need for chemical stabilizers or surfactants. The green synthesis process carefully controlled critical parameters such as concentration, reaction time, temperature, and pH of the medium. Characterization of the biosynthesized AgNPs involved various techniques including FESEM, EDS, XRD, TEM, and UV–Vis analysis. The X-ray diffraction patterns revealed that the average sizes of MP-AgNPs and CC-AgNPs were found to be 34.5 nm and 47.2 nm, respectively, which were consistent with the transmission electron microscopy results. The antibacterial activity of the AgNPs was evaluated against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive pathogens, demonstrating maximum efficacy against E. coli and K. pneumonia, with a MIC value of 0.4 µg/ml for MP-AgNPs. Additionally, CC-AgNPs exhibited the highest effectiveness against P. aeruginosa, A. baumannii, and K. pneumonia, with a MIC value of 2 µg/ml. Furthermore, the biosynthesized AgNPs displayed potent antibacterial activity against multi-drug resistant bacteria. The anticancer activity of the AgNPs was investigated on MCF-7 (breast cancer) and AGS (human gastric carcinoma) cell lines using the MTT assay. The results indicated that AgNPs inhibited cancer cell proliferation within a concentration range of 0.5–60 µg/ml. Overall, this study highlights the potential wide-ranging applications of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles as biological agents, presenting a possible substitute for chemically synthesized drugs. The eco-friendly synthesis approach and the demonstrated antibacterial and anticancer activities further support the use of these nanoparticles in various biomedical applications