Effect of KTP Laser on Surgically Resected Adenomas of Prostate

INTRODUCTION: Palmoplantar psoriasis could hardly be differentiated from chronic tylotic eczema both clinically and histologically. The most commonly used therapeutic options for palmoplantar psoriasis are long-term therapy with topical corticosteroids and local PUVA. Frequently, it is a recalcitrant disease. We investigated the efficacy and tolerability of the combination of topical calcipotriol with local UVA radiation in comparison with local PUVA therapy.METHODS:In a total of 43 patients with palmoplantar psoriasis, 33 were given 15 sessions of local UVA radiation and topical calcipotriol and the remainder received 15 sessions of local PUVA (psoralen + UVA radiation).RESULTS:The statistical analyses of the results showed that the effect and tolerability of both therapeutic modalities are comparable.CONCLUSION: Combination of topical calcipotriol and local UVA radiation is an optional corticosteroid-free therapeutic modality for palmoplantar  psoriasis. It has a comparable effectiveness and tolerability with local PUVA

Stevens-Johnsonov sindrom : prikaz slučaja neuobičajene alergije na autobus

Stevens-Johnson syndrome is an uncommon inflammatory skin disorder in which immune mechanisms, cytotoxic reactions, and delayed hypersensitivity seem to be involved. Herein, an unusual case with strange complaint of “bus allergy” is presented, suffering from severe generalized itching and skin lesions, followed by ulcers in his mouth and genitalia. The diagnosis of Stevens-Johnson syndrome was made and appropriate treatment was advised. However, detailed medical history revealed a completely different cause of his allergic reactions, as he had occasionally used dimenhydrinate because of motion sickness in his history. Therefore, adverse drug reaction to dimenhydrinate was considered as the main underlying cause of the disease. In conclusion, thorough medical history should be taken to make a definitive diagnosis and identify the underlying disease, since accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment can prevent further complications.Stevens-Johnsonov sindrom je rijetka upalna bolest kože gdje se pretpostavlja da su uključeni imuni mehanizmi, citotoksične reakcije i odgođena preosjetljivost. Ovdje se prikazuje neuobičajen slučaj čudne “alergije na autobus” u bolesnika s teškim generaliziranim svrbežom i oštećenjima kože, nakon čega su nastali ulkusi u njegovim ustima i genitalijama. Kod bolesnika je dijagnosticiran Stevens-Johnsonov sindrom i preporučeno je odgovarajuće liječenje. Međutim, podrobna anamneza otkrila je potpuno drugi uzrok njegovih alergijskih reakcija, jer je povremeno uzimao dimenhidrat zbog bolesti pokreta u anamnezi. Stoga je zaključeno da je štetna reakcija na dimenhidrat bila glavni osnovni uzrok bolesti. Postavljanje konačne dijagnoze i utvrđivanje osnovne bolesti zahtijeva podrobno uzimanje anamneze, jer točna dijagnoza i primjereno liječenje mogu spriječiti daljnje komplikacije

Association of serum uric acid with high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in postmenopausal women.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the independent correlation between serum uric acid and low-grade inflammation (measured by high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, hs-CRP) in postmenopausal women. METHODS: A total of 378 healthy Iranian postmenopausal women were randomly selected in a population-based study. Circulating hs-CRP levels were measured by highly specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method and an enzymatic calorimetric method was used to measure serum levels of uric acid. Pearson correlation coefficient, multiple linear regression and logistic regression models were used to analyze the association between uric acid and hs-CRP levels. RESULTS: A statistically significant correlation was seen between serum levels of uric acid and log-transformed circulating hs-CRP (r = 0.25, p < 0.001). After adjustment for age and cardiovascular risk factors (according to NCEP ATP III criteria), circulating hs-CRP levels were significantly associated with serum uric acid levels (β = 0.20, p < 0.001). After adjustment for age and cardiovascular risk factors, hs-CRP levels ≥3 mg/l were significantly associated with higher uric acid levels (odds ratio =1.52, 95% confidence interval 1.18-1.96). CONCLUSION: Higher serum uric acid levels were positively and independently associated with circulating hs-CRP in healthy postmenopausal women. KEYWORDS: C-reactive protein; Uric acid; inflammation; postmenopaus

Evaluation of a Possible Synergistic Effect of Meglumine Antimoniate with Paromomycin, Miltefosine or Allopurinol on in Vitro Susceptibility of Leishmania tropica Resistant Isolate

Background: Pentavalent antimonials are still the first choice treatment for leishmaniasis, but with low efficacy and resistance is emerging. In the present study, the effect of meglumine antimoniate (MA, Glucantime) combined with paromomycin, miltefosine or allopurinol on in vitro susceptibility of Leishmania tropica resistant isolate was evaluated. Method: The drugs were obtained from commercial sources and diluents of each drug in medium were prepared on the day of experiment. J774 A.1 murine macrophage cell lines were attached to the cultured on slide and incubated at 37 0C with 5% CO2 for 24 h. Then the stationary phase promastigotes were added to the cells and after 4 hrs of incubation different concentrations of MA, paromomycin, miltefosine or allopurinol were added and incubated for an additional of 72 h. Then the slides were dried and fixed with methanol, stained by Giemsa and studied under a light microscope. Drug activity was evaluated by assessing the macrophage infection rate and the number of amastigotes per infected macrophage was done by examining 100 macrophages. The experiment was done in triplicates. Result: Various concentrations of MA along with paromomycin, miltefosine or allopurinol significantly inhibited (P<0.01) the proliferation of L. tropica amastigote stage in the macrophage cell line as compared with MA alone or positive control. Conclusion: Combination of Glucantime with paromomycin, miltefosine or allopurinol showed a synergistic effect on the clinical isolate of L. tropica in vitro. Use of combination therapy is a new hope and a logical basis for therapy of the patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis. Further investigations are needed to evaluate the therapeutic effects of these drugs on the CL patients

Development and analysis of the Soil Water Infiltration Global database

In this paper, we present and analyze a novel global database of soil infiltration measurements, the Soil Water Infiltration Global (SWIG) database. In total, 5023 infiltration curves were collected across all continents in the SWIG database. These data were either provided and quality checked by the scientists who performed the experiments or they were digitized from published articles. Data from 54 different countries were included in the database with major contributions from Iran, China, and the USA. In addition to its extensive geographical coverage, the collected infiltration curves cover research from 1976 to late 2017. Basic information on measurement location and method, soil properties, and land use was gathered along with the infiltration data, making the database valuable for the development of pedotransfer functions (PTFs) for estimating soil hydraulic properties, for the evaluation of infiltration measurement methods, and for developing and validating infiltration models. Soil textural information (clay, silt, and sand content) is available for 3842 out of 5023 infiltration measurements ( ∼ 76%) covering nearly all soil USDA textural classes except for the sandy clay and silt classes. Information on land use is available for 76% of the experimental sites with agricultural land use as the dominant type ( ∼ 40%). We are convinced that the SWIG database will allow for a better parameterization of the infiltration process in land surface models and for testing infiltration models. All collected data and related soil characteristics are provided online in *.xlsx and *.csv formats for reference, and we add a disclaimer that the database is for public domain use only and can be copied freely by referencing it. Supplementary data are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.885492 (Rahmati et al., 2018). Data quality assessment is strongly advised prior to any use of this database. Finally, we would like to encourage scientists to extend and update the SWIG database by uploading new data to it

Global variations in diabetes mellitus based on fasting glucose and haemogloblin A1c

Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) are both used to diagnose diabetes, but may identify different people as having diabetes. We used data from 117 population-based studies and quantified, in different world regions, the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes, and whether those who were previously undiagnosed and detected as having diabetes in survey screening had elevated FPG, HbA1c, or both. We developed prediction equations for estimating the probability that a person without previously diagnosed diabetes, and at a specific level of FPG, had elevated HbA1c, and vice versa. The age-standardised proportion of diabetes that was previously undiagnosed, and detected in survey screening, ranged from 30% in the high-income western region to 66% in south Asia. Among those with screen-detected diabetes with either test, the agestandardised proportion who had elevated levels of both FPG and HbA1c was 29-39% across regions; the remainder had discordant elevation of FPG or HbA1c. In most low- and middle-income regions, isolated elevated HbA1c more common than isolated elevated FPG. In these regions, the use of FPG alone may delay diabetes diagnosis and underestimate diabetes prevalence. Our prediction equations help allocate finite resources for measuring HbA1c to reduce the global gap in diabetes diagnosis and surveillance.peer-reviewe

Fistula Repair After Hypospadias Surgery Using Buccal Mucosal Graft

&lt;!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;&lt;xml&gt; &lt;w:WordDocument&gt; &lt;w:View&gt;Normal&lt;/w:View&gt; &lt;w:Zoom&gt;0&lt;/w:Zoom&gt; &lt;w:PunctuationKerning /&gt; &lt;w:ValidateAgainstSchemas /&gt; &lt;w:SaveIfXMLInvalid&gt;false&lt;/w:SaveIfXMLInvalid&gt; &lt;w:IgnoreMixedContent&gt;false&lt;/w:IgnoreMixedContent&gt; &lt;w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText&gt;false&lt;/w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText&gt; &lt;w:Compatibility&gt; &lt;w:BreakWrappedTables /&gt; &lt;w:SnapToGridInCell /&gt; &lt;w:WrapTextWithPunct /&gt; &lt;w:UseAsianBreakRules /&gt; &lt;w:DontGrowAutofit /&gt; &lt;/w:Compatibility&gt; &lt;w:BrowserLevel&gt;MicrosoftInternetExplorer4&lt;/w:BrowserLevel&gt; &lt;/w:WordDocument&gt; &lt;/xml&gt;&lt;![endif]--&gt;&lt;!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;&lt;xml&gt; &lt;w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"&gt; &lt;/w:LatentStyles&gt; &lt;/xml&gt;&lt;![endif]--&gt; &lt;!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:right; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; direction:rtl; unicode-bidi:embed; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language:FA;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --&gt; &lt;!--[if gte mso 10]&gt; &lt;style&gt;&#13; /* Style Definitions */&#13; table.MsoNormalTable&#13; {mso-style-name:"Table Normal";&#13; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;&#13; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;&#13; mso-style-noshow:yes;&#13; mso-style-parent:"";&#13; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&#13; mso-para-margin:0cm;&#13; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;&#13; mso-pagination:widow-orphan;&#13; font-size:10.0pt;&#13; font-family:"Times New Roman";&#13; mso-ansi-language:#0400;&#13; mso-fareast-language:#0400;&#13; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}&#13; &lt;/style&gt; &lt;![endif]--&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Introduction:&lt;/strong&gt; The aim of this study was to evaluate the success rate of urethrocutaneous fistula repair using buccal mucosal graft in patients with a previous hypospadias repair.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Materials and Methods:&lt;/strong&gt; We reviewed records of our patients with urethrocutaneous fistula developed after hypospadias repair in whom buccal mucosal graft fistula repair had been performed. All of the patients had been followed up for 24 postoperative months. A successful surgical operation was defined as no fistula recurrence or urethral stricture. Retrograde urethrography and urethrocystoscopy would be performed in patients who had any history of decreased force and caliber of urine or any difficulty in urination.&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results:&lt;/strong&gt; Fistula repair using buccal mucosa patch graft had been done in 14 children with urethrocutaneous fistula developing after hypospadias reconstruction. &lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;The mean age of the children was 8.70 ± 1.99 years old (range, 4 to 11 years). Seven fistulas were in the midshaft, 4 were in the penoscrotal region, and 3&lt;/span&gt; were in the coronal region. Repair of the fistulas was successful in 11 of 14 patients (78.6%). In the remaining children, &lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;the diameter of the fistula was smaller than that before the operation, offering a good opportunity for subsequent closure.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"&gt;&lt;!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;&lt;xml&gt; &lt;w:WordDocument&gt; &lt;w:View&gt;Normal&lt;/w:View&gt; &lt;w:Zoom&gt;0&lt;/w:Zoom&gt; &lt;w:PunctuationKerning /&gt; &lt;w:ValidateAgainstSchemas /&gt; &lt;w:SaveIfXMLInvalid&gt;false&lt;/w:SaveIfXMLInvalid&gt; &lt;w:IgnoreMixedContent&gt;false&lt;/w:IgnoreMixedContent&gt; &lt;w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText&gt;false&lt;/w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText&gt; &lt;w:Compatibility&gt; &lt;w:BreakWrappedTables /&gt; &lt;w:SnapToGridInCell /&gt; &lt;w:WrapTextWithPunct /&gt; &lt;w:UseAsianBreakRules /&gt; &lt;w:DontGrowAutofit /&gt; &lt;/w:Compatibility&gt; &lt;w:BrowserLevel&gt;MicrosoftInternetExplorer4&lt;/w:BrowserLevel&gt; &lt;/w:WordDocument&gt; &lt;/xml&gt;&lt;![endif]--&gt;&lt;!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;&lt;xml&gt; &lt;w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"&gt; &lt;/w:LatentStyles&gt; &lt;/xml&gt;&lt;![endif]--&gt; &lt;!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:right; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; direction:rtl; unicode-bidi:embed; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --&gt; &lt;!--[if gte mso 10]&gt; &lt;style&gt;&#13; /* Style Definitions */&#13; table.MsoNormalTable&#13; {mso-style-name:"Table Normal";&#13; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;&#13; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;&#13; mso-style-noshow:yes;&#13; mso-style-parent:"";&#13; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&#13; mso-para-margin:0cm;&#13; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;&#13; mso-pagination:widow-orphan;&#13; font-size:10.0pt;&#13; font-family:"Times New Roman";&#13; mso-ansi-language:#0400;&#13; mso-fareast-language:#0400;&#13; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}&#13; &lt;/style&gt; &lt;![endif]--&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: ";Times New Roman";;"&gt;Conclusion:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: ";Times New Roman";;"&gt; Our findings showed that fistula repair using buccal mucosal graft can be one of the acceptable techniques for repairing fistulas developed after hypospadias repair.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "&gt;&lt;/span&gt

A study about asymmetric effects of monetary shocks on the Iranian GDP during business cycles with focus on the banking credit

Money and its role in the economy has always been an indispensable part of economic debates, because policymakers and economists have always had conflicted views about the role of this policy variable from different directions of thought. This article in this direction and using quarterly data over the 1393-1369 period for the Iranian economy studies issues such as neutrality of money, asymmetric monetary shocks and the credit channels through which monetary policy transmitted to the production. For this purpose, using the Markov-Switching model we determined the business cycle for Iran and we separated positive and negative monetary shocks from one another. Then the result of estimating four different scenarios, using ARDL models, show that money is neutral in the long run (with the emphasis on the credit channel) in the economy of Iran and the impact of credit shocks on output is asymmetric and effective during business cycles in the short run