Scientific Profile of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics Fields in Middle East Countries: Impacts of Iranian Scientists

In the present investigation, a statistical analysis was conducted to evaluate the production of scientific papers in the fields of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical during a period of 1996-2007. The study identified the most active countries in the Middle East in comparison with some more developed countries, in which the most scientific impacts have been exerted. Our screenings through the most accessed data bases revealed that USA, Japan, UK and Germany are the leading countries regarding scientific publications and citations, since 51% of all citable-publications and 58% of total citations in the subject area belong to these scientifically prolific countries. The contribution of different world region during the studied period was: Western Europe (34.10%), Northern America (31.40%), Asiatic Region (21.50%), Eastern Europe (4.60%), Pacific Region (2.20%), Middle East (1.90%), Southern Africa (0.40%), Central Africa (0.30%), and Northern Africa, (0.10%). Within Middle-East region, Islamic Republic of Iran has produced 21.5% of total citable-publication and 13.7% citations, while such values for Egypt are 23% and 17.4%, respectively. A significant increase in scientific trend of the related subjects by Iranian scientists not only reveals a rapid and substantial growth of the number of scientific publications but also highlights the impacts of Iranian scientists within world scientific community.Keywords: Pharmacology, Toxicology, Pharmaceutical, publication, Scientific output, Citation, Iran

Scientific production of Leishmaniasis in PubMed: Impact of Iranian institutes

A bibliometric study was carried out to analyze and visualize the scientific production of countries in the field of Leishmania during a period of 10 years. Only scientific profiles published in the journals which indexed in Medline through 2000-2009 were taken under consideration. All data was extracted from PubMed online. The study focused on the scientific production and productivity of Iranian institutes in the field of Leishmania. Analysis of data showed that English consisting 96.3% of total publications’ language is the dominate dominant language of publications. Brazilian authors with contributing 18.2% of total pubications in the field are the most prolific authors during the period of study, followed by authors from USA (16.1%), India (13%), UK (8.4%), Spain (5.6%), France (4.4%), Germany (3.9%), Canada (3.5%), and Iran (2.7%) respectiviely. The journal of “Molecular and biochemical parasitology” is the most productive journal regarding to distributing the great number of publications in the field of Leishmani followed by “Infection and immunity” and “”Experimental parasitology”. Among Iranian institutes “Pasteur Institute of Tehran” with contributing 30.1% of total publications from Iranian institute is the most productive institute in Iran followed by “Tehran University of,Medical Sciences” and “Shiraz University of Medical Sciences” contributing  20.3% and 18.7% of total publications from Iran respectively. Keywords: Leishmaniasis; Bibliometrics; Scientific productio

Mapping catquest scores onto EQ-5D utility values in patients with cataract disease

Background: Mapping from non-performance-based measures onto generic performance-based measures provides an appropriate solution to derive utilities to be used in economic evaluations. Objectives: This study aimed to create a model through which EQ-5D utilities for cataracts can be obtained from scores on the disease-specific Catquest measure. Patients and Methods: One hundred ninety-nine observations from 103 patients who self-administered the EQ-5D, the Catquest and questions on demographic and clinical characteristics were included in the analysis. Data was divided into estimation and validation datasets. To predict EQ-5D utilities, multiple regression analysis, using the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and the censored least absolute deviation (CLAD), was performed. Catquest scores, age, gender, and performing surgery were included as explanatory variables. An estimation dataset was used to derive the coefficients, and these coefficients were then validated using a validation dataset. Based on the explanatory power, the consistency, the simplicity, the mean absolute error (MAE) and the correlations between observed and fitted utilities, the most appropriate model was selected. Results: The mean EQ-5D and Catquest scores of the total sample were 0.631 and 15.8, respectively. Age and surgery showed no significant effect for either method. Removing age and surgery, model II was built and given an R2of 0.697, an MAE of 0.1176 for the OLS and an R2of 0.614, and an MAE of 0.1153 for the CLAD method. In the validation stage, the CLAD revealed better prediction ability, with an MAE of 0.198 versus an MAE of 0.209 for the OLS. ICC and Bland-Altman analysis put the CLAD as a preferred method with the following equation: Utilities (EQ-5D) = 0.988 - 0.0281 � Catquest (PD) + 0.102 � gender (male = 1). Conclusions: Based on these results, a mapping function was obtained which appears to be valuable in predicting EQ-5D utilities from Catquest scores. This function gives an appropriate solution to estimate utilities when primary EQ-5D data is not available. Although the model represents good consistency and predictive ability, further examination of obtained function is required with large samples. © 2016, Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal