Female sexual dysfunction in iranian postmenopausal women: Prevalence and correlation with hormonal profile

Introduction. Female sexual dysfunction is a current and multifactorial status that greatly affects quality of life. Menopause, aging, and probably hormonal instability are some of these drastic factors. Aim. Determine the prevalence of sexual dysfunction in Iranian postmenopausal women and the relationship to serum status of sex hormones and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG). Methods. A total of 149 healthy postmenopausal women aged 43-64, nonhormone therapy user, with intact uterus and ovaries, enrolled in the cross-sectional study. Main Outcome Measures. Female sexual function was evaluated by utilizing the Female Sexual Function Index. Hormonal serum concentration was measured by enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Also, free testosterone and free estradiol indexes were calculated. The analysis was performed by using SPSS 16. Results. Mean age of sample was 52.19±3.76 with 47.48±36.5 month amenorrhea. In the study, 69.8% of women showed sexual dysfunction in Desire and 61.7% in Arousal, these two being the most affected domains. Lubrication (49.7%), Pain Domain (45.0%), Orgasm (40.3%), and Satisfaction (36.9%) were in later degree among six assessed domains. There was no difference between the two groups-with and without dysfunction-in hormone level and SHBG. Conclusion. In Iranian postmenopausal women, Desire and Arousal are the most prevalent menopausal sexual dysfunctions, and Female Sexual Dysfunction is much more than just a hormonal problem. © 2011 International Society for Sexual Medicine

i Sexual function in breast cancer patients: a prospective study from Iran

Background: Sexual function in patients with breast cancer especially in younger patients is an important issue from clinical and psychosocial perspectives. This study aimed to assess sexual function among Iranian breast cancer patients. Methods: This was a prospective study of sexual function in breast cancer patients attending the Cancer Institute of Iran. Sexual function was assessed using the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) at two points in time: baseline (pre-treatment) and after completion of cancer treatment at follow-up visits (post-treatment). Pre- and posttreatment data were compared. In addition logistic regression analysis was performed to find out factors that contributing to post-treatment sexual dysfunction. Results: In all 277 breast cancer patients were approached. Of these, 231 patients (83%) were sexually active and data for 216 patients (93.5 % of sexually active patients) were available at pre-and post-treatment. Overall pre- and post-treatment sexual dysfunction was found to be 52 % and 84%, respectively indicating a significant deterioration in sexual function among breast cancer patients. The results obtained from multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that younger age [OR = 0.95, 95 % CI = 0.93-0.98; P = 0.04], receiving endocrine therapy [OR = 3.34, 95% CI = 1.37-7.91; P = 0.007] and poor sexual function at pre-treatment [OR = 12.3, 95 % CI = 3.93-39.0; P < 0.0001

The Effect of Tibolone on Climacteric Symptoms of Healthy Postmenopausal Women

ABSTRACT: Introduction & Objective: Menopause is related to many symptoms that have an effect on women’s life quality. HRT and its alternatives such as Tibolone are some of the routes for enhancement of different aspects of QoL in menopause. The aim of this study was the comparison of the effects of Tibolone and placebo on climacteric symptoms of healthy menopausal women. Materials & Methods: This is a randomized, prospective clinical study. A total of 96 women with no absolute contraindication for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) that reffered to selected clinics (gynecologic clinics in Fajr and Avesina Hospitals, Aboraihan and Shahid Haidari Polyclinic and an individual clinic) during 2007-2008 were divided into two groups: 41 women in the Tibolone group received Tibolone 2.5 mg/day + Ca-D (500 mg +200 IU) and 45 women in the placebo group received only Ca-D (500 mg +200 IU) for six months. At baseline and after six months, climacteric symptoms were assessed by Greene Climacteric Scale (GCS). Data was analyzed by SPSS version 15. Paired and independent t-test, Chi-Square test and Mann-Whitney were used for analyzing the collected data. Results: Thirty two women in the Tibolone group and 43 women in the placebo completed the study. Comparing the baseline and placebo values, the Tibolone group significantly improved on all of GCS subscales which include: depression, anxiety, somatic, vasomotor symptoms and libido (P<0.05). Conclusion: In postmenopausal women, Tibolone significantly improved all aspects of climacteric symptoms and increased their quality of life. Keywords: Tibolone, menopausal women, Greene Climacteric Scal

Power Converters Coolant: Past, Present, Future, and a Path Toward Active Thermal Control in Electrified Ship Power Systems

Power converters have widespread applications in automotive, renewables, and power systems. The demand for power modules with low power consumption and high efficiency has increased due to advancements in semiconductor devices. So, power converters need to be highly efficient to reduce costs associated with energy dissipation and cooling requirements. This paper discusses various active thermal control methods for high-power power converters. It covers modulation and configuration techniques, ranging from single configurations to cascaded, modular, and multilevel converters. These concepts form the basis of power electronics building blocks, particularly relevant in all-electric ship systems. Power electronics building blocks represent a thriving technology that will advance ship power systems, the thermal design of which plays a crucial role in managing high heat dissipation levels. Hence, thermal management is essential for reliable device performance. The paper thoroughly studies different active thermal control methods and their impact on power semiconductor devices and converters, categorized per configurations, power routing methods, modulation, and control layers. The review then moves to thermal control methods for the PEBBs concept using multilevel converters in all-electric ship systems. The paper eventually outlines future research directions for the thermal aspect of power electronics building blocks

Shedding light on gene therapy: Carbon dots for the minimally invasive image-guided delivery of plasmids and noncoding RNAs - A review

Recently, carbon dots (CDs) have attracted great attention due to their superior properties, such as biocompatibility, fluorescence, high quantum yield, and uniform distribution. These characteristics make CDs interesting for bioimaging, therapeutic delivery, optogenetics, and theranostics. Photoluminescence (PL) properties enable CDs to act as imaging-trackable gene nanocarriers, while cationic CDs with high transfection efficiency have been applied for plasmid DNA and siRNA delivery. In this review, we have highlighted the precursors, structure and properties of positively charged CDs to demonstrate the various applications of these materials for nucleic acid delivery. Additionally, the potential of CDs as trackable gene delivery systems has been discussed. Although there are several reports on cellular and animal approaches to investigating the potential clinical applications of these nanomaterials, further systematic multidisciplinary approaches are required to examine the pharmacokinetic and biodistribution patterns of CDs for potential clinical applications