Zingiber officinale Roscoe reduces chest pain on patients undergoing coronary angioplasty: a clinical trial

Introduction: Evidence from animal studies suggests that Zingiber officinale (ginger) may help prevent ischemia–reperfusion injury (IRI) in heart. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of ginger on inducing preconditioning on patients undergoing angioplasty. Methods: Thirty-four patients, referred for elective angioplasty, were randomly divided into the control (17 patients) and ginger groups (17 patients). Subjects in the experimental group were provided 250 mg ginger powder in Zintoma capsules per day for 10 days, whereas those in the control group received placebo. The patients underwent percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) (One 45-second balloon inflation and 2 minutes reperfusion). Chest pain scores were assessed immediately after angioplasty and cardiac injury biomarkers were assessed 12 hours later. Results: The average pain score during the balloon inflation in the ginger group was significantly lower than the control group (2.1±1 versus 3.8±1.5, P = 0.04). Troponin I was elevated in both groups after angioplasty, but there was not any significant difference between groups in this regard (P = 0.12 and 0.10, respectively). Conclusion: The use of ginger reduces chest pain during coronary angioplasty but its effect on the release of biochemical markers of myocardial damage is obscure

Evaluation of mouse embryos produced in vitro after electromagnetic waves exposure; Morphometric study.

INTRODUCTION Today, the use of electromagnetic waves in medical diagnostic devices, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), has increased, and many of its biological effects have been reported. The aim of the present study was to assess the biological effects of 1.5 Tesla (T) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on fertility and reproductive parameters. METHODS Eighty adult male and female NMRI mice (NMRI: Naval Medical Research Institute) of age 6-8 weeks were studied and randomly divided into two study and control groups. After confirmation of pregnancy, the mice in the study group were exposed to the MRI (1.5 T) machine's waves over the next three weeks, once a week for 36 minutes. One day and thirty-five days after the last radiation, the mice were killed in order to do the in vitro fertilization (IVF) by neck beads' displacement and the impact on the evolution of embryos, and its quality was studied. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 and the significance level of less than 0.05 was considered. RESULTS Embryo morphometry showed that the total diameter and the cytoplasm diameter of the study group embryos suffered significant reduction compared to the control group, 1 day after the last irradiation (p < 0.05), but the diameter of the perivitelline space of this group's embryos had a significant increase (p < 0.05). The qualitative results during 35 days after irradiation showed that morphologically parameters of the embryos in the study group had no significant differences from the control group. CONCLUSION Exposure to MRI irradiation can transiently disturb the development of mouse embryos and fertility, but these effects are reversible 35 days after the last irradiation

Late cardiac perconditioning by phenylephrine in an isolated rat heart model is mediated by mitochondrial potassium channels

The present study was designed to investigate the effect of early and late administration of phenylephrine during ischemia against regional ischemia–reperfusion injuries in an isolated rat heart model. All animals were randomly divided into experimental groups: (I) IR (Ischemic/ reperfusion): the hearts underwent 35 min of regional ischemia followed by 60 min of reperfusion; (II) 5HD-IR-0: the hearts were perfused for 5 min with 5HD (5-hydroxydecanoate, specific mKATP channel blocker, 100 µM) at the onset of regional ischemia; (III) 5HD-IR-20: the hearts were perfused for 5 min with 5HD 20 min after regional ischemia; (IV) PE-IR-10: the hearts were perfused for 5 min with phenylephrine 10 min after regional ischemia; (V) PE-IR-30: the hearts were perfused for 5 min with phenylephrine (100 µM) 30 min after regional ischemia; (VI) PE-5HD-IR-10 group: the hearts were perfused for 5 min with 5HD at the onset of regional ischemia after which phenylephrine was administrated as in group IV; and (VII) PE-5HD-IR-30: the hearts were perfused for 5 min with 5HD 20 min after the ischemia and then phenylephrine was administrated as in group V. The hemodynamic parameters were recorded throughout the experiment. Ischemia-induced arrhythmias, myocardial infarct size (IS), creatin kinase-MB isoenzyme (CK-MB), plasma lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activities, and coronary blood flow (CBF) were measured in all animals. Perfusion of phenylephrine 30 min after the regional ischemia curtailed the myocardial infarct size, reduced CK-MB, and improved cardiac function and CBF. Administration of 5HD 30 min after the ischemia abolished cardioprotective effects of phenylephrine in the late phase. These results suggest the involvement of mKATP in the mechanism of phenylephrine-induced late preconditioning

Evaluation of risk factors affecting the lifespan and efficiency of dialysis accesses installed in dialysis patients referees to Ahvaz therapeutic centers in a two-year cohort study

Introduction: It is crucial in order to provide optimal hemodialysis to patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) to establish venous access with the least amount of complications. Objectives: In this study, we examined the risk factors that affect the efficiency and longevity of dialysis access for patients receiving dialysis in Ahvaz medical centers. Patients and Methods: In our retrospective study, 180 hemodialysis patients were referred to the Golestan educational and medical center in Ahvaz, Iran. An arteriovenous fistula (AVF) or catheter was conducted to provide them with vascular access. Detailed demographic information about the patient was collected, including age, gender, height, weight, body mass index (BMI), cause of ESRD, duration of renal failure, duration of dialysis, and comorbidities. There were instances of access inefficiency as a result of infection, stenosis, closure, thrombosis, bleeding, and pseudoaneurysms. The data was analyzed using Mann-Whitney U, t test, and chi-square tests with SPSS version 22. Statistics were considered significant at a P value of 0.05. Results: The mean age of the patients was 50.08 ± 12.213 years, and the mean BMI was 27.90 ± 9.112 kg/m2 . Among dialysis patients, there was a significant relationship between male gender, clopidogrel administration, diabetes history, hypertension and access failure. It is estimated that 36.7% of vascular access failures are caused by thrombosis, while 32.8% are due to access stenosis or closure. Conclusion: Our study showed that male gender, clopidogrel administration, and a history of diabetes and hypertension were risk factors affecting dialysis access quality and efficiency. According to our study, it may be possible to develop a more appropriate approach for determining the type and location of dialysis access

Machine Learning to Generate Adjustable Dose Distributions in Head-and-Neck Cancer Radiation Therapy

In this work, we propose a Machine Learning model that generates an adjustable 3D dose distribution for external beam radiation therapy for head-and-neck cancer treatments. In contrast to existing Machine Learning methods that provide a single model, we create pairs of models for each organ-at-risk, namely lower-extreme and upper-extreme models. These model pairs for an organ-at-risk propose doses that give lower and higher doses to that organ-at-risk, while also encapsulating the dose trade-off to other organs-at-risk. By weighting and combining the model pairs for all organs-at-risk, we are able to dynamically create adjustable dose distributions that can be used, in real-time, to move doses between organs-at-risk, thereby customizing the dose distribution to the needs of a particular patient. We leverage a key observation that the training data set inherently contains the clinical trade-offs. We show that the adjustable distributions are able to provide reasonable clinical dose latitude in the trade-off of doses between organs-at-risk

Timely referral to health centers for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases: IraPEN national program

IntroductionThe IraPEN program is an adapted version of the WHO-PEN program designed to prevent four major non-communicable diseases in Iran. This study aimed to determine the rate of compliance and related factors among individuals participating in the IraPEN program for the prevention of cardiovascular disease.MethodIn this study, compliance was defined as timely referral to the health center as scheduled, and the researchers approached four pilot sites of IraPEN from March 2016 to March 2018. Sex-stratified logistic regressions were applied to investigate factors related to compliance. However, it is important to note that in this study, compliance was defined as compliance to revisit, not compliance to taking prescribed medications or behavioral lifestyle changes.ResultsThe total compliance rate, including timely compliance and early and late compliance, was 16.5% in men and 23.3% in women. The study found that cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and being underweight were associated with lower compliance. The higher calculated risk of CVD was associated with higher compliance, but after adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors, high-risk individuals showed lower compliance. There was negligible interaction between sex and other factors for compliance.ConclusionThe compliance rate with scheduled programs for cardiovascular preventive strategies was very low, and high-risk individuals were less compliant, regardless of their high level of risk factors. The study recommends further training to increase awareness and knowledge regarding the IraPEN program and the prevention of non-communicable diseases among high-risk populations

A Review on the Most Important Medicinal Plants Effective in Cardiac Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury

Ischemia, referring to reduction and restriction of perfusion to myocardial tissue which involves coronary artery through the formation of misplaced clots and thrombosis, is one of the most important cardiovascular diseases. Plant-based compounds help to improve or prevent disease by affecting the factors involved in the disease. This review was conducted to report the medicinal plants and factors effective in cardiac ischemia-reperfusion (UR) injury to supplement the knowledge about this disease and its prevention and treatment using certain medicinal plants and their active compounds. For this purpose, medicinal plants and their potential antioxidant activities, effects on lipid levels and plaque formation, atherosclerosis and development of cardiovascular diseases and ischemia were reviewed. Methods: To conduct this review, relevant articles published between 1983 and 2018 were retrieved from the Google Scholar, PubMed, Scientific Information Database, Web of Science, and Scopus using search terms antioxidant, ischemia, reperfusion, heart, infarct, inflammation, cholesterol and medicinal plants. Then, the eligible articles were reviewed. Results: The active compounds of plants, including phenolic compounds, flavonoids, and antioxidant compounds, can be effective on certain pathogenic factors particularly in decreasing cholesterol and blood pressure, preventing an increase in free radicals and ultimately reducing blood clots and vascular resistance to reduce and prevent ischemic disease and its harmful effects. Conclusion: Medicinal plants discussed in this article seem to be able to prevent cardiac damage and the disease progression via affecting the factors that are involved in ischemia

Geographic distribution and time trends of water-pipe use among Iranian youth and teenage students : A meta-analysis and systematic review

Water-pipe tobacco smoking is harmful to health, yet its rate of prevalence remains uncertain. Recent evidence has shown that the prevalence of water-pipe smoking among students is higher than in the general population. In this study, a systematic review of related literature on water-pipe use was conducted, and for this purpose, 76 articles were examined in the study. In this vein, geographic distribution and time trends of water-pipe consumption in Iran were considered. The results of this study showed that lifetime, last-year, and last-month prevalence of water-pipe smoking use among Iranian students were 28.78 (25.07–32.49), 20.84 (16.01–25.66), and 16.36 (11.86–20.85), respectively. The results also showed a wide variation by the region and sex in Iran. This study has shown the importance of addressing public prevention and alerting programs in schools and universities.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe