108 research outputs found

    The role of exercise training on lipoprotein profiles in adolescent males

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    BACKGROUND: Major cardiovascular disorders are being recognized earlier in life. In this study we examined the effects of swimming and soccer training on male adolescent lipid-lipoprotein profiles relative to a maturity matched control group to determine the effects of these exercises on specific cardiovascular risk and anti-risk factors. METHODS: Forty five adolescent males (11.81 ± 1.38 yr) including swimmers (SW), soccer players (SO), and non-athlete, physically active individuals as controls (C), participated in this study. Training groups completed 12-wk exercise programs on three non-consecutive days per week. Plasma low-density lipoprotein (LDL), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), high density lipoprotein (HDL), apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I), apolipoprotein B (apoB), total cholesterol (TC), and triglyceride (TG) levels were measured in control, pre-training, during-training, and post-training. RESULTS: In response to the 12-wk training period, the SO group demonstrated a decrease in the mean LDL level compared to the SW and C (SW: 0.15%; SO: −9.51%; C: 19.59%; p < 0.001) groups. There was an increase in both the SW and SO groups vs. the control in mean HDL (SW: 5.66%; SO: 3.07%; C: −7.21%; p < 0.05) and apoA-I (SW: 3.86%; SO: 5.48%; C: −1.01%; p < 0.05). ApoB was considerably lower in the training groups vs. control (SW: −9.52%; SO: −13.87%; C: 21.09%; p < 0.05). ApoA-I/apoB ratio was significantly higher in training groups vs. control (SW: 16.74%; SO: 23.71%; C: −17.35%; p < 0.001). There were no significant differences between groups for other factors. CONCLUSIONS: The favorable alterations in LDL, HDL, apoA-I, and apoB observed in the training groups suggest that both regular swimming or soccer exercise can potentially mitigate cardiovascular risk in adolescent males

    TEMPERAMENT DETERMINATION FOR MELATONIN: A BRIDGE FROM IRANIAN TRADITIONAL TO MODERN SLEEP MEDICINE

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    History acknowledged Ibn Sina, or Avicenna, the author of the highly skilled textbook of medicine "Al-Qanun Fi Al-Tibb" or "The Canon of Medicine", as one of the greatest physicians in medicine. According to this medical textbook, the explanation of the existence of a cold temperament for sleep was that during sleep hours, people tended to have a movement of the nature of the body toward the inside, which caused the body to become cold during sleep. Temperament determination for molecules, including drugs, has proved several applications. The present study tried to demonstrate that the multitasking melatonin molecule, as a sleep related hormone, had a cold temperament. The consideration of this temperament for melatonin had the potential to connect and integrate Iranian traditional medicine to current medicine, and also opened new frontiers for the physiopathology of modern sleep medicine, based on traditional medicine

    Segmentation of corpus callosum using diffusion tensor imaging: validation in patients with glioblastoma

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    Abstract Background This paper presents a three-dimensional (3D) method for segmenting corpus callosum in normal subjects and brain cancer patients with glioblastoma. Methods Nineteen patients with histologically confirmed treatment naïve glioblastoma and eleven normal control subjects underwent DTI on a 3T scanner. Based on the information inherent in diffusion tensors, a similarity measure was proposed and used in the proposed algorithm. In this algorithm, diffusion pattern of corpus callosum was used as prior information. Subsequently, corpus callosum was automatically divided into Witelson subdivisions. We simulated the potential rotation of corpus callosum under tumor pressure and studied the reproducibility of the proposed segmentation method in such cases. Results Dice coefficients, estimated to compare automatic and manual segmentation results for Witelson subdivisions, ranged from 94% to 98% for control subjects and from 81% to 95% for tumor patients, illustrating closeness of automatic and manual segmentations. Studying the effect of corpus callosum rotation by different Euler angles showed that although segmentation results were more sensitive to azimuth and elevation than skew, rotations caused by brain tumors do not have major effects on the segmentation results. Conclusions The proposed method and similarity measure segment corpus callosum by propagating a hyper-surface inside the structure (resulting in high sensitivity), without penetrating into neighboring fiber bundles (resulting in high specificity)

    Increased in vivo glial activation in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Assessed with [11C]-PBR28

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    Evidence from human post mortem, in vivo and animal model studies implicates the neuroimmune system and activated microglia in the pathology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The study aim was to further evaluate in vivo neuroinflammation in individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis using [11C]-PBR28 positron emission tomography. Ten patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (seven males, three females, 38–68 years) and ten age- and [11C]-PBR28 binding affinity-matched healthy volunteers (six males, four females, 33–65 years) completed a positron emission tomography scan. Standardized uptake values were calculated from 60 to 90 min post-injection and normalized to whole brain mean. Voxel-wise analysis showed increased binding in the motor cortices and corticospinal tracts in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis compared to healthy controls (pFWE < 0.05). Region of interest analysis revealed increased [11C]-PBR28 binding in the precentral gyrus in patients (normalized standardized uptake value = 1.15) compared to controls (1.03, p < 0.05). In patients those values were positively correlated with upper motor neuron burden scores (r = 0.69, p < 0.05), and negatively correlated with the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis functional rating scale (r = –0.66, p < 0.05). Increased in vivo glial activation in motor cortices, that correlates with phenotype, complements previous histopathological reports. Further studies will determine the role of [11C]-PBR28 as a marker of treatments that target neuroinflammation

    Long‐term Phase 1/2 intraspinal stem cell transplantation outcomes in ALS

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    ObjectiveIntraspinal human spinal cord‐derived neural stem cell (HSSC) transplantation is a potential therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); however, previous trials lack controls. This post hoc analysis compared ambulatory limb‐onset ALS participants in Phase 1 and 2 (Ph1/2) open‐label intraspinal HSSC transplantation studies up to 3 years after transplant to matched participants in Pooled Resource Open‐Access ALS Clinical Trials (PRO‐ACT) and ceftriaxone datasets to provide required analyses to inform future clinical trial designs.MethodsSurvival, ALSFRS‐R, and a composite statistic (ALS/SURV) combining survival and ALS Functional Rating Scale revised (ALSFRS‐R) functional status were assessed for matched participant subsets: PRO‐ACT n = 1108, Ph1/2 n = 21 and ceftriaxone n = 177, Ph1/2 n = 20.ResultsSurvival did not differ significantly between cohorts: Ph1/2 median survival 4.7 years, 95% CI (1.2, ∞) versus PRO‐ACT 2.3 years (1.9, 2.5), P = 1.0; Ph1/2 3.0 years (1.2, 5.6) versus ceftriaxone 2.3 years (1.8, 2.8), P = 0.88. Mean ALSFRS‐R at 24 months significantly differed between Ph1/2 and both comparison cohorts (Ph1/2 30.1 ± 8.6 vs. PRO‐ACT 24.0 ± 10.2, P = 0.048; Ph1/2 30.7 ± 8.8 vs. ceftriaxone 19.2 ± 9.5, P = 0.0023). Using ALS/SURV, median PRO‐ACT and ceftriaxone participants died by 24 months, whereas median Ph1/2 participant ALSFRS‐Rs were 23 (P = 0.0038) and 19 (P = 0.14) in PRO‐ACT and ceftriaxone comparisons at 24 months, respectively, supporting improved functional outcomes in the Ph1/2 study.InterpretationComparison of Ph1/2 studies to historical datasets revealed significantly improved survival and function using ALS/SURV versus PRO‐ACT controls. While results are encouraging, comparison against historical populations demonstrate limitations in noncontrolled studies. These findings support continued evaluation of HSSC transplantation in ALS, support the benefit of control populations, and enable necessary power calculations to design a randomized, sham surgery‐controlled efficacy study.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144287/1/acn3567_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144287/2/acn3567.pd

    Identification and characterization of pathogenic viruses in aquatic animal using advanced techniques in order to develop rapid diagnostic kit (shrimp viral disease kit as well as TSV, HPV and MBV )

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    Shrimp production increasing rapidly in the world and in2013 the production reaches 4.2 MT. In Iran the shrimp production is under development and estimated in 1393, 20 thousand tons produced. In this regards the important subject is health and disease in shrimp farm. The white spot syndrome virus for second time appears in chabahar and damage many farms. Because the aquaculture activity expand in the world in national, regional and international scale, many emerge disease are endanger. In this regard the viral disease is very important and not only decrease the production but also has a side effect in business and national economy. For control and prevention the viral disease, the accurate methods such as PCR kit were developed. In this project the PCR methods with sensitivity, specificity and efficacy was designed and used for detection viral disease. Many viruses have several serotypes and in different area maybe new serotype induce the disease. For this reason, the specific kit will be design. Three viruses consist of MBV, TSV and IHHNV are very pathogenic in shrimp farm and need the specific PCR kit for detection them. In this project the MBV virus was identified and designs a new primer with Oligo software and the primer amplified a part of DNA with 185 bp in the gel. The specificity and sensitivity of primer were checked by IQ2000 Kit and the primer used for detection unknown samples

    A systematic review of randomised controlled trials assessing effectiveness of prosthetic and orthotic interventions.

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    BACKGROUND: Assistive products are items which allow older people and people with disabilities to be able to live a healthy, productive and dignified life. It has been estimated that approximately 1.5% of the world's population need a prosthesis or orthosis. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to systematically identify and review the evidence from randomized controlled trials assessing effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of prosthetic and orthotic interventions. METHODS: Literature searches, completed in September 2015, were carried out in fourteen databases between years 1995 and 2015. The search results were independently screened by two reviewers. For the purpose of this manuscript, only randomized controlled trials which examined interventions using orthotic or prosthetic devices were selected for data extraction and synthesis. RESULTS: A total of 342 randomised controlled trials were identified (319 English language and 23 non-English language). Only 4 of these randomised controlled trials examined prosthetic interventions and the rest examined orthotic interventions. These orthotic interventions were categorised based on the medical conditions/injuries of the participants. From these studies, this review focused on the medical condition/injuries with the highest number of randomised controlled trials (osteoarthritis, fracture, stroke, carpal tunnel syndrome, plantar fasciitis, anterior cruciate ligament, diabetic foot, rheumatoid and juvenile idiopathic arthritis, ankle sprain, cerebral palsy, lateral epicondylitis and low back pain). The included articles were assessed for risk of bias using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Details of the clinical population examined, the type of orthotic/prosthetic intervention, the comparator/s and the outcome measures were extracted. Effect sizes and odds ratios were calculated for all outcome measures, where possible. CONCLUSIONS: At present, for prosthetic and orthotic interventions, the scientific literature does not provide sufficient high quality research to allow strong conclusions on their effectiveness and cost-effectiveness
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