Arsenic compounds toxicity

Arsenic compounds toxicity have been reported of many parts of the world. Those are one of global clinical problems that affect all body organs and many cases of death every year. Arsenic compounds exist in environment and human body as form of inorganic and organic arsenic. Inorganic arsenic includes arsenite (As III) and arsenate (As V). The inorganic arsenics can be methylated to form monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) in vivo. Aasenic, especially inorganic arsenic is well absorbed (80-90) from the gastrointestinal tract, distributed in the body, often metabolized by methylation, and then primarily excreted into urine. Methylation of inorganic arsenic compounds is considered as a detoxification process. Arsenic compounds cause to DNA damage, lipid peroxidation, and decreased antioxidant defense levels. The wide human exposure to arsenic compound especial inorganic arsenic in different sources throughout the world causes great concern for human health. Long term exposure to arsenic can lead to cancer of skin and internal organs eg., the liver, lung, kidney and bladder, also high mortality rate. The noncancerous effects of ingesting arsenic include clinical manifestation in gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, pulmonary, immunological, neurological systems, endocrine glands (e.g. diabetes) and skin. There are some laboratories tests available to diagnose poisoning can measure arsenic in blood, urine, hair, and fingernails. The urine test is the most reliable for detecting arsenic exposure. Arsenic toxicity can be life threating and necessitates supportive therapy (administration crystalloid fluids, inotropic drugs and treatment of cardiac dysrhythemias), decontamination (GI tract irrigation & use activated charcoal in some patients), chelating agents that should be initiated as soon as in arsenic toxicity. These chelating agents include: BAL (British anti lewisite, dimercaprol), 2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA. Succimer), dimercaptopropane sulfoxid acid (DMPS), and also, long term follow-up of these patients. This review article offer to ascertain: a) find out contamination areas that exposure to arsenic to the people by water, food, soil and air; b) common diseases of arsenic poisoning in human; c) education level, awareness and treatment of contaminated people

An update on lead poisoning

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Lead poisoning have been reported from many parts of the world. They are one of global clinical problem that effect all body organs and many deaths every year. This review was done to survey toxicological aspects of lead compounds METHODS: The data bank used in this study is web of science, scopus, pubmed, pubmed central, SID. The keywords are Alzheimer�s Disease, medical plants, acetylcholine, antioxidant. FINDINGS: Metallic lead is used industrial, organic lead eg., tetraethyl and tetramethyl lead in gasoline additives to prevent engine knock, and inorganic lead salts combined with other elements. Majority of absorptive lead through the respiratory and gastrointestinal systems. Lead compounds can lead to clinical manifestation in neurologic system, hematopoietic, kidneys, cardiovascular, reproduction, bones. There are tests available to diagnose poisoning by measuring lead in blood, urine, hair and fingernails. Patients of lead toxicity need to decontamination (GI tract irrigation), supportive cares, use traditional and new chelating agents to combination therapy, also antioxidants, vitamins, and nanoparticle. CONCLUSION: Based on the survey, it is recommended to detect contaminated areas and consider an educational plan for the exposed people to prevention of lead poisoning. © 2015, Babol University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

A new 2D-based method for carotid intima-media thickness quantification from ultrasound sequences

Background: Ultrasound measurement of carotid Intima-Media Thickness (IMT) is a suitable method to evaluate subclinical arteriosclerosis. Objectives: The current study aimed to present a new computerized algorithm to detect instantaneous changes of the IMT to Common Carotid Artery (CCA) of IMT in sequential ultrasound images by applying the maximum gradient and the dynamic programming. Patients and Methods: In a cross-sectional design, an examination was performed on thirty healthy human subjects with the mean age of 44 ± 6 years from April 2013 to June 2013 in Beheshti Hospital, Kashan, Iran. In all individuals, the instantaneous changes of the far wall IMT on the CCA were extracted. Local measurements of vessel intensity, intensity gradient, and boundary continuity were extracted for all of the sequential ultrasonic 2D-frames throughout three cardiac cycles. The Pearson correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman analysis were performed to assess the relationship and agreement between IMT measured by the proposed and conventional manual methods. Results: There was no significant difference between the proposed and manual methods with paired t-test analysis (in systole: 0.57 ± 0.10 vs. 0.56 ± 0.10 mm; P = 0.188 and in diastole: 0.63 ± 0.16 vs. 0.62 ± 0.10 mm; P = 0.122 for the manual and proposed methods, respectively). The Pearson correlation coefficients were r = 0.94 and r = 0.93 for IMTs and IMTd, respectively (both P < 0.001). Limit of agreements were narrow and considerable agreement was found between the two methods. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that the proposed computerized analyzing method can provide accurate measurements of the IMT of the CCA in sequential 2D ultrasonic images. © 2015, Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal

Vascular deformation in human atherosclerotic carotid artery evaluated by 2D analysis of ultrasonography

Objectives: Common carotid artery (CCA) remodelling in the atherosclerosis process is an inherent necessary element that decreases the progress of significant lumen compromise. The present study used a semi-automated method to assess relationships of intima-media thickness (IMT), lumen diameter (LD) and inter-adventitial diameter (IAD) using ultrasound B-mode images of atherosclerotic carotid artery. Methods: In the cross-sectional study, 120 male subjects (age range: 40�60 years) were classified into four research groups namely control, mild, moderate, and severe stenosis. The maximum near and far wall IMT, mean of both walls� IMT and IAD, and also LD of the left CCA were extracted for all participants. Pearson correlation coefficient was utilized to investigate relationships of IMT, LD, and IAD. Results: Results revealed that the maximum far and near wall IMT, mean of both walls� IMT and IAD in the CCA were significantly different in stenosis patients and the control group (p< 0.001). However, there were no significant differences among the four studied groups in terms of LD of CCA (p = 0.65). There was a stronger correlation between mean of both walls� IMT and IAD in comparison with mean far wall IMT and IAD (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Results indicated that changes of IAD in the left CCA were associated with carotid deformation, and thus it can be considered as a predictor of atherosclerosis process. © The Author(s) 2020

Comparison of brachial artery resistive index with intima-media thickness of carotid artery as sonographic markers of atherosclerosis

Background and objective: Intima-media thickness (IMT) in common carotid artery (CCA) can be assessed during carotid arterial ultrasonography. However, it's association with resistive index (RI) in brachial artery (BA), as a useful tool to evaluate atherosclerosis progression has not been clarified well. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between IMT in CCA and RI in BA. Material and methods: IMT and RI of CCA and BA were evaluated in 90 men with 30 control carotids, 30 mild carotid stenosis, and 30 severe stenosis using B-mode and Doppler ultrasonography. RI was measured based on the peak-systolic and different parts of diastolic velocities in Doppler spectrum in BA. Results: The intima-media thickness of the left common carotid Artery (LCCA) increased from 0.57 ± 0.14 in the control group to 0.73 ± 0.15 in the mild stenosis group and 0.90 ± 0.11 in the severe stenosis group. RId-end and RId-mean of the left brachial artery (LBA) increased from 0.85 ± 0.09 and 0.82 ± 0.05 in the control groups to 0.89 ± 0.08 and 0.85 ± 0.04 in the mild stenosis groups and 0.94 ± 0.06 and 0.89 ± 0.04 among sever groups, respectively. Conclusion: Between experimental groups, there was a significant difference in IMT of LCCA and RI of LBA, separately (p-value &lt; 0.05). The Pearson correlation analysis showed a significant correlation between IMT of LCCA and RI of LBA. The brachial artery resistive index is associated with intima-media thickness of common carotid artery. This study showed that atherosclerosis was a generalized process that might involve the entire vasculature. Besides, we propose that RI measurements from each of the Doppler velocity spectrums of brachial artery and their averaging (RImean) may be a better index for explaining progression of atherosclerosis in brachial artery rather than RId-end alone. Due to the above-mentioned matters, it seems that RI in BA with accompaniment of IMT in CCA could be a useful tool to evaluate atherosclerosis progression. Copyright © 2015 American Scientific Publishers

Performance intima-media thickness of carotid artery and flow mediated dilation of brachial artery for assessing atherosclerosis progression

Material and methods: 90 men were studied with the range of ages of 40-60 years in three groups. Vascular ultrasongraphy was performed to analyze endothelium-dependent vascular dilation in the brachial artery and IMT in the common carotid artery. Results: Our study showed that first, there were significant differences in IMT and flow mediated dilation (FMD) among the three groups (p-value < 0.05). Second, there was significant negative correlation between FMD of the left brachial artery (LBA) and IMT of the left common carotid artery (LCCA) in mild stenosis and severe stenosis groups (R=-0.37; p-value < 0.05, R=-0.55; p-value < 0.05). Conclusions: This study showed that FMD on the LBA with accompaniment of IMT on the LCCA could be useful tools to evaluate atherosclerosis progression. © 2014 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved. Introduction: Endothelial dysfunction and increased intima-media thickness (IMT) are early findings in the development of atherosclerosis that can be evaluated non-invasively by ultrasonography. The aim of this study was to investigate endothelial function and IMT, and the relation between these processes and atherosclerosis progression in three groups (control, mild stenosis and severe stenosis in the carotid artery)

Dosimetry of organ at risks in orthopantomography

Introduction: Orthopantomography is a common imaging technique of the jaw. Although in compare to other diagnostic radiology methods, the dose of radiation received by the patient is relatively low in orthopantomography, still is remained as the most common method in diagnostic radiology. Therefore, because of the commonalty of this method, it seemed rational to estimate the dose received by the Organ At Risks (OARs). Materials and Methods: This study has been designed to determine the surface dose received by the eyes, parotids, thyroid and submandibular salivary glands using Gafchromic films in 20 patients referred to imaging centers (digital and analog). To increase the repeatability of the technique, each measurement was triplicated and the results were presented as mean (SD). Results: The mean measured surface dose received by the submandibular glands (left, right and center), thyroid (left and right), parotid (left and right) and eye (left and right) for the digital system were 4.17, 4.65, 5.08 and 4.74 and for the analog system were 10.33, 10.12, 10.28 and 10.73, respectively. Conclusion: This study showed no difference in surface dose received by the left and right eyes, left and right thyroid, left and right parotid, left, right and center submandibular glands in any of the digital or analog systems studied (P �0.05). In addition, the surface dose received by the selected organs in digital system was significantly lower than that by the analog system (P �0.05). © 2015, Semnan University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved