Contamination with Organophosphate Toxins in Humans in Iran: A Systematic Review

Background: Organophosphate toxins are among chemical toxins that are dangerous for human health. Due to the increasing use of organophosphate compounds in a variety of products such as insecticides and pesticides, as well as easy access to these compounds, a systematic review on the related studies taken place in Iran seemed to be necessary. Methods: In this review, databases including Iranmedex, Medline, PubMed, Google Scholar and SID were searched for phrases related to organophosphates in both English and Farsi languages and up to April 2013. Only studies which had measured human contamination to these compounds in Iran were included. Results: Totally, 19 articles were found of which 10 articles met the inclusion criteria. According to these studies, organophosphate poisoning mainly happened due to occupational exposure in workers, inadvertently in children, and for suicide purposes in some reports. Conclusion: It seems that a high percentage of poisonings and deaths from these substances is due to lack of consumer awareness awareness about these chemicals and their complications. Therefore, in order to prevent poisoning it is necessary to educate families and related workers

A Review of Microsurgery Versus Endoscopy: Controversies for Treatment of Colloid Cysts

Background: There is controversy about the value of endoscopic methods compared to microsurgical methods in the treatment of challenging colloidal cysts. This study aimed to review the findings of literature which studied microsurgery or neuroendoscopy in the colloid cyst.Methods: An advanced search in PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar databases performed using keywords such as: “microsurgery,” “endoscopy,” “microsurgery versus endoscopy,” and “colloid cysts.”Results: Reviewing the findings of related studies showed some differences in sections of surgical management, microsurgery, endoscopy, complete cyst resection, recurrence rate, length of stay, and complications between the two surgical methods in the treatment of colloid cyst.Conclusion: Despite some disadvantages of endoscopy, it seems this method has more privileges than the other methods

Cut-off Value for Stenosis Ratio and Zung Depression Scale in Successful Prediction of Posterior Spinal Fusion surgery

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate effect of some clinical attributes in prediction of satisfaction with posterior spinal fusion (PSF) surgery in patients with lumbar disc herniation (LDH) and lumbar spinal canal stenosis (LSCS) and determine a cut-off point for these attributes.Methods: The attributes such as stenosis ratio (SR) values (described by Lurencin), Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA), The Zung depression scale (ZDS), duration of symptoms (in months), were investigated for 329 patients with LSCS and 151 patients with LDH separately. Patient satisfaction was recorded based on the international standard questionnaire Swiss Spinal Stenosis Score (SSS). The sensitivity and specificity values and the optimal cut-off points were calculated for SR, JOA, ZDS and duration of symptoms using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.Results: One hundred fifty-one patients with LDH (39 male, 112 female; mean age 50.24 ± 9.21 years) and 329 patients with LSCS (111 male, 218 female; mean age 53.28 ±7.81 years) were followed–up for 6 months. Post-surgical satisfaction was 73.86% in patients with LSCS and 85.43% in patients with LDH. The cut-off point of SR for prediction of besting surgical outcome was estimated more than 0.46 with asymptotic significance less than 0.05, 60% sensitivity and 75% specificity in LSCS patients (AUC-0.705, 95% CI, 0.644–0.766; P < 0.001).Conclusion: The findings show that the SR with a cut off value of 0.46 cross sectional area, in patients with LSCS may be superior to JOA, duration of symptoms and ZDS for prediction of satisfaction with PSF surgery

Assessment of the Microbiome Role in Skin Protection Against UV Irradiation Via Network Analysis

Introduction: Diverse microbiotas which have some contributions to gene expression reside in human skin. To identify the protective role of the skin microbiome against UV exposure, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis is used to assess gene expression alteration.Methods: A microarray dataset, GEO accession number GSE117359, was considered in this respect. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the germ-free (GF) and specific pathogen-free (SPF) groups are analyzed by GEO2R. The top significant DEGs were assigned for network analysis via Cytoscape 3.7.2 and its applications.Results: A total of 28 genes were identified as significant DEGs and the centrality analysis of the network indicated that only one of the seven hub-bottlenecks was from queried genes. The gene ontology analysis of Il6, Cxcl2, Cxcl1, TNF, Il10, Cxcl10, and Mmp9 showed that the crucial genes were highly enriched in the immune system.Conclusion: The skin microbiome plays a significant role in the protection of the skin against UV irradiation and the role of TNF and IL6 is prominent in this regard

An Investigation of Post-radiation Gene Expression Profiles: A System Biology Study

Introduction: Genomics and bioinformatics are useful methods for exploring unclear aspects of radiation effects on biological systems. Many radiation-induced alterations in irradiated samples are post-radiation time-dependent. This study aims to evaluate the post-irradiation effects of the gamma-ray on human Jurkat cells.Methods: Gene expression profiles of the samples compared 6 and 24 hours after radiation to findthe critical differential expressed genes and the related pathways. Samples are provided from GeneExpression Omnibus (GEO) and analyzed by ClueGO.Results: Twenty-nine critical genes were determined as the important affected genes and 7 classes of related pathways were introduced. CCNE2, PSMD11, CDC25C, ANAPC1, PLK1, AURKA, and CCNB1 that were associated with more than 6 pathways were related to one of the determined pathway groups.Conclusion: Cell protecting pathways were associated with the genes (HSPA5, HSPA8, HSP90B1, HMMR, CEBPB, RXRA, and PSMD11) which were related to the minimum numbers of pathways. The finding of this study corresponds to repair processes that depend on post-radiation time. It seems these sets of genes are suitable candidates for further investigatio

Effect of KTP Laser on Surgically Resected Adenomas of Prostate

INTRODUCTION: Palmoplantar psoriasis could hardly be differentiated from chronic tylotic eczema both clinically and histologically. The most commonly used therapeutic options for palmoplantar psoriasis are long-term therapy with topical corticosteroids and local PUVA. Frequently, it is a recalcitrant disease. We investigated the efficacy and tolerability of the combination of topical calcipotriol with local UVA radiation in comparison with local PUVA therapy.METHODS:In a total of 43 patients with palmoplantar psoriasis, 33 were given 15 sessions of local UVA radiation and topical calcipotriol and the remainder received 15 sessions of local PUVA (psoralen + UVA radiation).RESULTS:The statistical analyses of the results showed that the effect and tolerability of both therapeutic modalities are comparable.CONCLUSION: Combination of topical calcipotriol and local UVA radiation is an optional corticosteroid-free therapeutic modality for palmoplantar  psoriasis. It has a comparable effectiveness and tolerability with local PUVA

The Long-term Effects of Percutaneous Laser Disc Decompression (PLDD) Treatment on Lumbar Disc Protrusion: A 2-Year Follow-up

Introduction: Nowadays many physicians have focused their attention on using low invasive methods for the treatment of disc protrusion. Thus, the current study was carried out to evaluate the effect and therapeutic outcomes of clinical percutaneous laser disc decompression (PLDD) in the treatment of chronic low back pain caused by disc protrusion during a two-year follow-up.Methods: This historical cohort study was conducted on 40 patients, who were suffering from chronic low back pain caused by disc protrusion diagnosed, and referred to the pain clinic of Akhtar Hospital from March to August 2016 were treated with PLDD and were followed up for at least two years after performing PLDD (from 2018 to 2019). All the information has been extracted using medical records and patient interviews. The severity of pain was measured by the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), and the Oswestry disability index (ODI) was measured before and two years after the treatment.Results: The most common sites for two-level PLDD were L4-S1 and L3-L5, and the most common sites for one-level PLDD were L5-S1 and L4-L5. Overall, the levels of pain and functional disability two years after PLDD showed significant improvements (P = 0.0001). The results revealed no statistically significant differences in NRS and ODI scores between the two groups of men and women two years after PLDD (P > 0.05). Furthermore, they indicated no statistically significant differences in NRS and ODI scores between the different disc protrusion levels two years after PLDD (P > 0.05).Conclusion: It seems that the PLDD is a low-invasive, safe, and effective method that can be used in patients with chronic low back pain caused by a disc protrusion. Therefore, it can be considered as a suitable choice in treating patients with chronic low back pain caused by a disc protrusio

Assessment of Trend and Seasonality in Road Accident Data: An Iranian Case Study

Background: Road traffic accidents and their related deaths have become a major concern, particularly in developing countries. Iran has adopted a series of policies and interventions to control the high number of accidents occurring over the past few years. In this study we used a time series model to understand the trend of accidents, and ascertain the viability of applying ARIMA models on data from Taybad city. Methods : This study is a cross-sectional study. We used data from accidents occurring in Taybad between 2007 and 2011. We obtained the data from the Ministry of Health (MOH) and used the time series method with a time lag of one month. After plotting the trend, non-stationary data in mean and variance were removed using Box-Cox transformation and a differencing method respectively. The ACF and PACF plots were used to control the stationary situation. Results : The traffic accidents in our study had an increasing trend over the five years of study. Based on ACF and PACF plots gained after applying Box-Cox transformation and differencing, data did not fit to a time series model. Therefore, neither ARIMA model nor seasonality were observed. Conclusion : Traffic accidents in Taybad have an upward trend. In addition, we expected either the AR model, MA model or ARIMA model to have a seasonal trend, yet this was not observed in this analysis. Several reasons may have contributed to this situation, such as uncertainty of the quality of data, weather changes, and behavioural factors that are not taken into account by time series analysis

Analysis of Laser Therapy Effects on Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients: A System Biology Study

Introduction: Mechanism of Laser therapy and also its safety are two important features of application of different types of laser in medicine. Aim of this study is investigating the critical affected genes after treatment of squamous cell carcinoma patients.Methods: Gene expression profiles of 4 squamous cell carcinoma patients that are treated via chemoradiotherapy plus laser relative to the 3 similar patients without laser exposure from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) are downloaded and are screen to find critical genes via network analysis. STRING database, Cytoscape software, and Clue GO plug in of Cytoscape software are used.  Results: The genes; HSX70 and NCC27 as neighbors and HSPA1B, CLIC1, RAB13, PPIF, and LCE3D were determined as hub genes. Over-expression of LCE3D was interpreted as side effect of laser therapy. Apoptosis and cell cycle were the dominant biological processes that regulated by the HSP molecules in laser treated patients.Conclusion: Laser was effected the main biological processes and simultaneously issued side effects.