Rupture of Splenic Artery Aneurysm With Portal Hypertension During Pregnancy: A Case Report

Background: Spontaneous rupture of a splenic artery aneurysm (SAA) during pregnancy is a rare event with catastrophic consequences. This report presents a case of SAA associated with portal hypertension that ruptured during pregnancy with maternal survival. Case: A 27-year-old primigravid woman at 31 weeks of gestation presented to the Emergency Department at Pars Hospital in Tehran, Iran with sudden onset of severe abdominal pain. She was in obvious distress with blood pressure of 90/50 mm Hg and a pulse rate of 110 beats per minute. Abdominal ultrasound confirmed free fluid in the peritoneal cavity. The patient was immediately transferred to the operating room. An infant delivered by Caesarean section died shortly thereafter. There was no evidence of placental abruption, but about 2 L of blood was noted in the abdominal cavity. A ruptured SAA was found. Proximal ligation of the splenic artery was performed followed by splenectomy. The patient did well and was discharged on the eighth postoperative day. Conclusion: This case illustrates the need to consider ruptured SAA as part of differential diagnosis of hemoperitoneum in pregnant women. Immediate surgical intervention is needed to ensure survival of mother and fetus. © 2006 Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada

In-situ synthesis of NiCo/(Ni,Co)O/(Ni,Co)Fe2O4 composite as high-performance microwave absorber

NiCo/(Ni,Co)O/(Ni,Co)Fe2O4 composites were in-situ prepared by solution combustion method using metal nitrates as oxidant and glycine as organic fuel. The amounts of various intermetallic and oxide phases were controlled by amounts of metal precursor. The magnetic properties proved the presence of Ni1-xCox phase instead of pure Ni and Co phases. The combusted composites showed spongy microstructure without any special morphology for various phases. The (Ni,Co)O-49 wt % NiCo composite powders had the effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 3.6 GHz at a matching thickness (1.8 mm) in Ku band. By using the ferric precursor, the (Co,Ni)O-30 wt %NiCo-15 wt % (Co,Ni)Fe2O4 composite exhibited a rather broader EAB of 3.9 GHz at a smaller matching thickness of 1.2 mm in Ku band

Microbial biosurfactants as key multifunctional ingredients for sustainable cosmetics

A polar head and an apolar tail chemically characterize surfactants, they show different properties and are categorized by different factors such as head charge and molecular weight. They work by reducing the surface tension between oil and water phases to facilitate the formation of one homogeneous mixture. In this respect, they represent unavoidable ingredients, their main application is in the production of detergents, one of if not the most important categories of cosmetics. Their role is very important, it should be remembered that it was precisely soaps and hygiene that defeated the main infectious diseases at the beginning of the last century. Due to their positive environmental impact, the potential uses of microbial sourced surfactants are actively investigated. These compounds are produced with different mechanisms by microorganisms in the aims to defend themselves from external threats, to improve the mobility in the environment, etc. In the cosmetic field, biosurfactants, restricted in the present work to those described above, can carry high advantages, in comparison to traditional surfactants, especially in the field of sustainable and safer approaches. Besiede this, costs still remain an obsatcle to their diffusion; in this regard, exploration of possible multifunctional actions could help to contain application costs. To highlight their features and possible multifunctional role, on the light of specific biological profiles yet underestimated, we have approached the present review work

Comparison of protective antibody level against hepatitis B in accelerated and conventional vaccination

Background and Objective: The vaccination against hepatitis B is a front line defence for all at-risk groups. Conventional methods of hepatitis B vaccination (0, 1 and 6 months) is considered a long process. But vaccination at shorter intervals (0, 10 and 21 days) is suggested to achieve rapid immunity. This study was carried out to compare for the protective antibody level against hepatitis B in accelerated and conventional vaccination. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive and analytical study 160 health personnel of Imam Reza hospital of Kermanshah, Iran with no history of vaccination against hepatitis B were selected and divided into two groups during 2009. The volunteers were received vaccination according to accelerated (0, 10 and 21 days) and convetional (0, 1 and 6 months) methods. The antibody titer measured two years after the final dose of vaccination. The acceptable level of antibody was considered higher than 10 IU/ml. Results: After two years the acceptable level of antibody was observed in 94.5% and 97.9% of subjects in accelarated and conventional methods, respectivley. This difference was not significant. Conclusion: This study showed that there is not significant differences between accelerated and conventional methods in antibody production against hepatitis B antigen

Detecting early symptoms of mental health deterioration using handwriting duration parameters

Abstract Introduction Recent years have witnessed a rapid rise in the incidence of mental health deterioration, such as depression and depressive symptoms. Therefore, early detection and measures of prevention have become important. This study aimed to develop a predictive method for assessing the incident risk of mental health deterioration by examining the associations between mental health and handwriting duration. Methods A cohort study over four years was performed with 200 university students who volunteered to participate in this study. Participants received the Uchida‐Kraepelin test every April and completed the 30‐item general health questionnaire to evaluate their mental health. From the stroke data obtained from the digital pen in the Uchida‐Kraepelin test, two kinds of intervals were extracted. Based on these interval ratios, participants were divided into two groups. We then examined the scores of the questionnaire between the high‐risk group and the low‐risk group in the first year of the study. In addition, multiple logistic regression analysis was used to examine whether those in the high‐risk group in the first year still belonged to the high‐risk group in the fourth year. Results In the “Anxiety and Dysphoria scale” in the first year, the high‐risk group had a significantly higher score than the low‐risk group. Additionally, it was found that those in the high‐risk group in the first year tended to still be in the high‐risk group in the fourth year. Conclusion These results suggested that the indicator that we developed can be used as a predictive factor for the incident risk of mental health deterioration

Carrier-free enzyme immobilization by cross-linked enzyme aggregates (CLEA) technology

Biocatalyst in the form of enzymes is widely used in diverse applications. Unfortunately, free enzymes are quite unstable and may undergo denaturation even under mild conditions, thus hampering their usefulness, and this may lead to higher cost in enzyme based applications. A credible solution is to immobilize the enzymes prior to usages. This procedure was proven to improve the performances in term of stability, activity and selectivity of the enzymes. In addition, separation of product from the used enzyme was made easier and enzyme recyclability was possible. However, carrier-supported enzyme immobilization suffers from many disadvantages, such as large amounts of non-catalytic mass and expensive carrier beads. Thus, to overcome this problem, cross-linked enzyme aggregates (CLEA) has been since widely researched. It involves simple procedure and has many benefits; for example, this procedure does not need purified enzyme. The technique involves an initial precipitation of enzymes using, either organic solvents, salts, non-ionic polymers or acids to obtain aggregates. It is then followed by cross-linking the aggregates by polyfunctional reagents, such as glutaryldehyde, whereby the enzyme molecules react among themselves, leading to the formation of ‘solid biocatalyst’. This chapter aims at deliberating the CLEA technique for enzyme immobilization. Lipase extracted from cocoa pod husk (CPH), an agricultural waste product, has been chosen as the model enzyme, and upon immobilization, the biocatalyst is termed as CLEA-lipase. The production of CLEA-lipase was carried out under an optimum condition and this was followed by experimental comparison with the free-form, on the temperature and pH optima and stabilities. Additionally, recyclability of CLEA-lipase was also studied. Finally, the morphology of the solid biocatalyst, which has bearings towards its activity, was examined by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM)