Original article title: "Comparison of therapeutic efficacy of topical corticosteroid and oral zinc sulfate-topical corticosteroid combination in the treatment of vitiligo patients: a clinical trial"

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Vitiligo is the most prevalent pigmentary disorder which occurs worldwide, with an incidence rate between 0.1-4 percent. It is anticipated that the discovery of biological pathways of vitiligo pathogenesis will provide novel therapeutic and prophylactic targets for future approaches to the treatment and prevention of vitiligo. The purposes of this study were evaluating the efficacy of supplemental zinc on the treatment of vitiligo.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This randomized clinical trial was conducted for a period of one year. Thirty five patients among 86 participants were eligible to entrance to the study. The patients in two equal randomized groups took topical corticosteroid and combination of oral zinc sulfate-topical corticosteroid.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean of responses in the corticosteroid group and the zinc sulfate-corticosteroid combination group were 21.43% and 24.7%, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Although, the response to corticosteroid plus zinc sulfate was more than corticosteroid, there was no statistically significant difference between them. It appeared that more robust long-term randomized controlled trials on more patients, maybe with higher doses of zinc sulfate, are needed to fully establish the efficacy of oral zinc in management of vitiligo.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>chiCTRTRC10000930</p

Cancer Biomarker Discovery: The Entropic Hallmark

Background: It is a commonly accepted belief that cancer cells modify their transcriptional state during the progression of the disease. We propose that the progression of cancer cells towards malignant phenotypes can be efficiently tracked using high-throughput technologies that follow the gradual changes observed in the gene expression profiles by employing Shannon's mathematical theory of communication. Methods based on Information Theory can then quantify the divergence of cancer cells' transcriptional profiles from those of normally appearing cells of the originating tissues. The relevance of the proposed methods can be evaluated using microarray datasets available in the public domain but the method is in principle applicable to other high-throughput methods. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using melanoma and prostate cancer datasets we illustrate how it is possible to employ Shannon Entropy and the Jensen-Shannon divergence to trace the transcriptional changes progression of the disease. We establish how the variations of these two measures correlate with established biomarkers of cancer progression. The Information Theory measures allow us to identify novel biomarkers for both progressive and relatively more sudden transcriptional changes leading to malignant phenotypes. At the same time, the methodology was able to validate a large number of genes and processes that seem to be implicated in the progression of melanoma and prostate cancer. Conclusions/Significance: We thus present a quantitative guiding rule, a new unifying hallmark of cancer: the cancer cell's transcriptome changes lead to measurable observed transitions of Normalized Shannon Entropy values (as measured by high-throughput technologies). At the same time, tumor cells increment their divergence from the normal tissue profile increasing their disorder via creation of states that we might not directly measure. This unifying hallmark allows, via the the Jensen-Shannon divergence, to identify the arrow of time of the processes from the gene expression profiles, and helps to map the phenotypical and molecular hallmarks of specific cancer subtypes. The deep mathematical basis of the approach allows us to suggest that this principle is, hopefully, of general applicability for other diseases

Prevalence and risk factors of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis: a brief report

Background: Low bone mass is a serious health problem mostly seen in postmeno-pausal women with rheumatoid arthritis. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of osteoporosis and some related risk factors in postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis.Methods: The data for this descriptive analytical study was extracted from the medical records of 98 postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis who had attended the 5th of Azar Teaching Hospital affiliated to Gorgan University of Medical Sciences, in Iran, in 2009.Results: The mean durations of menopause and rheumatoid arthritis were 9.39 and 5.13 years, respectively. The overall prevalence of osteoporosis was 13.3%. We found a significant correlation between age, disease duration, and duration of menopause with bone mineral density (P<0.05).Conclusion: Our results indicate a high prevalence of osteoporosis at the lumbar spine of postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis

Waist Circumference, Weight, and Body Mass Index of Iranians Based on National Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factors Surveillance

Background: Obesity is an important and life-threatening disease, associated with different chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. We sought to address the paucity of information on the trends of anthropometric indices such as weight, waist circumference, and body mass index in the adult population of Iran. Methods: We drew upon data from the First Non-communicable Disease Survey in Iran in 2005. In total, 79,611 participants between 20 and 64 years old were selected via the random multistage cluster sampling. The Lambda Median Scale method was applied to construct normal curves for anthropometric indices.Results: The mean of waist circumference in both genders increased with age and in all the age groups except those between 20 and 24 years old was higher in the women. The mean of body mass index was higher in all the age brackets in the women, but the means of weight and height were higher in the men. The association of theses indices with diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia was stronger in men. Conclusion: The ranges of waist circumference and body mass index in Iranian population are different from those of other countries. The higher body mass index and waist circumference in females and the direct association between obesity and chronic diseases, is advisable that the effects of this phenomenon be fully investigated and due heed be paid to the importance of lifestyle modification