Epidemiology and the agreement rate of serological tests in human brucellosis in North East of Iran

Background: Brucellosis still remains a major health problem with different symptoms and various diagnostic methods. Diagnostic methods of brucellosis are usually based on detecting specific antibodies in the patient’s serum. Nowadays, many serological tests are applied for the diagnosis of human brucellosis. Most routine tests are serum agglutination tests based on Wright and 2-Mercaptoethanol (2-ME). Objectives: The aim of this study (cross sectional study) was to evaluate the prevalence of brucellosis and assess the degree of agreement among serum samples of suspected brucellosis serological tests routinely performed in Mashhad, Iran. Patients and Methods: This study was conducted in Mashhad from August 2011 to September 2012. Sera (2 - 3 mL) were collected from 83 cases suspected of brucellosis among 594 patients. Ten serum samples were collected from healthy subjects as control sera. Rose Bengal test for initial screening and Wright and 2 ME as standard tests were conducted to determine antibody titers. Thereafter, IgG and IgM levels were determined by the Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) method. Results: Among 83 serum samples, Rose Bengal test was able to identify 20 (12%) positive specimens; the standard tube agglutination test was able to detect 30 (18%) positive samples, and the ELISA IgG and ELISA IgM were able to trace 42 (21%) and 13 (6.5%) positive samples, respectively. Ten control samples had negative results for the ELISA method. The results were calculated by the Kappa formula. The highest level of agreement was among 1 = KRB-SAT tests and the lowest level of agreement was among tests K ELISA IgM-IgG = 0.30. Conclusions: According to the results, brucellosis has remained endemic in this region. Most cases were detected by ELISA IgG. The highest kappa agreements were between tests KRB-SAT, KRB-IgG and KSAT-IgG, while the lowest levels of agreement were between tests SAT-IgM and ELISA IgM-IgG. Considering that ELISA IgM results are covered by SAT and ELISA IgG test results, applications of this test do not seem necessary. © 2015, Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center

Catheter intervention for abnormal pulmonary venous drainage

Transcatheter interventions for congenital heart anomalies are constantly improving. Although correction of anomalous pulmonary venous connection is routinely achieved through surgery, there are rare instances where the abnormal pulmonary vein has dual connections to both left atrium and the major systemic veins. Under these circumstances catheter based treatment might become a feasible option. We report a case of dual supply vertical vein connected to left upper pulmonary vein and innominate vein which was successfully obstructed by an occluder device leading to improvements in patient's condition. © 2018 Egyptian Society of Cardiolog

Catheter intervention for abnormal pulmonary venous drainage

Transcatheter interventions for congenital heart anomalies are constantly improving. Although correction of anomalous pulmonary venous connection is routinely achieved through surgery, there are rare instances where the abnormal pulmonary vein has dual connections to both left atrium and the major systemic veins. Under these circumstances catheter based treatment might become a feasible option. We report a case of dual supply vertical vein connected to left upper pulmonary vein and innominate vein which was successfully obstructed by an occluder device leading to improvements in patient's condition. © 2018 Egyptian Society of Cardiolog

Coronary slow flow: Benign or ominous?

Objective: Coronary slow flow phenomenon has been arbitrarily defined as delayed coronary blood flow in the absence of obstructive coronary artery disease. The present study sought to investigate the clinical features, natural history, and outcomes of affected patients. Methods: In this prospective cross-sectional study, 217 consecutive patients who had undergone coronary angiography and showed features of coronary slow flow phenomenon were evaluated for demographic and coronary risk factor profile, as well as clinical outcomes, at baseline and following treatment. Results: The study population consisted of 165 (76) males and 52 (24) females. The mean age of patients was 52.6±10 years. Mean ejection fraction was 48.2±5.4, 39.3 had diabetes, 43.3 had hypertension, 49.8 was a cigarette smoker, 41.9 had dyslipidemia, and 15 had a familial history of cardiac disease. Forty-nine percent was detected to have abnormal hsCRP levels. The most prevalent presenting complaint was atypical chest pain. Fifty-four percent of patients had slow blood flow in all three vessels. Thirty-six people had undergone repeat coronary angiography in a follow-up period of 5-7 years due to persisting or worsening clinical symptoms, of whom 6 (16.6) showed significant coronary artery stenosis. Eight (22.2) had mild CAD, and the rest still showed coronary slow flow without significant stenosis. The most common complaint during follow-up and after initiation of medical therapy was nonanginal chest pain. Conclusion: Patients with coronary slow flow phenomenon are predisposed to atherosclerosis and obstructive coronary artery disease. Therefore, this pathology should not be considered as a totally benign condition. Primary and secondary cardiovasculature preventive measures should be constituted and seem worthwhile in this patient population. © Copyright 2015 by Turkish Society of Cardiology

In vitro Anti-adenovirus activity of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) peel extract

Background and aims: Human adenoviruses can cause a diversity of clinical diseases, but there is no antiviral therapy formally approved by adenovirus infections. Thus, antiviral agents derived from medicinal plants which are effective against adenoviruses infections are urgently required. Therefore, this research was aimed to evaluate in vitro antiadenovirus activity of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) peel extract. Methods: In this research, crude ethanol extract of pomegranate peel was prepared. Anti-adenovirus activity of the extract was evaluated on Hela cell line using MTT (3-4,5-dimethylthiazol–2-yl-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay. The 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) and 50% Cytotoxicity Concentration (CC50) of the extract were determined using regression analysis. To determine antioxidant activity, total phenol content, and flavonoids content of the extract, the 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay; Folin-Ciocalteu method and aluminum chloride colorimetric method was used, respectively. Results: The CC50 and IC50 of the extract were 165±10.1 and 18.6±6.7µg/ml, respectively. The selectivity index (SI), the ratio of CC50 and IC50, was 8.89. The IC50 of DPPH radical was 7.7±1.21 μg/ml, compare with butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), with IC50 of 25.41±1.89 μg/ml. The total phenol and Flavonoid contents were 282.9 mgGAE/g and 136.6mg/g, respectively. This study revealed that the pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) Conclusion: peel extract exhibited Anti-adenovirus activity, with SI value of 8.9, suggesting its potential use as Anti-adenovirus agents. Also this extract with high phytoconstituents could be a promising source of medicinally important natural compound

Apodization Defocused Optical Imaging System with Different Apertures using Hanning Amplitude Filter

The Optical system performance is characterized by the modulus and the phase of the amplitude impulse response (point spread function). An optical system with a nonuniform amplitude across its pupil called an apodized system. The motivation of apodizing a system is to increase the image quality of the system. In this paper, the influence of Hanning amplitude filters on the intensity of incoherent optical systems has been analyzed. A general expression for the PSF in the case of different square size pupil apertures (half diagonal=........

The massless currentless Dirac equation in 2 + 2 dimensions.

This thesis is concerned with the massless Dirac equation in (2+2)-dimensional space-time. We start by presenting background material on spinors and the Dirac equation. Then we consider the modifications to the current which are necessary in 2 + 2 dimensions, and spinors which imply zero current density. Then we consider plane wave solutions and superposition of solutions. The action of the Lorentz group is considered, and we find solutions which are invariant to subgroup preserving the world line of a 'particle' solution. Then we find some more general solutions, together with the corresponding electromagnetic fields

Study on effect of extraction techniques and seed coat on proteomic distribution and cheese production from soybean milk

Soybean-based food products are a major source of protein. In the present study, proteins in soybean milk from seeds of the cultivar Bunya (Glycine max) were extracted using the cheesecloth and the centrifuge methods. The milk was produced through mechanical crushing of both whole and split seeds in water. Following separation by either the cheesecloth or centrifuge, proteins were isolated from the soybean milk by using thiourea/urea solubilisation and then separated them using two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The isolated proteins were identified by mass spectrometry. A total of 97 spots were identified including 49 that displayed different abundances. Of the two separation techniques, centrifuge separation gave higher protein extraction and more intense protein spots than cheesecloth separation. Eleven of the β-subunits of β-conglycinin, three of the α-subunits of β-conglycinin, and four of the mutant glycinin showed different levels of abundances between separation techniques, which might be related to subsequent cheese quality. Notably, split-seed soybean milk has less allergenic proteins with four α-subunits of β-conglycinin compared to whole-seed milk with eight of those proteins. The sensory evaluation showed that the cheese produced from split-soybean milk received higher consumer preferences compared to that of whole seed, which could be explained by their proteomic differences. The demonstrated reference map for whole and split-seed soybean milk could be further utilized in the research related to soybean cheesemaking