Changing trends of types of skin cancer in Iran

Background: Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer worldwide. It has an increasing trend. This study investigated the epidemiological trend and morphological changes in skin cancer in Iran. Materials and Methods: This study was done using existing data, extracted from the National Cancer Registry System and the Disease Management Center of Iranian Ministry of Health between 2003 and 2008. Data on epidemiologic trend was analyzed using Joinpoint software package. Results: The incidence of skin cancer is increasing in Iran, and more in men than women. There was a declining trend for basal cell carcinoma. Basal squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma had an increasing trend. The increase of skin cancer was related to squamous cell carcinoma. Conclusions: Our findings indicated that the increase of skin cancer was attributed to squamous cell carcinoma. It is necessary to be planning for the control and prevention of this disease as a priority for health policy makers

Risk assessment of drug management process in women surgery department of qaem educational hospital (QEH) using HFMEA method (2013)

Evaluation and improvement of drug management process are essential for patient safety. The present study was performed whit the aim of assessing risk of drug management process in Women Surgery Department of QEH using HFMEA method in 2013. A mixed method was used to analyze failure modes and their effects with HFMEA. To classify failure modes; nursing errors in clinical management model, for classifying factors affecting error; approved model by the UK National Health System, and for determining solutions for improvement; Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, were used. 48 failure modes were identified for 14 sub-process of five steps drug management process. The frequency of failure modes were as follow:35.3 in supplying step, 20.75 in prescription step, 10.4 in preparing step, 22.9 in distribution step and 10.35 in follow up and monitoring step. Seventeen failure modes (35.14) were considered as non-acceptable risk (hazard score� 8) and were transferred to decision tree. Among 51 Influencing factors, the most common reasons for error were related to environmental factors (21.5), and the less common reasons for error were related to patient factors (4.3). HFMEA is a useful tool to evaluating, prioritization and analyzing failure modes in drug management process. Revision drug management process based focus-PDCA, assessing adverse drug reactions (ADR), USE patient identification bracelet, holding periodical pharmaceutical conferences to improve personnel knowledge, patient contribution in drug therapy; are performance solutions which were placed in work order. © 2015 by School of Pharmac

Cloning of taxadiene synthase gene into Arabidopsis thaliana (ecotype Columbia-0)

Paclitaxel (Taxol), a complex diterpenoid, produced by yew tree (Taxus sp.) is the most important chemotherapeutic agent that is widely used against a variety of malignancies such as ovarian and breast cancers. However, destructive methods for its production from natural resources together with currently used low-yielding industrial production systems via total synthesis or semi-synthesis have led researchers to invent a robust alternative biological production system using biotechnological approaches. The first committed step in taxol biosynthesis pathway is the  production of taxadiene from geranylgeranyl diphosphate (GGPP) catalyzed by the plastid-localized enzyme taxadiene synthase (TXS). In this research, an attempt was made to evaluate the effects of the first critical enzyme in thetaxol biosynthesis pathway on Arabidopsis plant through the expression of taxadiene synthase gene under the control of a dexamethasone-inducible promoter. To achieve this goal, Arabidopsis plants (ecotype Columbia-0) were transformed with the construct pTA-TXS-His via floral dip method using Agrobacterium tumefaciens AGL1. The transformed plants were confirmed using the PCR reaction amplifying an 800 bp fragment of the cloned gene. Upon these findings, a proposal was made that biotechnological strategies could be utilized for the production of taxol components

Investigating the trend and severity of withdrawal symptoms in Methamphetamine users amongst homeless addicts

Background: Determining the trend and severity of withdrawal symptoms is considered as the first stage of addiction treatment. Objectives: Therefore, The purpose of this study was to investigate the trend and severity of withdrawal symptoms in methamphetamine (meth) addicts. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on all the clients admitted to quit methamphetamine abuse in a residential treatment center for homeless addicts in Alborz province. According to the average daily intake, the clients were divided into two groups: mild and severe. To collect the data for this study; methamphetamine withdrawal symptoms assessment scale, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and a demographic information questionnaire were used. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was done for repeated measures through the SPSS software version 16 and at a significance level of 0.05. Results: The findings showed that methamphetamine withdrawal symptoms including anxiety, abuse craving, and fatigue in the first 24 hours and the first, the second, and the third weeks as well as the symptoms of depression within three weeks after the withdrawal began to decline significantly (P < 0.0001). Following the analysis of variance (ANOVA) for repeated data and taking addiction severity index into account, it was observed that the difference between the two groups of mild and severe addicts was significant in terms of the trend and severity of methamphetamine withdrawal symptoms (P < 0.0001). Conclusions: The hardest stage to quit methamphetamine addiction was the first 24 hours after withdrawal with a downward trend; however, abuse craving especially in severe addicted group persisted even after the third week of withdrawal which could be a risk factor for recurrence and re-abuse. Thus, it was suggested that therapists were required to pay more attention to this issue in the treatment of this group of addicted individuals. © 2018, International Journal of High Risk Behaviors and Addiction

Survival rate in patients with ICU-acquired infections and its related factors in Iran�s hospitals

Background: Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are a well-known cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. This study aimed at investigating the survival rate in patients with ICU-acquired infections (ICU-AIs) and its related factors in Iran�s hospitals. Methods: Data were obtained from the Iranian Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (INIS), which registers all necessary information on the main types of infection from different units of each included hospital. One thousand one hundred thirty-four duplicate cases were removed from the analysis using the variables of name, father�s name, age, hospital code, infection code, and bedridden date. From 2016 to 2019, 32,998 patients diagnosed with ICU-AI from about 547 hospitals. All patients were followed up to February 29, 2020. Results: The median age of patients with ICU-AIs was 61 (IQR = 46) years. 45.5, 20.69, 17.63, 12.08, and 4.09 of infections were observed in general, surgical, internal, neonatal and pediatric ICUs, respectively. Acinetobacter (16.52), E.coli (12.01), and Klebsiella (9.93) were the major types of microorganisms. From total, 40.76 of infected patients (13,449 patients) died. The 1, 3, 6-months and overall survival rate was 70, 25.72, 8.21 1.48 in ICU-AI patients, respectively. The overall survival rate was 5.12, 1.34, 0.0, 51.65, and 31.08 for surgical, general, internal, neonatal and pediatric ICU, respectively. Hazard ratio shows a significant relationship between age, hospitalization-infection length, infection type, and microorganism and risk of death in patients with ICU-AI. Conclusions: Based on the results, it seems that the nosocomial infections surveillance system should be more intelligent. This intelligence should act differently based on related factors such as the age of patients, hospitalization-infection length, infection type, microorganism and type of ward. In other words, this system should be able to dynamically provide the necessary and timely warnings based on the factors affecting the survival rate of infection due to the identification, intervention and measures to prevent the spread of HAIs based on a risk severity system. © 2021, The Author(s)

Associations of antidepressants and antipsychotics with lipid parameters: Do CYP2C19/CYP2D6 genes play a role? A UK population-based study

Background: Dyslipidaemia is an important cardiovascular risk factor for people with severe mental illness, contributing to premature mortality. The link between antipsychotics and dyslipidaemia is well established, while evidence on antidepressants is mixed. Aims: To investigate if antidepressant/antipsychotic use was associated with lipid parameters in UK Biobank participants and if CYP2C19 and CYP2D6 genetic variation plays a role. Methods: Review of self-reported prescription medications identified participants taking antidepressants/antipsychotics. Total, low-, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (L/HDL-C) and triglycerides derived from blood samples. CYP2C19 and CYP2D6 metabolic phenotypes were assigned from genetic data. Linear regression investigated aims, adjusted for key covariates. Results: Of 469,739 participants, 36,043 took antidepressants (53% female, median age 58, 17% taking cholesterol-lowering medications) and 3255 took antipsychotics (58% female, median age 57, 27% taking cholesterol-lowering medications). Significant associations were found between use of each amitriptyline, fluoxetine, citalopram/escitalopram, sertraline, paroxetine and venlafaxine with higher total cholesterol, LDL-C, and triglycerides and lower HDL-C, compared to participants not taking each medication. Venlafaxine was associated with the worst lipid profile (total cholesterol, adjusted mean difference: 0.21 mmol/L, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.17 to 0.26, p < 0.001). Antipsychotic use was significantly associated with lower HDL-C and higher triglycerides. In participants taking sertraline, CYP2C19 intermediate metabolisers had higher HDL-C (0.05 mmol/L, 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.09, p = 0.007) and lower triglycerides (−0.17 mmol/L, 95% CI: −0.29 to −0.05, p = 0.007), compared to normal metabolisers. Conclusions: Antidepressants were significantly associated with adverse lipid profiles, potentially warranting baseline and regular monitoring. Further research should investigate the mechanistic pathways underlying the protective effects of the CYP2C19 intermediate metaboliser phenotype on HDL-C and triglycerides in people taking sertraline

The effect of LINC01296 expression in patients with cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Recently has been suggested that LINC01296 has an important role in tumor-promoting in different malignancies. We performed first meta-analysis to assess the association between the LINC01296 expression and clinicopathological criteria and the survival of patients with cancers. Methods: Relevant articles Identified by PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Scopus searching between December 2000 and 28 December 2018. Binomial data were evaluated by the odds ratio (OR) as the rapid statistic. The association between overall survival (OS) and the LINC01296 expression was evaluated using pooling the hazard ratio (HR) with its corresponding 95 confidence interval (CI). Results: Finally, 9 studies with 720 patients with cancer were included. The expression of LINC01296 showed a significant positive association with TNM stage (OR = 2.67, 95 CI = 1.83-3.88), tumor stage (OR= 2.22, 95 CI= 1.34-3.66) and lymph node metastasis (OR = 3.07, 95 CI = 2.23-4.21). A shorter OS was significantly associated with the expression of LINC01296 (HR = 3.95, 95 CI = 2.65-5.25) and lymph node metastasis (HR = 2.39, 95 CI =1.16-3.63). The OS did not show significant association with gender (HR = 0.83, 95 CI =-0.63-2.30) and tumor stage (HR= 2.66, 95 CI=-0.22-5.54). Conclusion: In conclusion, the results of this meta-analysis suggest that the expression of LINC01296 might be considered as a potential biomarker in patients with cancer. © 2020 Asian Pacific Organization for Cancer Prevention

BVVL/ FL: features caused by SLC52A3 mutations; WDFY4 and TNFSF13B may be novel causative genes

Brown-Vialetto-Van Laere (BVVL) and Fazio-Londe are disorders with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-like features, usually with recessive inheritance. We aimed to identify causative mutations in 10 probands. Neurological examinations, genetic analysis, audiometry, magnetic resonance imaging, biochemical and immunological testings, and/or muscle histopathology were performed. Mutations in known causative gene SLC52A3 were found in 7 probands. More importantly, only 1 mutated allele was observed in several patients, and variable expressivity and incomplete penetrance were clearly noted. Environmental insults may contribute to variable presentations. Putative causative mutations in other genes were identified in 3 probands. Two of the genes, WDFY4 and TNFSF13B, have immune-related functions. Inflammatory responses were implicated in the patient with the WDFY4 mutation. Malfunction of the immune system and mitochondrial anomalies were shown in the patient with the TNFSF13B mutation. Prevalence of heterozygous SLC52A3 BVVL causative mutations and notable variability in expressivity of homozygous and heterozygous genotypes are being reported for the first time. Identification of WDFY4 and TNFSF13B as candidate causative genes supports conjectures on involvement of the immune system in BVVL and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis