Fontanel Size from Birth to 24 Months of Age in Iranian Children

How to Cite This Article: Esmaeili Mo, Esmaeili Ma, Ghane Sharbaf F, Bokharaie Sh. Fontanel Size from Birth to 24 Months of Age in Iranian Children. Iran J Child Neurol. Autumn 2015;9(4):15-23.AbstractObjectiveDiagnosis of abnormal fontanel size, a potential clue to recognition of different disorders, requires an understanding of the wide variation of normal fontanel size. The anterior fontanel is the largest, prominent and most important for clinical evaluation. The aim of this study was to establish and define normal range of fontanel size from birth to 24 months of age in healthy Iranian children that might be generalized to other populations.Materials & MethodsTotally, 550 subjects enrolled randomly in this cross sectional study. They were apparently normal healthy children, from birth to 24 months of age, including 208-term newborn and 342 infant from birth to 2 yr old. Fontanel size was measured and recorded as the mean of the length (anterior- posterior dimension) and width (transverse dimension). Mean anterior fontanel sizes in our samples were classified for periods of 3 months. Nomograms and statistical analyses were performed and depicted by Excel Microsoft Office 2007 and two-tailed t-test respectively.ResultsThe mean ±2SD of anterior fontanel size was 2.55±1.92 cm in newborns, 3.37±2.48 (largest size) in 3 months of age. It was closed in all cases in 15-18 months of age. The mean posterior fontanel size was 0.8 cm in newborns and closed in all infants in 2 months of age. There was no significant difference in anterior fontanel size between two genders except in newborn and 6-9 months old (P>0.05).ConclusionAbnormal fontanel can indicate a serious medical condition. Therefore, it is important to understand normal variations, to utilize standardized techniques for measurement and appropriate standards of normal range in different age groups and populations. This study provides a normal range of mean fontanel size in Iranian infants as a local reference. It might be generalized to other populations.

Wound healing Benefits of Curcumin for Perineal Repair after Episiotomy: Results of an Iranian Randomized Controlled Trial

Pain and discomfort related to episiotomy have been reported to interfere with women's daily activities postpartum, such as sitting, walking and lifting the baby. To compare the effects of curcumin and Povidone-iodine solutions for episiotomy healing in primiparous women. 120 healthy primiparous women with a vaginal delivery at term were evaluated in this double-blind randomized clinical trial. Randomization was done using a table of random list numbers. Perineal healing was evaluated by research midwives blinded to random allocation at 24-48 hours and 10 days postpartum. Pain was assessed via a visual analogue scale and wound healing via the REEDA scale. Analysis was done on the intention-to-treat principle. The main outcome measure was the changes in wound healing between the two groups as measured by the REEDA Scale. Secondary outcome measures were perineal pain and wound healing 24-48 hours and 10 days after delivery. There was a greater decrease in the total scores of the REEDA in the curcumin group than in the Povidone-iodine (P < 0.001), however; there weren't significant differences between the groups on the VAS scores. The application of curcumin may assist in the episiotomy healing process and could be suitable replacement for Povidone-iodine. Esmaeili Vardanjani SA, Sehati Shafai F, Mohebi P, Deyhimi M, Delazar A, Ghojazadeh M, Malekpour M. Wound healing Benefits of Curcumin for Perineal Repair after Episiotomy: Results of an Iranian Randomized Controlled Trial. Life Sci J 2012;9(4):5536-5541] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 82

The global burden of cancer attributable to risk factors, 2010-19 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background Understanding the magnitude of cancer burden attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors is crucial for development of effective prevention and mitigation strategies. We analysed results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 to inform cancer control planning efforts globally. Methods The GBD 2019 comparative risk assessment framework was used to estimate cancer burden attributable to behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risk factors. A total of 82 risk-outcome pairs were included on the basis of the World Cancer Research Fund criteria. Estimated cancer deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) in 2019 and change in these measures between 2010 and 2019 are presented. Findings Globally, in 2019, the risk factors included in this analysis accounted for 4.45 million (95% uncertainty interval 4.01-4.94) deaths and 105 million (95.0-116) DALYs for both sexes combined, representing 44.4% (41.3-48.4) of all cancer deaths and 42.0% (39.1-45.6) of all DALYs. There were 2.88 million (2.60-3.18) risk-attributable cancer deaths in males (50.6% [47.8-54.1] of all male cancer deaths) and 1.58 million (1.36-1.84) risk-attributable cancer deaths in females (36.3% [32.5-41.3] of all female cancer deaths). The leading risk factors at the most detailed level globally for risk-attributable cancer deaths and DALYs in 2019 for both sexes combined were smoking, followed by alcohol use and high BMI. Risk-attributable cancer burden varied by world region and Socio-demographic Index (SDI), with smoking, unsafe sex, and alcohol use being the three leading risk factors for risk-attributable cancer DALYs in low SDI locations in 2019, whereas DALYs in high SDI locations mirrored the top three global risk factor rankings. From 2010 to 2019, global risk-attributable cancer deaths increased by 20.4% (12.6-28.4) and DALYs by 16.8% (8.8-25.0), with the greatest percentage increase in metabolic risks (34.7% [27.9-42.8] and 33.3% [25.8-42.0]). Interpretation The leading risk factors contributing to global cancer burden in 2019 were behavioural, whereas metabolic risk factors saw the largest increases between 2010 and 2019. Reducing exposure to these modifiable risk factors would decrease cancer mortality and DALY rates worldwide, and policies should be tailored appropriately to local cancer risk factor burden. Copyright (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.Peer reviewe

Biological activities and chemical composition of solvent extracts of Stoechospermum marginatum (C. Agardh)

The objective of this study was to evaluate the chemical composition CH3OH-CH2Cl2 (1:1) extract and biological activities of various extracts derived from the aerial parts of the brown marine alga Stoechospermum marginatum (C. Agardh). Gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) were used to analyze the composition of the essential oil. Total phenolics assay demonstrated a high value in hexane extract (HE), with a lower value for chloroform extract (CE), and the lowest value for methanol extract (ME). DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) assay showed that extracts of S. marginatum possess radical scavenging activity (RSA). Tests of the antioxidant property of the extracts revealed both electron and hydrogen transfer mechanisms. The antibacterial activity of the ME, CE, and HE as well as an ethanol extract was estimated against seven Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The ethanol extract showed the highest antibacterial activity, and the HE showed the lowest

Head circumference in Iranian infants

Introduction: Head circumference (HC) measurement is one of the important parameter for diagnosis of neurological, developmental disorders and dysmorphic syndromes. Recognition of different disorders requires an understanding of normal variation for HC size, in particular, in infancy period with most rapid growth of the brain. Because of international and interracial standard chart differences about anthropometric indices, some differences from local to local, generation to generation and changes in ethnic mix of population and socioeconomic factors, periodic revolution of HC size is suggested. The aims of our study were presenting local HC standard for an Iranian infant population and comparison with the American national center of health statistics (NCHS) charts accepted by WHO. Methods: 1003 subjects aged from birth to 24 months apparently healthy normal children enrolled randomly in this cross sectional study. HC size were measured and recorded. Tables and graphs were depicted by Excel Microsoft Office 2007. We use two tailed t-student test for statistical analysis. Results: The mean of HC size in boys was larger than girls. The curves were followed a similar pattern to NCHS based on a visual comparison. Overall our subjects in both sexes at birth time had smaller HC size than NCHS. In other ages our children had larger HC size than those of NCHS. Conclusion: Because of international and interracial difference of HC size. We recommend in each area of the world, local anthropometric indices are constructed and used clinically. In addition more extensive and longitudinally design comprehensive studies is suggested

Assessment of the Kidney Size in Newborns

Introduction: Ultrasonographic assessment of the kidney size in newborns is essential to the diagnosis of renal diseases during the neonatal period. According to the literature, altered renal dimensions may lead to changes in the kidney echotexture in certain renal pathologies. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the renal dimensions in premature and term neonates.Methods: This systematic review was conducted to identify the English articles on the renal dimensions of children and premature/term neonates via searching in databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus. In total, 74 studies were retrieved from the electronic databases. After reviewing the titles and abstracts, 10 articles that were in line with the study objectives were selected in full text and evaluated.Result: The studies on the renal dimensions of newborns had been performed on various populations. Some studies had compared kidney diameters with the body weight and length of the neonates within the first days of birth, while some others had compared the gestational age of neonates with their kidney size. However, no conclusive results were proposed. In addition, several studies were found on kidney size during the fetal period and childhood, while limited investigation was available regarding the neonatal period. In the present study, we analyzed the correlations between the renal dimensions of neonates and their gestational age, length, weight, and body surface area by reviewing the current literature.Conclusion: Although renal volume is considered to be the most precise index of the kidney size, renal length is evidently the most practical indicator of renal dimensions, which is correlated with the anthropometric indices and gestational age of neonates

Alpha- 1 Antitrypsin Deficiency in Children: Pulmonary Involvement

Introduction: α1-antitrypsin deficiency (α1-ATD) is one of the most common genetic disorders in white race, a usual cause of liver disease in children, and hepatopulmonary involvement in children and adult. The aim of this case description is presenting a child with early lung disease without liver parenchymal disorder. Case presentation: We describe a 13 year old boy because of exertional dyspnea, wheezing, productive cough and repeated hospital admission due to bronchopneumonia. There was no immune deficiency, sinusitis and allergic lung disease. There was no history of foreign body aspiration. Cystic fibrosis cause ruled out. Protein electrophoresis and serum level α1-AT evaluation documented α1-ATD. The patient was treated with conservative management. Conclusion: This article suggests that if a child presents with chronic pulmonary symptoms, possibility of α1-ATD should be considered and worked up

The Effect of Iron on Malignant Lymphoblastic Cells Survival and Its Mechanism

Background and Objectives:Anemia is a common complication of chemotherapy. In order to resolve this problem, multiple red blood cell transfusions are administered, leading to iron overload. Given the confirmation of positive correlation between the increased bone marrow iron stores and adverse response to the treatment in the previous study, the effect of iron on the proliferation of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cell lines cell lines and its underlying mechanism were investigated in the current study.   Methods:Nalm6 and CCRF-CEM cell lines were selected as representatives of B-ALL and T-ALL Immunophenotypes and were treated with different concentrations of holo-transferrin (1 - 120 µM) and ferric ammonium citrate (FAC) (400 - 25000 µM). The cellular iron uptake was confirmed by AAS test. The cell proliferation and levels of intracellular free radicals (ROS), were evaluated by MTT and flow cytometry, respectively. Statistical analysis was performed using GraphPad prism software by one-way ANOVA test.   Results: The effect of holo-transferrinon cell proliferation was not significant. However, FAC enhanced the proliferation rate of both ALL cell lines over 50%. Evidence showed that iron induced intracellular ROS, so that FAC in the concentration of 400 µM may induce the intracellular ROS over 50% (55.27 6 6.36% vs. 100%, p < 0.001).   Conclusion: Iron can support these cancerous cells by inducing ROS and augmenting leukemic cell proliferation. Therefore, the present study suggests that the volume of the injected blood in ALL patients should be minimized to prevent iron overloa

Generative Adversarial Networks for Anomaly Detection in Biomedical Imaging: A Study on Seven Medical Image Datasets

Anomaly detection (AD) is a challenging problem in computer vision. Particularly in the field of medical imaging, AD poses even more challenges due to a number of reasons, including insufficient availability of ground truth (annotated) data. In recent years, AD models based on generative adversarial networks (GANs) have made significant progress. However, their effectiveness in biomedical imaging remains underexplored. In this paper, we present an overview of using GANs for AD, as well as an investigation of state-of-the-art GAN-based AD methods for biomedical imaging and the challenges encountered in detail. We have also specifically investigated the advantages and limitations of AD methods on medical image datasets, conducting experiments using 3 AD methods on 7 medical imaging datasets from different modalities and organs/tissues. Given the highly different findings achieved across these experiments, we further analyzed the results from both data-centric and model-centric points of view. The results showed that none of the methods had a reliable performance for detecting abnormalities in medical images. Factors such as the number of training samples, the subtlety of the anomaly, and the dispersion of the anomaly in the images are among the phenomena that highly impact the performance of the AD models. The obtained results were highly variable (AUC: 0.475-0.991; Sensitivity: 0.17-0.98; Specificity: 0.14-0.97). In addition, we provide recommendations for the deployment of AD models in medical imaging and foresee important research directions