Arsenic compounds toxicity

Arsenic compounds toxicity have been reported of many parts of the world. Those are one of global clinical problems that affect all body organs and many cases of death every year. Arsenic compounds exist in environment and human body as form of inorganic and organic arsenic. Inorganic arsenic includes arsenite (As III) and arsenate (As V). The inorganic arsenics can be methylated to form monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) in vivo. Aasenic, especially inorganic arsenic is well absorbed (80-90) from the gastrointestinal tract, distributed in the body, often metabolized by methylation, and then primarily excreted into urine. Methylation of inorganic arsenic compounds is considered as a detoxification process. Arsenic compounds cause to DNA damage, lipid peroxidation, and decreased antioxidant defense levels. The wide human exposure to arsenic compound especial inorganic arsenic in different sources throughout the world causes great concern for human health. Long term exposure to arsenic can lead to cancer of skin and internal organs eg., the liver, lung, kidney and bladder, also high mortality rate. The noncancerous effects of ingesting arsenic include clinical manifestation in gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, pulmonary, immunological, neurological systems, endocrine glands (e.g. diabetes) and skin. There are some laboratories tests available to diagnose poisoning can measure arsenic in blood, urine, hair, and fingernails. The urine test is the most reliable for detecting arsenic exposure. Arsenic toxicity can be life threating and necessitates supportive therapy (administration crystalloid fluids, inotropic drugs and treatment of cardiac dysrhythemias), decontamination (GI tract irrigation & use activated charcoal in some patients), chelating agents that should be initiated as soon as in arsenic toxicity. These chelating agents include: BAL (British anti lewisite, dimercaprol), 2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA. Succimer), dimercaptopropane sulfoxid acid (DMPS), and also, long term follow-up of these patients. This review article offer to ascertain: a) find out contamination areas that exposure to arsenic to the people by water, food, soil and air; b) common diseases of arsenic poisoning in human; c) education level, awareness and treatment of contaminated people

An update on lead poisoning

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Lead poisoning have been reported from many parts of the world. They are one of global clinical problem that effect all body organs and many deaths every year. This review was done to survey toxicological aspects of lead compounds METHODS: The data bank used in this study is web of science, scopus, pubmed, pubmed central, SID. The keywords are Alzheimer�s Disease, medical plants, acetylcholine, antioxidant. FINDINGS: Metallic lead is used industrial, organic lead eg., tetraethyl and tetramethyl lead in gasoline additives to prevent engine knock, and inorganic lead salts combined with other elements. Majority of absorptive lead through the respiratory and gastrointestinal systems. Lead compounds can lead to clinical manifestation in neurologic system, hematopoietic, kidneys, cardiovascular, reproduction, bones. There are tests available to diagnose poisoning by measuring lead in blood, urine, hair and fingernails. Patients of lead toxicity need to decontamination (GI tract irrigation), supportive cares, use traditional and new chelating agents to combination therapy, also antioxidants, vitamins, and nanoparticle. CONCLUSION: Based on the survey, it is recommended to detect contaminated areas and consider an educational plan for the exposed people to prevention of lead poisoning. © 2015, Babol University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

A new 2D-based method for carotid intima-media thickness quantification from ultrasound sequences

Background: Ultrasound measurement of carotid Intima-Media Thickness (IMT) is a suitable method to evaluate subclinical arteriosclerosis. Objectives: The current study aimed to present a new computerized algorithm to detect instantaneous changes of the IMT to Common Carotid Artery (CCA) of IMT in sequential ultrasound images by applying the maximum gradient and the dynamic programming. Patients and Methods: In a cross-sectional design, an examination was performed on thirty healthy human subjects with the mean age of 44 ± 6 years from April 2013 to June 2013 in Beheshti Hospital, Kashan, Iran. In all individuals, the instantaneous changes of the far wall IMT on the CCA were extracted. Local measurements of vessel intensity, intensity gradient, and boundary continuity were extracted for all of the sequential ultrasonic 2D-frames throughout three cardiac cycles. The Pearson correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman analysis were performed to assess the relationship and agreement between IMT measured by the proposed and conventional manual methods. Results: There was no significant difference between the proposed and manual methods with paired t-test analysis (in systole: 0.57 ± 0.10 vs. 0.56 ± 0.10 mm; P = 0.188 and in diastole: 0.63 ± 0.16 vs. 0.62 ± 0.10 mm; P = 0.122 for the manual and proposed methods, respectively). The Pearson correlation coefficients were r = 0.94 and r = 0.93 for IMTs and IMTd, respectively (both P < 0.001). Limit of agreements were narrow and considerable agreement was found between the two methods. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that the proposed computerized analyzing method can provide accurate measurements of the IMT of the CCA in sequential 2D ultrasonic images. © 2015, Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal