A comparative study of injection placentrex and conventional therapy in treatment of pelvic inflammatory disease

To compare the effect of placentrex injection given along with conventional therapy, with conventional treatment alone on the symptoms and signs of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) ie, abdominal pain, dysmenorrhoea and adnexal tenderness, 50 out of 100 women with PID were randomly assigned to receive intramuscular placentrex injection along with two-week conventional therapy and 50 received conventional treatment only. Abdominal pain, dysmenorrhoea and adnexal tenderness were evaluated at the end of 2 months. There was marked reduction in the sign of adnexal tenderness in the placentrex group as compared to conventional treatment group (p < 0.001). Subjective symptoms of lower abdominal pain and dysmenorrhoea were also relieved better in placentrex group (p < 0.01 and 0.05 respectively). This study showed significant and persistent improvement of signs and symptoms of PID in women who received injection placentrex.     

Antibiofilm effect of green engineered silver nanoparticles fabricated from Artemisia scoporia extract on the expression of icaA and icaR genes against multidrug‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are at the forefront of the swiftly developing scope of nanotechnology. In the current study, we investigated the green synthesis of AgNPs using Artemisia scoporia as a reducing and capping agent. The biosynthesized AgNPs were characterized using ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, Fourier‐Transform infrared spectroscopy, dispersive absorption spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The efficacy of the nanoparticle synthesis was assessed by comparing the antibiofilm activity with commercial AgNPs. The effect of sub‐minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of AgNPs on biofilm formation was determined by microtiter plate assay. The expression level of the icaA and icaR genes was assessed by real‐time polymerase chain reaction assay. The structural and functional aspects of AgNPs were confirmed. The expression levels of icaA and icaR in the isolates exposed to sub‐MIC of both commercial and biosynthetic AgNPs were lower and higher than in the control group, respectively. Our results also indicated that greater reduction and induction in icaA and icaR gene expression were noticed with the sub‐MIC doses of biosynthetic AgNP versus commercial AgNP, respectively. This study suggested the application of AgNPs as a significant therapeutic and clinical option in the future and usage for fabricating medical implants. Nevertheless, further investigation is required for examining the pharmaceutical and medicinal properties of AgNPs.     

Wheat anaphylaxis in children

Food anaphylaxis is now the leading known cause of anaphylactic reactions treated in emergency departments, and wheat is one of the most common causes of anaphylaxis. Wheat is an important source of food worldwide. Wheat anaphylaxis is increasingly observed in our clinic. The purpose of this study was to describe the clinical features of wheat-induced anaphylaxis in 19 children for better elucidation of this disease. Children with severe reactions after ingestion of small amounts of wheat were referred to our clinic during a 4-year period. A detailed clinical history was recorded for each of the patients and a skin prick test was performed with wheat allergen extracts. The wheat-specific IgE and total IgE were measured. Grading of anaphylaxis episodes was performed according to a specific grading system. We identified 36 episodes of wheat anaphylaxis in 19 patients. All of the first attacks of wheat anaphylaxis occurred in the first-time ingestion. The most frequent manifestations of the reactions were skin and respiratory symptoms. In this study 78.9% of reactions were moderate and 21.1% of them were severe. All of our patients had positive skin prick tests to wheat. Mean total IgE level was 853.4 ± 455.27 IU/ml, and mean wheat-specific IgE was 70 ± 14.61 Ucs/ml. We conclude that wheat-induced anaphylaxis is a disease that is sufficiently severe, and. prevention of first wheat-induced anaphylaxis episodes is almost impossible. It would, however, probably be good practice to educate physicians to recognize the common clinical manifestations of this disease for early management.     

Breast cancer treatment and survival differences in women in remote and socioeconomically disadvantaged areas,as demonstrated by linked data from New South Wales (NSW), Australia

Breast Cancer Research and Treatment - Different tumor-related factors have been proposed to assess the risk of disease progression and death in women undergoing neoadjuvant breast cancer...     

Cardiac,Hepatic and Renal Dysfunction and IL-18 Polymorphism in Breast,Colorectal, and Prostate Cancer Patients

Introduction: The present study aimed to determine the alterations in the serum levels of tumor markers used to evaluate cardiac, renal and liver function, and detect the interleukin (IL)-18 rs1946518 polymorphism in breast (BC), colorectal (CRC) and prostate cancer (PCa) patients. Methods: Blood samples were collected from 65 female BC, 116 CRC, 79 PCa and 88 myocardial infarction (MI) patients, and 110 healthy individuals to determine the concentration of tumor and cardiac markers. Furthermore, the IL-18 rs1946518 polymorphism was assessed using amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS)-PCR. Results: The serum levels of the tumor markers cancer antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3), carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and total prostate-specific antigen (TPSA) were significantly increased in cancer patients compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, the activity of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) and creatine kinase‑myocardial band (CK-MB) was enhanced in MI patients, however, their activity was unchanged in cancer patients. The activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and the serum concentration of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and urea were markedly elevated in CRC and PCa patients, respectively, compared with the control group. Although, no significant differences were observed in the -607 C/A polymorphism and allele frequency of IL-18 among BC, CRC patients and healthy individuals, the odds ratio (OR) was 1.75 for both C and A allele in BC patients. Therefore, the -607 C/A polymorphism could be considered as a risk factor for BC. Conclusion: The aforementioned results suggested that tumor markers could be considered as excellent biomarkers for the early detection of BC, CRC and PCa, whereas the concentration of liver enzymes could serve as an alternative indicator for the diagnosis of CRC and PCa. Additionally, the rs1946518 polymorphism in the IL-18 gene could be considered as a risk factor for the occurrence of BC, CRC and PCa.