The efficacy of a 1-week triple therapy for eradication of Helicobacter pylori infection in children

Background and study aimsPoor compliance to therapy and antibiotic resistance are the main causes for failure of anti-Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) therapy. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of omeprazole-based triple therapy in Iranian children.Patients and methodsFifty-seven children with H. pylori-related gastroduodenal disease received 1-week triple therapy with a combination of omeprazole, amoxicillin and clarithromycin (according to the susceptibility test). Success of eradication was assessed by ¹³C-urea breath test and endoscopy.ResultsSixty-four patients (mean age 11.3 years; range 2.7–16 years) were included. Eradication was successful in 84.2% (95% confidence interval, 72.8% intention to treat).ConclusionOne-week triple therapy was effective for the eradication of H. pylori infection in children.     

Transition m.3308T>C in the ND1 gene is associated with left ventricular hypertrabeculation/noncompaction

Though left ventricular hypertrabeculation/noncompaction (LVNC) is frequently associated with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations, it has not been reported in association with the transition m.3308T>C of the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 (ND1) gene. The index patient is a 16-year-old Tunisian female who was investigated for a systolic murmur and cardiomegaly. Echocardiography revealed tricuspid insufficiency, moderate left ventricular dilatation, Ebstein's anomaly, a superior caval vein draining into the coronary sinus and, surprisingly, LVNC of the apex and the lateral wall. LVNC was absent in all other cardiologically investigated siblings. RNA and mtDNA sequence analysis revealed the known homoplasmic mutation m.3308T>C resulting in the replacement of the first amino acid methionine by threonine in the ND1 subunit of respiratory chain complex I. The m.3308T>C mutation was also present in the patient's mother and several other family members but absent in 350 controls. Additionally, the index patient carried the polymorphisms m.8248A>G in the COX2 gene and m.8468C>T in the ATP8 gene. It is concluded that LVNC may be associated with the known homoplasmic m.3308T>C mutation in the ND1 gene. However, the pathogenetic role of this mutation in the development of LVNC remains elusive.     

Common causes of pleural effusion in referral hospital in Isfahan,Iran 1997-1998

During a one-year period to September 1998, data were collected from all 213 patients referred with pleural effusion. There were 132 males and 81 females; their ages ranged from 18 to 85 years. The most common etiologies of effusion were congestive heart failure (39.4%), malignancy (27.2%), pneumonia (8%), empyema (5.2%), and tuberculosis (5.2%). Pleural effusions are frequent in Iran, and the causes are fairly similar to those reported by European authors, but with slightly more tuberculosis cases, mostly among Afghan refugees.     

Understanding and Promoting Effective Self-Care During Heart Failure

Heart failure (HF) self-care relates to the decisions made outside clinical settings by the individual with HF to maintain life, healthy functioning, and well-being. The people who help patients most (ie, caregivers/family members) should be involved in care, and general principles of health behavior change should be used to guide support. Medicines should be prescribed with once-daily dosing, with pharmacists providing medication review and support. Pill boxes should be provided and patients’ health literacy levels assessed. Psychosocial interventions for smoking cessation should be undertaken. Regular aerobic exercise may benefit patients with mild to moderate HF and some with severe but stable HF; therefore, referral to cardiac rehabilitation should be considered. Exercise regimen must take into account patient-related factors, including functional status, comorbid conditions, and patient preferences. Intake of salt, alcohol, and fluid should be restricted, although these steps are supported by limited evidence. Patients should be educated on appropriate sources of help. They should seek help immediately for persistent chest pain, palpitations, syncope, breathlessness at rest, or a weight increase of ≥ 2 lb. Depression, if present, should be addressed with antidepressants (sertraline and citalopram), cognitive behavioral therapy, and regular exercise. HF disease management programs should be offered if available.     

Hyper-homeostatic learning of anticipatory hunger in rats

Anticipatory hunger is a learnt increase in intake of food having a flavour or texture that predicts a long fast. This learning was studied in rats trained on a single food or a choice between protein-rich and carbohydrate-rich foods, presented for 1.5 h after 3 h without maintenance food at the start of the dark phase. Eight training cycles provided a pseudo-random sequence of 3 h and 10 h post-prandial fasts with a day on maintenance food between each training fast. The measure of anticipatory hunger is the difference over one 4-day cycle between the intake of test food having an odour predictive of the longer fast (TL) and intake of food with an odour cuing to the shorter fast (TS). Previous experiments showed that conditioning of preference for the odour before the shorter fast competes with learning to avoid hunger during the longer fast (anticipatory hunger), generating a cubic or quartic contrast. TL minus TS showed a strong cubic trend over 8 training cycles with both single and choice meals. There was a switch from preference for the short-fast odour at cycle 2 (TL-TS=-0.86 g) to a peak of anticipatory hunger at cycle 6 (TL-TS=1.57 g). We conclude that anticipatory hunger is learnt when a choice is given between protein-rich and carbohydrate-rich foods as well as on a single food. In addition, since anticipatory hunger extinguishes itself, such learning improves on negative-feedback homeostasis with a feed-forward "hyper-homeostatic" mechanism.     

Semi-automatic Methods for Airway and Adjacent Vessel Measurement in Bronchiectasis Patterns in Lung HRCT Images of Cystic Fibrosis Patients

Airway and vessel characterization of bronchiectasis patterns in lung high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) images of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients is very important to compute the score of disease severity. We propose a hybrid and evolutionary optimized threshold and model-based method for characterization of airway and vessel in lung HRCT images of CF patients. First, the initial model of airway and vessel is obtained using the enhanced threshold-based method. Then, the model is fitted to the actual image by optimizing its parameters using particle swarm optimization (PSO) evolutionary algorithm. The experimental results demonstrated the outperformance of the proposed method over its counterpart in R-squared, mean and variance of error, and run time. Moreover, the proposed method outperformed its counterpart for airway inner diameter/vessel diameter (AID/VD) and airway wall thickness/vessel diameter (AWT/VD) biomarkers in R-squared and slope of regression analysis.     

Augmentation of lymphocytes activation and T cell modulation by the extracts from some Euphorbia species

Context: Euphorbia is an important Euphorbiaceae genus that is traditionally being used for various infections, inflammation, and cancer.

Objective: The present study investigated the possible in vitro immunomodulatory effect of three species of Euphorbia genus including Euphorbia microciadia Boiss, Euphorbia osyridea Boiss, and Euphorbia heteradenia Jaub. &; Sp. on lymphocyte activation and cytokine secretion.

Materials and methods: Human lymphocytes were cultured in the presence of various concentrations (0.1–200?µg/ml) of the butanol/hexane extracts of the plants in the presence or absence of phytohemmagglutinin (PHA). The activation of lymphocytes after 48?h was determined by a proliferation assay. The release of T cell cytokines was studied to determine the dominant T cell subsets involved in the immune response.

Results: All three plant extracts increased the proliferation of PHA-treated lymphocytes (maximum; 132% of control). Extract treatment of lymphocytes in the absence of PHA resulted in an increased proliferation of the cells indicating their lymphocyte mitogenic activity (maximum at 10?µg/ml E. microciadia extract; 494.5?±?42.2% of control, p?E. microciadia and E. osyridea could increase IL-4 and IL-10 secretion but not IFN-γ production showing their capacity to deviate immune response toward a Th2 pattern. Euphorbia heteradenia did not change the release of IL-4 and IFN-γ cytokines but increased IL-10 production. The three extracts stimulated lymphocytes to produce IL-17 which showed their possible effects on Th17 cells activation.

Conclusion: The studied extracts had the ability to modulate T cell responses suggesting their possible beneficial effects on immune host defense.     

Genetic Identification of Trichomonas vaginalis by Using the Actin Gene and Molecular Based Methods

Background

Trichomonas vaginalis is the agent of urogenital tract infection that causes human trichomoniasis with some serious health complications. More understanding about genetic features of the parasite can be helpful in the study of the pathogenesis, drug susceptibility and epidemiology of the infection. For this end, we conducted analysis of the actin gene of T. vaginalis by applying the PCR-SSCP (PCR-Single Stranded Conformational Polymorphism) and nucleotide sequencing method.

Methods

Fifty T. vaginalis samples were collected from 950 women attending gynecology clinics in two cities of Iran, Hamadan and Tehran, from November 2010 to July 2011. After axenisation of isolates, all samples subjected to PCR-SSCP and nucleotide sequencing.

Results

According to the SSCP banding patterns and nucleotide sequencing, seven sequence types were detected among the isolates. Alignment of the nucleotide sequences showed five polymorphic sites in the different strain types. Amino acid substitution was not observed in the nucleotide sequence translation of the all sequences.

Conclusion

The actin gene analysis represents genetic diversity of T. vaginalis and it suggests that various strains can be responsible for clinically different trichomoniasis in infected individuals. It is expected that further studies will be conducted to increase our knowledge about relationship between the actin gene polymorphism and different biological behavior of the parasite.