Journal of Research in Applied and Basic Medical Sciences
Volume:7 Issue: 2, Spring 2021

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an important cause of mortality and morbidity globally. COPD, if associated with multiple comorbidities, has a greater impact on treatment outcome and hospital stay, hence effective control of COPD is crucial for enhancing quality of life. Our study assesses the effect of comorbidities on management outcomes in acute exacerbations of COPD patients.

An analytical cross-sectional study was planned on 630 patients. Patients with acute exacerbations of COPD who were admitted to pulmonary ward and ICU were enrolled in the study. Data analysis was done using MS Excel and SPSS version 21.0. Unpaired students’t-test was used and p < 0.05 was taken to be statistically significant.

61.9% of patients had at least one associated comorbidity e.g. CAD (37.2%), hypertension (28.2%), diabetes mellitus (24.3%), and CVD (10.3%). We found that acute exacerbation of COPD patients with comorbidities had prolonged hospital stay, greater ICU admissions, and need for invasive ventilation as compared to those without comorbidities. Presence of comorbidities with COPD was significantly associated with duration of hospital stay.

Comorbidities associated with acute exacerbations of COPD increase the hospital stay, need for ICU admission and more invasive ventilation, and reduce the impact of treatments.

Scientific papers are valuable sources of information for scientific study. Apart from the main text, their content holds a notable amount of information. Recently, COVID-19 and related papers have attracted much attention between academic researchers, non-academic people, and diverse social media. These papers can reveal different aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Publication criteria are changing rapidly for science-related coronavirus pandemic, as scientists worldwide conduct research at breakneck speeds to tackle this pandemic(1). During the last pandemic, we dived into the scientific literature to reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers have created so much about COVID-19 related information that has been necessary for public health responses and the speedy development of therapeutic protocols and effective vaccines(2). To date, different therapeutic theories have been presented for treating and preventing COVID-19(3–6). However, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely discouraged people's lifestyle and economic situation. Therefore, many people, including lawmakers and directors from different agencies, have turned to the scientific society for answers regarding actions that need to be taken to control and treat the COVID-19(2). Nevertheless, many scientific studies published concerning the COVID-19; even those reported by prestigious journals fall short on experimental evidence to support their conclusions. Tremendous pressure existed to immediately know more about COVID-19 and how to stop this pandemic. Hence, the aforementioned situation created a unique atmosphere that led editors and reviewers to accept manuscripts that would have never been considered for publication under different conditions. During this pandemic, the piece of unreliable information was reported in journal papers.  Some of these journals are prestigious with considerable scientific impact factors. However, publishing this erroneous information was a negative point for these journals and their authors. Still, this erroneous information compared to shared inaccurate information in different electronic media, primarily virtual media, was debatable and valuable. In virtual media, many fortune-tellers were reputed due to sharing different predictions of the future of this pandemic. Many virtual channels shared their false profitable information.   Understanding developing areas of a multidisciplinary research field is critical for managing the COVID-19 pandemic. After the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, many multidisciplinary researchers focused on COVID-19 treatment and its impositions. Different medicine and biotechnology branches are mobilized to provide the best therapeutic approach for treating COVID-19 patients. In addition to traditional protocols, modern emerging fields such as cell-based therapy and personalized medicine also entered into this area(7,8). Hence, many studies began, and then many papers published in this regard. However, it is often difficult to understand their validity and efficacy with the vast amount of available online papers. This letter presents a brief analysis to interpret and visualize published papers related to COVID-19 during the last two years. Based on released information of the national center for biotechnology information (NCBI), 139114 journal manuscripts in Pub Med and 157482 journal manuscripts in PMC have been indexed (Figure-1)(9). Currently, the total number of published paper related to COVID-19 are increasing. However, publishing academic papers is one of the critical roles of academic societies that can present many advances in improving public health knowledge.

To use ultrasonography to assess obstetric conjugate in pregnant women at term, and to study its relationship with mode of delivery and birth weight.

Hundred women at term, in early labor or admitted for induction of labor, entered the study. Longitudinal ultrasonic scanning by transabdominal 3.5 MHz curvilinear probe was performed for measurement of obstetric conjugate from a site most adjacent to pubic symphysis to the sacral promontory. Based on this obstetric conjugate measurement, women were divided into three groups namely those with obstetric conjugate < 10 cm, 10.1-12 cm, and > 12 cm. Mode of delivery and birth weight was noted. Mode of delivery and birth weight were correlated with ultrasonic obstetric conjugate. Ordinary least square method and logistic regression analysis were used for statistical analysis.

The mean age of the women was 26.68 years. The mean obstetric conjugate of the women under study was 11.32 cm and the mean birth weight of newborns was 3.145 kg. The relation between birth weight of newborns of patients and ultrasound obstetric conjugate was a linear co-relation with p value < 0.001. The cesarean delivery rate was 58.3%, 5%, and 14% when ultrasonic obstetric conjugate was < 10 cm, 10.1-12 cm, and >12 cm respectively. The rate of cesarean delivery was higher in patients with ultrasonic obstetric conjugate < 10 cm as compared to others and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.001).

Ultrasonic obstetric conjugate measurement is a simple, noninvasive and safe method of assessing the anteroposterior diameter of the pelvic inlet. An ultrasonic obstetric conjugate of less than 10 cm should alert the obstetrician for a possibility of cesarean delivery.

 Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhimurium) is one of the causative agents of intestinal and extraintestinal infections in humans. Symptoms of the mouse infection by this bacterium mimic typhoid fever in humans. Adjuvants are compounds that enhance the effectiveness of vaccines in combination with them. Alum as an adjuvant causes a shift towards Th2 immune and strengthens the humoral immunity responses. Cisplatin is a highly effective anti-tumor drug that stimulates immune responses by activating macrophages and other immune cells and is used in tumor immunotherapy. This study aimed to investigate the role of cisplatin and the cisplatin-alum mixture as adjuvants to increase the efficacy of vaccination against S. typhimurium in Balb/c mice.

 Male BALB/c mice were divided into five groups. Mice in the experimental groups received either the HKST vaccine alone or in combination with the adjuvants alum, cisplatin, or the cisplatin-alum. Mice in the negative control group received phosphate-buffered saline. All mice were immunized two times on days 0 and 14. Two weeks after the last immunization, immune responses to S. typhimurium were assessed by measuring the survival rate after challenge with a lethal dose of bacterium, bacterial load in the liver, interferon-gamma, and S. typhimurium-specific IgG1 and IgG2a production. 

 The numbers of colonies in the spleen and liver cultures in all dilutions were significantly lower in cisplatin-vaccine, and cisplatin-alum vaccine immunized mice. The average rate of specific IgG2a was higher in the same groups compared to other groups. The survival rate in alum-vaccine, cisplatin-vaccine, and cisplatin-alum-vaccine groups was significantly higher than in the control group. The average rate of Interferon-gamma in cisplatin-vaccine and cisplatin- alum vaccine groups, was significantly higher than other groups.

 This study is the first to determine the role of administrating cisplatin and alum-cisplatin mixture on increasing the efficiency of the HKST vaccine in a mouse model. This study confirmed the role of cisplatin and cisplatin-alum mixture in increasing the efficiency of the HKST vaccine by using different experiments.

 This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on reducing depression and improving the quality of life in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

This was a quasi-experimental study with the pre-test post-test control group design. The study population consisted of all people with MS who were registered in the MS Society of Sanandaj in 2017 (N = 40). Twenty patients who had higher depression scores and lower quality of life scores were selected by purposive sampling. The participants were randomly assigned to either experimental group or control group (n=10 per group). Patients allocated to the experimental group were treated individually for 10 sessions once a week for three months. Patients in the control group did not receive any intervention. The data were collected using the Beck depression inventory-II and the World Health Organization quality of life questionnaire. The data were analyzed using SPSS and multivariate analysis of covariance.

ACT had a significant effect on reducing depression and improving the quality of life in patients with MS (p <0.05).

It could be concluded that ACT was effective in reducing depression and improving the quality of life in patients with MS.

Bone allografts have become an accepted technology to replace bone loss due to common diseases, such as tumor resection, trauma, and failed total joint arthroplasty. This study briefly reviews a branch of regenerative medicine related to bone allografts and its related aspects. As new allografts stimulate an immune rejection response, bone grafts are usually prepared by freezing or freeze-drying to decrease the immune system responses. The notable biological events of associations, such as hemorrhage and inflammation, osteogenesis, osteoinduction, osteoconduction, and impressive remodeling, result in a load-bearing structure. Generally, cancellous allografts are effectively incorporated, while cortical grafts remain an admixture of viable regenerated bone and old necrotic bone for a prolonged duration. Massive bone allografts used in reconstructing tumor resection have a long-term successful outcome in about 80 percent of the procedures. Similar success has been reported for its use in total joint revision surgery and other clinical applications. The significant complications reported for grafting procedures are infection, bone graft fracture, nonunion at the graft-host juncture, and rare massive allograft resorption. Although bone allografting is a successful therapeutic approach, emerging technologies will introduce more efficient bones by mobilizing the adjunctive growth factors, cell and gene-based therapies, and tissue engineering techniques. The primary and applicable knowledge of bone allografts is essential; however, continual investigations are necessary.

 Immune thrombocytopenia is a disorder characterized by decreased platelet production and degradation. The objectives of our study were to assess the relationship between 1,25(OH)2D3 levels and ITP based on sex, age, and duration of disease.

The present study was retrospectively conducted by reviewing medical records of the ITP patients. Demographic data including age, sex, disease history and serum vitamin D levels were performed and collected in a pre-designed form. Data were reported as Mean ±SD and as frequency (percentage). Independent t-test or ANOVA tests were used to compare the mean serum levels of vitamin D in terms of sex, age or disease history.

A total of 140 subjects (71 females and 69 males) with mean age± SD of 39.90 ± 16.11 years enrolled in the study. The mean serum vitamin D level in patients was 18.85 ± 10.87. There was no significant relationship between sex and serum vitamin D level (P=0.943). Patients in the range of 30-40 years have the most frequency and the lowest level of vitamin D in serum (17.11± 9.68 ng/ml). There was no association between age and vitamin D based on Pearson’s test (p=0.181). Vitamin D level in acute ITP patients was lower than chronic ITP patients, but this difference was not meaningful (p=0.403).

According to the findings of this study vitamin D can be administered as a new immunomodulatory therapy in patients with ITP.

 Ramadan fasting has numerous health benefits. Nevertheless, its beneficial role on liver function was evaluated by limited studies and different findings were recorded. So, this study aimed to define the effect of Ramadan Fasting on liver enzyme levels in Iranian healthy individuals.

Seventy healthy adult men without history of liver diseases and current usage of any medication affecting the liver were involved in the present survey. Anthropometric parameters and liver function tests were measured before and after Ramadan. The biochemical parameters including liver enzymes Aspartate aminotransferase (ALT), Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT) and Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) were evaluated before and after Ramadan by the standard enzymatic method.

A decrease was observed in mean level of all liver enzymes. Indeed, the significant mean decrease in the ALT values in the post-Ramadan analyses was observed in the pre-Ramadan (p < 0.01). The values of ALP and AST decreased at the end of the study in the post-Ramadan group versus pre-Ramadan, but mean of the changes did not reach a significant level.

The changes in the concentrations of liver enzymes showed remarkable differences between groups. These data confirmed that Ramadan Fasting improved liver function in healthy adults and might be valuable in the management of liver function.