Shiraz Emedical Journal
Volume:12 Issue: 4, Oct 2011

Some patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus have not good glycaemic control with ordinary doses of insulin. So applying other treatment modality in addition to insulin and diet therapy could improve glycaemic control. To evaluate whether, in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus, the addition of Metformin to insulin and standard diabetes management result in better glycaemic control and lower insulin dosage. In a clinical trial study 16 children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes with had high insulin intake and HbA1c >8% were participated. HbA1c, FBS, 2hpp BG, insulin dosage and BMI were measured and compared at the onset and end of the treatment. There were significant differences in HbA1c and insulin dosage between the time of 0 of the study and after 4 months of Metformin addition therapy. But there were no significant differences between BMI, FBG and 2 h pp BG at the onset of the study and end of it. Metformin treatment lowered HbA1c and decreased insulin dosage in patients with type 1 diabetes in poor metabolic control. Long term studies will determine if these improvements are sustained.

Imaging methods are progressing in a rapidly manner, but the problem which we, as the health providers always encounter with is the expensive costs of different devices and our limited budget to provide them. The aim of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of Histogram Equalization (HE) and Unsharp Mask (UM) on the conventional CXR images.Methods and Material: In Urmia University of Medical Sciences, we designed a windows-based computer program that contains histogram equalization (HE), unsharp mask (UM) and combination of HE and UM algorithms with adjusted parameters to process conventional chest x-ray (CXR) images. Two series of CXR images including 49 images without major pulmonary disorder and 45 images with pulmonary parenchymal disorders were selected. After converting them to digital format, images were processed with HE, UM and combination of HE and UM techniques. In each series, original and processed images were saved in 4 databases. Two board-certified general radiologists (with 6 and 5 years experience) analyzed images. Saved images were displayed to radiologists randomly and separately. Quality of each image was saved as a scale from 1 (very low quality) to 5 (excellent). We used a variance-based statistical technique to analyze quality.Statistical analysis used: To compare the quality of each algorithm (GHE, UM and combination of GHE and UM), a variance-based statistical analysis was done. In the first series images, HE and combination of HE and UM algorithms increased quality of images, but UM technique was not suitable, solely. Also, all three techniques increased quality of second series images. The use of digital image processing algorithms such as HE or UM on conventional CXR images can increase quality of images.

A total of 160 sputum samples were obtained from pneumonia patients (1 – 30 years) attending the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City. The microorganisms encountered included Streptococcus viridians, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Moraxella catarrhalis and Staphylococcus species. S. viridans was highest in occurrence (51.5%) and Staphylococcus spp. was the least (2.9%). Their antibiotic resistance pattern revealed that streptomycin had the highest activity (94.1%) and gentamycin the least (23.8%). Amoxicillin resistance gene (amxr) was detected in 89 (88.1%) out of the total isolates. When these resistant isolates were subjected to curing using 10% sodium dodecyl sulfate, 73 (82.0%) lost their resistance genes. An average transfer rate of 53.88% and 33.59% were obtained for intraspecies and intergeneric transfer of amxr gene respectively. Intraspecies gene transfer rate was significantly higher than intergeneric at p<0.001, using the chi – square goodness of fit test for statistical analysis.

The therapeutic effects of methotrexate (MTX) are well-known in rheumatoid arthritis(RA).Also,anti inflammatory effects of atorvastatin have already been reported, but no study has compared the effects of these two drugs on RA.Therefore we designed this study to compare the effects of these drugs on patients with active RA. The study was conducted on 54 patients with active RA who had been undergoing Disease – Modifying -Anti Rheumatic- Drugs therapy for at least 3 months that included 7.5 mg methotrexate weekly. They were allocated into two groups. In addition to the 7.5 mg of MTX, one group received another 7.5 mg of MTX weekly and placebo daily and the other group received atorvastatin 40 mg daily and placebo weekly. They were followed up for 12 weeks. Some clinical aspects and the disease activity score (DAS) were evaluated at the beginning of the study and then at the weeks of 6th and 12th. After multiple comparisons by repeated measures, disease activity score and other variables showed a significant reduction in both groups at 12th week after treatment; however, the effect of both interventions was similar in change of DAS and other variables except for duration of morning stiffness, that it decreased more in statin than MTX group. No significant side effects causing to exclude the patients from the study were observed in any of the two groups. we concluded that statin, can serve an important role in treatment of RA.

In this paper we establish a numerical solution to the classical SIR mathematical model of HIV transmission dynamics using the traditional Euler’s method. We will discuss the mathematics behind the model and various tools for judging effectiveness of policies and control methods. We will complete the paper with a computer simulation of the model equations using the model parameters. From the result, the epidemic can be controlled within a finite time.

Ramadan fasting is prescribed for every healthy Muslim in Islamic countries. Although fasting is not mandatory for kidney transplant patients in these countries, some of them are willing to fast and ask their physicians whether it would affect their renal function. Case Reports: We have five kidney transplant patients, two men and three women, with normal allograft function and or mild allograft dysfunction that they fast during the month of Ramadan. The ages of our patients were between 25 to 40 years and any one of them had diabetes mellitus. All of five recipients underwent transplantation at least 1 year prior to the month of Ramadan, and had stable allograft function for at least 6 months prior to the fasting.Their plasma creatinine levels were between 0.9 to 1.4 mg/dl before Ramadan and there were no significant changes after that. They also have any clinical problem during the month of Ramadan. In conclusion, it seems that fasting during the month of Ramadan does not associated with any significant adverse effects in kidney transplant recipients who had normal as well as mild impaired but stable renal function prior to fasting.

Testosterone stimulates hematopoiesis. Men with non-functional pituitary macroadenoma and low testosterone level are likely to have anemia. We want to report non-functional Pituitary macro adenoma in a 41 year-old male with congenital dislocation of hip (CDH) and iris heterochromia which was referred to hematology clinic with chronic anemia.