مجله دانشکده پزشکی اصفهان
پیاپی 230 (هفته چهارم اردیبهشت ماه 1392)

Enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography images (EDI-OCT) is used for detailed imaging of the choroid layer that contains the highest amount of blood flow in the eye and is affected in several diseases such as choroidal polyps, age-related degeneration and central serous chorioretinopathy. Choroidal segmentation is really important, but the manual segmentation is time consuming and encounters difficulties when large numbers of data is available. Since a large amount of information is available in the images, non-automated and visual analysis of data is almost impossible for the ophthalmologist. The main goal of automatic segmentation was to help the ophthalmologists in the diagnosis and monitoring diseases related to the eye.

The data used in this project was obtained from the Heidelberg OCT-HRA2-KT instrument. Fifty 2 dimensional data were used to evaluate the algorithm. In this study, the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and choroid was segmented using a boundary detection algorithm named dynamic programming.

The proposed algorithm was compared with the manual segmentation and the results showed an unsigned error of 1.71 ± 0.93 pixels for retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) extraction and 10.48 ± 4.11 pixels for choroid detection. It showed significant improvements over other approaches like k-means method.

A few automated methods are applied in the choroid segmentation and most of the studies were mainly focused on the manual separation. In this study, a fast and automated method was provided for the segmentation of choroid area.

Producing IL-17, Th17 cells induce BAFF and APRIL, two important mediators for B-cell survival and activation. Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is a group of many primary immunodeficiency diseases with a common set of features (including hypo-gammaglobulinemia) and different underlying causes. The prevalence of CVID is 1 to 50,000. Hence, the aim of this study was to measure IL-17 gene expression in peripheral blood of patients with CVID.

Total mRNA extracted from whole blood samples of 10 patients with CVID and 10 normal controls; then, IL-17 gene was measured using qRT-PCR.

There was a slight decrease in transcript levels of IL-17 in patients with CVID, even though, it was not statistically significant (P = 0.195).

We showed that IL-17 is decreased in patients with CVID and this could be an explanation for their humoral immunity response insufficiencies. Absence of statistical significance in this IL-17 reduction may be due to our sample size and increasing the number of samples may result in statistical significance of this in future studies.

Aerobic Actinomycetes, especially Nocardia are of the most common pathogens of systemic infections in worldwide. It is seen from skin infections caused by trauma in normal-immune system host to severe lung diseases or diseases of the central nervous system in patients with immune deficiency. Nocardia species (spp.) are soil-indwelling bacteria. This study aimed to compare three phenotypic methods for isolation and identification of Nocardia spp.

In this study, 60 soil samples were collected from areas of agricultural lands, gardens and around some of the hospitals with different soil temperature and pH in Isfahan, Iran. In order to isolation of Nocardia spp. from soil, three different methods were studied: Paraffin baiting method (McClung's carbon free broth with paraffin bait), Paraffin coated slides, and Slip-burid method.

Paraffin baiting method was surveyed on 10 soil samples and no results were gained. Paraffin coated slides was surveyed on 4 soil samples (same soil samples) but no results were attained. So, slip-burid method of isolation was tested. In this method, 15 out of 60 soil samples (25%) were positive for Nocardia spp. and colonies were suspected to Nocardia spp.

In this study, slip-burid method found to be more effective for Nocardia spp. Isolation.