Prior studies have reported that curcumin is inversely associated with reduced markers of atherosclerosis risk, including carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT). This study was designed to assess the ...effects of curcumin on CIMT and pulse wave velocity (PWV) in diabetic hemodialysis (HD) patients.
This randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial was conducted on 39 diabetic HD patients. People were assigned to receive curcumin or placebo (starch) for 24 weeks. Individuals in the curcumin group (
= 26) received 80 mg/day. CIMT and PWV levels were taken at baseline and after 24 weeks of intervention.
After 24 weeks of intervention, curcumin intake did not affect mean levels of left (
= 0.83) and right (
= 0.47) CIMT and maximum levels of left (
= 0.84) and right (
= 0.11) CIMT, and PWV (P = 0.12) compared to the placebo. Furthermore, within-group difference demonstrated a significant reduction in mean levels of PWV (
= 0.01) in the curcumin group. We did not observe any significant change in C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations after curcumin intake (
= 0.69).
Curcumin intake did not affect mean levels of left and right CIMT and maximum levels of left and right CIMT, PWV, and CRP levels compared to the placebo. Additionally, within-group difference demonstrated a significant reduction in mean levels of PWV in the curcumin group.This trial was registered at www.irct.ir as http://www.irct.ir: IRCT20200527047584N1.
The coronavirus-related severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV) in 2002/2003, the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) in 2012/2013, and especially the current 2019/2021 severe acute ...respiratory syndrome-2 (SARS-CoV-2) negatively affected the national health systems worldwide. Different SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1), Delta (B.1.617.2), and recently Omicron (B.1.1.529), have emerged resulting from the high rate of genetic recombination and S1-RBD/S2 mutation/deletion in the spike protein that has an impact on the virus activity. Furthermore, genetic variability in certain genes involved in the immune system might impact the level of SARS-CoV-2 recognition and immune response against the virus among different populations. Understanding the molecular mechanism and function of SARS-CoV-2 variants and their different epidemiological outcomes is a key step for effective COVID-19 treatment strategies, including antiviral drug development and vaccine designs, which can immunize people with genetic variabilities against various strains of SARS-CoV-2. In this review, we center our focus on the recent and up-to-date knowledge on SARS-CoV-2 (Alpha to Omicron) origin and evolution, structure, genetic diversity, route of transmission, pathogenesis, new diagnostic, and treatment strategies, as well as the psychological and economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic on individuals and their lives around the world.
Background: In COVID-19 pneumonia, chest CT scan plays a crucial role in diagnosing and closely monitoring lung parenchyma. The main reportedly chest CT features of novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) ...have been fully discussed in the literature, but there is still a paucity of reports on uncommon CT manifestations. Case presentation: Herewith, we have reported ten rRT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 patients with CT target signs (bull’s eye appearance); additionally, we have reviewed previously reported cases. Reviewing the literature, we found eight COVID-19 patients with target sign in the literature. 18 patients were included with a median age of 43. 11 (61%) patients were males. In 87% of patients, the lesions developed within the second-week post symptom onset. These patients mostly experienced an extended hospital stay (median = 10 days), with 53.8% of cases being admitted in ICU. The in-hospital mortality rate was 23%. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that lesions with a bull’s eye appearance are not significantly associated with higher mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
Background: This study is aimed to compare the accuracy of prenatal standard brain ultrasound (US), neurosonography (NSG), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for diagnosing central nervous system ...(CNS) anomalies.Methods: In this prospective study pregnant women were consecutively recruited in their second or third trimester of pregnancy, who either had a positive history of fetal brain anomalies in previous pregnancies or were pregnant with fetuses suspected to have brain abnormalities on ultrasound exam. Based on standard US, NSG, and MRI findings concordancy fetuses were subdivided into four groups: the MRI/NSG findings confirmed, supplemented, contradicted, or ruled out the initial US diagnosis. NSG/MRI discordancy was also reported separately. Live births were followed for 18 months to assess the course of postnatal neurodevelopment.Results: Generally, 49.3% of fetuses showed concordancy between US and NSG/MRI; among remaining cases, NSG/MRI showed additional findings to US, changes US diagnosis, and demonstrated a normal brain in 73.2%, 23.9%, and 2.8% of cases, respectively. MRI found additional features to NSG in 22.9% of fetuses, most of whom were diagnosed with intracranial hemorrhage or cortical malformation unseen on NSG or showed a more extensive cortical malformation in MRI. Twenty fetuses underwent postnatal brain MRI and all confirmed prenatal MRI findings with 100% concordancy. Cases with postnatal normal neurodevelopment were more likely to show concordancy between US, NSG, and MRI.Conclusions: Prenatal MRI is the most accurate imaging modality for detecting CNS anomalies antenatal and might supplement the US/NSG findings, and sometimes contradicts or excludes the initial US diagnosis.
Aims: This study aims to investigate the relationship between diabetes mellitus (DM) or hypertension and the distribution and severity of pulmonary involvement and short-term clinical outcome in ...patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia. Materials and Methods: In this case–control study, a group of patients with DM and COVID-19 pneumonia are compared to a group without DM. Demographic information, history of diabetes, hypertension, renal disease, tobacco use, laboratory data, current blood pressure, and chest computed tomography (CT) scan of all patients were extracted. The patients' laboratory tests were performed on the same day that the chest CT scan was performed. The data were analyzed using appropriate statistical tests. Findings: The results show that gender, age, smoking, and history of kidney disease were not significantly associated with the history of diabetes and hypertension (P > 0.05). Furthermore, the history of diabetes and hypertension had no significant relationship with the distribution and severity of pulmonary involvement and short-term clinical outcome (P > 0.05). However, among the laboratory findings, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate were significantly associated with a history of diabetes and blood urea nitrogen values were associated with a history of hypertension (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the history of diabetes and hypertension has no significant relationship with the distribution and severity of pulmonary involvement and short-term clinical outcome.
Novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, designated as COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the February 11, 2020, is one of the highly pathogenic β‐coronaviruses which infects human. Early ...diagnosis of COVID-19 is the most critical step to treat infection. The diagnostic tools are generally molecular methods, serology and viral culture. Recently CRISPR-based method has been investigated to diagnose and treat coronavirus infection. The emergence of 2019-nCoV during the influenza season, has led to the extensive use of antibiotics and neuraminidase enzyme inhibitors, taken orally and intravenously.
Currently, antiviral inhibitors of SARS and MERS spike proteins, neuraminidase inhibitors, anti-inflammatory drugs and EK1 peptide are the available therapeutic options for SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals. In addition, Chloroquine, which was previously used for malarial and autoimmune disease, has shown efficacy in the 2019-nCoV infection treatment. In severe hypoxaemia, a combination of antibiotics, α-interferon, lopinavir and mechanical ventilation can effectively mitigate the symptoms. Comprehensive knowledge on the innate and adaptive immune responses, will make it possible to propose potent antiviral drugs with their effective therapeutic measures for the prevention of viral infection. This therapeutic strategy will help patients worldwide to protect themselves against severe and fatal viral infections, that potentially can evolve and develop drug resistance, and to reduce mortality rates.
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•Novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 which was named as COVID-19 by the WHO on the 11th of February 2020.•2019-nCoV can cause severe pulmonary infection, respiratory failure therefore early diagnosis of COVID-19 is crucial for disease control.•Due to appearance of the 2019-nCoV pneumonia neuraminidase inhibitors such as oseltamivir are has been widely used.•Nucleoside analogues, protease inhibitors, neuraminidase inhibitors, anti-inflammatory drugs, could be the treatment options for respiratory diseases.•Antiviral therapies, as well as support therapies including oxygen and mechanical ventilation have been used to the treatment of patients.•Accumulated knowledge of innate immune response system, will make it possible to propose the potent antiviral therapies for prevention of viral infection.
This study proposes a novel combined filter accompanied with different optimization algorithms for Poisson noise reduction and increases image quality in digital X-ray and CT images. This filter uses ...4th-order PDE, TV, Bayes shrink threshold with optimization algorithms and an exact unbiased inverse of generalized Anscombe transformation (EUIGAT). Experiments were conducted on the basis of displaying the influence of denoising filter on 105 simulated, 102 radiographic and 102 CT images of individuals aged 20–70 years old; 53 men and 49 women. Experimental results demonstrated the lowest value for MSE and the highest values for PSNR, IQI, SSIM, FOM and CNR in different kinds of kernels and images compared with the other fuzzy Bio-inspired algorithms. The results showed proposed method helps physicians and orthopedists in order to enhance their performances in treating injuries of the pelvic region such as acetabulum fossa and head and neck femur bone.
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