The effects of prenatal morphine exposure on pain response

Background

Drug abuse during pregnancy is a growing problem in all developed countries of the world. Maternal drug abuse affects the developing system and its long-term effects can persist till adulthood so it can decreases the rate of their maturation. Since endogenous opioid induced analgesia, and morphine can interact with it, Thus the present study was designed to determine whether the exposure to the morphine during gestation permanently alter pain response.

Objective

To determine the effects of prenatal morphine exposure on pain response

Materials and methods

12 Pregnant rats were divided to morphine and control groups.

Morphine was administrated (S.C) to female rats twice a day (08 h and 20 h) on gestational days 11–18, (5 mg/kg morphine for 3 days and 10 mg/kg for 5 days). Analgesic response of pups (P90, n = 6) were tested by formaline test.

Finding

The results of our experiment demonstrated that prenatal morphine exposure rats exhibited significantly lower pain thersholds.

Conclusion

Prenatal morphine exposure impair pain sensitivity

Composition of volatile organic compounds in flowers of Astragalus sahendi

A hydrodistillation sampling method, coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, was used in monitoring the volatile organic compounds in flowers of Astragalus sahendi. Accordingly, a total of 48 compounds were recognised, which were united by their terpenoid or aliphatic skeletons and low molecular weight. Above all, the significant presence of some insect-favoured terpenoid compounds, such as farnesol, cis- and trans-geraniol, alpha-bisabolol, nerolidol isomer, alpha-terpineol, alpha-terpinolene and thymol was significant. These findings confer a better understanding of pollination processes in the giant genus Astragalus. Furthermore, the results add to an increasing quantity of data corroborating the ecologic and evolutionary correlation between the floral bioactive compounds of plant species and their special types of pollinators.

Population pharmacokinetics of oral high-dose busulfan in adult patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

BACKGROUND AND THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

Many factors have been reported that contribute to the wide intra- and inter-patient variability of Busulfan (Bu) disposition. The purpose of this study was to develop a population pharmacokinetic model and to determine the covariates affecting the pharmacokinetics (PK) of Bu in Iranian adult patients who received oral high-dose as a conditioning regimen before Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT).

METHODS

A population PK analysis was performed in 30 patients who received an oral Bu and cyclophosphamide regimen before HSCT. Bu was given orally according to the protocol of the institution. In order to prevent seizures caused by Bu, phenytoin was administered orally one hour before each dose of Bu.A total of 180 blood samples were analyzed by HPLC and PK parameters were estimated by the non-linear mixed effect model by MONOLIX 3.1 program. A one-compartment model with an additive error model was used to describe the concentration-time profile of Bu.

RESULTS

Patients' disease and weight was found to be the determinant factors for clearance (CL) and the volume of distribution (Vd) according to Monolix analysis. The covariate entered in final model followed by these equations:[Formula: see text][Formula: see text] In this limited study, the age (15-43 years) had no significant effect. For a patient weighting 60 kg, the typical CL and Vd were estimated to be 13.4 l/hr and 42.6 L, respectively. The interindividual variability of CL and Vd were 13.6 and 6.3%, respectively. There was no significant metabolic induction in these four days as is evident by comparing the trough levels of Bu. However it should be mentioned that, one tailed t-test p-values of the days of two and three, two and four and three and four were 0.083, 0.069 and 0.388, respectively.

MAJOR CONCLUSIONS

Results of this study showed that the type of disease was a determinant of CL and the weight of patient was a determinant of Vd for Bu population PK parameters. A reliable PK parameters and Css, estimated from only one plasma concentrations (5 hrs after the first dose), were validated. Since these methods require few sampling and are easy to be used, the limited sampling methods might be advantageous in the routine clinical practice.

The Prognostic Significance of Her2-Neu Over expression in Gastric Carcinomas

BACKGROUND

Her2/neu is one of the epidermal growth factor receptors families and seems to have prognostic significance of some solid tumors. The objective of this study is to evaluate the possibility of Her2 expression in gastric cancers and the possible relationship of Her2 with tumor's clinicopathologic parameters and also its prognostic role.

METHODS

This study was performed on 100 cases of gastric carcinoma with stage I b to III (according to TNM staging). Survival, recurrence date of patients, grade and lymph nodes involvement were assessed. Her2/neu expression was determined by immunohistochemical method on received sample blocks. Survival of patients with or without Her2-neu expression were evaluated by Kaplan- Meier method and compared with the log-rank test followed by multivariate analysis using Cox regression.

RESULTS

Seven cases were 3+ membranous Her2 reactivity, 5 cases were 2+ and13 cases were 1+; also 75% of cases demonstrated no reactivity. Regardingrelationship between tumor grade and membranous Her2 , all patients with poorly differentiated tumors were Her2 negative but patients with moderate and well differentiated tumor had 18.1% and 19.6% Her2 reactivity respectively; there were no significant difference between groups statistically(P>0.05). Median overall survival was 27.25 and 46 months in Her2 negative and her2 positive cases respectively; there were no significant difference between groups statistically as well (P>0.05).

CONCLUSION

Her2 reactivity has not relationship with tumor grade and lymph node involvement as well as tumor stage. From the other point of view no significant correlation is found between Her2 expression and disease free survival or overall survival of gastric cancer patients.

Role of dipstick in detection of haeme pigment due to rhabdomyolysis in victims of Bam earthquake

Avoiding life-threatening complications of rhabdomyolysis depends on early diagnosis and prompt management. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of urinary dipstick test in the detection of haeme pigment in patients who were at risk of acute renal failure (ARF) due to rhabdomyolysis after suffering injury in the Bam earthquake. Serum creatine phosphokinase (CPK) level was used as the gold standard for prediction of ARF. ARF developed in 8 (10%) of 79 patients studied. We found no significant differences in the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of dipstick urine and serum CPK tests for identifying patients who were at risk of ARF. However, dipstick urine test is an easy test that can be performed quickly at an earthquake site.

The role of thyroid autoantibodies in the etiology of endemic goiter in schoolchildren of Isfahan, Iran

BACKGROUND

Eleven years after the initiation of universal salt iodization program in Iran, the prevalence of goiter is still high in some areas.

AIM

To investigate the role of thyroid autoimmunity in the etiology of residual goiter in schoolchildren of Isfahan, Iran.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

In a cross-sectional study, 2331 schoolchildren were selected by multi-stage random cluster sampling. Thyroid size was estimated in each child by inspection and palpation. Urinary iodine concentration (UIC), serum anti-thyroperoxidase antibody (anti-TPO Ab), and anti-thyroglobulin antibody (Anti-Tg Ab) were measured.

RESULTS

Overall, 32.9% of children had goiter. The median UIC was 1955.5 microg/dl. There was significant difference in prevalence of positive anti-TPO Ab in goitrous (grade 2) and non-goitrous children (9.7 vs 3.7%, p= 0.02). Goitrous children had higher prevalence of positive anti-Tg Ab than non-goitrous ones (15.1 vs 3.1%, p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

According to the present study, goiter is still a public health problem in this region. This study suggests that thyroid autoimmunity is among the contributors of goiter persistence after elimination of iodine deficiency in Isfahan.

Time course of changes in free thyroid indices, rT3, TSH, cortisol and ACTH following exposure to sulfur mustard

In order to evaluate the time course of changes in serum concentration of thyroid hormones, cortisol and ACTH in patients exposed to chemical weapons containing sulfur mustard, we measured serum concentrations of hormones on the first, third and fifth week following injury in 13 soldiers and compared them to the results obtained from 34 control men. Free T4 and T3 indices were decreased and rT3, cortisol and ACTH were increased in the first week following exposure. There was a subnormal TSH response to TRH in 2 of 3 men tested. Except for an increase in FT4I and a decrease in TSH by the third week, and a steady decline in serum cortisol, serum hormone concentrations were unchanged until the fifth week after injury. The decline in serum cortisol occurred despite a constant increase in serum ACTH. By the fifth week only 1 of 13 men had serum cortisol levels > 10 micrograms/dl. We conclude that exposure to chemical weapons containing sulfur mustard results in alterations in serum concentrations of thyroid and adrenal hormones and ACTH, resembling changes seen in burn trauma. Some evidence of direct effects of mustard on endocrine glands exist.

Borderline HER‐2 breast cancer cases: Histochemical versus real‐time PCR analysis and impact of different cut‐off values

Seventy-one cases that had resulted borderline for HER-2 protein expression at conventional immunohistochemical assay (2+) were assessed for HER-2 gene amplification by real-time PCR and by FISH in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations (gene amplification with ratio >or=2 in both methods). Thirty-three out of 71 cases (47%) resulted amplified at real-time PCR analysis, whereas 15 cases resulted positive at FISH (21%). Apparently, PCR was more sensitive than FISH in HER-2 determination, only 10 cases resulting amplified in both tests. When the mean ratio value obtained in all PCR experiments was adopted as threshold in determining HER-2 gene amplification, the apparent sensitivity of PCR was reduced but correlation between PCR and FISH results was dramatically increased. Furthermore, when the mean PCR ratio value observed in the FISH-positive group was chosen as threshold, the best agreement between PCR and FISH results was achieved. Therefore, we found that the proposed threshold ratio value of >or=2 is not accurate in separating HER-2 amplified and non-amplified cases. We suggest that the threshold ratio value in PCR tests should be determined in each laboratory using FISH controlled cases. Finally, above certain in-lab generated threshold values, PCR might be proposed as a highly predictive positive test in HER-2 assessment.