Ameliorative effects of L-carnitine as an antioxidant against testicular toxicity induced by AlCl3 in male albino rats

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this study was to investigate the potential protective effect of L-carnitine (20 mg/kg bw, 1/20 LD 50) against aluminum chloride (AlCl3) on the quality of the male rats' testicles and sperm, as well as to determine whether or not the effects of AlCl3 could be counteracted by using L-carnitine as an antioxidant.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Six groups of 36 adult male albino rats (n=6) were randomly formed. In Group I (Gp I), saline injection was given orally as a control. Group II (Gp II) was injected orally with 75 mg/kg body weight of L-carnitine. Group III (Gp III) was given a high dose of L-carnitine (150 mg/kg body weight) orally, while Group IV (G IV) was given a low dose of AlCl3 (20 mg/kg body weight). Group V (Gp V) was given an oral injection of AlCl3 (20 mg/kg) and L-carnitine (75 mg/kg body weight). Group VI (Gp VI) was given AlCl3 at a dose of 20 mg/kg and L-carnitine at a dose of 150 mg/kg body weight for 60 days. The reproductive capacity of each group was assessed. Thus, in addition to histopathological analysis and the comet assay to evaluate sperm DNA deterioration, final body weight, testicular weight change, and sperm analysis were carried out.

RESULTS

The findings revealed that AlCl3 caused a significant decrease in final body weight, relative weight of sex organs, sperm concentration, motility and viability, serum testosterone concentration, and a significant increase in sperm abnormalities. Furthermore, AlCl3 caused visible changes in the histological structure of the testis.

CONCLUSIONS

L-carnitine treatment alleviated the harmful effects of AlCl3, as evidenced histopathologically by a noticeable improvement in testis tissues. When it comes to treating AlCl3-induced reproductive toxicity in male rat testes, L-carnitine shows promise.

Effect of ten different biomarkers in the gingival crevicular fluid of obese and non-obese undergoing fixed orthodontic treatment

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of ten proinflammatory cytokines in GCF of participants with raised body mass index (BMI) compared to non-obese subjects undergoing fixed orthodontic treatment.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

In the cross-sectional cohort, subjects were shortlisted through the purposive sampling method with the same age and gender and similar characteristics (cohort). For inclusion and exclusion, predefined criteria were followed. In all included participants obese and non-obese collection of GCF was made from mandibular canine to canine. Identification of inflammatory mediators (MPO and CRP) leptin, adiponectin, and resistin (pg/mL). Bone remodeling biomarkers RANKL (pg/mL) and tissue remodeling biomarkers MMP8, MMP9, TIMP1, and MMP8/TIMP1, MMP9/TIMP1 ratio were collected and blinded by the investigator. Normal distribution of data i.e., age, BMI, the flow rate of GCF, indices plaque and gingival, and uWMS were compared using a t-test. Non-normality biomarker data were evaluated using Mann-Whitney U-test. To assess the relationship between the concentration of GCF biomarkers and plaque and gingival indices Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients were used.

RESULTS

The total number of participants included was 44. In the obese and non-obese groups, the male/female ratio was the same i.e., (n=11 each). The mean age of participants in the obese group was (25.7±1.55 years), whereas the non-obese group was (26.1±1.29 years). In obese the mean BMI was (33.6±2.1 kg/m2) whereas in non-obese (22.9±1.9 kg/m2) (p<0.02). Among the levels of biomarkers adiponectin (p<0.006) and leptin (p<0.028) demonstrated a significant difference between obese and non-obese participants. Also, a significant difference was noted between obese and non-obese in tissue remodeling biomarker MMP9 (p<0.03).

CONCLUSIONS

A surge in the level of the biomarkers, i.e., MMP9, leptin, and adiponectin in the gingival crevicular fluid is found in obese undergoing fixed orthodontic treatment.

Intelligent Transportation Using Wireless Sensor Networks Blockchain and License Plate Recognition

License Plate Recognition (LPR) is essential for the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) since license plates are a necessary characteristic for distinguishing vehicles for traffic management. As the number of vehicles on the road continues to grow, managing and controlling traffic has become increasingly complex. Large cities in particular face significant challenges, including concerns around privacy and the consumption of resources. To address these issues, the development of automatic LPR technology within the IoV has emerged as a critical area of research. By detecting and recognizing license plates on roadways, LPR can significantly enhance management and control of the transportation system. However, implementing LPR within automated transportation systems requires careful consideration of privacy and trust issues, particularly in relation to the collection and use of sensitive data. This study recommends a blockchain-based approach for IoV privacy security that makes use of LPR. A system handles the registration of a user's license plate directly on the blockchain, avoiding the gateway. The database controller may crash as the number of vehicles in the system rises. This paper proposes a privacy protection system for the IoV using license plate recognition based on blockchain. When a license plate is captured by the LPR system, the captured image is sent to the gateway responsible for managing all communications. When the user requires the license plate, the registration is done by a system connected directly to the blockchain, without going through the gateway. Moreover, in the traditional IoV system, the central authority has full authority to manage the binding of vehicle identity and public key. As the number of vehicles increases in the system, it may cause the central server to crash. Key revocation is the process in which the blockchain system analyses the behaviour of vehicles to judge malicious users and revoke their public keys.

Health-ID: A Blockchain-Based Decentralized Identity Management for Remote Healthcare

COVID-19 has made eHealth an imperative. The pandemic has been a true catalyst for remote eHealth solutions such as teleHealth. Telehealth facilitates care, diagnoses, and treatment remotely, making them more efficient, accessible, and economical. However, they have a centralized identity management system that restricts the interoperability of patient and healthcare provider identification. Thus, creating silos of users that are unable to authenticate themselves beyond their eHealth application’s domain. Furthermore, the consumers of remote eHealth applications are forced to trust their service providers completely. They cannot check whether their eHealth service providers adhere to the regulations to ensure the security and privacy of their identity information. Therefore, we present a blockchain-based decentralized identity management system that allows patients and healthcare providers to identify and authenticate themselves transparently and securely across different eHealth domains. Patients and healthcare providers are uniquely identified by their health identifiers (healthIDs). The identity attributes are attested by a healthcare regulator, indexed on the blockchain, and stored by the identity owner. We implemented smart contracts on an Ethereum consortium blockchain to facilities identification and authentication procedures. We further analyze the performance using different metrics, including transaction gas cost, transaction per second, number of blocks lost, and block propagation time. Parameters including block-time, gas-limit, and sealers are adjusted to achieve the optimal performance of our consortium blockchain.

Diagnosis and treatment of the cardiovascular consequences of Fabry disease

Fabry disease (FD) has been a diagnostic challenge since it was first recognized in 1898, with patients traditionally suffering from considerable delay before a diagnosis is made. Cardiac involvement is the current leading cause of death in FD. A combination of improved enzyme assays, availability of genetic profiling, together with more organized clinical services for rare diseases, has led to a rapid growth in the prevalence of FD. The earlier and more frequent diagnosis of asymptomatic individuals before development of the phenotype has focussed attention on early detection of organ involvement and closer monitoring of disease progression. The high cost of enzyme replacement therapy at a time of constraint within many health economies, moreover, has challenged clinicians to target treatment effectively. This article provides an outline of FD for the general physician and summarizes the aetiology and pathology of FD, the cardiovascular consequences thereof, modalities used in diagnosis and then discusses current indications for treatment, including pharmacotherapy and device implantation.

Surgical management of renal cell carcinoma with levels III and IV tumor thrombus using the « flush » technique

OBJECTIVE

To determinate feasibility and results of the flush technique by hands for the surgical management of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with levels III and IV inferior vena cava thrombus (VCT).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We conducted a retrospective study for all patients who underwent a surgical treatment for RCC with levels III and IV VCT in our department between June 2010 and July 2017. Sixteen patients were identified.

RESULTS

All tumors were resected using a subcostal incision for right RCC and a chevron incision for the left RCC. Vena cava control was performed only on its subhepatic portion. After renal artery ligature, anesthesiologists were asked to generate a positive pressure in the small circulation. Subsequently, the vena cava was incised longitudinally to the orifice of the renal vein and the thrombus dissected and extracted of the upper part of the vena cava. Only once the supra-renal part of the vena cava was free of thrombus, the supra-renal portion of the vena cava could be clamped. We never had to perform neither thoracotomy nor hepatic mobilization. Therefore, support of a hepatic, vascular or cardiac surgeon was not necessary. The mean operative time was 201 min. The mean estimated blood loss was 2040 ml. No patient died during hospitalization, and mean hospitalization stay duration was 16.6 days.

CONCLUSION

The flush technique allows a limitation of the dissection extent. It requires neither hepatic mobilization nor thoracotomy. This results in a decrease in the operative time and blood loss.

Knowledge and attitude about sexually transmitted diseases among youth in Saudi Arabia

Background

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are one of the most serious diseases in the world. Our aim was to explore the knowledge and attitude about STDs among the youth.

Patients and Methods

This cross-sectional survey was conducted from August 1 to August 13, 2016. Male and female youth between 18 and 25 years were invited to participate in the survey using social media open to all Internet users consisting of questions and statements about STDs, and then the data were analyzed.

Results

We received 5040 responses to the survey; out of these participants 76.6% were females and 23.4% were males with a mean age 21.5 and most of them were single (85.1%). We noticed that most of the respondents selected the Internet (71.7%) as the main source of their knowledge about STDs followed by school, television, and others, respectively. In spite of, 94.08% knew that human immunodeficiency virus/AIDS is an STD, only 43.61% knew that herpes simplex virus is an STD, and only 31.03% knew that Chlamydia is an STD. A high percent (93.1%) agreed that sexual intercourse transmits STDs. Only 59.6% agreed that condom does not provide complete protection from STDs. To our surprise, only 55% considered themselves capable of protecting themselves against STDs. About 95.8% of the participants agreed that STDs should be taught in schools, while 4.2% disagreed.

Conclusion

We noticed a lack of participant's knowledge regarding the types, mode of transmission, and the ways of protections from STDs and their desire to find out information about STDs. Hence, awareness programs about STDs should be started that aim at encouraging youth to follow our religion and culture.

The Role of sentinel lymph-node biopsy in managing lip squamous cell carcinoma patients without clinical evidence of nodal metastasis

AIM

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the lip is a common oral malignancy. Lymph node metastasis occurs lately in the natural history of the disease but it is associated with poor outcome. Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is an option that determines the potentially affected lymph nodes especially in clinically negative-node patients. The study aims to determine the feasibility of SLNB as a reliable staging tool in N0 stage lip SCC patients.

METHODS

Eighteen patients with N0 stage lip SCC were enrolled in the study. They were subjected to SLNB using the injection of the radiocolloid material and the Blue dye. The procedure was followed by bilateral supraomohyoid neck dissection in all patients. The pathological results of the harvested sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) were compared with that of the dissection specimen in each patient.

RESULTS

The patent blue dye could localize the SLN in 15/18 patients whilst the radioisotope scanning could successfully identify it in 17/18 patents. On average, 1.8 SLNs were harvested from each patient. Two of seventeen patients with identified SLNs (11.8%) have positive nodal metastases. One of them has two SLNs and the other has only one. No false negativity was reported in the study as all the excised SLNs reflected correctly the status of the lymph node basin.

CONCLUSION

Sentinel lymphadenectomy is a safe and feasible procedure in managing neck of patients with node-negative lip SCC. It can accurately stage these patients.

KEYWORDS

sentinel lymph node, lip, cancer.