Even though significant advances have been made, there is still a lack of reliable sensors capable of noninvasively monitoring bilirubin and diagnosing jaundice as the most common neonatal disease, particularly at the point-of-care (POC) where blood sampling from infants is accompanied by serious challenges and concerns. Herein, for the first time, using an easy-to-fabricate/use assay, we demonstrate the capability of curcumin embedded within paper for noninvasive optical monitoring of bilirubin in saliva. The highly selective sensing of the developed sensor toward bilirubin is attributed to bilirubin photoisomerization under blue light exposure, which can selectively restore the bilirubin-induced quenched fluorescence of curcumin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNotwithstanding the substantial progress in optical wearable sensing devices, developing wearable optical sensors for simultaneous, real-time, and continuous monitoring of multiple biomarkers is still an important, yet unmet, demand. Aiming to address this need, we introduced for the first time a smart wearable optical sensor (SWOS) platform combining a multiplexed sweat sensor sticker with its IoT-enabled readout module. We employed our SWOS system for on-body continuous, real-time, and simultaneous fluorimetric monitoring of sweat volume (physical parameter) and pH (chemical marker).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe development of novel biomedical sensors as highly promising devices/tools in early diagnosis and therapy monitoring of many diseases and disorders has recently witnessed unprecedented growth; more and faster than ever. Nonetheless, on the eve of Industry 5.0 and by learning from defects of current sensors in smart diagnostics of pandemics, there is still a long way to go to achieve the ideal biomedical sensors capable of meeting the growing needs and expectations for smart biomedical/diagnostic sensing through eHealth systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCadmium is a very toxic element found in various aqueous samples. The majority of the highly selective fluorescent ligands, designed for cadmium ion sensing, are hydrophobic compounds, thus making them inactive in aqueous media. Fluorescent imprinted polymers, synthesized by the proficient combination of hydrophilic functional monomers and hydrophobic ligands, may give a new and highly selective opportunity for utilizing most fluorescent ligands for toxic metal ion sensing in aqueous media.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough infrequent in our laboratory, growth of bacterial colonies has been observed on top of the purified cultures of yeasts. In this study, the likelihood of bacterial excision from yeast under aging and starvation stresses was assessed using 10 gastric and 10 food-borne yeasts. Yeasts were identified as members of Candida or Saccharomyces genus by amplification and sequencing of D1/D2 region of 26S rDNA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Recent data has proven that the WHO (world health organization) cut-off for obesity is not applicable to the Asian population. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of lean NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) in the capital of Iran and extract probable predictors for this growing health issue in this population.
Methods: This is a population-based cross-sectional study on apparently healthy subjects over 18 years of age.
BACKGROUND Information regarding solid pseudopapillary neoplasm (SPN) of the pancreas is limited in Iran. We aimed to review the clinicocytopathological features and follow-up of patients with SPN of pancreas who were diagnosed in a single center in Iran. METHODS Seven patients with SPN of the pancreas were diagnosed during January 2010 to March 2015 at the Digestive Disease Research Institute of Tehran University of Medical Sciences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Culture, rapid urease test (RUT) and smear examination have been used as reliable methods for diagnosis of H. pylori infection. Accurate performance of these tests requires good quality biopsies with considerable number of bacterial cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHepatitis C disease is a virus mediated infection causing major health problem worldwide. Conversions of immune surveillance play an important role in response to virus clearance. Immune modulating molecules such as HLA-G and IL-10 that convert immune response toward Th2 may play a role to inhibit response from combined therapy with IFN-α2α and ribavirin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBACKGROUND Evidence indicates that insulin resistance results in poor sustained viral response (SVR) in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC). Metformin is an oral hypoglycemic agent which improves insulin resistance. METHODS We sought to determine if the addition of metformin to the treatment regimen could improve SVR in treatment-naïve CHC patients in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is characterized by recurrent episodes of inflammation limited to the mucosal layer of the colon. Calprotectin is a zinc and calcium binding protein derived from neutrophils and monocytes. It is easily detectable in tissue samples, body fluids, and stools, which makes it a potentially valuable marker of inflammation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Due to a lack of clear criteria for recognizing subjects at risk of progression to gastric cancer (GC), this cohort study seeks to identify predictors of GC death in a high-risk population.
Methods: During 2000-2001, 1011 randomly selected residents of Ardabil, Iran without a history of gastrointestinal diseases, underwent upper endoscopy with targeted biopsy sampling. Until 2013, cancer mortality data were obtained using cancer and death registry data and verbal autopsy reports.
Background: Oral cavity has been proposed as an important reservoir of H.pylori, being implicated in bacterial transmission through oral-oral route. However, some investigators believe that the newborn acquires H.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChronic hepatitis C might lead to several immunological dysfunctions. Studies have shown a positive association between hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and psoriasis. These results suggest that the infection may be one of the triggering factors for the development or exacerbation of psoriasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThroughout the world, many migrant and mobile populations are at elevated risk for HIV. Iran has a large immigrant population from neighboring Afghanistan; however, few data exist on the prevalence of HIV in this community. In 2008, we conducted a study to assess the presence of HIV infection among 477 immigrants in a town to the northeast of Tehran using a rapid test in the field.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuropsychiatric side effects of peg interferon-α (PEG-IFN-α) therapy consist of a large spectrum of symptoms. Organic personality syndrome, organic affective syndrome, psychotic manifestations and seizures are more common side effects of PEG-IFN-α whereas cranial neuropathy and movement disorders are less common. Bell's palsy is often idiopathic, but has been linked to some viral infections, particularly with herpes viruses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of HIV infection in Iranian long distance truck drivers using rapid HIV test.
Methods: The study included 400 consecutive participants in Bazargan city, north-west of Iran in the late 2008 and the early 2009.
Results: No HIV infection was observed among these long distance truck drivers.
Background: To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of locally produced pegylated interferon-alpha2a in treatment-naïve patients with chronic hepatitis C.
Methods: All treatment-naïve patients diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C who referred to two university based outpatient clinics in Tehran from December 2007 to May 2008 were enrolled. Exclusion criteria included the presence of a debilitating disease, decompensated cirrhosis, or refusal to participate in the study.
Background: Substance abuse is one of the main health problems in Iran andawareness about its spread and procedure of spread in the society,particularly the susceptible society of students, is very important withregard to the population pyramid of Iran.
Methods: This study was performed by cross-sectional method. The sampling sizewas 610 male students in pre-university grade by a probabilistic clustersampling.