Unleashing the potential: the imperative of political support for health technology assessment in Iran.

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is essential for evidence-based healthcare decision-making, yet its integration into Iran's healthcare system faces political and logistical challenges. Despite HTA's potential to improve resource allocation, limited awareness, data gaps, and competing priorities hinder its implementation. This commentary emphasizes the need for political support, advocating capacity-building, collaboration, and alignment with long-term health policies.

Animal and plant protein intake association with mental health, tryptophan metabolites pathways, and gut microbiota in healthy women: a cross-sectional study.

Mental health is affected by tryptophane (TRP) metabolism regulation. Diet-influenced gut microbiome regulates TRP metabolism. Thus, the present study aimed to explore the relationship between type of dietary protein intake, gut microbiota, TRP metabolites homeostasis, and mental well-being in healthy women.

Deep Conformal Supervision: Leveraging Intermediate Features for Robust Uncertainty Quantification.

Trustworthiness is crucial for artificial intelligence (AI) models in clinical settings, and a fundamental aspect of trustworthy AI is uncertainty quantification (UQ). Conformal prediction as a robust uncertainty quantification (UQ) framework has been receiving increasing attention as a valuable tool in improving model trustworthiness. An area of active research is the method of non-conformity score calculation for conformal prediction.

The minimal clinically important difference of two multifaceted fatigue evaluation questionnaires in chronic stroke.

Purpose: This research sought to ascertain the Minimal Clinically Important Difference (MCID) and Robust Clinically Important Difference (RCID) of the Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory-Short Form (MFSI-SF) and Chalder Fatigue Questionnaire-11 (CFQ-11) as two important concepts for the clinical interpretation of the results in chronic post-stroke population.

Methods: A total of 128 subjects with chronic post-stroke completed the MFSI-SF and CFQ-11 before and after six weeks of intervention. The MCIDs were derived using both anchor- and distribution-based methods; however, only anchor-based methods were used to estimate RCIDs.

Essential core competencies for health policy graduates: a multi-method consensus type study.

Background: In light of the multi-faceted challenges confronting health systems worldwide and the imperative to advance towards development goals, the contribution of health policy graduates is of paramount importance, facilitating the attainment of health and well-being objectives. This paper delineates a set of core skills and competencies that are requisite for health policy graduates, with the objective of preparing these graduates for a spectrum of future roles, including both academic and non-academic positions.

Methods: The study was conducted in three phases: a scoping review, qualitative interviews and the validation of identified competencies through brainstorming with experts.

The blood pressure-lowering property of subcutaneous semaglutide: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression.

Purpose: Semaglutide is a glucagon-like peptide (GLP1) receptor agonist with unprecedented weight-lowering and anti-hyperglycemic properties. Recent clinical trials reported that subcutaneous semaglutide can modulate blood pressure; however, its effect on blood pressure widely varied in different studies and different subgroups of patients.

Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library were systematically searched from the inception to July 18, 2024.

Role of Intravoxel Incoherent Motion and Dynamic-Contrast-Enhanced Perfusion in Response Prediction of Patients with Colorectal Cancer after Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a complex malignancy requiring multimodal treatment strategies, including neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy (Neo-CRT), to improve patient outcomes. However, the response to Neo-CRT varies among individuals, which necessitates the development of reliable predictors of treatment response. The present study aimed to investigate the role of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) perfusion in predicting treatment response in CRC patients after Neo-CRT.

A comparison of principal component analysis, reduced-rank regression, and partial least-squares in the identification of dietary patterns associated with cardiometabolic risk factors in Iranian overweight and obese women.

Background: According to epidemiological studies, unhealthy dietary patterns and lifestyle lead to rising obesity and cardiometabolic diseases in Iran. Hybrid techniques were used to identify a dietary pattern characterized by fiber, folic acid, and carotenoid intake due to their association with cardiometabolic risk factors such as anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, lipid profile, C-Reactive Protein (CRP), Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor (PAI), Homeostatic Model Assessment Index (HOMA Index), cardiometabolic index (CMI), and monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP-1). So, the objective of the recent study is to compare the reduced-rank regression (RRR) and partial least-squares (PLS) approaches to principal component analysis (PCA) for estimating diet-cardiometabolic risk factor correlations in Iranian obese women.

Emerging therapies for opioid-induced constipation: what can we expect?

Introduction: The rise in opioid use for managing chronic and oncologic pain has led to a significant increase in opioid-induced constipation (OIC) that impacts patient quality of life and pain management.

Areas Covered: In this study, emerging therapies for OIC were criticized for refining advancements and novel treatment options. Key topics included the efficacy of peripherally acting mu-opioid receptor antagonists (PAMORAs) such as methylnaltrexone, naloxegol, and naldemedine, which specifically target opioid-induced gut dysfunction.

Noncoding Ribonucleic Acids (RNAs) May Improve Response to Immunotherapy in Pancreatic Cancer.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the seventh most common cause of cancer-related mortality. Despite different methods of treatment, nearly more than 90% of patients with PDAC die shortly after diagnosis. Contrary to promising results in other cancers, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) showed limited success in PDAC.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association of all types of beverages high in fructose with asthma in children and adolescents.

Background: Asthma has become the most common chronic condition among children in recent decades. Environmental factors, including food, drive its rise. Sweetened beverages are a staple of children's diets and cause various health issues.

Maternal obesity management: a narrative literature review of health policies.

Maternal obesity rates are increasing significantly, posing substantial risks to both mothers and their children. This study aims to introduce health policies addressing maternal obesity, identify preventive interventions, and highlight scientific gaps necessitating further research.We identified documents through electronic searches in PubMed, CINAHL Plus, EMBASE, and grey literature sources (ministry of health websites, national gynecology and obstetrics associations) from January 2013 to August 2023, updated in June 2024.

Development of a new equation and validation of earlier resting energy expenditure predicting equations in adults living in Tehran.

Background: Predictive equations have been considered as a practical approach for estimating resting energy expenditure (REE) across multiple populations, but their accuracy for each community remains to be determined. Thus, the purposes of this study were to determine the validity of REE predictive equations and to develop a new REE predictive equation in adults living in Tehran.

Methods: The study included 284 subjects (158 females) aged 18-60 years old from two cross-sectional studies conducted in Tehrani populations.

Effects of chia seed (Salvia hispanica L.) supplementation on cardiometabolic health in overweight subjects: a systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs.

Background: Obesity is a significant public health issue associated with various chronic diseases. Research has indicated that chia seeds have the potential to improve cardiometabolic health. However, due to the diversity of research and inconsistencies in study design, further investigation is needed to fully understand their clinical effects on overweight individuals.

The association between dietary antioxidant quality score and intensity and frequency of migraine headaches among women: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Migraine is an episodic disorder and a frequent form of headache. An impaired balance between free radical production and an impaired antioxidant defense system leading to oxidative damage may play a major role in migraine etiology. We sought to investigate whether dietary antioxidant quality score (DAQS) is associated with migraine intensity and frequency among women suffering from migraine.

Burden of aortic aneurysm in Iran from 1990 to 2019: an analysis based on global burden of disease study.

Background: Limited studies have been conducted on the epidemiology of aortic aneurysms in Iran. In this study, the authors aimed to comprehensively evaluate the burden and epidemiology of aortic aneurysms across various age groups, sexes, and provinces in Iran from 1990 to 2019.

Materials And Methods: The authors used global burden of disease (GBD) study data in the current study.

PET radiomics-based lymphovascular invasion prediction in lung cancer using multiple segmentation and multi-machine learning algorithms.

The current study aimed to predict lymphovascular invasion (LVI) using multiple machine learning algorithms and multi-segmentation positron emission tomography (PET) radiomics in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, offering new avenues for personalized treatment strategies and improving patient outcomes. One hundred and twenty-six patients with NSCLC were enrolled in this study. Various automated and semi-automated PET image segmentation methods were applied, including Local Active Contour (LAC), Fuzzy-C-mean (FCM), K-means (KM), Watershed, Region Growing (RG), and Iterative thresholding (IT) with different percentages of the threshold.

community-acquired necrotizing pneumonia, an uncommon presentation of a common pathogen: A case report and literature review.

Community-acquired necrotizing pneumonia is a rare but potentially fatal infection, mainly caused by specific pathogens such as , , , , and . is extremely rare as a pathogen for community-acquired necrotizing pneumonia, typically accompanied with bloodstream infection. Here, we report an unusual case of a 60-year-old man with uncontrolled diabetes mellitus and no bloodstream infections, who had severe necrotizing pneumonia leading to massive hemoptysis and death.

New insights into potential biomarkers and their roles in biological processes associated with hepatitis C-related liver cirrhosis by hepatic RNA-seq-based transcriptome profiling.

Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is a major cause of mortality due to liver cirrhosis globally. Despite the advances in recent therapeutic strategies, there is yet a high burden of HCV-related cirrhosis worldwide concerning low coverage of newly developed antiviral therapies, insufficient validity of the current diagnostic methods for cirrhosis, and incomplete understanding of the pathogenesis in this stage of liver disease. Hence we aimed to clarify the molecular events in HCV-related cirrhosis and identify a liver-specific gene signature to potentially improve diagnosis and prognosis of the disease.

Minimal important difference of Berg Balance Scale, performance-oriented mobility assessment and dynamic gait index in chronic stroke survivors.

Objective: The Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Performance-Oriented Mobility Assessment (POMA), and Dynamic Gait Index (DGI) are crucial standard tools used to evaluate functional balance. However, their minimal important difference (MID) threshold is yet to be established. The objective of this research was to explore the MID for BBS, POMA, and DGI in people suffering from chronic stroke.

lncRNA TUG1 transcript levels and psychological disorders: insights into interplay of glycemic index and glycemic load.

Background: There is an association between obesity and psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, and stress. Environmental factors and genetics play a crucial role in this regard. Several long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in the pathophysiology of the nervous system.

Association of social capital and adherence to a Mediterranean diet in adults living in Tehran: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Understanding the role of social capital in adherence to the Mediterranean diet can inform interventions to promote healthier eating habits in Iranian adults.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Dietary intake was assessed using a 168-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire.