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Background: Surgical sutures are sterile filaments to support the healing process. Also Suture as a major part of surgical site management can challenge surgical wound healing. The objective of the current study was to prevent surgical site infection by creating a new antibacterial silk-nano cefixime suture. Methods: The silk suture became silk-nano cefixime suture by immersing in the 1, 2, and 3 wt % cefixime solutions. The antibacterial activity of silk-nano cefixime suture was tested on E. coli (ATCC25922). The healing effect of silk-nano cefixime suture was evaluated by H&E staining sections and compared between the control and treated groups on days 3, 8 and 14. The obtained quantitative data were presented as mean ± standard deviation. In order to compare the mean of quantitative variables between the studied groups, general linear model of statistical analysis test and 3-D SPSS charts were used (P ≤ 0.05). Results: The inhibition zone diameter of E. coli (ATCC25922) was 25 mm and no statistically significant difference was found between the healing properties (P≥.05). There was a significant difference in the mean of Polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) and macrophage infiltration between the control and treated groups on day 8 (p≤ 0.05). Conclusion: Our data indicate that silk-nano cefixime suture has the potential to reduce the risk of surgical site infections. Finally, it is strongly recommended to introduce silk-nano cefixime suture as a reliable substitute for current surgical sutures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: A varicocele is the abnormal dilation and tortuosity of venous plexus above the testicles. The pattern of abnormal heat distribution in the scrotum can be detected through thermal imaging, which is a distant, non-contact and non-invasive method. The aim of the present study is to detect and grade varicocele. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on 50 patients with high probability of varicocele, who referred to a hospital affiliated to the AJA University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. The evaluation procedure included thermal imaging, clinical diagnosis and ultrasound test. The gold standard method was based on ultrasound examination. The thermal imaging was performed using a non-contact infrared camera. Results: This paper presented two methods for diagnosing and grading varicocele. The first method was based on the patterns and models of thermal asymmetry in the testicles (including three asymmetric and symmetric patterns). The second method was based on the temperature differences. The obtained results demonstrated that the use of temperature differences in the diagnosis of varicocele was better than the other proposed method. In addition, a temperature difference of 0.5°C in the pampiniform venous plexus was an important indicator for the diagnosis of varicocele using thermal imaging. The accuracy of thermography in grading varicocele was 76%. Conclusion: According to the results of the study, thermography is a useful method for initial varicocele screening and can be applied as a supplement to other diagnostic techniques due to its low cost and lack of radiation exposure. Thermography was concluded to be a precise technique for the diagnosis of varicocele; however, its capability to determine the varicocele grading was comparatively low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The present study sought to investigate the effects of Tarantula cubensis extract (TC; Theranekron®) on the histopathological scores of peritoneal wound healing after laparotomy in the rats. Methods: This study was designed to investigate the effects of Theranekron on the peritoneal wound healing after wound creation, on days9, 14, 19, 24 and 29 post-injury in rats. Twenty-four mature Wister-albino male rats were randomly divided into two groups. In the experimental group, TC was repeatedly injected subcutaneously (SC) over the lesion 9, 14,19 and 24 days after laparotomy, whereas the control group received only normal saline by subcutaneous injection and then the animal groups were euthanized9, 14, 19, 24, and 29 days after wounding respectively by intravenous injections of pentobarbital (50 mg/kg). Finally, assessment of the peritoneal wound healing between the groups was carried out by histopathologic data and statistical tests as Mann-Whitney U, Wilcoxon W and Z Results: Histopathological examination indicated significant improvement in angiogenesis, re-epithelialization and less inflammatory response in comparison to control and also, revealed matured, compact and parallel deposition of collagen fibrils on day 29. So, at long term, treatment reduced the inflammation and increased the quality and rate of wound re- epithelialization compared to controls(P < 0.05). Furthermore, excluding the control group, rats exhibited the most pronounced effect on wound closure, with the statistically significant improvement in wound healing being seen at post-operative day 29. Moreover, collagen content on days 24 and 29 in the test group was found to be higher than in the healthy group. To warp up, treated groups had a significant increase in peritoneal wound healing area compared to the control group on all days (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Our results suggested that Theranekron have delivered a novel therapeutic route for wound treatment in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gastric Ulcer (GU) is the most prevalent gastrointestinal disorder induced by various factors and Non-Steroid Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) as one of the most common reasons. Due to the absence of appropriate molecular markers for GU, the aim of this study was to utilize a metabolomics approach in order to find potential metabolite markers for the disease. Methods: Stomach tissue samples from indomethacin-treated rats and normal controls were used to perform a 1H-NMR metabolomics study. The altered metabolites were identified using random forest multivariate analysis. Results: ROC curves showed that the random forest model had a good predictive performance with AUC of 1 for the test and 0.708 for the training sets. Seventeen differentially expressed metabolites were found between GU and normal tissue sample. These metabolites included trimethylamine, betaine, carnitine, methionine, acetylcho line, choline, N,N-Dimethylglycine, cis-aconitate, tryptophan, spermidine, acetylcarnitine, creatinine, pantothenate, taurine, isoleucine, glucose and kynurenine. Conclusion: The results of the study demonstrated that metabolomics approach could serve as a viable method to find potential markers for GU. Surely, further studies are needed for the validation of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Many research studies report the healing effects of Aloe Vera, thyroid hormone cream and silver sulfadiazine. However, the effects of these therapeutic agents are not well understood and have not been compared in one study. This study aimed at investigating the effects of topical application of an Aloe vera gel, a thyroid hormone cream and a silver sulfadiazine cream on the healing of skin wounds surgically induced in Wistar rats for determining the treatment of choice. In a randomized controlled trial, twelve male rats, aged 120 days and with a mean weight of 250 to 300 g, were divided randomly into 5 groups based on drug treatments: Aloe vera gel (AV), thyroid hormone cream (TC), silver sulfadiazine 1% (S), vehicle (V) and control. To evaluate the efficacy of each treatment technique, a biomechanical approach was used to assess tensile stress after 14 days of treatment. Tensile stress was significantly improved in the Aloe vera gel group as compared with the other four groups (P≤0.05). While the other treatment options resulted in better healing than the control group, this difference was not significant. We conclude that Aloe vera topical application accelerated the healing process more than thyroid hormone, silver sulfadiazine and vehicle in surgically induced incisions in rats.