Objective(s) The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of CEE, tibolone, and DHEA for prevention of menopausal symptoms. Method(s) One hundred patients with surgical menopause were included in this study: 25 of whom were not treated with any HRT, 25 were treated with 0.625 mg of CEE, 25 were treated with 2.5 mg of tibolone, and 25 were treated with 25 mg of DHEA for 1 year, and the results were statistically analyzed regarding drug efficacy and side effects at follow-up periods of 1, 6 and 12 months. Result(s) Frequency of menopausal symptoms was significantly less in cases received with CEE, tibolone, DHEA with p values 0.001, 0.004 and 0.004, respectively. Percentage gain in BMD was 2.8 % with CEE at lumbar spine, which was greater than that caused by DHEA and tibolone, but this difference was not statistically significant. CEE caused side effects like headache (40 %) and nausea (28 %). Conclusion(s) CEE, Tibolone, and DHEA are very effective in alleviating climacteric symptoms. CEE has beneficial effects on lipid and bone and is a low-cost drug but frequently causes side effects. Tibolone offers beneficial androgenic effects on mood and libido with fewer side effects but is a costly drug. DHEA shows positive effects on psychological symptoms. However, its cost and androgenic side effects limit its use as long-term HRT.

HIV/AIDS continues to pose an enormous burden on global health. Current HIV therapeutics include inhibitors that target the enzymes HIV protease, reverse transcriptase, and integrase, along with viral entry inhibitors that block the initial steps of HIV infection by preventing membrane fusion or virus-coreceptor interactions. With regard to the latter, peptides derived from the HIV coreceptor CCR5 were previously shown to modestly inhibit entry of CCR5-tropic HIV strains, with a peptide containing residues 178-191 of the second extracellular loop (peptide 2C) showing the strongest inhibition. Here we use an iterative approach of amino acid scanning at positions shown to be important for binding the HIV envelope, and recombining favorable substitutions to greatly improve the potency of 2C. The most potent candidate peptides gain neutralization breadth and inhibit CXCR4 and CXCR4/CCR5-using viruses, rather than CCR5-tropic strains only. We found that gains in potency in the absence of toxicity were highly dependent on amino acid position and residue type. Using virion capture assays we show that 2C and the new peptides inhibit capture of CD4-bound HIV-1 particles by antibodies whose epitopes are located in or around variable loop 3 (V3) on gp120. Analysis of antibody binding data indicates that interactions between CCR5 ECL2-derived peptides and gp120 are localized around the base and stem of V3 more than the tip. In the absence of a high-resolution structure of gp120 bound to coreceptor CCR5, these findings may facilitate structural studies of CCR5 surrogates, design of peptidomimetics with increased potency, or use as functional probes for further study of HIV-1 gp120-coreceptor interactions.

Objective(s):To evaluate the effectiveness of uterine balloon therapy for the treatment of menorrhagia and to determine its prognostic factors. Method(s): Seventy five patients were treated with uterine balloon therapy with thermachoice II for intractable menorrhagia without detectable pathology and the results were statistically analyzed regarding procedure efficacy, safety, side effects and prognostic factors at follow-up periods of one month, three months, six months and 12 months. Results(s): After undergoing uterine balloon therapy, 41.30% patients attained eumenorrhea, 30.43% hypomenorrhea and 15.21% amenorrhea at the end of 12 months follow-up. Retroverted uterus, prolonged duration of menstruation, endometrial thickness of at least 9mm and uterine depth >10 cm were associated with an increased risk of treatment failure. Conclusion(s): Uterine balloon therapy is an efficient and reliable modality to treat women with intractable menorrhagia especially those who have completed their families but do not want to part with their uterus which of course is without any organic pathology.

Purpose:Most cases of optic neuritis are idiopathic or are associated with multiple sclerosis. We present a case in which a young female developed post-infectious left optic neuritis following herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE).Case Report:A 24-year-old female presented with a severe headache, fever, and malaise of a one-week duration. Viral encephalitis was diagnosed and treated; intravenous acyclovir (750 mg every 8 h) was administered for 14 days. The patient improved clinically and was prescribed oral valacyclovir (1,000 mg, three times daily) for an additional 3 months as an outpatient. The patient presented again four weeks after the initial admission with left periocular pain and other typical manifestations of optic neuritis. We diagnosed post-infectious left optic neuritis following viral encephalitis. Corticosteroid therapy with 250 mg intravenous methylprednisolone every 6 hours was initiated and the patient showed rapid significant recovery.Conclusion:This case report highlights the patient's clinical course and includes a brief history of the systemic effects of HSE, as well as the pathophysiology, management, and differential diagnosis of post-encephalitic optic neuritis. We suggest that clinicians should routinely perform an ophthalmologic examination during the follow-up visits of such patients.