Objective:This study aims to assess the relationship between body mass index (BMI) of children and that of their parents in a nationally-representative sample of Iranian population.Methods:This cross-sectional nationwide study was conducted in 2011-2012 among 6-18-year-old students and their parents living in 30 provinces of Iran. Socio-demographic information was collected. The BMI values of the children/adolescents were categorized according to the World Health Organization reference curves. Association between parental and student weight status was examined using ordinal regression models after adjustment for potential confounders.Results:Overall, 23043 children and adolescents and one of their parents participated in this study (50.7% boys, 73.4% urban status). Mean age of the subjects was 12.55±3.31 years. Mean BMI values of parents and children/adolescents were 27.0±4.57 and 18.8±4.4 kg/m2, respectively. After adjusting for confounders, overweight and/or obesity in students of both genders was found to be significantly associated with parental overweight and/or obesity. In those students who had obese parents, the odds ratio (OR) of being obese was 2.79 for boys [OR=2.79; 95% confidence interval (CI)=2.44-3.20] and 3.46 for girls (OR=3.46; 95% CI=3.03-3.94) compared to their peers with normal-weight parents. Boys with overweight parents were 1.7 times more overweight than their counterparts with normal-weight parents (OR=1.70; 95% CI=1.15-1.92). Similarly, girls who had overweight parents were more overweight compared to those with normal-weight parents (OR=2.00; 95% CI=1.77-2.25).Conclusion:Our findings highlight the importance of the shared family environment as a multi-factorial contributor to the childhood obesity epidemic and the necessity of implementing family-centered preventive programs.

Medical imaging modalities are used for different types of cancer detection and diagnosis. Recently, there have been a lot of studies on developing novel nanoparticles as new medical imaging contrast agents for the early detection of cancer. The aim of this review article is to categorize the medical imaging modalities accompanying with using nanoparticles to improve potential imaging for cancer detection and hence valuable therapy in the future. Nowadays, nanoparticles are becoming potentially transformative tools for cancer detection for a wide range of imaging modalities, including computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging, single photon emission CT, positron emission tomography, ultrasound, and optical imaging. The study results seen in the recent literature provided and discussed the diagnostic performance of imaging modalities for cancer detections and their future directions. With knowledge of the correlation between the application of nanoparticles and medical imaging modalities and with the development of targeted contrast agents or nanoprobes, they may provide better cancer diagnosis in the future.

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Iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) possess unique physicochemical properties which make them great for biomedical applications. This study reports the development of gold (Au) coated Fe3O4 (Au-Fe3O4 NPs) for photothermal therapy to eradicate breast cancer cells (MCF-7). The spherical shape of monodisperse Au-Fe3O4 NPs with an average size of 20.8 nm was confirmed by TEM. The cell viability evaluation of Au-Fe3O4 NPs showed negligible toxicity toward MCF-7 cells after 24 h. Significant cell reduction was observed for MCF-7 (73.9%) cells following photothermal therapy at highest concentration of NPs (50 μgFe/ml) for 10 minutes illumination when compared with other intervention groups. It can be concluded that, the synthesized Au-Fe3O4 NPs is an effective and promising photothermal therapy agent for breast cancer treatment.

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