Background:Sarcopenia describes the inevitable deterioration in muscle mass and strength that accompanies biological aging. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of resistance training (RT) on quadriceps hypertrophy and related biochemistry in sarcopenic and healthy elderly men.Methods:A total of 31 elderly men (55–70 years old) were classified as sarcopenic and nonsarcopenic and were divided into two groups. Both groups participated in a progressive RT program for 8 weeks.Results:Data indicated that the strength in the sarcopenic group increased more than the healthy group (P < 0.05). Quadriceps cross-sectional area also increased more in the healthy group (P < 0.05). Myostatin concentration decreased in both groups after training (P < 0.05). Follistatin and testosterone increased in the healthy group; in contrast, only testosterone increased in the sarcopenic group after training (P < 0.05).Conclusions:The findings from this study suggest that RT improves muscle cross-sectional area and biomarker-related muscle loss in both healthy and sarcopenic elderly men. The findings also demonstrate that growth factor profiles at baseline and changes in testosterone levels play an important role in muscle hypertrophy observed in both groups.

Background:Hemoptysis is the expectorating of blood from the tracheobronchial tree or pulmonary parenchyma. There is conflicting information about usefulness of radiography, MDCT, and bronchoscopy for investigating site and cause of the bleeding in patients with hemoptysis. The present study attempted to evaluated efficacy of these methods for identifying hemoptysis’ cause and etiology on 40 patients with the disease.Methods:A total of 40 patients with Hemoptysis who were referred to Golestan and Emam Khomeini hospitals were evaluated. Complete history of symptoms, volume and duration of Hemoptysis and demographic information were documented. Radiography, MDCT, and bronchoscopy were performed on all patients in order to investigate the site and cause of the bleeding.Results:Results showed MDCT had higher efficacy in identifying bleeding site than radiography, while efficacy of radiography and bronchoscopy or efficacy of MDCT and bronchoscopy weren’t significantly different. In addition, sensitivity of MDCT (60%) for detecting cause of the bleeding was higher than that of radiography (25%) and bronchoscopy (32.5%).Conclusion:The present study suggests MDCT as a suitable method in screening patients with hemoptysis, because it managed to detect site and causes of bleeding more efficiently than other methods. Additionally, we concluded that MDCT is an appropriate technique for diagnosing malignancies that cause hemoptysis in patients.

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Introduction: Electrical impedance of tissues on low frequencies includes useful information about functional and structural changes in tissues. This property is used in Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) imaging modality for the detection of lesions in tissues.Objective: The goal of this article is to study changes in electrical impedance of tissues in the presence of gold nanoparticles.Materials and Methods: Spherical gold nanoparticles with size of 20-25 nm were synthesized with Turkevich method. Size distribution and shape of nanoparticles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Electrical impedance of two types of phantoms (chicken fat and muscle paste tissues) was measured by 4-electrode method with and without gold nanoparticles.Results: Results demonstrate a reduction in electrical impedance of tissues in the presence of gold nanoparticles. However, this reduction is not the same for fat and muscle tissues. Reductions in resistive impedance are  for fat and muscle tissues on the frequency of 1 KHz, respectively. A reduction in electrical impedance is accompanied by a rise in electrical conductance leading to increase in EIT signal.Conclusion: As signal enhancement is different for fat and muscle tissues; presence of gold nanoparticles could be used to improve EIT image contrast.

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