SUMMARY OBJECTIVE; Compare the outcome of spinal deformity correction between Ti-Ti and CrCo-Ti rods for the treatment of spinal Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) using rods mentioned with all pedicle screws and translation technique. METHOD; 59 patients operated for spinal deformity (Lenke 1 or 2) AIS. The patients were divided into two groups by random allocation using Ti-Ti rods (n = 29) and CrCo-Ti rods (n = 30) and the alone difference among them in the surgical procedure was rod material (Ti-Ti or CrCo-Ti rods) and finally, radiological outcomes were compared preoperatively, postoperatively and at last follow-up for 12 months. RESULTS; Patients’ main curve correction after surgical procedure regardless type of rod was 48.95±11.04 (13-75) degree. Success rate of spinal deformity correction following surgical procedure regardless of type of administered rod was 86.76 ± 11.30 percent (62.5-100%). Mean of deformity correction rate was 91.49±10.67% using CrCo-Ti rods versus 81.86±9.88% using Ti-Ti rods (P-value=0.01). Angle change was 3.29±6.60 for kyphosis angle and 0.59±7.76 for lordosis angle. Rate of main curve correction was not significantly different considering patients’ gender (P-value0.657). Main curve correction success rate was in association with patients’ age and type of rod (P-value=0.054, r=-1.863 and P-value=0.001, r=8.865 respectively). CONCLUSION; CrCo-Ti rods have the ability to produce higher correction rates in AIS compared to Ti-Ti rod of the same diameter. CrCo-Ti rods provide significant and stable spinal correction, especially in correction of main curve. This rate was associated with patients’ age and type of rod administered but not gender.

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BackgroundAtherosclerosis accounts for a large proportion of cardiovascular system associated morbidity and mortality. We studied the possible association between the histopathological changes of the coronary atherosclerotic lesions and the risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) using autopsy cases.MethodsWe performed an autopsy analysis (n = 13, 4 women, 9 men mean age 67.5 years; age range 56–93 years) of SCD which occurred in patients aged over 50 years during March 2010 to December 2013. The following variables were considered: sex, age, medical history, autopsy findings to macroscopic and histological evaluation of the heart. The autopsies were performed according to standard techniques. In all subjects, the heart was dissected following standard autopsy protocol and a 5 cm section of the right coronary artery (RCA) in the atrio-ventricular groove from its origin, a 5 cm segment of the left anterior descending artery (LADA) distal to the origin of the circumflex artery, but including the region of origin of the circumflex branch and left coronary artery (LCA) from its origin till the circumflex branch were excised, dissected out, fixed in 10 % formalin, marked for identification and sent for histopathological analysis.ResultsAtherosclerotic plaques were identified in 6.5 % of specimens, 69.34 % of males and 30.66 % of female. Such plaques were typically concentric and more represented with necrosis, calcification, cholesterol crystals, and giant cells, as well as had a higher inflammatory cell count. Furthermore, intima and media thickness of coronary arteries were significantly higher in studied specimens with visualize the connective tissue layers of the adventitia and the fatty acid containing adipose cells in the periadventitial tissue. Furthermore, the degree of microscopic lesion of atherosclerosis increased proportionally with the increase in the intensity of lipid deposition and with the percentage of collagen in the atherosclerotic plaques.ConclusionIn this study, age estimate to be a risk factor for coronary atherosclerosis in individuals more than 50 years old and may be used to predict SCD. Altogether, an enhanced understanding of the pathobiologic processes responsible for atherosclerotic changes might allow for early identification of a high-risk coronary plaque and thereby provide a rationale for innovative diagnostic and/or therapeutic strategies for the management of coronary patients and prevention of acute coronary syndromes.

The early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma is challenging because it requires specific biomarkers. It has been determined that deregulation or dysfunction of microRNAs (miRNAs) could contribute to development of cancer. The aim of this research was to evaluate the main role of tissue miRNAs as prognostic biomarkers for early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. We used quantitative real-time PCR to evaluate the level of miR-148b and miR-25 expressions in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients and normal tissues and their relationship with clinicopathological features and survival in HCC patients. Quantitative real-time PCR was observed that median relative expression of miR-148b decreased in tumors tissue compared with normal tissues (P<0.05), while overexpression of miR-25 was observed in HCC tissues in comparison with normal tissues (P<0.003). The results suggested that the low level of miR-148b expression was remarkably related to tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage (stages III and IV; P=0.024) and vein invasion (P=0.032). Nevertheless, there was no significantly relationship of miR-148b expression with other clinical factors including sex (P = 0.612), age (P=0.536), size of tumor (P=0.513), and hepatic cirrhosis (P = 0.417). Moreover, increased level of miR-25 expression was remarkably associated with TNM stage (P=0.013). Kaplan-Meier survival and log-rank test confirm that shorter overall survival was strongly linked to decreased expression of miR-148b (P=0.004), while high expression of miR-25 was associated with shorter time survival than that patient with low level of miR-25 expression (P = 0.027). The result of multivariate Cox proportional hazards model suggested that low miR-148b expression, high miR-25 expression TNM stage, and vein invasion were independently related to poor survival of HCC patients in terms of miR-148b and miR-25 (Tables 3 and 4). Our results indicated that downregulation of miR-148b could play a role as an independent prognostic factor in patients with HCC. Furthermore, miR-25 can be as a prognostic marker and high expression of miR-25 has predictive value for poor prognosis in HCC patients.