Eslicarbazepine acetate (ESL) is a new, once daily, orally administered, third generation antiepileptic drug which is indicated in the treatment of partial-onset seizures. ESL is known to exert it’s anticonvulsant effect by blocking the voltage-gated sodium channels. Several clinical trials and pharmacological studies have revealed that seizure control was better with ESL monotherapy (1 200 or 1 600 mg once daily) following a switch from other antiepileptic drugs in comparison with pseudo-placebo patients. The studies have indicated the ESL to be well tolerated and produced only mild to moderate emergent adverse events with the therapy. Being a dibenzazepine family member, structure and chemistry of ESL resembles more or less to carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine. ESL differs structurally from carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine at the 10, 11 position of dibenazepine nucleus. This molecular variation results in differences in metabolism and thus helps to prevent the formation of toxic epoxide metabolites. ESL following oral administration is rapidly metabolised to active metabolite namely S-licarbazepine which is responsible for its pharmacological activity. ESL exhibits acceptable pharmacokinetic profile and shows insignificant drug-drug interactions. In phase III clinical program, ESL was found to be efficacious and well tolerated in adult patients with partial onset seizures previously not controlled with treatment with one or two other antiepileptic drugs.

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Etiology of nephrotic syndrome is somewhat complex in nature. It may range from primary to secondary forms. Nephrotic syndrome patients often need immunosuppressive treatment although it has some side effects and may lead to renal disease which may be acute or severe. This review deals with herbal treatment and other recent approaches for treating symptoms of nephrotic syndrome.

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Objective: To determine the incidence, epidemiology and demography of acute animal bites referred to Abdanan health centers in the years 2009 to 2013. Methods: This study was a descriptive analytical research. Questionnaires for each case of acute animal bite was completed. Data about age, gender, kind of animal, residency, site of bite, etc taken from Abdanan health centers were analyzed. Data were analyzed in SPSS by using descriptive statistics. Results: Total number of exposed persons to acute animal bites was reported 67 in 2009 and 69 in 2013. The average incidence rate was 1.2 per 1 000 population. Bites were frequent among the age group of 20-30 years. Most of the cases were self-employment. Around 83.8% of cases were bitten by dogs. Of total 309 studied patients, 73.8% were male. Feet (71.5%) and hands (22.7%) were the most common body part affected. About 53.1% of cases were in rural population. Conclusions: Dogs seems to play a very important role in the epidemiology of rabies in Abdanan, Iran. No cases of human rabies were observed in our study. This may be because of increasing public awareness and the upgrading of health and treatment centers, all of which in study region provide post-exposure anti-rabies treatment including vaccination, immunoglobulin and wound washing.

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Paraquat (PQ, methyl viologen) was widely used in agricultural production throughout the world in 1962 for its efficient herbicidal activity. PQ was also highly toxic drug. About 5 mL medicine including 20% paraquat was life-threatening that can cause poisoning. In 1966, some people died because of PQ poisoning. Most patients had acute respiratory distress syndrome after 2 wk, and 70% of them died due to the lack of effective detoxification drugs. Thus, it was particularly important to understand the pathogenesis of PQ poisoning and give some effective treatments. This article will review the toxicological mechanism and treatment on PQ poisoning of acute lung injury.

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Acute lung injury (ALI) is a common complication of sepsis with characteristics of acute onset, rapid change in the disease and high mortality. Since current clinical treatment can only alleviate the unfavorable condition to a certain extent but cure, we urgently need to find an effective treatment. Most scholars believe that sepsis-induced ALI is associated with extensive mitochondrial damage. In recent years, a widely studied pluripotent stem cell that is mesenchymal stem cell has been proved to alleviate and treat sepsis-induced ALI by transporting mitochondria via nanotubes in a microtubule-dependent manner. Research progress in this field will be reviewed in this study.

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Objective: To assess the relation between acute gastrointestinal disease and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infections. Methods: Over the 18-month period, a total of 323 patients referred to three hospitals in Babol (north of Iran) were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. H. pylori status (rapid urease test), endoscopic findings in the patients, personal habits (smoking or alcohol intake) and administration of drugs, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were analyzed using standard Chi-square test and multinomial logistic regression analysis. Results: Results showed that acute gastric ulcer patients had a significant association with alcohol (P=0.001, OR=6.183), opium (P=0.022, OR=2.823), smoking (P=0.016, OR=2.579) and NSAIDs (P=0.046, OR=2.071). However, patients with in acute duodenal ulcer have a significant association with opium (P=0.023, OR=2.326) and alcohol (P=0.003, OR=3.888). As well as, gastric cancer had significant association with alcohol (P<0.05, OR=6.937), smoking (P=0.012, OR=2.738), family history (P=0.005, OR=4.380) and gender (P≤0.05, OR=5.103). Conclusions: Current investigation shows that H. pylori infection, alcoholism, male gender, age and family history have an additive impact on the incidence of gastric cancer. In addition, alcoholism, opium usage, NSAIDs and family history have more impact on the incidence of acute gastric ulcer and acute duodenal ulcer in patients.

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Objective: To assess the utility and relative strength of markedly abnormal vital signs thresholds (triggers) in prediction of the needs for intensive care unit (ICU) admission from the emergency department (ED). Methods: A retrospective cohort study performed in a 37 000 annual visit, urban, community teaching ED. All adult patient encounters from July 10, 2011 to July 9, 2013 were eligible for inclusion. The primary outcome was ICU admission from the ED. We collected the incidence of trigger vital signs (heart rate>130 bpm, heart rate<40 bpm, respiratory rate>30 breaths per minute, respiratory rate< breaths 8 per minute, oxygen saturation<90%, systolic blood pressure<90 mmHg) as binary variables for each patient enrolled. Univariate and multi-variable logistic regression models were created to determine the ability of the trigger vital signs to predict ICU admission. Results: Total of 68 554 patient encounters were included in the analysis. Of these, 2 355 [3.4%, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 3.3%-3.6%] patients exhibited trigger vital signs, and 1 135 (1.7%, 95% CI 1.6%-1.8%) patients were admitted to ICU. All trigger vital signs were strongly associated with admission to the ICU and demonstrated higher odds of ICU admission with HR<40 (odds ratio 5.2, with 95% CI 2.7-10.1) being the best predictor among the studied covariates. The likelihood of ICU admission increased in a linear fashion with the number of trigger vital signs exhibited. Conclusions: Trigger vital signs serve as predictors that an ED patient may need admission to the ICU and may serve as a tool to expedite disposition of these resource-intensive patients.

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Objective: To compare surgical outcomes of acute acetabular transverse fracture using ilioinguinal and Stoppa approach. Methods: Twenty five patients who managed with ilioinguinal approach (group A) at a mean follow-up of (32.3±4.6) mo and 30 patients who managed with Stoppa approach (group B) at a mean follow-up of (29.7±3.8) mo were prospectively reviewed. The study was approved by the hospital ethical review committee (IRB approval no: 0189-2007). Patients were called for routine follow up and follow-up durations were set. End points of the study were: (1) blood loss was measured intraoperatively by measuring the blood loss in the suction drain and counting blood stained gauze and postoperatively by assessing hemoglobin after 6 h of surgery; (2) functional outcome was demonstrated using the Harris hip score; (3) reduction quality and radiological results were demonstrated by Matta scoring system. Results: Mean blood loss (intraoperatively + postoperatively) was (1 175.8±310.2) mL and (1 115.7±285.1) mL in patients operated with ilioinguinal and Stoppa approach, respectively. Mean operative time was (242.3±60.8) min and (198.9±50.3) min in patients operated with ilioinguinal and Stoppa approach, respectively. Functional outcome, radiological outcome and reduction quality showed no significant difference between two approaches. Complication rate was 36.0% in group A (9 patients) and 13.3% in group B (4 patients). Conclusions: Our study concludes that Stoppa approach allows less blood loss and operative time with fewer complications.

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