Parvin Mansouri

It is estimated that 15 percent of individuals with diabetes mellitus suffer from diabetic ulcers worldwide. The aim of this study is to present a non-thermal atmospheric plasma treatment as a novel therapy for diabetic wounds. The plasma consists of ionized helium gas that is produced by a high-voltage (8 kV) and high-frequency (6 kHz) power supply. Diabetes was induced in rats via an intravascular injection of streptozotocin. The plasma was then introduced to artificial xerograph wounds in the rats for 10 minutes. Immunohistochemistry assays was performed to determine the level of transforming growth factor (TGF-β1) cytokine. The results showed a low healing rate in the diabetic wounds compared with the wound-healing rate in non-diabetic animals (P < 0.05). Moreover, the results noted that plasma enhanced the wound-healing rate in the non-diabetic rats (P < 0.05), and significant wound contraction occurred after the plasma treatment compared with untreated diabetic wounds (P...

One of the important and distressing cutaneous side effects of steroid therapy is skin atrophy, which has no definite and effective treatment. To the best of our knowledge, laser therapy for steroid-induced atrophic scars has not been investigated to date. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of pulsed dye laser in the treatment of steroid-induced atrophic scars. In this pilot study, 15 patients with at least one atrophic patch were treated with the 585-nm pulsed dye laser at 4-week interval sessions until achieving complete improvement or until patient were lost to follow-up. Clinical outcome was assessed via standard photographic method before each treatment session and after the final visit. An independent dermatologist evaluated the photographs. All of the patients (13 females and two males) with 25-59 years of age experienced some degree of improvement, except one patient who withdrew from the treatment after three sessions. The treatment was well tolerated. The results of our study indicated that pulsed dye laser therapy could be employed as a new method in the treatment of steroid-induced atrophic scars. Pulsed dye laser might affect the lesions through inducing collagen deposition and production of more superficial dermal elastin as well as less unidirectional collagen in clusters.

ABSTRACT In this paper, we will extend the joint model of longitudinal biomarker and recurrent event via copula function for accounting the dependence between the two processes. The general idea of joining separate processes by allowing model-specific random effect may come from different families distribution. It is a main advantage of the proposed method that a copula construction does not constrain the choice of marginal distributions of random effects. A maximum likelihood estimation with importance sampling technique as a simple and easy understanding method is employed to model inference. To evaluate and verify the validation of the proposed joint model, a bootstrapping method as a model-based resampling is developed. Our proposed joint model is also applied to pemphigus disease data for assessing the effect of biomarker trajectory on risk of recurrence.

This study was carried out to show possible similarities between discoid lupus erythematosus clinical signs and histopathological findings and dermatophytosis. A 43-year-old woman with diffused erythematous scaling lesions on her neck was studied. Skin biopsy was performed using H&E and PAS staining. Direct microscopic examination and mycological culture of specimens were done as well. Histopathological examination suggested she was suffering from discoid lupus erythematosus; however mycological findings confirmed Trichophyton verrucosum as the etiologic agent of lesions. She was successfully treated with oral terbinafine and clotrimazole cream. Regarding to the results of this study, there are some similarities between dermatophytosis and skin infections such as discoid lupus erythematosus.

The association of dermatophytes with atopic patients and improvement in allergic signs with antifungal treatment suggest a possible link between chronic infection and atopy. The purpose of this study was to determine skin reactivity and serum IgE antibody responses in patients with chronic and acute dermatophytosis. One hundred and sixty-three patients with chronic dermatophytosis, 35 patients with acute dermatophytosis, 41 atopic patients and 49 healthy subjects were enrolled in this study. Sensitization to Trichophyton mentagrophytes (T. mentagrophytes), Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus antigens has been evaluated in patients by skin prick test (SPT) and by the presence of specific IgE antibody in enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA). Positive immediate hypersensitivity (IH) reactions were obtained in 95.1% of the atopic patients with chronic infection for T. mentagrophytes, representing a significant difference from other patient groups (P < 0.05). Specificant...