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Akram Ghobadi,1 Pegah Ahmadi Sarbarzeh,2 Milad Jalilian,2 Alireza Abdi,1 Sara Manouchehri3 1Nursing Department, Nursing and Midwifery School, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran; 2Nursing Department, Nursing and Midwifery School, Student Research Committee, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran; 3Biostatistics Department, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, IranCorrespondence: Pegah Ahmadi SarbarzehNursing Department, Nursing and Midwifery School, Student Research Committee, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, IranTel +98 930 1946547Email Ahmadi.pegah554@yahoo.comIntroduction: Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease characterized by high blood sugar (BS) levels and the change in the metabolism of lipids, carbohydrates, and insulin resistance, and is one of the main causes of disability and mortality worldwide. Among the different types of complications, which have many negative effects on personal and social life, diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is very important. This study aims to investigate the factors affecting the severity of DFU among patients with diabetes.Methods: The study participants included 190 diabetic patients with a diagnosis of DFU. Data were collected using a two-part questionnaire for self-care awareness and functions in diabetic patients and Wagner’s scale. The questionnaire was answered in cooperation with patients and the Wagner’s score was estimated by a wound supervisor in the diabetes center.Results: There was 109 women (57.4%). Twenty-six patients had other diabetic complications as well as DFU. The average score of awareness in patients was 6.99± 2.76 and the function was 62.22± 9.92. The results found a direct relation between the age and the duration of illness with the score of the patient’s awareness (P=0.008, P=0.000). There was also a direct relation between the level of education with score of awareness and the score of function in self-care (P=0.000, P=0.000), but the statistical results did not find any relation between awareness and the function in self-care of patients with the severity of DFU (P> 0.05).Discussion: There was no relation between the self-care awareness and function with severity of DFU (P> 0.05) that can be due to the more relation between DFU severity with hygiene and physical factors after the disease and the effect of awareness and function would be only in the incidence of the DFU.Conclusion: Awareness and function of patients in self-care is less than average. Increasing awareness of patients and empowering them through appropriate training can be effective in preventing diabetic foot ulcers.Keywords: diabetes, diabetic foot ulcer, diabetes complications

Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine follow a multidisciplinary attitude to the expansion and application of new materials for the treatment of different tissue defects. Typically, proper tissue regeneration is accomplished through concurrent biocompatibility and positive cellular activity. This can be resulted by the smart selection of platforms among bewildering arrays of structural possibilities with various porosity properties (ie, pore size, pore connectivity, etc). Among diverse porous structures, zeolite is known as a microporous tectosilicate that can potentially provide a biological microenvironment in tissue engineering applications. In addition, zeolite has been particularly appeared promising in wound dressing and bone- and tooth-oriented scaffolds. The wide range of composition and hierarchical pore structure renders the zeolitic materials a unique character, particularly, for tissue engineering purposes. Despite such unique features, research on zeolitic platforms for tissue engineering has not been classically presented. In this review, we overview, classify, and categorize zeolitic platforms employed in biological and tissue engineering applications., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2020 The Authors. MedComm published by Sichuan International Medical Exchange & Promotion Association (SCIMEA) and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Background: To test the hypothesis that in profile smiling view, for ideal aesthetics, a tangent to the labial face of the maxillary central incisor crowns should be approximately parallel to the true vertical line and thereby perpendicular to the true horizontal line., Methods: An idealized female image was created with computer software and manipulated using the same software to construct an "ideal" female profile image with proportions, and linear and angular soft tissue measurements, based on currently accepted criteria for idealized Caucasian profiles. The maxillary incisor labial face tangent was altered in 5° increments from 70 to 120°, creating a range of images, shown in random order to 70 observers (56 lay people and 14 clinicians), who ranked the images from the most to the least attractive. The main outcome was the preference ranks of image attractiveness given by the observers., Results: The most attractive inclination of a tangent to the labial face of the maxillary incisor crowns in profile view in relation to the true horizontal line was 85°, i.e. 5° retroclined from a perpendicular 90° inclination. The most attractive range appears to be between 80 and 90°. Excessive proclination appeared to be less desirable than retroclination. Beyond 105° most observers recommend treatment., Conclusion: In natural head position, the ideal inclination of the maxillary incisor crown labial face tangent in profile view will be approximately parallel to the true vertical line and thereby approximately perpendicular to the true horizontal line., Competing Interests: Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Skin is the outermost covering of the human body and at the same time the largest organ comprising 15% of body weight and 2 m 2 surface area. Skin plays a key role as a barrier against the outer environment depending on its thickness, color and structure, which differ from one site to another. The four major types of problematic wounds include ulcers (diabetic, venous, pressure) and burn wounds. Developing novel dressings helps us to improve the wound healing process in difficult patients. Recent advances in regenerative medicine and nanotechnology are revolutionizing the field of wound healing. Antimicrobial activity, exogenous cell therapy, growth factor delivery, biodegradable and biocompatible matrix construction, all play a role in hi-tech dressing design. In the present review, we discuss how the principles of regenerative medicine and nanotechnology can be combined in innovative wound dressings.

Aim: Circulating cell free (ccf) DNA contains information about mutations affecting chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The complexity of isolating DNA from plasma inhibits the development of point-of-care diagnostics. Here, we introduce an electrokinetic method that enables rapid recovery of DNA from plasma., Materials & Methods: ccf-DNA was isolated from 25 µl of CLL plasma using dielectrophoresis. The DNA was used for PCR amplification, sequencing and analysis., Results: The ccf-DNA collected from plasma of 5 CLL patients revealed identical mutations to those previously identified by extracting DNA from CLL cells from the same patients., Conclusion: Rapid dielectrophoresis isolation of ccf-DNA directly from plasma provides sufficient amounts of DNA to use for identification of point mutations in genes associated with CLL progression., Competing Interests: Financial & competing interests disclosure The DEP technology used in the study was the result of original research carried out by the MJ Heller laboratory at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center under NIH NCI NanoTumor Center Grant (U54-CA119335). The work was also funded in part by NIH SBIR grant 1R43CA183414-01. Other than MJ Heller who is on the Scientific Advisory Board of Biological Dynamics (La Jolla, CA), no other authors have any relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Background: Magnetic Nanoparticles (MNP) have been used for contrast enhancement in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). In recent years, research on the use of ferrite nanoparticles in T2 contrast agents has shown a great potential application in MR imaging. In this work, Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 and Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4-DMSA magnetic nanoparticles, CZF-MNPs and CZF-MNPs-DMSA, were investigated as MR imaging contrast agents., Methods: Cobalt zinc ferrite nanoparticles and their suitable coating, DMSA, were investigated under in vitro condition. Human prostate cancer cell lines (DU145 and PC3) with bare (uncoated) and coated magnetic nanoparticles were investigated as nano-contrast MR imaging agents., Results: Using T2-weighted MR images identified that signal intensity of bare and coated MNPs was enhanced with increasing concentration of MNPs in water. The values of 1/T2 relaxivity (r2) for bare and coated MNPs were found to be 88.46 and 28.80 (mM (-1) s(-1)), respectively., Conclusion: The results show that bare and coated MNPs are suitable as T2-weighted MR imaging contrast agents. Also, the obtained r2/r1 values (59.3 and 50) for bare and coated MNPs were in agreement with the results of other previous relevant works.

Background: Circulating cell-free DNA (ccf-DNA) is becoming an important biomarker for cancer diagnostics and therapy monitoring. The isolation of ccf-DNA from plasma as a "liquid biopsy" may begin to replace more invasive tissue biopsies for the detection and analysis of cancer-related mutations. Conventional methods for the isolation of ccf-DNA from plasma are costly, time-consuming, and complex, preventing the use of ccf-DNA biomarkers for point-of-care diagnostics and limiting other biomedical research applications., Methods: We used an AC electrokinetic device to rapidly isolate ccf-DNA from 25 μL unprocessed blood. ccf-DNA from 15 chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients and 3 healthy individuals was separated into dielectrophoretic (DEP) high-field regions, after which other blood components were removed by a fluidic wash. Concentrated ccf-DNA was detected by fluorescence and eluted for quantification, PCR, and DNA sequencing. The complete process, blood to PCR, required <10 min. ccf-DNA was amplified by PCR with immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region (IGHV)-specific primers to identify the unique IGHV gene expressed by the leukemic B-cell clone, and then sequenced., Results: PCR and DNA sequencing results obtained by DEP from 25 μL CLL blood matched results obtained by use of conventional methods for ccf-DNA isolation from 1 mL plasma and for genomic DNA isolation from CLL patient leukemic B cells isolated from 15-20 mL blood., Conclusions: Rapid isolation of ccf-DNA directly from a drop of blood will advance disease-related biomarker research, accelerate the transition from tissue to liquid biopsies, and enable point-of-care diagnostic systems for patient monitoring.