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Diabetic neuropathy is the most common and bothersome diabetes mellitus complication, leading to considerable morbidity and mortality. The results of these studies and the importance of early detection and prevention of polyneuropathy in diabetic patients motivated the authors to carry out the present study. In this cross-sectional study all consecutive patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were referred to the Endocrinology Clinic at Golestan Hospital in Ahvaz, Iran. The Nihon Kochden gadget was utilized on all patients, who were all examined by an individual. Average sensory amplitude was defined as greater than 6 V for the sural nerve and greater than 15 V for the radial nerve. In the present investigation, a sural/radial nerve amplitude ratio greater than or equal to 21 % was considered normal. In total, 80 subjects were included in the analysis, there is a non-significant direct correlation between the sural nerve and sural/radial nerve amplitude ratio, to diagnose patients with and without neuropathy (p=0.625). Moreover, there is a non-significant direct correlation between the sural nerve and sural/radial nerve amplitude ratio with the body mass index of patients with diabetes, and this correlation is negligible (p>0.05). The findings demonstrated that sural/radial nerve amplitude ratio was a promising method for detecting neuropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes. In addition,, sural nerve and sural/ radial nerve amplitude ratio had a significant inversion relationship with age and duration of diabetes for detecting diabetic neuropathy in type 2 diabetes patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Chronic urticaria is a common skin condition that is manifested with erythematous or white edema, itching, and transient dermis with or without angioedema. Due to insufficient knowledge of the etiology of many of these chronic lesions, this study was performed to investigate some factors related to individual and laboratory indices of patients. METHODS: In this descriptive study, 210 patients (154 females and 54 males) with chronic urticaria referred to Asthma and Allergy Clinic of Ahvaz from September 2015 to February 2019 were evaluated. Routine tests were performed for all patients including blood cell count, antinuclear antibodies, thyroxine and thyroid stimulating hormones, antithyroperoxidase (TPO) and anti-thyroglobulin (Tg) antibodies, glutamate-oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT) and glutamate-pyruvate transaminase (GPT) enzymes, autologous serum skin test and stool test. FINDINGS: Of all patients, 166 (79%) had physical urticaria, 125 (59.5%) had atopy and 158 (75%) had angioedema. Autologous serum skin test with a frequency of more than 74.28% was positive in patients. Except for 3 patients (1.42%) with low serum levels of thyroid stimulating hormone and normal thyroxine (mild hypothyroidism) and 49 patients (23.33%) with abnormal increase in anti-thyroperoxidase and anti-thyroglobulin serum antibodies, the rest of the subjects (75.23%) were healthy. The results of anti-nuclear antibody and stool tests were also generally normal. CONCLUSION: Based on the results of this study, in order to diagnose patients with chronic urticaria with or without angioedema, it is necessary to perform autologous serum skin test and thyroid function tests along with detailed clinical examinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an important problem associated with significant mortality and morbidity and well known as a predominant bacterial pathogen. The aim of this study was to identify MRSA strains. In this study (June 2018 to June 2019) isolates of S. aureus were obtained from patients referred to teaching hospitals of Ahvaz, Iran. All isolates were confirmed by conventional microbiological methods. In following, antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST), MRSA screening, PCR detection of MRSA and LAMP assay were performed. Out of a total of 156 staphylococcal isolates, 126 isolates were identified as MRSA. Seventy-two (57.1%) MRSA isolates were recovered from wound. All MRSA isolates were sensitive to vancomycin, linezolid, teicoplanin, quinupristin-dalfopristin, and tigecycline. The results of LAMP showed 100% agreement with PCR. Sensitivity and specificity of the LAMP assays for the mecA genes were 100% and 100%, respectively. The LAMP assay is a rapid and simple method for the identifications of MRSA. Because of its performance without the need for specific instrumentation, this method can be easily employed in medical centers for the detection of mecA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the most important opportunistic challenging pathogens as a result of its ability to acquire resistance to broad range of antibiotics and cause a variety of severe nosocomial infections. We investigated the frequency of the aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes (AMEs) and oxacillinase genes among clinical isolates of A. baumannii collected from hospitalized patients in Imam Khomeini Hospital, Ahvaz city, Iran. This prospective cross-sectional study was performed on 80 clinical isolates of A. baumannii collected from patients referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ahvaz, Iran. Initial identification of isolates as A. baumannii was performed using conventional bacteriologic tests, and final confirmation was carried out by PCR of bla OXA-51 -like gene and multiplex PCR of gyrB locus. MICs of different classes of antibiotics against these strains was measured by using VITEK 2 system. After extraction of genomic DNA, two groups of multidrug-resistant A. baumannii genes including AME (aadA1 , aadB , aphA6 and aacC1) and oxacillinases (bla OXA-23 -like, bla OXA-24 -like, bla OXA-51 -like, bla OXA-58 -like and bla OXA-143 -like) were detected. According to antibiotic susceptibility testing, among 80 A. baumannii strains, 75 isolates (91.25%) were multidrug resistant. The results showed that colistin and tigecycline, with respective sensitivity rates of 97.5% (78/80) and 56.25% (45/80), had the highest effects. The presence of bla OXA-51 -like and gyrB genes was confirmed in all strains. Furthermore, bla OXA-23 -like and bla OXA-24 -like genes were found in 68.75% (55/80) and 20% (16/80) of isolates respectively, while no isolate harbored the bla OXA-143 -like gene. The frequency of genes encoding the AMEs including aadA1 , aacC1 , aphA6 and aadB were 11.25% (9/80), 16.25% (13/80), 22.5% (18/80) and 30% (24/80) respectively. Our findings indicate that the presence of the aadB and aphA6 is correlated with high resistance against amikacin and gentamicin. We found a very high resistance rate against most of the antimicrobial agents usually prescribed for severe infections caused by A. baumannii. Therefore, because of rapid emergence of resistance even for colistin or tigecycline, monotherapy should be avoided. These results show the importance of providing antibiotics correctly in intensive care units and following antibiotic stewardship protocols as the only effective strategies to attempt to control antibiotic resistance in healthcare settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]