The Effect of Oral Montelukast in Controlling Asthma Attacks in Children: A Randomized Double-blind Placebo Control Study

Oral Montelukast is recommended as maintenance therapy for persistent asthma, but there is controversy regarding its effectiveness in controlling asthma attacks. The present study was conducted to investigate the clinical efficacy of oral Montelukast for asthma attacks in children. This study was conducted as a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial on 80 children aged 1-14 years with asthma who were admitted to the emergency department of Bahrami Children's Hospital (Tehran, Iran) during one year. Patients were randomly divided into case and control groups. In addition to the standard asthma attack treatment, Montelukast was prescribed in the case group and placebo in the control group for one week. Patients were evaluated in terms of asthma attack severity score and oxygen saturation percentage (SpO2) in room air as primary outcomes 1, 4, 8, 24 and 48 hours after admission. In the first 48 hours, there was no significant difference in the score of asthma attack severity and SpO2 between the case and control groups. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of length of hospitalization or number of admissions to the intensive care unit. None of the patients were re-hospitalized after discharge. The results of this study showed that the use of Montelukast along with the standard treatment of asthma attacks in children has no added benefit.

Incorporation of Al2O3 and ZrO2 ceramics to AZ31 magnesium alloys composite coating using micro-arc oxidation method

In this research, a composite coating with Al₂O₃ and ZrO₂ particles have been applied on AZ31 magnesium alloy by micro-arc oxidation (MAO) technique. The alkaline electrolyte included a constant based composition and different composition of the Al₂O₃ and ZrO₂ additives. Microstructure observations reveal that the surface pores of composite coating reduced during addition of ZrO₂ and Al₂O₃ ceramic particles. The hardness of coating increased from about 380 for non-added to 620 MPa for Al₂O₃+ZrO₂ added coating and wear rate reduced about 8 times. Wettability of the coating increased by incorporation of Al₂O₃ and/or ZrO₂ particles while, Al₂O₃ is more effective than ZrO₂. Addition of the ceramic particles enhanced the hydrophilicity properties of surface in wettability test and a contact angle of 43° was obtained for coating including Al₂O₃+ZrO₂. The antibacterial properties of MAO coatings showed that S. aureus bacterium is more sensitive to the zirconia and alumina particle than S. typhimurium bacterium after 24 h of incubation.

Two Iranian families with a novel mutation in GJB2 causing autosomal dominant nonsyndromic hearing loss

Mutations in GJB2, encoding connexin 26 (Cx26), cause both autosomal dominant and autosomal recessive nonsyndromic hearing loss (ARNSHL) at the DFNA3 and DFNB1 loci, respectively. Most of the over 100 described GJB2 mutations cause ARNSHL. Only a minority has been associated with autosomal dominant hearing loss. In this study, we present two families with autosomal dominant nonsyndromic hearing loss caused by a novel mutation in GJB2 (p.Asp46Asn). Both families were ascertained from the same village in northern Iran consistent with a founder effect. This finding implicates the D46N missense mutation in Cx26 as a common cause of deafness in this part of Iran mandating mutation screening of GJB2 for D46N in all persons with hearing loss who originate from this geographic region.

Association of aplastic anaemia and Fanconi's disease with HLA-DRB1 alleles

One of the most fascinating areas of research within the field of histocompatibility at present time concerns an observation that a major human histocompatibility system, human leucocyte antigen (HLA), is deeply involved in the development of a great number of diseases. Major histocompatibility complex is the most polymorphic system in the genome of different species. Recognition of HLA alleles could be useful in transplantation and disease studies. Genetic construct of HLA DRB1 was studied in Iranian normal populations and patients with aplastic anaemia and Fanconi's disease. DNA was extracted from the whole blood of 466 normal, 35 aplastic anaemia and 10 Fanconi's individuals. Then DRB1 gene polymorphism was studied by polymerase chain reaction-sequence-specific primer method. The HLA DRB1 gene analysis showed increase of DRB1*07 in aplastic anaemia patients compared to normal population (P = 0.02). According to this study, the frequency of DRB1*07 in normal individuals was 8.3, and in aplastic anaemia patients, 15.7%. Additionally, the frequency of DRB1*04 in normal, aplastic anaemia and Fanconi's individuals was 10, 5.7 and 20%, respectively. Our results of investigation showed correlation between some HLA alleles with the studied diseases. We reported the frequency of various DR types in aplastic and Fanconi's patients. This study could imply the possible role of HLA-DRB1*07 in the incidence of aplastic anaemia. Moreover, the frequency of DRB1*04, DRB1*03 and DRB1*15 alleles showed intermediate correlation with Fanconi's anaemia.