Muslim pregnant women desire to fast in Ramadan month. On the other hand, they worry about fetal health. Obstetricians do not have a clear idea about this issue. A cross-sectional study was done to determine fasting in pregnancy and birth weight interrelationship in term delivered pregnant women in Hamadan province.
Four thousand three hundred and forty three appropriate pregnant women took part in the study, in 4 groups, according to the number of fasting days. Non-fasting group (28.9%) did not keep fast in Ramadan at all. Other women kept fast for 19 days (group A), 1019 days (group B), and more than 20 days (group C).
Mean birth weights of 4 groups were statistically significant according to variance analysis (p=0.0006).
Newman-keuls procedure revealed that mean birth weight was higher in group C (3198.2 grams) in comparison to non-fasting group (3142 grams) and group A (3137.1 grams). Four groups were similar regarding low birth weight.
Ramadan fasting did not affect mean of birth weight regardless of pregnancy trimester. Low birth weight (LBW) among newborns of second trimester fasting women showed an increase although it was not significant (p=0.09).
In conclusion, in the present study Ramadan fasting in pregnancy did not affect birth weight of term infants.

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This cross sectional study was carried out to compare nutritional status amongst children of 510 years of age of different socio-economic status. Study was carried out at schools of Faisalabad city for almost 4 months. Height, weight, mid-arm circumference (MAC) and triceps skin fold thickness (TSFT) were measured of children belonging to three socio-economic status (SES). The study revealed significantly (p<0.05) lower heights of both male and female children of low SES compared with of high SES at the age of 55.9 years and those older than 9 years. Similarly, mean weight of children of low SES was significantly (p<0.05) lower than children of middle and high SES. Mid-arm circumference was also significantly (p<0.05) lower in both males and females of low SES than high SES. In children of low SES, significantly greater TSFT was observed in females than males at 56.9 years and 99.9 years of age while in children of middle SES TSFT was observed at 66.9 and greater than 8 years of age. The data showed significantly lower values (p<0.05) of TSFT in children of low and middle SES than those of high SES in both male and female of all age groups. Pearson correlation statistics revealed significant negative relationship between height and TSFT (r=-0.496, p<0.001) in children of low SES in contrast with the results in middle and high SES. It may be concluded from the obtained results that the parameters studied are good indicators of nutritional assessment except height as appeared a delayed effect of nutrition, further that height has significant inverse relationship with TSFT in malnourished children but not in well nourished ones.

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Nerve growth factor (NGF) is the first member characterized of the neurotrophin family. It is known for its crucial role in survival, differentiation and maintenance of neurons both in peripheral and central nervous systems. In addition to its neurotropic role, NGF has also been proposed to act on cells of the immune system. Recent studies show that there is an increased level of NGF in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) during the acute phase of multiple sclerosis, in animal model of multiple sclerosis and experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE). In contrast, during the remission phase of the diseases the levels of NGF drop significantly. More recently, the increased level of NGF has also been reported in other autoimmune diseases such as lupus erythematosus. These observations suggest that over production of NGF in CNS may functionally be related to the state of activation of the immune system in autoimmune diseases. Concomitantly, proinflammatory cytokines are upregulated in the acute phase of autoimmune diseases and are known to be potent inducers of the expression of heat shock proteins (HSP). Moreover, NGF is known to be a chemotactic factor for polymorphonuclear cells (14, 15). Due to concomitantly increased level of NGF in inflammatory sites and around the blood vessels in acute phase of the disease with leukocyte infiltration of the immune cells in CNS, one may question whether NGF has any effect on production of proinflammatory cytokines through production of heat shock proteins and leukocyte infiltration. To answer the above questions, NGF was injected intracerebroventricularly at doses 20 r 5 g/mice for 4 days. The results show that the administered NGF neither has any effect on the expression of HSP-27 nor on leukocyte infiltration in central nervous system, suggesting that the high doses of NGF utilized in these experiments affect neither the immune nor the central nervous systems.

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Hydroxamic acids, a group of naturally occurring and synthetic weak organic acids of general formula RC(=O)N(R')OH, are widespread in the tissues of plants, in metabolites of bacteria and fungi, including complex compounds. Hydroxamic acids and their derivatives fulfill a variety of important roles in biology and medicine; here we provide a comprehensive brief review of the most basic medicinal chemistry and pharmacology of hydroxamate molecules.

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To quantify extent of compliance in patients receiving digoxin by implementing an applied pharmacokinetic approach and to determine the percentage of patients with levels within therapeutic range.
One hundred-nineteen patients, whom met the required criteria, were enrolled in this study. Based on their digoxin doses, they were divided into 4 groups. Group A took 1 tablet (0.25 mg) per day, group B received half a tablet (0.125 mg) each day, group C used 6 tablets per week, and group D took 5 tablets per week and two days were off the drug. A pharmacokinetic approach was used to predict the serum digoxin concentrations of patients and the expected levels were compared with the actual concentrations.
52.29% of patients were compliant. There was no significant difference between the compliant and non-compliant groups with regard to gender, age, and number of concurrent medications or duration of digoxin intake. However, with respect to their doses, a significant difference existed between 2 groups (p<0.01). Patients in group D were more compliant (80.56%). In addition, their serum digoxin concentrations were relatively more within the therapeutic range (89.66%). Therefore, patients with the lowest frequency of digoxin intake were more compliant.
The results of this study indicate that a considerable number of patients do not take digoxin as directed. Patients with the least frequency of digoxin intake were relatively more compliant.

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