Journal of

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Introduction: Candidiasis, as an opportunistic infection, is caused by the Candida species. Although Candida albicans is classified in the body as an endogenic flora, it plays an important role in creating Candida related diseases. Candida vulvovaginitis in pregnant women, diabetes mellitus patients and those using multiple antibiotics and contraceptive drugs demonstrates the high resistance of the organism against conventional medication. On the other hand, recurrent vaginitis disintegrates the long-term process of treatment in majority of the patients. The present research was done with the aim of determining the optimum conditions for susceptibility testing before retreatment of patients. Methods: 10 isolates of Candida albicans obtained from 31 suspected patients suffering from recurrent Candida vaginitis were incubated with ketoconazole at two pH of 7.2 and 5.5 and two temperatures of 35ºC and 27ºC. The Microdilution broth test technique was used. The RPMI 1640 medium within the 96 well microplates with range of 12 tests was used to determine the MIC50 , MIC90 and MFC of the drug. Results: The obtained MIC50, MIC90 and MFC for ketoconazole at these conditions (T=35ºC and pH=7.2) were 0.25 to 1 µg/ml, 1 to 4 µg/ml and 64 to ≥ 512 µg/ml respectively, while these values at 27ºC, pH 5.5 were 1 to 8 µg/ml, 8 to 64 µg/ml and 512 to ≥ 512 µg/ml, at 35ºC and pH 5.5 the values were 1 to 8 µg/ml, 4 to 32 µg/ml, 256 to ≥ 512 µg/ml, while at 27ºC and pH 7.2 the values were 1 to 2 µg/ml, 8 to 32 µg/ml, 128 to ≥ 512 µg/ml, respectively. Conclusion: The obtained results confirmed that conditions with temperature of 35ºC and pH 7.2 resulted in better treatment outcomes than other conditions.

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Introduction: Mycophenolic acid(MPA), a fungal mycotoxin, is produced by Penicillium brevicompactum and is used for the synthesis of immunosuppressive drugs in pharmaceutical industries. The present study was conducted to evaluate the possibility of mycophenolic acid(MPA) production by standard strains of P. brevicompactum at laboratory level. Methods: Three strains of P. brevicompactum were provided from microbial culture collections. To stimulate MPA production, barley was used as culture medium, and dry heat, wet heat, and gamma radiation were used to sterilize the culture medium. Samples were taken from the culture medium at different intervals, and their MPA level was assessed by HPLC method. Results: P. brevicompactum strain which was prepared from Finland(VTT D-061157) was able to produce MPA more than two other strains(from Germany and Iran). The amount of MPA enhanced linearly until day 10, and after that became relatively constant. Gamma radiation was a suitable method to sterilize the substrate, and nylon bags were evaluated as an easy and cheap container for growing the fungus. Conclusion: Production of MPA with simple and cheap culture media to provide primary substance for immunosuppressive drugs such as mycophenolate mofetile and sodium mycophenolate would be possible.

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Introduction: Renal artery stenosis is the most prevalent disease of renal artery and has an important role in making hypertension and renal atrophy. Since in previous researches, despite high frequency of risk of cardiovascular disease in Iran, there did not exist any general research investigating risk factors of coronary artery disease and incidence of contemporary renal artery stenisis, this study intended to investigate these factors in hypertensive patients in Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 264 patients who were hypertension candidate for coronary artery angiography in Afshar hospital in Yazd. At the time of coronary angiography, patients had renal angiography at the same time. Among those patients, those who had coronary artery disease were selected and thus prevalence and severity of renal artery stenosis and its relationship with cardiovascular risks were investigated. The gathered data were analyzed by Spss-18 software. Results: Prevalence of renal artery stenosis (equal and over 50%) was 38.25 in all patients in other words, in men and women it was 43.56% and 56.44% (P=0.04) respectively. Prevalence of co-morbidity of coronary artery disease and renal artery stenosis with 1 vessel disease was 34%, 2 vessel disease was 57.14% and 3 vessel disease was 54.17% with significant differences (P>0.01) Conclusion: According to high prevalence of renal artery stenosis in hypertensive patients and high prevalency with simultaneous hypertension and coronary artery disease, renal angiography after coronary angiography may assist for unknown renal artery stenosis and better treatment.