Sharif Digital Repository

Introduction: Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most common and drug resistant epilepsy in adults. Due to behavioral, morphologic and electrographic similarities, pilocarpine model of epilepsy best resembles TLE. This study was aimed at determination of the changes in electroencephalogram (EEG) sub-bands amplitude during focal seizures in the pilocarpine model of epilepsy. Analysis of these changes might help detection of a pre-seizure state before an oncoming seizure. Methods: Rats were treated by scopolamine (1mg/kg, s.c) to prevent cholinergic effects. After 30 min, pilocarpine (380 mg/kg, i.p) was administered to induce status epilepticus (SE) and 2 hours after SE, diazepam (20 mg/kg,... 

Solid-phase microextraction probes based on poly(ethylene glycol)/C18-bonded silica were used for in vivo monitoring of drugs from circulating blood of beagles, over a period of 8 h. After sampling, the extracted drugs were subsequently quantified by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. External calibrations in whole blood and phosphate-buffered saline were used to correlate the amount of analytes extracted in regard to the total and free concentrations in blood respectively. The probe provided sufficient sensitivity for the drugs in the blood matrix, while the need for drawing blood was eliminated. The limit of detections of the method from whole blood were 1.7, 1.4... 

Objective Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) are paroxysmal events that, in contrast to epileptic seizures, are related to psychological causes without the presence of epileptiform EEG changes. Recent models suggest a multifactorial basis for PNES. A potentially paramount, but currently poorly understood factor is the interplay between psychiatric features and a specific vulnerability of the brain leading to a clinical picture that resembles epilepsy. Hypothesising that functional cerebral network abnormalities may predispose to the clinical phenotype, the authors undertook a characterisation of the functional connectivity in PNES patients. Methods The authors analysed the whole-head... 

A Quantitative Structure-Retention Relationship (QSRR) study of 32 benzodiazepines is performed in this work. Two feature selection methods of Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) and a stepwise regression approach adopted for the Multiple Linear Regressions (MLR) were used to predict the Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) Retention Time (RT) of these compounds on a Xterra MS C-18 stationary phase. ANFIS and MLR methods were used as variable selection tools and a neural network was employed for predicting the RTs. Tbree descriptors of 3D-MoRSE-signal 06/weighted by atomic polarizabilities (Mor06p), Radial Distribution Function-1.0/weighted by atomic van der Waals... 

The on-fiber standardization technique for solid-coated solid-phase microextraction (SPME) was studied, and a theoretical model is proposed for the isotropic behavior of adsorption and desorption, based on Fick's law of diffusion and the Langmuir model. The isotropy of the adsorption and desorption of analytes onto and from the surface of porous solid SPME fiber was validated with the use of a commercially available fiber, a 50-μm Carbowax/ templated resin for carbamate pesticide analysis in various sample matrixes, and a self-made polypyrrole fiber for diazepam analysis in blood samples. Time constants were comparable for the adsorption and desorption processes. Equilibrium constants and... 

Abnormalities in the topology of brain networks may be an important feature and etiological factor for psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES). To explore this possibility, we applied a graph theoretical approach to functional networks based on resting state EEGs from 13 PNES patients and 13 age- and gender-matched controls. The networks were extracted from Laplacian-transformed time-series by a cross-correlation method. PNES patients showed close to normal local and global connectivity and small-world structure, estimated with clustering coefficient, modularity, global efficiency, and small-worldness metrics, respectively. Yet the number of PNES attacks per month correlated with a... 

An integrated microsampling approach based on solid-phase microextraction (SPME) was developed to provide a complete solution to highly efficient and accurate pharmacokinetic studies. The microsampling system included SPME probes that are made of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and C18-bonded silica, a fast and efficient sampling strategy with accurate kinetic calibration, and a high-throughput desorption device based on a modified 96-well plate. The sampling system greatly improved the quantitative capability of SPME in two ways. First, the use of the C18-bonded silica/PEG fibers minimized the competition effect from analogues of the target analytes in a complicated sample matrix such as blood...