Background: Central obesity has been recognized as a main risk factor for cardiovascular (CV) events. Three popular central obesity indices are waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and waist-to-height ratio; abdominal volume index and conicity index are 2 recent novel obesity indices. The main aim of this study is to determine the performance of these indices to best predict 10-year CV events. Hypothesis: Some obesity indices can be used to predict cardiovascular risk. Methods: In total, 3199 subjects (age range, 40-79 years) were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. The American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association and Framingham risk score tools were used to estimate the 10-year CV events. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to determine the optimal discriminator(s) among the central obesity measures in the estimation of a 10-year risk of CV events ≥7.5%, ≥10%, and ≥20% separately. Results: Among the 5 central obesity indices, conicity index showed the most discriminatory power in estimation of a 10-year CV risk. In men, based on the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association tool, the areas under the curve (AUCs) were from 0.671 to 0.682 based on the 3 above thresholds, whereas with the Framingham tool, AUCs were from 0.651 to 0.659. In women, all AUCs were >0.7. Our results also showed WHR to be an almost comparable discriminator of CV disease risk in the Iranian study population. Conclusion: Conicity index and WHR had a more discriminatory accuracy for 10-year CV events compared with the other obesity indices.

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Oxidative stress is an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidant systems to cause chronic diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's 1. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and free radicals, such as hydroxyl radicals and hydrogen peroxide are produced in the human body during normal metabolic pathways and exposure to exogenous stress such as ionizing radiation and air pollutions can induce adverse effects on the normal physiological activity of cells. The body's system is equipped with antioxidant defense and enzymes which neutralize the ROS. Unfortunately, enhancement of ROS levels or less ability of detoxification of the antioxidant defense system, can lead to increased oxidative stress and turn cell damage and death 2-4. Antioxidants act as protective effects on the cells so that they can protect it from damages caused by unexpectedly and uncontrollably produced ROS 5,6. Although a number of synthetic and natural antioxidant compounds have already been identified, the search for effective antioxidant and lesser side effects and toxicity is being continued. Turmeric is one of the plants that contain natural active ingredients and safe. Curcumin or frolyl methane is a hydrophobic polyphenol derived from the rhizome of the plant turmeric (Curcuma longa). Turmeric

Accurate expression profiling is imperative for understanding the biological roles of mRNAs. Real-time PCR have been at the forefront of biological innovation in detection and monitoring of gene expression, however, fluorophorelabeled oligonucleotides and double-stranded DNA binding dyes, the two most frequently used dyes in RNA detection, are not very cost effective and have poor specificity, respectively. We have developed a cost effective and specific approach for mRNA expression profiling via added unique sequence index (USI) to cDNAs before amplification. USI is a barcode which enable the detection of each target RNA. Using this method, caudal type homeobox 1 (CDX1) and FAT atypical cadherin 4 (FAT4) expressions were investigated in tumoral and non-tumoral tissues of gastric cancer patients and compared with commercial ABI kit. Both methods indicated that FAT4 and CDX1 expression were significantly reduced in gastric cancer tissues compared with adjacent noncancerous tissues. Moreover, we have shown that this assay is highly sensitive, linear and reproducible. USI barcode not only provides a powerful tool for mRNA detection due to its sensitivity, specificity and cost-effectiveness, but also allows comfortable design for real-time qPCR assays within the least time and empowers the analysis of many transcripts of virtually any organism. Furthermore, USI barcode is highly affordable for large numbers of different samples or small sample sizes without microarray and expensive commercial platforms.