Retroperitoneal Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumour: A Rare Case Report

Malignant nerve sheath tumours (MPNST) are rare neoplasias and retroperitoneal cases are fairly rare and clinically difficult to be detected, but they are very agressive neoplasias. MPNST are frequently seen in head, neck and upper extremities. In patients with NF1; MPNST, a poor-prognostic lesion, may result from a malignant degeneration of a former plexiform neurofibroma. It is necessary to be aware of a potential malignancy in patients diagnosed with plexiform neurofibroma

Assessment of Noninvasive Methods for Prediction of Fibrosis in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B

Noninvasive markers of liver fibrosis have been most extensively studied. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the diagnostic accuracies of some of these simple fibrosis tests, aspartate aminotrasferase platelet ratio (APRI), age platelet (AP) index, FIB-4 score and aspartate aminotrasferase (AST)/alanin aminotrasferase (ALT) ratio (AAR) in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Eighty male and 34 female patients were included into the study. Liver biopsy of CHB patients were evaluated histologically and significant fibrosis was defined with Scheurer fibrosis score 2 or more. All these test results were compared with liver histology. Significant fibrosis was detected in 34 patients. Older age, high serum AST and gama-glutamil transferase levels and low platelet count were found as a predictive risk factors for signficant fibrosis (p< 0.05). Only older age was found independent risk factor by multivariate analysis (p< 0.001). In patients with significant fibrosis, high levels of mean FIB-4 score, AP index and APRI were detected (p< 0.05). Area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of FIB-4 score, AP index, APRI and AAR for predicting significant fibrosis were 0.827, 0.788, 0.729 and 0.580, respectively. Existance or exclusion of significant fibrosis was reliably predicted by FIB-4 score, AP index, APRI and AAR in 75%, 77%, 33% and 67% of the patients, respectively. In conclusion, FIB-4 score and AP index were found to be the most suitable scores for predicting existance or exclusion of significant fibrosis in CHB patients. Age was found to be a significant factor indicating the presence of fibrosis, therefore it was thought that, scores using age as a component, might be more succesfull for predicting fibrosis

Aspartate Aminotransferase to Platelet Ratio Index for the Evaluation of Fibrosis in Chronic Viral Hepatitis

The aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI), developed for the diagnosis of significant liver fibrosis, and is calculated by the simple parameters used for the routine follow-up of the chronic hepatitis patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of APRI for predicting significant fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients. CHB and CHC patients who were admitted to our clinic and were performed liver biopsy between 1999 to 2005 were included into the study. APRI values of 0.5 or less and greater than 1.5 were evaluated for predicting significant fibrosis. Fibrosis was considered to be insignificant in cases with scores 0 to 1 and significant in cases with scores 2 and 3. Ninety-seven male and 58 female patients were included into the study. CHB was present in 114 patients and CHC was present in 41 patients. Average Knodell and fibrosis score of the patients were 8.5 ± 3.6 and 1.3 ± 1.0, respectively. Significant fibrosis was detected in 50 of 155 patients and 34 of them were infected with CHB. CHC were detected in rest of them. Average age, serum gama-glutamyl-transpeptidase, Knodell scores and thrombocytopenia were detected statistically high in patients with significant fibrosis (p 1.5 (p 1.5 classified correctly %31 of patients with and without significant fibrosis. In conclusion, APRI can not replace liver biopsy for the detection of significant fibrosis in chronic hepatitis patients, but it might be helpful in cases in which liver biopsy could not be performed

Investigation of the effect of ghrelin on bone fracture healing in rats

© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Australia, LtdGhrelin is known to have effects on proliferation and differentiation of osteoblasts and improvement of bone mineral density in rats. However, no experimental research on ghrelin's effects on fracture healing has been reported. In this context, the effect of ghrelin on the union of femoral shaft fractures was examined in this study by evaluating whether ghrelin will directly contribute to fracture healing. Forty male Wistar-Albino rats were divided into two groups as control and experimental (ghrelin treated) and standard closed shaft fractures were created in the left femurs of all rats. Daily ghrelin injections were applied to the experimental groups and equal numbers of rats were killed after 14 and 28 days following fracture formation. Tissue samples were examined with radiological, biomechanical, biochemical and histological analyses. Densitometry study showed that bone mineral density was improved after 28 days of ghrelin treatment compared to control. On histological examination, at the end of the 14 and 28 days of recovery, significant union was observed in the ghrelin-treated group. The ghrelin-treated group had higher breaking strength and stiffness at the end of 28 days of recovery. Biochemically, ALP levels were found to be higher in the ghrelin-treated group at the end of 28 days of recovery. Results showed that ghrelin directly contributes to fracture healing and it is promising to consider the effect of ghrelin on fracture healing in human studies with pharmacological applications