Macular Findings Obtained by Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography in Retinopathy of Prematurity

Purpose. To examine the macular findings obtained with spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD OCT) in infants with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Materials and Methods. The macular SD OCT images of 190 premature infants were analyzed. Data regarding central foveal thickness (CFT), cystoid macular edema (CME), and cyst grading were compared. The relationships of CFT with gestational age and birth weight were investigated. Results. The results were obtained from 358 eyes of 179 infants (81 females and 98 males) of a mean gestational age of 30.9±2.7 weeks and a mean birth weight of 1609±477 g. ROP was diagnosed in 126 eyes and CME in 139 eyes. A significantly greater percentage of eyes with ROP were found to have CME (54%) compared to eyes without ROP (31%; P=0.001). The incidence of CME was 46.3% for stage 1 ROP, 57.1% for stage 2, and 87.5% for stage 3. There was a weakly inverse correlation between CFT, gestational age, and birth weight (P=0.025, r=-0.227; P=0.002, r=-0.182, resp., Spearman correlation test). Conclusions. High-quality SD OCT images can be obtained from premature infants using the iVue system. Severity and frequency of CME in premature infants increase as stage of ROP increases

The real-life efficacy of the second line treatment strategy in advanced pancreas cancer

ABS TRACT Objective: Pancreatic cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death. Despite the introduction of new therapeutic agents, survival rates remain low. Furthermore, few trials have evaluated the options for second-line therapy and the prognostic variables. In this study, we aimed to determine the real-world efficacy and prognostic parameters of second-line treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer. Material and Methods: Patients with advanced pancreatic cancer from different centers who received second-line treatment were enrolled in the study. The patients’ demographic, clinical, and pathological characteristics were retrieved retrospectively. Results: A total of 161 patients were enrolled in the study. The majority of the patients (50.3%) received oxaliplatin plus fluoropyrimidine as second-line treatment. The median progression-free survival and overall survival for the entire cohort were 2.5 months and 4.5 months, respectively. In univariate anal-yses, an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status ≥2, age ≥65 years, hypoalbuminemia, thrombocytosis, presence of metastatic peritoneal disease, elevated alkaline phosphatase and carcinoembryonic antigen levels, and a neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) ≥3 were identified as poor prognostic factors. In multivariable analyses, low albumin level (p=0.031) and high NLR (p=0.05) were found to be independent prognostic factors for overall survival. Conclusion: Pancreatic cancer is a unique malignancy, and advanced disease has a dismal prog-nosis. In univariate analyses, we identified multiple factors that were poor prognostic variables. In particular, the albumin level and NLR were independent prognostic factors for overall survival, and these parameters might be useful in selecting the second-line treatment and pre-dicting the survival of these patients

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE LAW ON THE EUROPEAN UNION

Having regard the fact that the legislative and executive rule makers in a legal system might not envisage rules for all issues in advance, and that even the existing rules require to be interpreted, general principles of law which are invoked by practitioners and justices for the interpretation of legal norms and filling legal gaps function as an important source of legal orders. Those principles have been used by the judiciary of the legal order from the very outset in the European Union (EU) law which is similar to both international and national legal systems in some ways. They have also functioned as a jurisprudential set of reference norms. This study deals with these principles from the EU law point of view. The role these principles have played in the EU legal order, especially with regard to the protection of human rights will also be dealt with

Avrupa insan hakları sözleşmesinin iç hukuktaki yeri

Başta Avrupa İnsan Hakları Sözleşmesi olmak üzere uluslararası anlaşmaların yeri meselesi, Türk anayasal sisteminde daima tartışmalı bir mesele olmuştur. 2004 yılında yapılan anayasa değişikliği ile, bu meselelere bazı yönlerden cevap verilmeye çalışılmıştır. Halihazırdaki durumu anlamak için 2004 öncesi durumu anlamak ve bu bağlamda o döneme dair doktriner ve içtihadi tartışmaları bilmek gerekmektedir. Kaldı ki, 2004 düzenlemesi de, kendisine takaddüm eden tüm tartışmaları tamamıyla bitiren bir düzenleme olmamış; insan haklarıyla ilgili uluslararası normlarla ulusal kanunlar arasındaki çatışma dışında diğer hususlardaki tartışmalar, canlılığını sürdürmüştür. Örneğin insan haklarıyla ilgili olmayan uluslararası normlarla kanunlar arasındaki çatışma ile uluslararası kuralların anayasal normlar karşısındaki konumu gibi meselelere dair tartışmalar, halen daha güncelliğini korumaktadır. Çalışmada, 2004 öncesi ve sonrasındaki tartışmalar derli toplu bir şekilde verilecek; ardından da 2004 sonrası gelinen noktada meselelerin nasıl çözüleceğine ilişkin önerilerde bulunulacaktı