Are Commercial Systems Used for the Identification of Yeasts Enough Alone?: A Case Report

Infections developing due to Trichosporon species especially in immunosuppressed patients have started to increase also in our country as well as in the world. Some difficulties have been encountered in identification and treatment of Trichosporon spp. which are relatively more resistant to antifungal treatment. Accurate and rapid identification of yeast species is very important to ensure determination of the appropriate antifungal agent in treating these infections. Due to long time span and intense effort required, determination using conventional methods has recently been replaced by common use of commercial systems allowing rapid identification. However, the commercial systems used to determine yeasts are reported to have higher correct identification rates for frequently isolated species, whereas lower rates for rarer species. In this report, we aimed to address that the commercial systems are enough alone for identification by evaluating a case of urinary tract infection with a positive urine culture yielding yeasts. A urine culture revealed dry, wrinkled, waxy, pink, yeast-like colonies on blood agar and eosin-methylene blue agar after a 24-hour incubation. These colonies were identified as Cryptococcus sp. using VITEK (R) 2 (bioMerieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France) system. On the other hand, this isolate had been demonstrated as Trichosporon asahii by microscopic and macroscopic appearance, carbohydrate assimilation test results and urease positivity. Additionally, antifungal susceptibility of isolate was determined using microdilution (amphotericin B, voriconazole, fluconazole) and Etest (R) (AB Biodisk, Solna, Sweden) methods (caspofungin, anidulafungin) according to Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute M27-A3 standard. In conclusion, this case report demonstrated that there is a need for confirmation of results with conventional methods for determination of rare species such as Trichosporon spp. identified with commercial systems based on biochemical properties, and antifungal susceptibility tests should be performed in clinical microbiology laboratories

Doctor perspectives on research ethics during the Covid-19 pandemic and anxiety levels

The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the need to review our requirements for true guidance and reliability from science and individual, professional, and public health ethics. The aim of this study was to determine the ethical and scientific perspectives of doctors about performing research during the COVID-19 pandemic and to assess anxiety levels about this topic within the framework of the literature. Doctors completed a ‘preliminary survey form' containing questions determining sociodemographic data and statements about research and ethics during the pandemic and the ‘state and trait anxiety inventories' in the internet environment. In our study, the alpha value was 0.90 for the state anxiety inventory and 0.70 for the trait anxiety inventory. Of the 398 doctors participating in the study, 45.2% were women and 54.8% were men. Among doctors, 89.7% stated they read articles related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The group of doctors who fully disagreed with the view that it was inappropriate to perform research during the pandemic due to the nature of the disease and transmission risks and who had read more articles than the other groups were found to have statistically significantly higher state anxiety inventory points. The COVID-19 pandemic led to many problems for scientific and ethical concepts. New concerns were added to existing ethical concerns and national and international ethics committees need to work to resolve these concerns. [Med-Science 2022; 11(4.000): 1641-7

Foot self-care in diabetes mellitus: Evaluation of patient awareness

Aims: To assess diabetic patients' knowledge and practices regarding foot care