Viral serology of patients admitted with asthma exacerbation Astım atağı ile başvuran hastalarda viral seroloji

ABSTRACT Objective: One of the factors which triggers asthma exacerbation is viral infections. Rhinovirus and Respiratory Syncytial Virus are frequent isolates. In this study active bacterial agents in acute asthma exacerbations and detection of the dominant viruses in our region were investigated. Methods: This study was performed with 35 randomly selected pediatric patients. Twentyone of them were admitted with acute exacerbation of asthma, and followed up in our allergy outpatient clinic between October 2011-February 2012 with diagnosis of asthma. As the control group 14 non-asthmatic patients who suffered from respiratory tract infections were included. Patients' nasopharyngeal swab specimens were studied for the viral serologic panels with the method of multiplex PCR. Results: General characteristic features of the groups were similar. In asthmatic group 12 patients (57%), in the control group 3 patients (21%) had virus positive results. The most commonly encountered virus in the asthmatic group were Respiratory Syncytial Virus (n:5; 41.6%) and Human Rhinovirus (n:4; 33.3%), in the control group Adenovirus (n:1; 33,3%), Influenza A Virus (n:1; 33.3%), Influenza B Virus (n:1; 33.3%) were detected. Conclusion: Viral infections are the leading factors of asthma exacerbations. To determine the agent may be important for the prophylaxis and new therapies for the attacks. Viruses were isolated from a small number of patients in our study but studies with the large number of populations with different asthma phenotypes are needed to develop effective treatment strategies against asthma attacks which are triggered with specific viral pathogens seen regionally

Documenting the initial appearance of domestic cattle in the Eastern Fertile Crescent (northern Iraq and western Iran)

In this paper we address the timing of and mechanisms for the appearance of domestic cattle in the Eastern Fertile Crescent (EFC) region of SW Asia through the analysis of new and previously published species abundance and biometric data from 86 archaeofaunal assemblages. We find that Bos exploitation was a minor component of animal economies in the EFC in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene but increased dramatically in the sixth millennium BC. Moreover, biometric data indicate that small-sized Bos, likely representing domesticates, appear suddenly in the region without any transitional forms in the early to mid sixth millennium BC. This suggests that domestic cattle were imported into the EFC, possibly associated with the spread of the Halaf archaeological culture, several millennia after they first appear in the neighboring northern Levant

LONG-TERM RESULTS OF EXTREMITY SOFT TISSUE SARCOMAS LIMB-SPARING SURGERY AND RADIOTHERAPY

Objective: To assess the prognostic factors and results of limb sparing surgery and postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) in patients with non-metastatic soft tissue sarcomas (STS) of the extremities. Methods: Between 1980-2007, 114 extremity-located STS treated with PORT were analyzed retrospectively. Tumors were mostly localized in the lower extremities (71,9%). The median radiotherapy (RT) dose was 60.9 Gy. Chemotherapy was administered to 37.7% of the patients. Tumor sizes were between 3-26 cm (median 7 cm). The three most frequent histological types included undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (26.3%), liposarcoma (25.4%), and synovial sarcoma (13.2%). The median follow-up for all patients was 60 months, and 81 months for survivors. Results: The 5- and 10-year local control (LC) rates were 77% and 70.4%, respectively; actuarial survival rates for 5 and 10 years were 71.8% and 69.1%, respectively. Increasing the dose above 60 Gy for all patients and the patients with positive margins demonstrated a clear benefit on 5-year LC (p =0.03 and p=0.04, respectively). Based on multivariate analysis, the addition of chemotherapy and RT dose were independent prognostic factors for LC. A recurrent presentation significantly affects the disease-free survival. Conclusions: PORT for STS of the extremities provides good long-term disease control with acceptable toxicity in a multidisciplinary approach