A Case of Swyer-James (Macleod’s) Syndrome with Bilateral Involvement

Swyer-James (Macleod’s) syndrome (SJMS) is a rare disorder thought to be a complication of childhood infections. Unilateral hyperlucency, reduced lung volume, diminished vascular markings and bronchiectasis may be detected on radiological analysis. Bilateral involvement is rare. We present a 20-yearl-old man who was diagnosed as having bilateral SJMS by radiological analysis and ventilation-perfusion scintigraphy

Antiproliferative and cytotoxic activities of Mentha x piperita L. essential oil in non-small cell lung cancer cells

Among 33 types of listed cancers worldwide, lung cancer with 2.2 million cases (12.2% of total cancer cases) ranks second next only to breast cancer. Globally, Turkey, with overall rate of 40.0 (41,264 cases), ranks 5th among top 10 countries in lung cancer. Currently used therapeutic agents and approaches have considerable side effects, and hence, there is a need for alternative agents for effective management of lung cancer. In this study, we explored the in vitro cytotoxic, antiproliferative and proapoptotic activities of Mentha x piperita L. (peppermint) essential oil in human non-small cell lung cancer (A549) cells. Cell viability was determined by MTT assay, morphological changes were determined by confocal microscopy and apoptosis promoting action was determined by flow cytometry technique. Peppermint essential oil found to effectively decrease the viability of non-small cell lung cancer cells and IC50 value was detected at low concentrations (2.12%) for 24 h. In addition, peppermint essential oil was found to alter the morphology of A549 cells, leading to changes that could describe programmed cell death. Apoptosis was the triggered cell death by Mentha x piperita essential oil. Results reveal that Mentha x piperita essential oil has antiproliferative and anticarcinogenic properties which could be attributed to the bioactive phytochemical contents and has the potential to be used as an anticancer agent and chemotherapeutic drug.

FOXA1 is associated with high tumor grade, myometrial invasion and lymph node invasion in endometrial endometrioid carcinoma

Objectives: FOXA1 expression has been demonstrated in several hormone-dependent cancers. However, data are limited concerning the role of FOXA1 in endometrial cancers. The present study aimed to investigate FOXA1 expression via the microarray technique in benign hyperplasia, endometrial intraepithelial neoplasia, and endometrial endometrioid carcinoma. We also aimed to determine whether there were any associations between FOXA1 expression, tumor grade, myometrial invasion and lymphatic invasion.Material and methods: Paraffin-embedded sections prepared from samples obtained from 114 patients who underwent surgical hysterectomy or curettage were analyzed. Data were retrieved from digitally-stored medical records. Tissue microarrays were prepared from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue blocks. Full tumor sections were used for immunohistochemical analysis performed.Results: Carcinomas with nuclear grade 3 had higher FOXA1 values than others, while grade 2 carcinomas also had higher FOXA1 values relative to grade 1 (p < 0.001). FOXA1 values of FIGO stage III carcinomas were significantly higher than others and stage II values were also significantly higher than stage I FOXA1 values (p < 0.001). Patients with myometrial and lymph node invasion had significantly higher FOXA1 values than others (p < 0.001 and p = 0.047, respectively). FOXA1 had 91.30% sensitivity, 63.60% specificity and 77.78% accuracy for predicting the presence of myometrial invasion with a cut-off value of 9.Conclusions: FOXA1 expression is higher in endometrial endometrioid carcinoma compared to benign endometrial hyperplasia or intraepithelial neoplasia. In patients with endometrial endometrioid carcinoma, high FOXA1 expression is associated with high tumor grade, myometrial and lymph node invasion. However, FOXA1 expression is not associated with lymphovascular or cervical invasion

Validation of an In-House-Developed GC-MS Method for 5α-Cholestanol According to ISO 15189:2012 Requirements.

Objective: The aim of this study was to validate a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method for the measurement of 5 alpha-cholestanol in the clinical laboratory in agreement with ISO 15189:2012

Scientific medical journals in turkey: Current state and goals

This article evaluates Turkish indexed journals and their impact factors, based on data from local and international databases. Fifty five medical journals are now indexed in Science Citation Index Expanded, with the highest 2-year Journal Impact Factor being 0.873. The medical journals with high impact factors are those published in English. Though the number of articles is increasing, the impact factors for most Turkish medical journals is still low, presumably mainly due to the language of publication. Increasing the number of articles published both in Turkish and English along with training of science editors and authors, and wider indexing of journals in international databases may improve the quality of Turkish journals

Order and exit decisions under non-increasing price curves for products with short life cycles

We consider a supplier selling a product with a relatively short life cycle and following a non-increasing price curve. Because of the short cycle, there is a single procurement opportunity at the beginning of the cycle. The objective of the supplier is to determine the initial order quantity and the time to remove the product from the market in order to maximize her profits. We study this problem in a continuous-time framework where the demand is modeled with a non-homogeneous Poisson process having a general intensity function and the pricing strategy is given by an arbitrary non-increasing function. We give a rigorous mathematical analysis for the problem and show how it can be solved in two stages. We also consider the special case with piecewise constant intensity and price functions. For this case, we show that the optimal exit time is included in the set of break points of these functions. This brings a fast method to obtain the optimal solution for this special case