Segmentation of anatomical structures in brain MR images using atlases in FSL - a quantitative approach

Segmentation of brain structures from MR images is crucial in understanding the disease progress, diagnosis, and treatment monitoring. Atlases, showing the ex- pected locations of the structures, are commonly used to start and guide the segmentation process. In many cases, the quality of the atlas may have a significant effect in the final result. In the literature, commonly used atlases may be obtained from one subject’s data, only from the healthy, or depict only certain structures that limit their accuracy. Anatomical variations, pathologies, imaging artifacts all could aggravate the problems related to application of atlases. In this paper, we propose to use multiple atlases that are sufficiently different from each other as much as possible to handle such problems. To this effect, we have built a library of atlases and computed their similarity values to each other. Our study showed that the existing atlases have varying levels of similarity for different structures

Tuberculous Meningitis: Report of 30 Cases

In this study, 30 cases of adult tuberculous meningitis treated in our department between August 1989-October 2002 were evaluated retrospectively according to history, physical examination, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis, laboratory and radio logically findings, clinical outcome, complication, efficacy of the treatment and sequel. Seventeen of them were male and 13 were female (mean age: 32.3 ± 17.2, range: 15-75). Four patients had either active or previous tuberculosis history. The most common complaints were vomiting (100%) and headache (93.3%), the most frequent finding was nuchal rigidity (100%). Only 9 (30%) patients had a positive CSF smear for acid-fast bacilli. Mycobacterium tuberculosis was isolated from 10 patient samples (33.3%). In 13 patients, CSF samples were evaluated with polimerase chain reaction (PCR) and 10 samples were found to be positive. The sequel rate was 16.7%. Mortality occured in 7 (23.3%) patients. It was established that the most important prognostic factor was clinical stage at the first admission

The Efficacy of Some Disinfectants to Acinetobacter Species Causing Nosocomial Infections

The most important step for preventing hospital acquired infections is the choice and usage of appropriate disinfectant. For this purpose, the most problematical pathogens and their susceptibility to the disinfectants have to be known in every hospital. In this study, we evaluated the susceptibility of multidrug resistant 10 Acinetobacter spp. against the 10 disinfectants by broth microdilution method. The most effective disinfectants were determined as Chlorispray® (ethanole + chlorhexidine digluconate + glutaraldehyde + formaldehyde + didecyl dimethyl-ammonium chloride), Endex® (cocospropylene diamine diguanidium diacetate/didecyleoxymethyle ammonium propionate) and Savlex® (cetrimide/chlorhexidine), and alcohol (70%), benzalchonium chloride and povidone iodine the mostly used disinfectants were the least effective to the Acinetobacter spp. As a result, we concluded that the susceptibility of the multidrug resistant microorganisms to the disinfectants has to be determined according to the result of the surveillance and the disinfection policies have to be determined in the light of these results

The assessment of the serum levels of tweak and prostaglandin f2α in covid – 19

Background/aim: It is claimed that aberrant immune response has a more important role than the cytopathic effect of the virus in the morbidity and mortality of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We aimed to investigate the possible roles of tumor necrosis factor-like weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK)/Fn14 pathway and leukotrienes (LT) in uncontrolled immune response that occurs in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Materials and methods: This study included 25 asymptomatic patients and 35 patients with lung involvement who were diagnosed with COVID-19 as well as 22 healthy volunteers. Lung involvement was determined using computed-tomography. Serum TWEAK, LTE4, and prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α) levels were determined. Results: Compared with the healthy control group, TWEAK, LTE4, and PGF2α levels were higher in the group of SARS-CoV-2 infection without lung involvement. In the group of SARS-CoV-2 infection with lung involvement, age, fibrinogen, sedimentation, C-reactive protein and ferritin, TWEAK, LTE4, and PGF2α levels were higher, and lymphocyte levels were lower compared with the asymptomatic group. Conclusions: In the study, TWEAK and LTE4 levels increased in cases with COVID-19. These results support that TWEAK/Fn14 pathway and LT may involved in the pathology of aberrant immune response against SARS-CoV-2. Inhibition of each of these pathways may be a potential target in the treatment of COVID-19