AN OVERVIEW OF FOOD FRAUD IN TURKEY AND THE POTENTIAL RISK FOR PEANUT

Depending on the increase in the demand for ready-to-eat food products in recent years, food fraud tends to increase as well. The color, smell, taste, appearance, content, nutritive value, origin, etc. in foods determine purchasing preferences of consumers. Food adulteration and counterfeit have been practiced since ancient times. This paper consists of the results of two different study on food fraud in Turkey. In the first study, questionnaire data were collected from 263 -people with different occupations and ages with a total eleven questions throughout Turkey by using the face‑to‑face interview survey method.The collected data showed that the top three product categories that the highest probabilities of being fraudulent were milk and milk products (42.6%), meat and meat products (20.2%), and bread and bakery products (16%). In the second study, research was conducted on what types of fraudulent were applied in Turkish peanuts. Total 30 peanut samples were analysed to determine synthetic colorant such as E124 ponceau 4R, E129 allura red and E122 carmosine etc. E124 ponceau 4R was found as a color material in 4 samples of the total 30 roasted unshelled peanuts in concentrations of 4.24 mg/kg, 3.30 mg/kg, 4.47 mg/kg and 2.49 mg/kg. On the other hand, it was below the detectable limit in other samples

Seroprevalence of Bovine Leptospirosis in Kayseri, Turkey and Detection of Leptospires by Polymerase Chain Reaction

This study was carried out to determine the seroprevalence of bovine leptospirosis in Kayseri, Turkey and to detect the leptospires in blood and urine of clinically suspect animals by serologic and molecular methods. A total of 2395. blood samples were collected from slaughterhouses located during 12 months (from May 2005 to April 2006) determine the seroprevalence. In addition, blood and urine samples were collected from 500 clinically leptospirosis suspect cattle. Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) and Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) were used as serological tests. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was used for molecular examinations. In the serological analysis of 2395 blood samples collected from slaughterhouses, 609 (25.42%) and 433 (18.07%) samples were found to be positive by the MAT and ELISA, respectively. Seven (1.40%) out of 500 leptospirosis suspect cattle were found to be infected by the MAT and ELISA and Leptospira interrogans serovar Hardjo and L. kirchneri serovar Grippotyphosa were the predominant serovars. And also leptospires were detected in the urine samples of these 7 cattle (1.40%) by PCR. No agent was detected in the blood of suspect animals by PCR. The results of this study have shown that leptospirosis is highly prevalent and predominantly caused by L. interrogans serovar Hardjo and L. kirchneri serovar Grippotyphosa in this region. Because PCR can compete to the serological tests for detecting the leptospires in urine samples of suspect animals, the molecular analysis may contribute to the diagnosis of the infection

One-Year Follow-Up Results of MIS-C Patients with Coronary Artery Involvement: A Multi-center Study

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) in children is a rare complication of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Knowing the course of the affected or unaffected coronary arteries in the patients under follow-up is important in terms of defining the long-term prognosis of the disease and determining the follow-up plan. This is a multicenter and retrospective study. The data were obtained from nine different centers. Between May 2020 and August 2022, 68 of 790 patients had coronary artery involvement. One-year echocardiographic data of 67 of 789 MIS-C patients with coronary artery involvement were analyzed. Existing pathologies of the coronary arteries were grouped as increased echogenicity, dilatation and aneurysm according to Z scores, and their changes over a 1-year period were determined. The data of all three groups are defined as frequency. SPSS Statistics version 22 was used to evaluate the data. In our study, aneurysm was observed in 16.4%, dilatation in 68.7% and increased echogenicity in 13.4% of the patients. All of the patients with involvement in the form of increased echogenicity recovered without sequelae by the end of the first month. No progression to aneurysm was observed in any of the patients with dilatation. No new-onset involvement was observed in patients with previously healthy coronary arteries during the convalescent period. In addition, from the sixth month follow-up period, there was no worsening in the amount of dilatation in any of the patients. At least 94% of the patients who completed the 12th month control period returned to normal

RESEARCH BURDEN OF INTERSTITIAL LUNG DISEASES IN TURKEY - RBILD

Introduction: The aim of our study is to investigate the etiological distribution of ILD in Turkey by stratifying the epidemiological characteristics of ILD cases, and the direct cost of initial diagnosis of the diag-nosed patients. Material-Method: The study was conducted as a multicenter, prospective, cross-sectional, clinical observation study. Patients over the age of 18 and who accepted to participate to the study were included and evaluated as considered to be ILD. The findings of diagnosis, examination and treatment carried out by the cent-ers in accordance with routine diagnostic procedures were recorded observationally. Results: In total,1070 patients were included in this study. 567 (53%) of the patients were male and 503 (47%) were female. The most frequently diagnosed disease was IPF (30.5%). Dyspnea (75.9%) was the highest incidence among the presenting symptoms. Physical examination found bibasilar inspiratory crackles in 56.2 % and radiological findings included reticular opacities and interlobular septal thickenings in 55.9 % of the cases. It was observed that clinical and radiological findings were used most frequently (74.9%) as a diagnostic tool. While the most common treatment approaches were the use of systemic steroids and antifibrotic drugs with a rate of 30.7% and 85.6%, respectively. The total median cost from the patient's admission to diagnosis was 540 Turkish Lira. Conclusion: We believe that our findings compared with data from other countries will be useful in showing the current situation of ILD in our country to discuss this problem and making plans for a solution