Acute effects of hemodialysis on oxidative stress parameters in chronic uremic patients: Comparison of two dialysis membranes

Uremic state and hemobioincompatibility are implicated in subclinical inflammation and oxidative stress and progression of atherosclerosis in the hemodialysis (HD) population. To what extent different dialysis membranes contribute to oxidative stress induced by a dialysis procedure per se is still a subject of debate. Fifteen HD patients and 15 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Patients received two index HD sessions with a cuprophane and polysulfone membrane two weeks apart. Blood samples were collected at baseline and then before and after HD sessions. We determined serum thiobarbituric acid, protein carbonyl, and serum nitrite/nitrate levels as markers of oxidative damage. We also measured erythrocyte glutathione level, catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase activity, and serum vitamin C and E levels as antioxidant markers. At baseline, HD patients, in comparison with normal controls, had a trend towards increased oxidant state and depletion of antioxidants. Cuprophane dialysis induced a higher increase in production of oxidants, along with a lower compensatory increase of antioxidants when compared with polysulfone dialysis. In conclusion, a single HD session, even when conducted with a biocompatible membrane, appears to play an important role in the imbalance between ROS production and antioxidant defense, but to a milder extent than cuprophane dialysis

Prevalence of Green Tobacco Sickness in Tobacco Production Areas in the Black Sea Region

oai:ojs2.skyfox.co:article/5The purpose of this study was to examine the presence of green tobacco sickness in tobacco producers living in the Black Sea Region and their level of knowledge of green tobacco sickness. Simple random sampling was employed, and the results of the surveys that had been conducted face-to-face with tobacco producers were gathered and analyzed. As a result, green tobacco sickness was not encountered among tobacco producers living in the Black Sea Region, and it was understood that they did not have knowledge of the sickness. The main reasons why there is no evidence of the sickness are growing tobacco with low nicotine content and common usage of protective equipment during and after harvest. In order to overcome lack of information, occupational health and safety training should be provided. In addition, it is required to make agricultural mechanization widespread in tobacco growing. Thus, precautions shall have been taken against probable occurrence of the sickness. Making this study in other tobacco production regions of Turkey would be beneficial

A critical analysis of COVID-19 research literature: Text mining approach

Objective: Among the stakeholders of COVID-19 research, clinicians particularly experience difficulty keeping up with the deluge of SARS-CoV-2 literature while performing their much needed clinical duties. By revealing major topics, this study proposes a text-mining approach as an alternative to navigating large volumes of COVID-19 literature. Materials and methods: We obtained 85,268 references from the NIH COVID-19 Portfolio as of November 21. After the exclusion based on inadequate abstracts, 65,262 articles remained in the final corpus. We utilized natural language processing to curate and generate the term list. We applied topic modeling analyses and multiple correspondence analyses to reveal the major topics and the associations among topics, journal countries, and publication sources. Results: In our text mining analyses of NIH’s COVID-19 Portfolio, we discovered two sets of eleven major research topics by analyzing abstracts and titles of the articles separately. The eleven major areas of COVID-19 research based on abstracts included the following topics: 1) Public Health, 2) Patient Care & Outcomes, 3) Epidemiologic Modeling, 4) Diagnosis and Complications, 5) Mechanism of Disease, 6) Health System Response, 7) Pandemic Control, 8) Protection/Prevention, 9) Mental/Behavioral Health, 10) Detection/Testing, 11) Treatment Options. Further analyses revealed that five (2,3,4,5, and 9) of the eleven abstract-based topics showed a significant correlation (ranked from moderate to weak) with title-based topics. Conclusion: By offering up the more dynamic, scalable, and responsive categorization of published literature, our study provides valuable insights to the stakeholders of COVID-19 research, particularly clinicians.3417985

Do female patients with metabolic syndrome have masked left ventricular dysfunction?

Objective: Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a condition, which is recognized as raising the risk of cardiovascular disease. The aim of our study is to estimate the left ventricular functions by atrioventricular plane displacement (AVPD), myocardial performance index (MPI) and conventional methods in patients with MS who were diagnosed according to NCEP (ATP III) criteria. Methods: Fifty-three female patients with MS (mean age 53.1 ± 6.9 years) and 30 healthy female subjects (mean age 52.8 ± 6.3 years, p>0.05) underwent complete echocardiographic assessment. All of the subjects had no heart and pulmonary diseases. The systolic mitral AVPD was recorded at 4 sites (septal, lateral, anterior, and posterior) by M-mode echocardiography and left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF) was calculated from the AVPD-mean (EF-AVPD). The LVEF was also established by biplane Simpson's (EF-2D) and Teichholz's methods (EF-T). Left ventricular MPI was calculated as (isovolumic contraction time + isovolumic relaxation time) / aortic ejection time by Doppler echocardiography. Results: Patients with MS showed mild left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (DD) in comparison to healthy subjects. The EF-2D and EF-T in patients with MS and healthy subjects were not different significantly and were within normal limits. Patients with MS showed LV global dysfunctions compared to healthy subjects (MPI: 0.56±0.12 and 0.46±0.11 respectively, p<0.01). Both the septal, anterior, lateral and posterior part of the atrioventricular plane values and also AVPD-mean during systole were statistically lower in patients with MS (12.85±1.76 mm) as compared with controls (14.65±2.19 mm, p<0.05). The EF-AVPD in patients with MS was statistically lower (65.58±11.95%) as compared with healthy subjects (74.45±11.07%, p<0.01). Conclusion: Female patients with MS had both left ventricular DD and a global dysfunction with an increased MPI. The EF-2D and EF-T were not different significantly between patients and controls, but patients with MS had a relatively reduced EF-AVPD. The AVPD method may indicate a systolic dysfunction with a relatively lower AVPD-mean and relatively lower EF-AVPD. The presence of global dysfunction in patients with MS may lead to heart failure

The Effects of Vitamin D Receptor Silencing on the Expression of LVSCC-A1C and LVSCC-A1D and the Release of NGF in Cortical Neurons

Recent studies have suggested that vitamin D can act on cells in the nervous system. Associations between polymorphisms in the vitamin D receptor (VDR), age-dependent cognitive decline, and insufficient serum 25 hydroxyvitamin D(3) levels in Alzheimer's patients and elderly people with cognitive decline have been reported. We have previously shown that amyloid β (Aβ) treatment eliminates VDR protein in cortical neurons. These results suggest a potential role for vitamin D and vitamin D-mediated mechanisms in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and neurodegeneration. Vitamin D has been shown to down-regulate the L-type voltage-sensitive calcium channels, LVSCC-A1C and LVSCC-A1D, and up-regulate nerve growth factor (NGF). However, expression of these proteins when VDR is repressed is unknown. The aim of this study is to investigate LVSCC-A1C, LVSCC-A1D expression levels and NGF release in VDR-silenced primary cortical neurons prepared from Sprague-Dawley rat embryos.qRT-PCR and western blots were performed to determine VDR, LVSCC-A1C and -A1D expression levels. NGF and cytotoxicity levels were determined by ELISA. Apoptosis was determined by TUNEL. Our findings illustrate that LVSCC-A1C mRNA and protein levels increased rapidly in cortical neurons when VDR is down-regulated, whereas, LVSCC-A1D mRNA and protein levels did not change and NGF release decreased in response to VDR down-regulation. Although vitamin D regulates LVSCC-A1C through VDR, it may not regulate LVSCC-A1D through VDR.Our results indicate that suppression of VDR disrupts LVSCC-A1C and NGF production. In addition, when VDR is suppressed, neurons could be vulnerable to aging and neurodegeneration, and when combined with Aβ toxicity, it is possible to explain some of the events that occur during neurodegeneration

Heart echinococcus cyst as an incidental finding: early detection might be life-saving

We present a 46-year-old female smoker who was admitted to the emergency department of our hospital due to cough with blood-tinged sputum for the last four days before admission. Using echocardiography and Multi-Detector Computed Tomography (MDCT) heart Echinococcosis was diagnosed. Echinococcosis is a severe health issue in some geographical regions of the world. Hydatid infection of the heart is rare and the clinical presentation is usually insidious but there is always the lethal hazard of cyst perforation. Early diagnosis and an integrated treatment strategy are crucial. The results of surgical treatment of heart echinococcosis are better than the conservative strategy only. Extraction of the cyst combined with chemotherapy peri or post operative aiming to decrease the recurrences, consists the lege artis method of encountering this medical entity. Surgical excision was performed and the patient had an uneventful recovery and follow up at six and twelve months