The Role of Granulocyte-macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor in Recurrent Pregnancy Losses

Objective:A specific factor cannot be detected in approximately half of recurrent pregnancy losses (RPL). The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of a cytokine, granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), in the etiology of recurrent pregnancy losses.Method:A total of 50 patients who had been admitted to the gynecology and obstetrics clinics of İstanbul University Medical School between January 1995 and September 2001 were included into the study and allocated to five groups including control and study groups. The study groups included 30 patients and the control groups included 20 patients. There were 3 study groups including non-pregnant women who had abortion (2 groups) and a spontaneous abortion group, which were selected among the recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) subjects with unknown etiology. The spontaneous abortion, non-pregnant RPL group and pregnant RPL group were accepted as study group). These groups were compared with the control groups, which included pregnant and non-pregnant healthy women.Results:Moderate and severe GM-CSF activity was detected in the decidua of all cases in fertile and elective termination groups. However no significant difference was detected in the surface epithelium, gland epithelium and stromal GCSF activities. Endometrial GM-CSF activity was determined to decrease in spontaneous abortion and RPL cases.Conclusion:Reduced GM-CSF activity in the decidua may have a role in the etiology of RPL. Besides, the level and distribution of GM-CSF in different compartments of the decidua may be a determinant factor in the prognosis of pregnancy

Türkiye'nin ilk baş balerini Meriç Sümen'in Türk bale tarihindeki yeri

Ankara : İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent Üniversitesi İktisadi, İdari ve Sosyal Bilimler Fakültesi, Tarih Bölümü, 2013.This work is a student project of the The Department of History, Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University.by Elif Huntürk.Huntürk, Elif. HIST 200-8HUNTÜRK HIST 200-8/10 2012-1

Laparoscopic colon resection in patients with situs inversus totalis: Is it the same operation as in patients without situs inversus totalis?

Situs inversus totalis (SIT) is a rare condition. In this case, a patient who underwent laparoscopic anterior resection for repeated sigmoid colon diverticulitis with SIT was presented. Laparoscopy surgery in patients with this condition has some important technical differences than standard laparoscopic procedures. Therefore, it may be more appropriate to request surgical experience to perform safe laparoscopic surgery in patients with SIT

Transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate rebiopsy: How many core sampling should be applied to which patient?

Background: We investigated the correlation between the sampled number of cores in rebiopsy and the cancer detection rate (CDR). Materials and Methods: Two hundred and twelve patients with normal rectal examination who had undergone rebiopsy in the past 5 years were examined retrospectively. Moreover, 68% of them had undergone 12 cores (Group 1) while 32% had undergone 20 cores (Group 2). Both groups were compared with respect to the CDR. Results: There was no difference between groups in terms of age, total prostate-specific antigen, and prostate volume (P > 0.05). Forty-one (19%) of 212 patients were diagnosed with cancer, and the CDR was significantly higher in Group 2 (30.9% vs. 13.9%, P = 0.004). This rate increased from 6.5% to 20% (P = 0.025) and from 0% to 33.3% (P = 0.023), respectively, with 12-core and 20-core rebiopsies in patients whose initial pathology indicated benign and high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN). Furthermore, cancer was detected in 24 (40%) of 60 patients who were diagnosed with atypical small acinar proliferation (ASAP) in the initial biopsy. However, despite being higher in 20-core biopsy group (47.6% vs. 35.9%), this was not statistically significant (P = 0.377). Conclusions: At least 20 cores should be sampled in rebiopsy, especially in the patients diagnosed with benign and HGPIN. However, we believe that standard systematic sampling will be sufficient for the patients diagnosed with ASAP

Turkish Society of Cardiology consensus report on the rational use of cardiac troponins in daily practice

Cardiac troponins (cTn T and I) are protein molecules that are part of the contractile apparatus of the cardiac muscle. Increase in these biomarkers represents injury of myocardial cells without giving any evidence for the underlying mechanism (1, 2)

Predictive Role of the Systemic Immune Inflammation Index for Intravesical BCG Response in Intermediate- and High-Risk Non-Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer

Introduction: In this study, we aimed to explore using the predictive role of systemic immune inflammation index (SII) for responses of intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) therapy in patients with intermediate- and high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Methods: From 9 centers, we reviewed the data of patients treated for intermediate- and high-risk NMIBC between 2011 and 2021. All patients enrolled in the study presented with T1 and/or high-grade tumors on initial TURB had undergone re-TURB within 4-6 weeks after initial TURB and had received at least a 6-week course of intravesical BCG induction. SII was calculated with the formula SII = (P × N)/L, where P, N, and L refer to peripheral platelet, neutrophil, and lymphocyte counts, respectively. In patients with intermediate- and high-risk NMIBC, the clinicopathological features and follow-up data were evaluated to compare SII with other systemic inflammation-based prognostic indices. These included the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-neutrophil ratio (PNR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR). Results: A total of 269 patients were enrolled in the study. Median follow-up time was 39 months. Disease recurrence and progression were observed in 71 (26.4%) and 19 (7.1%) patients, respectively. For groups with and without disease recurrence in terms of NLR, PLR, PNR, and SII calculated prior to intravesical BCG treatment, no statistically significant differences were observed (p = 0.470, p = 0.247, p = 0.495, and p = 0.243, respectively). Moreover, there were also no statistically significant differences between the groups with and without disease progression in terms of NLR, PLR, PNR, and SII (p = 0.504, p = 0.165, p = 0.410, and p = 0.242, respectively). SII did not show any statistically significant difference between early (<6 months) and late (≥6 months) recurrence (p = 0.492) and progression groups (p = 0.216). Conclusion: For patients with intermediate- and high-risk NMIBC, serum SII levels do not present as an appropriate biomarker for the prediction of disease recurrence and progression following intravesical BCG therapy. A possible explanation for the failure of SII to predict BCG response may be found in the impact of Turkey's nationwide tuberculosis vaccination program

The Association between Serum Heme Oxygenase-1 Levels and Coronary SYNTAX Score

Aim: The relationship between heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) levels and atherosclerosis was investigated in multiple studies. The aim of this study was to establish the relationship between HO-1 levels and coronary SYNergy between percutaneous coronary intervention with TAXus and Cardiac Surgery (SYNTAX) score in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD). Methods: Patients who had been planned to undergo invasive coronary angiography due to a suspected CAD, between the dates of September and December 2019, were included in the study. Serum HO-1 levels were measured from peripheral venous blood. The SYNTAX score was calculated using standard coronary angiography images. Regression analysis was performed to establish the relationship between HO-1 levels and the SYNTAX score. Results: In total, 137 patients were included. The median age was 63 years (IQR: 15), and most of the patients were male (75.2%). The median HO-1 level was 1.44 (IQR: 0.88) ng/mL, and the median SYNTAX score was 6 (IQR: 13). Regression analysis showed that HO-1 is the single most important variable associated with the SYNTAX score (HO-1 levels from 1.01 to 1.87 ng/mL, OR: 6.77, 95% confidence interval 5.18-8.36, p < 0.0001). Conclusion: In this study, serum HO-1 levels were significantly associated with the coronary SYNTAX score

DIagnostic accuracy oF electrocardiogram for acute coronary OCClUsion resuLTing in myocardial infarction (DIFOCCULT Study)

Background: Although ST-segment elevation (STE) has been used synonymously with acute coronary occlusion (ACO), current STE criteria miss nearly one-third of ACO and result in a substantial amount of false catheterization laboratory activations. As many other electrocardiographic (ECG) findings can reliably indicate ACO, we sought whether a new ACO/non-ACO myocardial infarction (MI) paradigm would result in better identification of the patients who need acute reperfusion therapy

Does electrocardiogram help in identifying the culprit artery when angiogram shows both right and circumflex artery disease in inferior myocardial infarction?

Objective: In a subgroup of patients with inferior myocardial infarction (MI), both the right coronary artery (RCA) and circumflex coronary artery (Cx) show potentially culprit lesions, and angiography may be insufficient to determine which artery is responsible for the clinical presentation. Although many electrocardiographic (ECG) algorithms have been proposed for identifying the infarct-related artery in patients with inferior MI, it is unclear whether the current algorithms have the discriminative power to identify the real culprit artery in these patients