Investigation of the role of serum telomerase levels in patients with occult primary ovarian insufficiency: a prospective cross-sectional study

This study was designed to investigate serum telomerase levels of occult primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) and the relationship between in vitro fertilisation (IVF) results of these patients and serum telomerase levels. A cross-sectional case–control study was conducted between May and October 2017 including 78 patients at University of Health Science, Turkey. Occult POI was defined as women with a history of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) elevation between 12 and 25 IU/L and low ovarian reserve before initiation of IVF (n = 39). The control group were patients attending the hospital for contraception, with no history of infertility, having at least one healthy child (n = 39). Telomerase levels in serum samples were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. There was no statistically significant difference in serum telomerase levels in occult POI patients when compared with the control group.Impact statement What is already known on this subject? Clinical studies investigating the role of telomerase on reproductive function and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) outcomes in occult primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) patients are limited with no clear consensus and in all these studies polymerase chain reaction technique was used to evaluate telomere length. Regarding our knowledge, this is the first study in the literature investigating the role of serum telomerase levels in occult POI patients. What do the results of this study add? In contrast to the previous studies, in this study no statistically significant difference was found in serum telomerase levels in occult POI patients when compared with the fertile control patients. What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? The occult POI patients examined in this study are overlooked until they apply with infertility. Serum telomerase measurement is not useful to support the diagnosis of occult POI. Nevertheless, in order to confirm these findings, further studies in larger populations are needed

Pelvik Cerrahlar için Temel Klinik Retroperitoneal Anatomi

Basic anatomical knowledge should be improved during residency period with clinical practice. Especially pelvic surgeons; obstetricians, gynecologists, gynecological oncologists, urologists and general surgeons must have an advanced level practise of retroperitoneal anatomy to gain surgical skills. Retroperitoneal topographic anatomy, retroperitoneal vasculature, ureteric dissection and pelvic avascular spaces are the precise points during pelvic surgery.PubMedScopusTr-Dizi

Determinants for poor perinatal outcome in term pregnancies with umbilical cord prolapse

© 2022 Ondokuz Mayis Universitesi. All rights reserved.Umblical cord prolapse is a very rare condition. It is an obstetric emergency that can have unfavourable consequences for the fetus. We aimed to investigate the determinants for poor perinatal outcome following emergency cesarean delivery performed due to umbilical cord prolapse in uncomplicated term pregnancies. Fifty-three term pregnants and their babies born with cesarean section due to umbilical cord prolapse were included in this retrospective study. Newborns who were taken to neonatal intensive care unit were defined as poor perinatal outcome.Eleven of fifty-three newborns needed intensive care. All of them were discharged without any problem after the treatment. The presence of fetal distress detected before or during the umbilical cord prolapse was found to be the only marker associated with poor perinatal outcome. Abnormalities detected in fetal heart rate monitoring before or during umblical cord prolapse increase poor perinatal outcome in uncomplicated term pregnancies

Are the cesarean section skin scar characteristics associated with intraabdominal adhesions located at surgical and non-surgical sites

Objective: To investigate whether skin scar characteristics are associated with the presence and severity of abdominal or pelvic adhesions in women who have undergone previous cesarean section

The Association Between Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes and Surgical Site Infection Following Cesarean Section

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate clinical characteristics of surgical-site infections (SSIs) following cesarean section (CS) and to identify infection rates and risk factors associated with SSIs following cesarean section. STUDY DESIGN: A total of 197 patients who underwent cesarean and complicated with SSIs was evaluated during hospital stay or within 30 days following cesarean section by readmission to the hospital or by post discharge survey. The clinical characteristics, subsequent microbiological culture results and management were recorded. RESULTS: There were 34 (17.25%) patients complicated with preeclampsia and 26 (13.17%) gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in the study group. Preterm rupture of membranes (PROM) rate was 17.31% and mean rupture period were 6.61 hours. In the study population, 66 patients had positive culture results. The most isolated microorganism was S. Aureus (n=13, 19.7%). Preeclampsia, GDM and PROM rates were statically significant high in patients with positive culture results (p<0.05). There were 31 patients complicated with PROM in the study group. The rates of positive culture results were significantly increased by PROM (mean 45%, p<0.05). CONCLUSION:  Independent risk factors for post-cesarean SSIs are younger age, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, premature rupture of membranes. Information regarding higher rates of SSIs should be provided to obese women undergoing cesarean delivery, especially when diabetes and hypertension coexists

The prognostic value of squamous differentiation in endometrioid type endometrial cancer: a matched analysis

We aimed to examine the effect of the squamous differentiation on survival outcomes of women with endometrioid adenocarcinoma. We retrospectively reviewed the patients with endometrioid adenocarcinoma who underwent primary surgical treatment in a tertiary referral hospital. Sixty-nine patients having squamous differentiation constituted the case group. Each woman in the case group was matched with two patients in the control group based on age, disease stage, tumour grade, lymphovascular space invasion, tumour size, myometrial invasion, type of surgery and adjuvant therapy. During the follow-up, the recurrence rates were similar between the case (5/69, 7.2%) and control (10/138, 7.2%) groups (p = 1.0). The 5-year disease-free survival rate was 90.2% for the case group and 88.6% for the control group (p = .51). The 5-year overall survival rate was 94.6% for the case group and 91.8% for the control group (p = .12). Squamous differentiation seems to have no impact on the prognosis of patients with endometrioid adenocarcinoma.IMPACT STATEMENT What is already known on this subject? A focus of squamous differentiation is recognised in 12.8–25% of women with endometrioid adenocarcinoma. The prognostic value of the squamous differentiation was evaluated in several previous studies. However, it could not be clarified due to the conflicting results of these studies. What do the results of this study add? The probable confounding effects of well-known prognostic factors including age at diagnosis, International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics stage, tumour grade, lymphovascular space invasion, tumour size, myometrial invasion, type of surgery and adjuvant therapy were eliminated with the case-control study design in the current study. Our findings indicate that the presence of squamous differentiation does not have any prognostic effect in endometrioid type endometrial cancer. What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? The molecular prognosticators of endometrial cancer were extensively studied in recent years. It is likely that clinicopathological and molecular prognostic factors will be integrated for predicting prognosis as a part of routine clinical practice soon. In this context, the prognostic value of the squamous differentiation in endometrioid adenocarcinomas may further be clarified by larger and multicentric studies that utilise central pathology review

Prognostic Role of Lymphadenectomy among Women with Low Grade Lymphovascular Space Invasion-Positive Clinically Uterus Confined Endometrioid Endometrial Cancer

Background: Possible therapeutic benefits of lymphadenectomy (LND) in the treatment of endometrial cancer (EC) remain controversial. The present study was undertaken with the aim of investigating the prognostic role of LND in women with clinically confirmed, low-grade, uterus-confined endometrioid EC exhibiting lymphovascular space invasion. Methods: A bicentric retrospective review was conducted for the identification of cases of EC, treated at two gynecologic oncology departments in Turkey. Subsequently, the data of 1811 patients with EC (non-endometrioid, endometrioid, or mixed histology) who had undergone surgery between 2007 and 2016 were analyzed. After extracting data, 37 patients were defined as the study group, and those 37 cases were matched to 74 control patients who had undergone surgery with systematic LND to compare survival. Kaplan-Meier analysis was applied in the process of interpreting data on survival, and variables predicting patient outcomes were identified using Cox proportional hazards regression. Results: Five-year disease-free survival (DFS) rates were 88.2% versus 81.5% (p = 0.985), while overall survival (OS) rates were 91.0% versus 85.7% (p = 0.814) for the study and control groups, respectively. Advanced ages (hazard ratio (HR): 6.69; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.59–28.09, p = 0.009) and tumors of grade 2 (HR: 3.35; 95% CI: 1.09–10.26, p = 0.034) were found to be independently predictive of decreased OS within the entire cohort. Conclusions: Systematic LND does not have a therapeutic role in the management of low-grade, uterus-confined endometrioid EC with lymphovascular space invasion. There was no difference between the survival outcomes of the two groups considered in this study

Prognostic value of systemic inflammatory response markers in cervical cancer

We investigated the association between preoperative ratios of inflammatory markers and the prognosis in patients with invasive cervical cancer (CC). In this single-centre study, we retrospectively enrolled 163 CC patients who underwent radical hysterectomy between February 2008 and October 2018. Among the evaluated ratios, a high neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (N/L) was significantly associated with deep stromal invasion and tumour size larger than 2 cm, whereas a high M/L was significantly related to advanced-stage CC (IB3–IIIC2), lymphatic metastasis (total) and pelvic lymph node metastasis (p= .002, p= .046 and p= .046, respectively). The neutrophil count plus monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (NM/L) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (P/L) were significantly higher in patients with deep stromal invasion, advanced stage and tumour size larger than 2 cm (p=.01, p=.044 and p=.007; p=.004, p=.005 and p=.003, respectively). In the multivariate analysis, high NM/L (>168) was associated with a statistically significant hazard ratio of 3.04 (95% CI: (1.38–6.72); p=.006) for recurrence and 9.05 (95% CI: (2.10–38.99); p=.003) for death. Both stage and NM/L are independent prognostic factors that are significantly associated with recurrence and overall survival in CC.Impact Statement What is already known on this subject? Previous studies suggested that there is a relationship between inflammation and the formation, development and progression of cancer. However, the relationship between cervical cancer (CC) and inflammatory blood parameters is incompletely understood. What do the results of this study add? This study investigated the relationship between systemic blood inflammatory ratios and clinicopathological patient characteristics and disease outcomes in CC. What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? According to this study, systemic blood inflammatory ratios may help predict the prognosis and survival of patients with CC

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with stage IVB uterine serous carcinoma: a Turkish multicentric study

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic factors for and determine the effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) on oncologic outcome in stage IVB pure serous endometrial carcinoma patients who received taxane and platinum. Forty-two patients with 2009 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage IVB uterine serous carcinoma were enrolled from six gynecologic oncology centers and a study group was created. The study group had a 2-year disease-free survival (DFS) of 32% and 2-year disease-specific survival (DSS) of 73%. On univariate analysis; lymphadenectomy (not performed vs. performed), paraaortic lymph node metastasis (positive vs. negative) and number of metastatic lymph node count (≤5 vs. >5) were found to have statistical significance for DFS (p < 0.001, p = 0.026 and p = 0.044, respectively). Adnexal metastasis (positive vs. negative) and type of cytoreductive surgery (maximal vs. optimal and suboptimal) had statistical significance for DSS (p = 0.041 and p = 0.015, respectively). Receiving NACT did not affect DFS and DSS in stage IVB uterine serous carcinoma patients. As our sample size was small, precise conclusions could not be made for suggesting the use of NACT in advanced stage uterine serous carcinoma. For more accurate results, more randomized controlled studies are needed in this patient group.IMPACT STATEMENT What is already known on this subject? Endometrial carcinoma is the most common type of gynecologic tract malignancies and usually it is diagnosed at early stages. Although the favorable prognosis, uterine serous carcinoma (USC), one of the rarest subtypes, has a poorer prognosis when compared to other histological subtypes. USC has a propensity to spread beyond pelvis. Due to this aggressive behavior, surgical intervention could not be feasible in advanced stage disease. What do the results of this study add? Our study evaluated the prognostic factors that affect survival in advanced stage USC patients. Also we investigated that neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) could improve oncologic outcomes. Performing lymphadenectomy, presence of paraaortic lymph node and adnexal metastasis, number of metastatic lymph nodes and type of cytoreductive surgery improved survival in advanced stage USC patients. However, NACT did not have a statistical significance as a predictor for disease-specific survival (DSS) and disease-free survival (DFS). What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Maximal surgical effort should be performed in advanced stage USC according to our results. On the other hand, NACT had no impact on DSS and DFS rates. For this reason, we could not be able to suggest the routine use of NACT in advanced stage USC. But more randomized controlled trials are warranted for confirmation of our results