Comparision of clinical and electrophysiological staging in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Amaçlar: Karpal tünel sendromu teshis edilen hastalarda klinik ve elektrofizyolojik evrelemeler arasındaki iliskinin arastırılmasıdır. Gereç ve yöntemler: Karpal tünel sendromu saptanan 127 el (90 hasta) incelendi. Hastalar klinik olarak ve elektrofizyolojik olarak evrelendi. Her iki evreleme arasındaki iliski incelendi. Karpal tünel sendromu tanısı, medyan sinir trasesindeki, parestezi, agrı, medyan sinir innervasyonlu alanlarda duyu kaybı, medyan sinir innervasyonlu kaslarda motor güçsüzlük ve atrofi olması, Phalen testi veTinel testi pozitifligi ile konuldu. Bulgular: Hastaların klinik evrelemesi ile elektrofizyolojik evrelemesi arasında anlamlı bir iliski saptandı (p=0.000). Hastaların klinik evreleri arttıkça elektrofizyolojik olarak da agır derecelerde karpal tünel sendromu ile uyumlu bulgular elde edilmekteydi. Sonuç: Pratikte klinik ve elektrofizyolojik olarak uyumsuz vakalara rastlansa da hastaların medyan sinir kompresyonunun derecesi klinik muayeneler ile tahmin edilebilir düsüncesindeyiz.Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between the clinical and electrophysiological stages in patients diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome. Material and methods: One hundered twentyeight hands (90 patients) with carpal tunnel syndrome were investigated. Patients were staged clinically and electrophysiologically. The relationship between these stages was investigated. Diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome was made according to the presence of paresthesia, pain in the innervation area of the median nerve, weakness and atrophy in the median nerve innervated muscles, positive Phalen and Tinnel tests. Results: A significant correlation was found between clinical and electrophysiological staging of patients. The electrophysiological findings were more severe as the clinical stage progressed. Conclusions: We suggest that although there may sometimes be a discordance between clinical and electrophysiological stages in clinical practice, the severity of the compression of the median nerve can usually be estimated by clinical examination

Effect of body mass index on soft tissues in adolescents with skeletal class I and normal facial height

Background The evaluation of soft tissues in patients undergoing orthodontic treatment plays a critical role in diagnosis and treatment planning. This study aims to evaluate the effect of body mass index (BMI) on facial soft tissues in skeletal Class I patients with normal vertical growth. Methods The study included 72 patients with a normal vertical growth pattern (SN-GoGn 26–38°) and skeletal Class I (ANB 2‒4°) malocclusion. According to their BMI (kg/m2) values, the patients were divided into three groups of 24 individuals each: underweight (>5th percentile) (13 females, 11 males; mean age, 11.58 ± 1.95 years), normal weight (5‒85th percentile) (12 females, 12 males; mean age, 11.54 ± 1.95 years), overweight (85‒95th percentile) (12 females, 12 males; mean age, 11.62 ± 2.01 years). Soft tissue thickness and height measurements were made on lateral cephalometric radiographs. Results In all soft tissue thickness measurements, except for the nasion, the overweight weight group had higher values. In comparing the underweight and normal weight groups, statistically significant differences were found in the thickness measurements at the nasion and gnathion (p < 0.05). The differences in thickness measurements at the glabella, labiale superius, stomion, labiale inferius, pogonion, gnathion, and menton are statistically significant between the underweight and overweight groups (p < 0.005). Comparing the normal and overweight groups revealed statistically significant differences the thickness measurements at the glabella, labiale superius, stomion, pogonion and menton (p < 0.05)

A network-based approach on elucidating the multi-faceted nature of chronological aging in S. cerevisiae.

BACKGROUND: Cellular mechanisms leading to aging and therefore increasing susceptibility to age-related diseases are a central topic of research since aging is the ultimate, yet not understood mechanism of the fate of a cell. Studies with model organisms have been conducted to ellucidate these mechanisms, and chronological aging of yeast has been extensively used as a model for oxidative stress and aging of postmitotic tissues in higher eukaryotes. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The chronological aging network of yeast was reconstructed by integrating protein-protein interaction data with gene ontology terms. The reconstructed network was then statistically "tuned" based on the betweenness centrality values of the nodes to compensate for the computer automated method. Both the originally reconstructed and tuned networks were subjected to topological and modular analyses. Finally, an ultimate "heart" network was obtained via pooling the step specific key proteins, which resulted from the decomposition of the linear paths depicting several signaling routes in the tuned network. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The reconstructed networks are of scale-free and hierarchical nature, following a power law model with γ  =  1.49. The results of modular and topological analyses verified that the tuning method was successful. The significantly enriched gene ontology terms of the modular analysis confirmed also that the multifactorial nature of chronological aging was captured by the tuned network. The interplay between various signaling pathways such as TOR, Akt/PKB and cAMP/Protein kinase A was summarized in the "heart" network originated from linear path analysis. The deletion of four genes, TCB3, SNA3, PST2 and YGR130C, was found to increase the chronological life span of yeast. The reconstructed networks can also give insight about the effect of other cellular machineries on chronological aging by targeting different signaling pathways in the linear path analysis, along with unraveling of novel proteins playing part in these pathways

Psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Depression Coping Self-efficacy Scale

Reliable and valid instruments are needed to assess and deal with the problems that are encountered by depressed patients in psychiatric nursing practice. The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Depression Coping Self-efficacy Scale. A descriptive and correlation design was used to determine the psychometric properties of the Scale. The study population was 105 depressed inpatients from acute psychiatry services. The study confirmed that the Scale is reliable and valid for assessing depression coping self-efficacy of depressed patients in acute psychiatric wards in Turkey

Effect of rapid ventricular pacing on cerebral oxygenation in transcatheter aortic valve implantation (Tavi): Role of routine near-infrared spectroscopy monitoring

Objective: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation has become an important treatment modality in patients with high risk comorbidities for surgical aortic valve replacement. The objective of this study is to evaluate the cerebral perfusion status using near infrared spectroscopy method especially during the rapid ventricular pacing phase of the transcatheter aortic valve implantation procedure. Methods: 20 consecutive patients undergoing trans-femoral aortic valve implantation procedure between May 2015 and March 2016 in our institute were retrospectively evaluated. The periprocedural cerebral oxygenation was measured with a near infrared spectroscopy sensor (INVOSTM-5100 C, Medtronic Inc., Minneapolis, MI, USA) located on the forehead of the patients. All hemodynamic data and cerebral near infrared spectroscopy values were recorded before, during and after the procedure with constant time intervals, especially at the time of rapid ventricular pacing and device deployment. Results: The mean age was 74.4 ± 9.2 years. Male female ratio was 1.8 to 1 (13 males, 7 females). Mean procedure time was 70.2 ± 14.3 minutes. The rapid ventricular pacing included two episodes with a total time for pacing of 22.6 ± 5.1 seconds. There was a statistically significant difference with regard to the heart rate and the cerebral near infrared spectroscopy values (p=0.006 and p=0.02; respectively) in all patients during the rapid ventricular pacing period. The cerebral near infrared spectroscopy values were statistically lower than baseline levels (p<0.001). Conclusion: This observational study presents the significant decrease of cerebral near infrared spectroscopy values during the rapid ventricular pacing phase of the transcatheter aortic valve implantation procedure. Further studies may reveal cut-off values both for near infrared spectroscopy values and rapid ventricular pacing duration in order to determine a critical cut-off level

Pseudohypoparathyroidism Type Ia with Normocalcemia

Pseudohypoparathyroidism (PHP) is a heterogeneous group of disorder with parathormone target organ resistance, characterized by hypocalcemia, hyperphosphatemia and high blood parathormone (PTH). Typical phenotypic symptoms and additional hormonal resistance can be observed in type Ia, which is also known as Albright hereditary osteodystrophy. Our patient was an eight-year and nine-month old girl with typical Albright's hereditary osteodystrophy phenotype including short stature, obesity, round face, low nasal bridge, shortened metacarpals, and mild mental retardation. In her biochemical examination, high PTH level and hypothyroidism is detected in spite of normal calcium and phosphor levels. As a result of clinic and laboratory tests, the findings were consistent with PHP type Ia with normocalcemia. In her guanine nucleotide binding protein (G protein), alpha stimulating activity polypeptide 1 (GNAS 1) gene serial analysis, C-308T>C (p1103T) transformation was detected, which was previously reported in a PHP type Ia patient. In this report, we've aimed to emphasize the fact that calcium and phosphor level in the blood of the patient with PHP type Ia can be measured normal

A Case with Laron Syndrome

Laron syndrome (LS) is a rare disorder leading to short stature as a result of growth hormone (GH) insensitivity. It is caused by mutations in GH receptor gene and characterized by post-natal growth retardation, craniofacial abnormalities, high serum GH and low insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-I) levels. Several different genetic mutations have been documented up to date. In this article, a patient with LS is reported