The Role of Three-dimensional Printer Modeling in Preoperative Planning of Brain Tumor and Aneurysm Surgery

Introduction:The three-dimensional (3D) modeling technique, which is one of the latest technologies, has been applied in neurosurgical practice. The surgeon’s knowledge and experience are crucial for the success of the surgical treatment of brain tumors and brain aneurysms. This study emphasizes that the contribution to successful surgery is by ensuring that the surgeon is fully oriented before and during the operation.Methods:The study included five patients with brain tumors and five patients with hemorrhagic aneurysm, which were diagnosed between May 2021 and November 2022. Both patient groups were evaluated retrospectively, and all operations were performed by the same experienced surgeon. 3D models of the patients were prepared using a computer program. These models were examined by the operating surgeon during the preoperative period and were sterilized and used as a guide during the operation.Results:The patients were divided into two groups, one composed of five patients undergoing surgery with the diagnosis of a tumor and the other composed of five patients undergoing surgery due to a ruptured aneurysm. All operations were performed by the same experienced surgeon. Successful clipping was performed in all patients with ruptured aneurysms.Conclusion:Surgeons have been analyzing complex neuroanatomy data using the 3D modeling technique before surgery. The preoperative simulation improved the surgeon’s command of the field and orientation to the surgery. These findings suggest that 3D modeling will positively affect a successful surgical operation and the management of complications that may occur. More prospective randomized studies are needed to confirm these findings

The role of repeated extended FAST in patients with stable blunt thoracoabdominal trauma

BACKGROUND: Thoracic and abdominal computed tomography scans are widely used modalities for trauma patients in emergency department (ED). However, alternative diagnostic and follow-up tools are also needed, due to limitations such as high cost and exces-sive radiation exposure. This study aimed to investigate the utility of repeated extended focused abdominal sonography for trauma (rE-FAST) performed by the emergency physician in patients with stable blunt thoracoabdominal trauma.METHODS: This was a prospective, single-center diagnostic accuracy study. Patients with blunt thoracoabdominal trauma admitted to the ED were included in the study. The E-FAST was performed on the patients included in the study at the 0th h, the 3rd h, and the 6th h during their follow-up. Then, the diagnostic accuracy metrics of E-FAST and rE-FAST were calculated.RESULTS: The sensitivity and specificity of E-FAST in determining thoracoabdominal pathologies were found to be 75% and 98.7%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity for specific pathologies were 66.7% and 100% for pneumothorax, 66.7% and 98.8% for hemothorax, and 66.7% and 100% for hemoperitoneum, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of rE-FAST in determining thoracal and/or abdominal hemorrhage in stable patients were found to be 100% and 98.7%, respectively.CONCLUSION: E-FAST successfully rules in thoracoabdominal pathologies in patients with blunt trauma, with its high specificity. However, only a rE-FAST might be sensitive enough to exclude traumatic pathologies in these stable patients

Soil arching and load transfer mechanism for slope stabilized with piles

In this study, the effects of pile spacing and pile head fixity on the moment and lateral soil pressure distribution along slope stabilizing piles are investigated. A slice from an infinitely long row of piles with fixed pile tip in an inclined sand bed was simulated with an experimental test setup. Surficial soil displacements were monitored and relative displacements between soil particles were determined by recording time-lapse images during the test in order to observe the soil arching mechanism on the soil surface. The load transfer process from moving soil to piles and behavior of soil around piles were observed and evaluated by the different test setups. It was observed that decrease in pile spacing causes an increase of load carried per pile. This behavior, which was significantly influenced by the pile head boundary conditions, can only be explained by soil arching that existed between the piles along their lengths

Real-World Outcomes of Anti-VEGF Treatment for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration in Turkey: A Multicenter Retrospective Study, Bosphorus Retina Study Group Report No: 1

Objectives: To evaluate the real-world outcomes of intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) treatment in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) patients. Materials and Methods: Multicenter, retrospective, interventional, non-comparative study. The records of nAMD patients treated with an anti-VEGF agent on a pro re nata treatment regimen basis between January 2013 and December 2015 were reviewed. The patients who completed a follow-up period of 12 months were included. Primary outcome measures of this study were the visit and injection numbers during the first year. Results: Eight hundred eighty eyes of 783 patients met the inclusion criteria for the study. Mean number of visits at month 12 was 6.9±2.5 (range: 1-15). Mean number of injections at month 12 was 4.1±1.9 (range: 1-11). Mean visual acuity at baseline and months 3, 6, and 12 was 0.90±0.63 LogMAR (range: 0.0-3.0), 0.79±0.57 LogMAR (range: 0.0-3.0), 0.76±0.57 LogMAR (range: 0.0-3.0), and 0.79±0.59 LogMAR (range: 0.0-3.0), respectively. Mean central retinal thickness at baseline and months 6 and 12 was 395±153 μm (range: 91-1582), 330±115 μm (range: 99-975), and 332±114 μm (range: 106-1191), respectively. Conclusion: The numbers of visits and injections were much lower than ideal and were insufficient with the pro re nata treatment regimen

Laboratuvardan Kliniğe Transplantasyon Pratiği

Transplantasyon; Temel Tıbbi Bilimler, Moleküler Tıp, Genetik ve İmmünolojiden klinik uygulamalardan destek alan multidisipliner bir tıp dalıdır. Temel bilimlerdeki başarılı çalışmaların kliniğe uygulanması, klinikte karşılaşılan sorunların da, oluşturulan deneysel hayvan modellerinde irdelenmesi, elde edilen bilgilerin klinik uygulamalara aktarılması; diğer deyişle tecrübelerin “Translational” özellikli olması günümüz transplantasyon çalışmalarında bir gerekliliktir. İmmün sistemin bileşenlerinin ve reaksiyonlarının iyi bilinmesi, hücreler arası ilişkilerde greftin reddi ya da kabul edilmesinin şartlarını doğru anlamak ve uygun laboratuvar yöntemleri ile klinik durumun aydınlatılması transplantasyonda stratejik önemdedir. Bu nedenle, klinik transplantasyon çalışmaları yapanlar temel bilimler bilgileri ile de donanımlı olmalıdırlar. Multidisipliner bir dal olma bilinci ile yapılan klinik transplantasyon çalışmalarında başarı yakalanmaktadır. Laboratuvardan Kliniğe Transplantasyon kitabımızda tüm yönleri ile transplantasyonun organizmaya etkileri ve bunların klinik sonuçlarını, çalışmalarımızın ışığında sunmayı ve tartışmayı hedefledik. Editör: Prof.Dr. Mesut İzzet TİTİZ Yardımcı Editör: Doç.Dr. Pınar AT

A novel biometric identification system based on fingertip electrocardiogram and speech signals

In this research work, we propose a one-dimensional Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based biometric identification system that combines speech and ECG modalities. The aim is to find an effective identification strategy while enhancing both the confidence and the performance of the system. In our first approach, we have developed a voting-based ECG and speech fusion system to improve the overall performance compared to the conventional methods. In the second approach, we have developed a robust rejection algorithm to prevent unauthorized access to the fusion system. We also presented a newly developed ECG spike and inconsistent beats removal algorithm to detect and eliminate the problems caused by portable fingertip ECG devices and patient movements. Furthermore, we have achieved a system that can work with only one authorized user by adding a Universal Background Model to our algorithm. In the first approach, the proposed fusion system achieved a 100% accuracy rate for 90 people by taking the average of 3-fold cross-validation. In the second approach, by using 90 people as genuine classes and 26 people as imposter classes, the proposed system achieved 92% accuracy in identifying genuine classes and 96% accuracy in rejecting imposter classes.This research work was supported by Coordination Office for Scientific Research Projects, FMV ISIK University (Project Number: 14A203 ) and Scientific Research Projects Unit, Bursa Technical University (Project Number: 181N14 ).Umit Guz received the B.S. degree in Electronics Engineering from the Istanbul University, College of Engineering, Turkey, in 1994, the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electronics Engineering from the Institute of Science, Istanbul University, Turkey, in 1997 and 2002, respectively. He was awarded a post-doctoral research fellowship by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) in 2006. He was accepted as an international research fellow by the SRI (Stanford Research Institute)-International, Speech Technology and Research (STAR) Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA, in 2006. He was awarded a J. William Fulbright post-doctoral research fellowship, USA, in 2007. He was accepted as an international research fellow by the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI), Speech Group at the University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA, in 2007 and 2008. He worked as an Assistant Professor and an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical-Electronics Engineering, Engineering Faculty at Isik University, Istanbul, from 2008 to 2013 and from 2013 to 2019, respectively. He has been a full-time professor in the Department of Electrical-Electronics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences at Isik University, Sile, Istanbul, Turkey, since 2019. His research interest covers speech processing, automatic speech recognition, natural language processing, machine learning, and bio-signal processing.Publisher's Versio

Biometric identification using fingertip electrocardiogram signals

In this research work, we present a newly fingertip electrocardiogram (ECG) data acquisition device capable of recording the lead-1 ECG signal through the right- and left-hand thumb fingers. The proposed device is high-sensitive, dry-contact, portable, user-friendly, inexpensive, and does not require using conventional components which are cumbersome and irritating such as wet adhesive Ag/AgCl electrodes. One of the other advantages of this device is to make it possible to record and use the lead-1 ECG signal easily in any condition and anywhere incorporating with any platform to use for advanced applications such as biometric recognition and clinical diagnostics. Furthermore, we proposed a biometric identification method based on combining autocorrelation and discrete cosine transform-based features, cepstral features, and QRS beat information. The proposed method was evaluated on three fingertip ECG signal databases recorded by utilizing the proposed device. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed biometric identification method achieves person recognition rate values of 100% (30 out of 30), 100% (45 out of 45), and 98.33% (59 out of 60) for 30, 45, and 60 subjects, respectively.This research work was supported by Coordination Office for Scientific Research Projects, FMV ISIK University (Project Number: 14A203). Patent application of the newly proposed data acquisition device is pending status with the patent application number 2016/18442 at the Turkish Patent Institute. The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their useful and valuable comments on an earlier version of this paperPublisher's Versio

Şev Stabilitesi Kazıklarına Etkiyen Yatay Yüklerin Belirlenmesi

Şevlerin kazıklı sistemler kullanılarak güçlendirilmesi, şevlerde oluşabilecek hareketleri önlemek için kullanılan en uygun yöntemlerden birisidir.Kazıklara etki eden yüklerin tahmini,şev stabilitesi kazıklarının doğru dizaynı için önemlidir.Bu yüklerin tahminine yönelik literatürde birçok yöntemler bulunmasına karşın, bu yöntemler kullanılarak hesaplanan yükler kazık zemin etkileşimi ve yükleme koşullarına bağlı olarak farklılıklar gösterebilmektedir. Bu analitik yöntemlerin güvenilirliklerden emin olmak için kapsamlı deneysel çalışmalara ihtiyaç vardır. Bu çalışmada, esnek kazıklara etki eden yüklerin belirlenmesi için tasarlanan deneysel çalışmanın simulasyonu iki boyutlu sonlu elemanlar yöntemi ile gerçekleştirilmiştir. Merkezden merkeze kazık mesafesinin yük aktarma davranışına etkisini belirlemek amacıyla parametrik çalışma gerçekleştirilmiştir. Elde edilen sonlu elemanlar sonuçları ile ilişkili olarak esnek kazıklara etki eden yükler belirlenmiştir