The Femoral Geometrical Measurements in Postmenopausal Turkish Women

Femoral geometric measurements have been suggested to be important in the evaluation of the risk of osteoporotic hip fracture. The aim of this study was to determine the normal values of femoral geometric measurements in Turkish women. 232 women were selected by using suitable sample procedure to reflect Turkish women normal values (%95 interval of confidence). All of them were over 50 years of age postmenauposal women and none have had history of hip fracture. Hip axis length (HAL), femoral neck axis length (FNAL), acetabular width (AW), femoral head width (FHW), femoral neck width (FNW), femoral shaft width (FSW), intertrochanteric width (ITW), cortical bone thickness of the medial femoral neck (NMCT), medial femoral shaft cortical bone thickness (SMCT), lateral femoral shaft (SLCT), cortical bone thickness, femoral neck-shaft angle in degrees (N-SA) were measured bilaterally on standart AP plain pelvic X-ray radiograms. In the subjects mean age , weigth,heigth and body mass index (BMI) were 62.5±7.4, 70.84±12.5, 157.5±6.7, 28.58±4.9 respectively. Mean values of femoral geometric measurements for right and left hip respectively were fallows: HAL:130.5±8.9, 130.1±9.0 ; FNAL: 112.7±6.9, 112.5±6.9 ; FHW:53.3±3.2, 53.0±3.4; FNW:35.8±2.8, 35.9±2.7; FSW:37.6±3.0, 37.7±3.1; ITW: 62.5±5.3, 63.0±3.9; NMCT: 2.1±0.7, 2.0±0.6; SMCT: 7.8±1.4,7.1±1.3; SLCT: 7.0±1.3, 7.1±1.3; N-SA: 128.9±5.9, 128.9±5.8.There were no statistically significant difference between right and left measurements. We think that these values are representatives of Turkish women and similar to the values of Caucasian women according to the literature

Evaluation of leukocyte arylsulfatase-A activity in patients with breast cancer and benign breast disease

This study was planned to evaluate the feasibility of using the assay of leukocyte arylsulfatase-A (AS-A) activity as a noninvasive diagnostic tool in patients with benign and malignant breast disease. The leukocyte AS-A activity of a total of 81 women was analyzed, including 28 healthy women, 29 women with benign breast disease (BBD) and 24 patients with primary breast cancer (BC). The mean leukocyte AS-A activity in patients with BBD was slightly higher (14.38) that observed in the healthy subjects, but the difference was not statistically significant. In patients with BC the enzyme activity was significantly higher than in the healthy subjects (60.3%, P < 0.05) and in the benign group (40.2%, P < 0.05). In addition, since no significant differences have been observed between premenopausal patients and their controls, it is suggested that the measurement of leukocyte AS-A activity may not be a reliable test for differential diagnosis of benign and malignant proliferation in mammary glands due to the possible interfering effect of gonadal hormones on AS-A activity. In contrast, since peri- and postmenopausal BC patients have negligible or no gonadal activity function, the elevation in the activity of leukocyte AS-A in these age groups of patients may only be expected to originate from malignant proliferation. Based on our results, it is concluded that in patients in whom high leukocyte AS-A activities were observed the possibility of the presence of malignancy might also be high. Therefore, this test might be valuable as a non-invasive biochemical technique in combination with other established markers for the identification of masses in the breast. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Properties of Turkish Osteoporotic Women According to Risk Factor Assesment: A Multicenter Study

Osteoporosis is a metabolic bone disease characterized by a decreased bone mass and a deterioration in bone microarchitecture which causes an enhanced fragility of the skeleton and creates a greater susceptibility to fractures. With increases in life expectancy and in the number of elderly people bone loss and fractures are becoming more common in the all over the world. The purpose of this study is to determine chracteristics and risk factors of Turkish osteoporotic women and to assess the effect of different geographic areas on risk factors. Nine hundred and five osteoporotic women who have lived 6 different geographic areas were included in this study. The study was completed in 26 different centers and its duration was 6 months. The mean age of patients were 62±9 years. Although sixty percent of those patients belived that they knew consequences of osteoporosis 35% did not know. The most known symptoms of osteoporosis were fractures (33%), kyphosis and low back pain (23%). Most of the physicians who diagnosed opteoporosis for the first time were physiatrists (86%). Being a physiatrist, we have a great deal of responsibilities in osteoporosis. Finally, we suggest that to determine the characteristics of Turkish osteoporotic women which depend on many factors such as differences of geographic factors, only will be possible by evaluation of great number of osteoporotic women

Gastrointestinal side effect profile due to the use of alendronate in the treatment of osteoporosis

The aim of our study was to evaluate the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract side effect profile in 759 female patients that had taken alendronate (10 mg/day), for at least 6 months, for the treatment of osteoporosis, in relation to the safety of alendronate and the compliance of patients to its absorption rules