Celiac Disease Screening on Students of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics and Medical School at Ege University

WOS: 000219056100003Aim: Celiac disease is an autoimmune enteropathy which improves in genetic predisposition circumstances. Silent and atypical forms cause diagnostic problems. In this study; we aimed to improve the awareness by applying the finger prick test to the students studying in two different departments at Ege University. Materials and Methods: We included 143 of the 173 students from Ataturk School of Health, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics in this study and 359 5th grade students in the Faculty of Medicine who were selected randomly during their practical lesson. Biocard finger prick test was applied to a total of 502 students. Students with positive results were further examined based on ESPGHAN 2012 diagnosis criteria. Results: Of the 502 students, 259 were females (51.5%) and 243 were males (49.5%). The age range was 17-24 years. Finger prick test was positive in 1 female student from the department of nutrition and dietetics (1/143), and in 3 male students from the faculty of medicine (3/359). These four students had anemia and the others were asymptomatic. One of the asymptomatic students was overweight. Routine hematological, biochemical and serological tests were performed in these four students. None of them presented isolated IgA deficiency. Anti-tissue transglutaminase, anti-gliadin and anti-endomysial antibodies were positive. Duodenal endoscopy revealed mucosal damage in these four students. Histopathological examinations were found to be compatible with Marsh 3 celiac disease. All patients were started on a gluten free diet. Conclusion: In this study, after the screening test during routine practice, we found a prevalence of celiac disease of 0.8% among students of two different departments at Ege University. Of the students, 50% were asymptomatic and this finding drew attention to the silent form of the disease

Comparison of quantitative susceptibility mapping methods on evaluating radiation-induced cerebral microbleeds and basal ganglia at 3T and 7T.

Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) has the potential for being a biomarker for various diseases because of its ability to measure tissue susceptibility related to iron deposition, myelin, and hemorrhage from the phase signal of a T2 *-weighted MRI. Despite its promise as a quantitative marker, QSM is faced with many challenges, including its dependence on preprocessing of the raw phase data, the relatively weak tissue signal, and the inherently ill posed relationship between the magnetic dipole and measured phase. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of background field removal and dipole inversion algorithms on noise characteristics, image uniformity, and structural contrast for cerebral microbleed (CMB) quantification at both 3T and 7T. We selected four widely used background phase removal and five dipole field inversion algorithms for QSM and applied them to volunteers and patients with CMBs, who were scanned at two different field strengths, with ground truth QSM reference calculated using multiple orientation scans. 7T MRI provided QSM images with lower noise than did 3T MRI. QSIP and VSHARP + iLSQR achieved the highest white matter homogeneity and vein contrast, with QSIP also providing the highest CMB contrast. Compared with ground truth COSMOS QSM images, overall good correlations between susceptibility values of dipole inversion algorithms and the COSMOS reference were observed in basal ganglia regions, with VSHARP + iLSQR achieving the susceptibility values most similar to COSMOS across all regions. This study can provide guidance for selecting the most appropriate QSM processing pipeline based on the application of interest and scanner field strength

Cryptosporidiosis: A rare and severe infection in a pediatric renal transplant recipient

Acikgoz Y, Ozkaya O, Bek K, Genc G, Sensoy SG, Hokelek M. Cryptosporidiosis: A rare and severe infection in a pediatric renal transplant recipient. Abstract: Cryptosporidium is an intracellular protozoan parasite that causes gastroenteritis in human. In immunocompromised individuals, cryptosporidium causes far more serious disease. There is no effective specific therapy for cryptosporidiosis, and spontaneous recovery is the rule in healthy individuals. However, immunocompromised patients need effective and prolonged therapy. Here, we present our clinical experience in a six-yr-old boy who underwent living-related donor renal transplantation and who was infected with Cryptosporidium spp. Our patient was successfully treated with antimicrobial agents consisting of spiramycin, nitazoxanide, and paromomycin. At the end of second week of therapy, his stool became negative for Cryptosporidium spp. antigen and spiramycin was discontinued. Nitazoxanide and paromomycin treatment was extended to four wk. With this case, we want to emphasize that cryptosporidiosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of severe or persistent diarrhea in solid organ transplant recipients where rigorous antimicrobial therapy is needed

Evaluation of adjuvant activity of Astragaloside VII and its combination with different immunostimulating agents in Newcastle Disease vaccine

Astragaloside VII (AST-VII), a major cycloartane saponin isolated from Turkish Astragalus species, turned out to be one of the most active metabolites demonstrating Th1/Th2 balanced immune response. As Quillaja saponins are extensively used in adjuvant systems, this study made an attempt to improve AST-VII based adjuvant systems by using different immunostimulatory/delivery agents (monophosphoryllipid A (MPL), Astragalus polysaccharide (APS) and squalene) and to induce cellular and humoral immune response against a viral vaccine. For this purpose, Newcastle Disease vaccine (NDV) was chosen as a model vaccine. Swiss albino mice were immunized subcutaneously with LaSota vaccines in the presence/absence of AST-VII or developed adjuvant systems. AST-VII administration both in live/inactivated LaSota vaccines induced neutralizing and NDV specific IgG, IgG1 and IgG2b antibodies response as well as IL-2 and IL-4 production. APS based delivery systems enhanced the production of neutralizing antibody and the minor augmentation of IFN-? and IL-2 levels. Squalene emulsion (SE) alone or combined with AST-VII were effective in NDV restimulated splenocyte proliferation. As a conclusion, AST-VII and AST-VII containing adjuvant systems demonstrated Th1/Th2 balanced antibody and cellular immune responses in NDV vaccines. Thus, these systems could be developed as vaccine adjuvants in viral vaccines as alternative to saponin-based adjuvants.This study partially supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) under Grant 1139B411402292.Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) [1139B411402292

The role of bioelectrical impedance analysis, NT-ProBNP and inferior vena cava sonography in the assessment of body fluid volume in children with nephrotic syndrome

Background: Assessment of volume status and differentiating “underfill” and “overfill” edema is essential in the management of patients with nephrotic syndrome (NS). Objectives: Our aim was to evaluate the volume status of NS patients by using different methods and to investigate the utility of bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) in children with NS. Methods: The hydration status of 19 patients with NS (before treatment of NS and at remission) and 25 healthy controls was assessed by multifrequency BIA, serum N-terminal-pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels, inferior vena cava (IVC) diameter, left atrium diameter (LAD) and vasoactive hormones. Results: Renin, aldosterone levels, IVC diameter and LAD were not statistically different between the groups. NT-proBNP values were statistically higher in the attack period compared to remission and the control group (p = 0.005 for each). Total body water (TBW), overhydration (OH) and extracellular water (ECW) estimated by the BIA measurement in the attack group was significantly higher than that of the remission group and controls. There were no significant correlations among volume indicators in group I and group II. However, significant correlations were observed between NT-proBNP and TBW/BSA (p = 0.008), ECW/BSA (p = 0.003) and ECW/ICW (p = 0.023) in the healthy group. TBW was found to be higher in patients with NS in association with increased ECW but without any change in ICW. NT-proBNP values were higher in patients during acute attack than during remission. Conclusions: Our findings support the lack of hypovolaemia in NS during acute attack. In addition, BIA is an easy-to-perform method for use in routine clinical practice to determine hydration status in patients with NS

The cerebral blood flow deficits in Parkinson's disease with mild cognitive impairment using arterial spin labeling MRI

Yildirim, Zerrin/0000-0002-5128-1784; Eryurek, Kardelen/0000-0003-0482-3963; Gurvit, Hakan/0000-0003-2908-8475; Arslan, Dilek Betul/0000-0002-1124-3695WOS: 000545915200001PubMed: 32632889Parkinson's disease (PD) with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) is currently diagnosed based on an arbitrarily predefined standard deviation of neuropsychological test scores, and more objective biomarkers for PD-MCI diagnosis are needed. the purpose of this study was to define possible brain perfusion-based biomarkers of not only mild cognitive impairment, but also risky gene carriers in PD using arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging (ASL-MRI). Fifteen healthy controls (HC), 26 cognitively normal PD (PD-CN), and 27 PD-MCI subjects participated in this study. ASL-MRI data were acquired by signal targeting with alternating radio-frequency labeling with Look-Locker sequence at 3 T. Single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping for rs9468 [microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) H1/H1 versus H1/H2 haplotype] was performed using a Stratagene Mx3005p real-time polymerase chain-reaction system (Agilent Technologies, USA). There were 15 subjects withMAPTH1/H1 and 11 subjects withMAPTH1/H2 within PD-MCI, and 33 subjects withMAPTH1/H1 and 19 subjects withMAPTH1/H2 within all PD. Voxel-wise differences of cerebral blood flow (CBF) values between HC, PD-CN and PD-MCI were assessed by one-way analysis of variance followed by pairwise post hoc comparisons. Further, the subgroup of PD patients carrying the riskyMAPTH1/H1 haplotype was compared with noncarriers (MAPTH1/H2 haplotype) in terms of CBF by a two-samplettest. A pattern that could be summarized as "posterior hypoperfusion" (PH) differentiated the PD-MCI group from the HC group with an accuracy of 92.6% (sensitivity = 93%, specificity = 93%). Additionally, the PD patients withMAPTH1/H1 haplotype had decreased perfusion than the ones with H1/H2 haplotype at the posterior areas of the visual network (VN), default mode network (DMN), and dorsal attention network (DAN). the PH-type pattern in ASL-MRI could be employed as a biomarker of both current cognitive impairment and future cognitive decline in PD.Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [1001, 115S219]; Istanbul University Scientific Research Projects Unit Project [1567/42362]This study was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) 1001 Grant #115S219 and Istanbul University Scientific Research Projects Unit Project #1567/42362

sj-docx-1-ijm-10.1177_02557614231193422 – Supplemental material for Development and Validation of The Anadolu University Music Perception Test

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-ijm-10.1177_02557614231193422 for Development and Validation of The Anadolu University Music Perception Test by Ozan Evrim Tunca, Evrim Genc Kumtepe, Sukru Torun and Yusuf Zafer Can Ugurhan in International Journal of Music Education</p