Assessment of the requisites of microbiology based infectious disease training under the pressure of consultation needs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Training of infectious disease (ID) specialists is structured on classical clinical microbiology training in Turkey and ID specialists work as clinical microbiologists at the same time. Hence, this study aimed to determine the clinical skills and knowledge required by clinical microbiologists.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional study was carried out between June 1, 2010 and September 15, 2010 in 32 ID departments in Turkey. Only patients hospitalized and followed up in the ID departments between January-June 2010 who required consultation with other disciplines were included.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 605 patients undergoing 1343 consultations were included, with pulmonology, neurology, cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology, dermatology, haematology, and endocrinology being the most frequent consultation specialties. The consultation patterns were quite similar and were not affected by either the nature of infections or the critical clinical status of ID patients.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results of our study show that certain internal medicine subdisciplines such as pulmonology, neurology and dermatology appear to be the principal clinical requisites in the training of ID specialists, rather than internal medicine as a whole.</p

Characterization of greater middle eastern genetic variation for enhanced disease gene discovery

The Greater Middle East (GME) has been a central hub of human migration and population admixture. The tradition of consanguinity, variably practiced in the Persian Gulf region, North Africa, and Central Asia1-3, has resulted in an elevated burden of recessive disease4. Here we generated a whole-exome GME variome from 1,111 unrelated subjects. We detected substantial diversity and admixture in continental and subregional populations, corresponding to several ancient founder populations with little evidence of bottlenecks. Measured consanguinity rates were an order of magnitude above those in other sampled populations, and the GME population exhibited an increased burden of runs of homozygosity (ROHs) but showed no evidence for reduced burden of deleterious variation due to classically theorized ‘genetic purging’. Applying this database to unsolved recessive conditions in the GME population reduced the number of potential disease-causing variants by four- to sevenfold. These results show variegated genetic architecture in GME populations and support future human genetic discoveries in Mendelian and population genetics

Abdominal Tuberculosis Mimicking Peritoneal Carcinomatosis

Abdominal tuberculosis is a rare disease, with non-specific findings. Abdominal tuberculosis can mimic different pathologies. Abdominal tuberculosis could affect the entire gastrointestinal tract, peritoneum, mesentery as well as the solid organs like liver, spleen and pancreas. We present a 42-year-old woman with intra-abdominal mass of unknown origin which was interpreted as peritoneal carcinomatosis intraoperatively

The relationship between bifidobacteria and allergic asthma and/or allergic dermatitis: A prospective study of 0-3 years-old children in Turkey

Bifidobacteria are beneficial bacteria for humans. These bacteria are particularly effective at protecting against infectious diseases and modulating the immune response. It was shown that in newborns, the fecal distribution of the colonizing Bifidobacterium species influences the prevalence of allergic diseases. This study aimed to compare the faecal Bifidobacterium species of allergic children to those of healthy children to detect species level differences in faecal distribution. Stool samples were obtained from 99 children between 0 and 3 years of age whose clinical symptoms and laboratory reports were compatible with atopic dermatitis and allergic asthma. Samples were also obtained from 102 healthy children who were similar to the case group with respect to age and sex. Bifidobacteria were isolated by culture and identified at the genus level by API 20 A. In addition, 7 unique species-specific primers were used for the molecular characterization of bifidobacteria. The McNemar test was used for statistical analyses, and p < 0.05 was accepted as significant. Bifidobacterium longum was detected in 11(11.1%) of the allergic children and in 31 (30.3%) of the healthy children