Aquoeus Extract from Rhubarb Plant Inhibits Adenosine Deaminase Activity in Cancerous and Non Cancerous Human Gastric and Colon Tissues

Aim: Investigation of possible effects of rhubarb extract on adenosine deaminase (ADA) activity in cancerous and non cancerous human gastric and colon tissues to obtain information about possible mechanism of anti cancer action of rhubarb. Materials and methods: Cancerous and non cancerous human gastric and colon tissues removed from patients by surgical operations were used in the studies. The extracts were prepared in distilled water. Before and after treatment with the extracts, ADA activities in the tissue homogenates were measured. Results: ADA activity was found to be higher in gastric tissue compared with colon tissue, but no differences were found between ADA activities of cancerous and non cancerous tissues. It was found that rhubarb extract significantly inhibited ADA activity both in cancerous and non cancerous gastric and colon tissues. Conclusion: Our results suggest that aquoeus extract from rhubarb inhibits ADA activities in both gastric and colon tissues significantly. It is suggested that in addition to other proposed mechanisms, acumulated adenosine due to the inhibition of ADA enzyme might also play part in the anticancer properties of th

High osmolar contrast medium causes mild oxidation in liver, bladder, and ovary tissues from rats: vitamin C has protective role

The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of ionic highosmolar contrast medium on oxidative metabolism in liver, urinary bladder, and ovary tissues and to obtain information about possible protective effects of vitamin C. Twenty-one female rats, 14 weeks old, were used in this study. They were divided into three groups of seven rats: Sham (group I), contrast (group II), contrast ? vitamin C (group III). Vitamin C was given orally to the animals in group III during the study period. On the fifth day, contrast medium was given via intravenous infusion as a single dose to the animals in groups II and III. On the sixth day of the study, the animals were killed with anesthesia by ketamine hydrochloride. Then, their liver, bladder, and ovary tissues were removed to measure analyses parameters. Our results suggested that contrast medium led to some increases in malondialdehyde levels in the liver, bladder, and ovary tissues and that vitamin C prevented these increases in the tissues. Nitric oxide level also was found to increase in the contrast-treated animals and vitamin C prevented this increase in the liver tissue. Ionic high-osmolar contrast medium leads to weak oxidant stress in rat liver, bladder, and ovary tissues, and vitamin C prevents this oxidant stress

Artificial intelligence assisted patient blood and urine droplet pattern analysis for non‑invasive and accurate diagnosis of bladder cancer

Bladder cancer is one of the most common cancer types in the urinary system. Yet, current bladder cancer diagnosis and follow-up techniques are time-consuming, expensive, and invasive. In the clinical practice, the gold standard for diagnosis remains invasive biopsy followed by histopathological analysis. In recent years, costly diagnostic tests involving the use of bladder cancer biomarkers have been developed, however these tests have high false-positive and false-negative rates limiting their reliability. Hence, there is an urgent need for the development of cost-effective, and non-invasive novel diagnosis methods. To address this gap, here we propose a quick, cheap, and reliable diagnostic method. Our approach relies on an artificial intelligence (AI) model to analyze droplet patterns of blood and urine samples obtained from patients and comparing them to cancer-free control subjects.The AI-assisted model in this study uses a deep neural network, a ResNet network, pre-trained on ImageNet datasets. Recognition and classification of complex patterns formed by dried urine or blood droplets under different conditions resulted in cancer diagnosis with a high specificity and sensitivity.Our approach can be systematically applied across droplets, enabling comparisons to reveal shared spatial behaviors and underlying morphological patterns. Our results support the fact that AI-based models have a great potential for non-invasive and accurate diagnosis of malignancies, including bladder cancer

Micafungin Effectiveness in Treating Pediatric Patients with Proven Candidemia

Aim:Micafungin is one of three currently available echinocandin for the treatment of candidiasis and candidemia. We aimed to discuss the effectiveness of micafungin and any possible side effects in the treatment of proven candidemia in children.Materials and Methods:In this study, children who were treated with micafungin for proven candidemia between May, 2017 and October, 2019 were included. The time to achieve negative culture, liver and renal functions as well as blood counts were recorded using the hospital data system.Results:Forty-five patients (52.3%) who received micafungin for proven candidemia were included in this study. The median age of the children who received micafungin due to invasive candidiasis (IC) was 4 months (range: 12 days to 216 months). Of these 45 IC patients, 10 (22.2%) were neonates, 19 (42.2%) were infants, 11 (24.4%) were between 1 and 5 years old, and 5 (11.1%) were between 10-18 years old. The median duration of micafungin treatment to culture negativity for C. albicans related candidemia episodes was shorter (6 days, 1-26 days) than non-albicans Candida spp. related candidemia episodes (7 days, 1-35 days) (p=0.10). Culture negativity could not be achieved at the end of the 14th day of micafungin treatment in 15 of the 45 (33.3%) candidemia episodes. The most commonly isolated Candida spp. in patients with treatment failure was C. parapsilosis (n=6), followed by C. albicans (n=5), C. guilliermondii (n=1), C. tropicalis (n=2) and C. tropicalis and C. guilliermondii co-infection (n=1) respectively. None of the patients developed side effects due to micafungin treatment.Conclusion:Micafungin was found to be safe and effective for the treatment of culture proven candidemia in pediatric patients, including neonates

Gastrointestinal ğnfections

Gastroenteritis is one of the most common reasons for physician visits worldwide. Annually, 2 or 3 billion people are estimated to suffer from gastroenteritis. Children under 5 years old are reported to experience gastroenteritis 3.2 times a year. Gastrointestinal infections are more prominent in geographic regions with poor sanitation and health systems. Acute gas- troenteritis is generally defined as a decrease in the consistency of stools (loose or liquid) and/or an increase in the frequency of evacuations (typically ;#8805;3 in 24 h). Diarrhea typically lasts less than 7 days and not longer than 14 days. Viruses, bacteria, protozoa, helminths, and fungus cause gastrointestinal system infections. Antibiotic treatment is indicated only for bacterial enteric infections and indications. the most important step for treatment of gastroenteritis is rehy- dration and replacement therapy for restoring fluid and electrolyte balance. in most of the cases, oral rehydration therapy is adequate for the treatment.İshalli hastalıklar bütün dünyada sağlık kurumlarına başvurunun en sık nedenleri arasında sayılmaktadır. Dünya genelinde yılda yaklaşık 2-3 milyar kişinin gastroenterite yakalandığı tahmin edilmektedir. Beş yaş altındaki çocukların yılda ortalama 3,2 kez ishal oldukları bildirilmiştir. Gastrointestinal infeksiyonlar hijyen koşullarının ve sağlık sisteminin geri olduğu, alt yapının ve besin sanitasyonunun yetersiz olduğu gelişmekte olan ülkelerde yaygın olarak görülmekte- dir. Akut gastroenterit (AGE) dışkı kıvamının yumuşa- ması ve/veya sıklığının artması (günde 3 veya daha fazla) olarak tanımlanır. Ateş veya kusma eşlik edebi- lir. İshal genel olarak 7 günden daha kısa sürer ve 14 günü aşmaz. Gastrointestinal sistem infeksiyonlarına virus, bakteri, protozoa, helmit ve mantarlar neden olur. Antibiyotik tedavisi bakterilere sekonder enterik bakteryel infeksiyonlarda belli endikasyon ve bakteri- ler için endikedir. Gastroenterit tedavisinde en önem- li basamak çocuğun sıvı ve elektrolit dengesini sağla- mak için rehidratasyon ve replasman tedavisidir. Birçok hastada oral rehidratasyon tedavisi yeterlidir