Medical hypothesis: can gonadotropins influence thyroid volume in women with PCOS?

It has been reported that luteinizing hormone (LH) had thyropropic effect on rat and human thyroid membrane. It has been known that patients with PCOS have elevated LH levels in comparison to healthy controls. The goiter prevalence is more common in women than in men regardless of population. The higher incidence of thyroid diseases in women has been previously attributed to higher estradiol levels. Estradiol has been shown to enhance proliferative and mitogenic activities of thyroid cells. However, in recent years chronic estradiol treatment has been shown to reduce volume densities of thyroid follicles, follicular epithelium and thyroid gland volume. It is thought to be due to LH suppression. Therefore we suggested that increased LH levels might provide a stimulus for growth on thyroid and alter thyroid function. Therefore patients with PCOS who had elevated LH levels should be treated by combined estradiol pills such as estrogen-progestin contraceptives for suppression of LH secretion. Further studies are needed to evaluate the association between LH, LH suppression and thyroid volume in patients with PCOS

Recent Progresses in Perovskite Solar Cells

Perovskite solar cell (PSC) can be regarded as a continuation of dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) in terms of the sensitization phenomena that occurred in the functioning molecules. In 2012, a breakthrough propose has been made for the sensitization of PSCs, in which a solid‐state structure is offered as an equivalent sensitizer used in DSSC. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of those solid‐state cells reached about twofold of its initial value during the past several years. Immediately after, the researchers followed this propose worldwide. They have introduced an improved efficiency of as much as 20%, which was originally started from its initial value of 4%, just in 4 years. Thus, the new concept, solid perovskite molecules, has eliminated the need for the liquid electrolyte in DSSC while still carrying the advantages of organic solar cells (OSCs). Therefore, the distinctive material of PSC—the organometallic halide molecules (also known as OMH or organic‐inorganic trihalides)—inclined an unexpected reputation for solar cell (SC) researches. Hence, it seems that we will witness a new age for solar conversion devices depending on the recent hopeful progresses on PSCs. The high rate of photovoltaic (PV) conversion capacity in PSC is generally expressed by the basic properties possessed by the organic‐inorganic perovskite crystal, such as better optical properties and well diffused charges along huge distances during the charge transport. In addition, a low temperature processing is applicable during its production. Moreover, the perovskite layer provides a tunable band gap. Therefore, depending on better developments on designed molecules, PSC may gain extreme performances compared to the other competitors, such as OSC or DSSC devices. This chapter starts with a general discussion on the need for an affordable clean energy conversion device that is urgent for the future of humanity, due to publicly well‐known global warming issue. In Section 2, basic properties of PSC are mentioned together with their structure and working principles. Section 3 continues with an overview on organometallic perovskite molecules after a brief introductory history is presented. The absorption and band gap properties are also discussed. Since most perovskite materials need a hole transporting material (HTMs) within the PSC, the kinds of HTMs that are designed for PSCs are described in Section 3. The rendering of long‐term stabilization has special importance for PSCs since the instability issue remained idle in spite of those recent increased efficiency values attained by various research groups. Therefore, the stability issues are discussed in a separate part in Section 4. We finally close the chapter discussing the challenges and opportunities relying on the chapter content. We note that the recent investigations on PSCs have special importance for its large‐scale realization in order to make them ready for the photovoltaic industry of the future. Hence, there are various announced meetings focusing on its mass production due to the unexpected sharp rise of the perovskite efficiency in the last 6 years. Hence, all the new cutting‐edge scientific findings are also dealt with commercialization issues now, in order to attain the desired low cost fabrication, including the yield of high purity and the formation of smooth films during the continual manufacture of perovskite layers

Genetic polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene-linked polymorphic region and response to serotonin reuptake inhibitors in patients with premature ejaculation

OBJECTIVES: Serotonin plays a central role in ejaculation and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have been successfully used to treat premature ejaculation. Here, we evaluated the relationship between a polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) and the response of patients with premature ejaculation to SSRI medication. METHODS: Sixty-nine premature ejaculation patients were treated with 20 mg/d paroxetine for three months. The Intravaginal Ejaculatory Latency Time and International Index of Erectile Function scores were compared with baseline values. The patients were scored as having responded to therapy when a 2-fold or greater increase was observed in Intravaginal Ejaculatory Latency Time compared with baseline values after three months. Three genotypes of 5-HTTLPR were studied: LL, LS and SS. The appropriateness of the allele frequencies in 5-HTTLPR were analyzed according to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium using the χ2-test. RESULTS: The short (S) allele of 5-HTTLPR was significantly more frequent in responders than in nonresponders (

Cutaneous Metastasis from Squamous Cell Carcinoma of The Bladder: A Case

Objective: To report a case with cutaneous metastasis of bladder squamous cell carcinoma. Very few cases of skin metastases from the urinary bladder are reported in the literature.Case report: Cutaneous metastasis of bladder squamous cell carcinoma is an extremely rare clinic entity associated with poor prognosis. Cutaneous metastasis is accepted as a late manifestation of systemic spread. A 58-year-old man had undergone radical cystoprostatectomy with pelvic lymph node dissection in November 2013. The pathology report showed a moderately differentiated squamous cell bladder carcinoma with a staging of T3N0M0. Then, a large regional cutaneous lesion measuring 4x3.5 cm with an ulcerated and necrotic appearance located in the suprapubic area was detected in February 2014, and the lesion was removed with a 2 cm safety margin. The pathologic examination revealed squamous cell carcinoma. This report describes an interesting and rare case of cutaneous metastasis of bladder squamous cell carcinoma as the primary presentation of metastatic disease with a generally dismal prognosis.Conclusion: The skin metastasis of bladder squamous cell carcinoma is a rare clinical entity with a poor prognosis. Clinicians should be aware of this rare entity

Predictors of mortality in patients with prosthetic valve infective endocarditis: A nation-wide multicenter study

Background: Our aim was to investigate the clinical and prognostic features of the patients with prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) in a multicenter nation-wide study.Methods: The present nation-wide study consisted of 75 consecutive patients with PVE treatedat 13 major hospitals in Turkey from 2005 to 2012.Results: The patients who died during follow-up were significantly older than the survivors and had higher C-reactive protein (CRP), creatinine, poor NYHA functional class and large vegetations. High creatinine level (odds ratio [OR] 2.6, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14–6.13), poor functional status (OR 24.5; 95% CI 3.1–196.5) and high CRP (OR 1.02; 95% CI1.00–1.03) measured on admission were independent risk associates for in-hospital mortality.Conclusions: High creatinine level, poor functional status and high CRP measured on admission were independent risk associates for in-hospital mortality, whereas a NYHA class ofIII/IV and high CRP reflected independent risk for stroke/mortality end point

The value of routine measurement of serum calcitonin on insufficient, indeterminate, and suspicious thyroid nodule cytology

Routine calcitonin measurement in patients with nodular thyroid disease is rather controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the contribution of serum calcitonin measurement in the diagnostic evaluation of thyroid nodules with insufficient, indeterminate, or suspicious cytology. Out of 1668 patients who underwent thyroidectomy with the diagnosis of nodular thyroid disease and were screened, 873 patients with insufficient, indeterminate, or suspicious fine needle aspiration biopsy results were included in the study. From the total number of patients in this study, 10 (1.1%) were diagnosed as medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) using histopathology. The calcitonin level was detected to be above the assay-specific cut-off in 23 (2.6%) patients ranging between 6.5 - 4450 pg/mL. While hypercalcitoninemia was detected in all 10 MTC patients, a false positive elevation of serum calcitonin was detected in 13 patients (1.5%). Of the MTC group, 7 patients had cytology results that were suspicious for malignancy (Bethesda V), one patient’s cytology showed atypia of undetermined significance (Bethesda III) and two patient’s cytology results were suspicious for follicular neoplasm (Bethesda IV). Among the cases with non-diagnostic cytology (Bethesda I), none of the patients were diagnosed with MTC. In conclusion, routine serum calcitonin measurement can be performed in selected cases rather than in all nodular thyroid patients. While it is reasonable to perform routine calcitonin measurement in patients with Bethesda IV and Bethesda V, this measurement was not useful in Bethesda I patients. In Bethesda III patients, patient-based decisions can be made according to their calcitonin measurement.