The Role of Oxygen Free Radicals in Acute Renal Failure Complicating Obstructive Jaundice: An Experimental Study

Oxydant injury is considered to be an important mechanism in the pathophysiology of acute renal failure. It has been thought that decrease in extracellular and intracellular fluid and endotoxemia seen in obstructive jaundice may cause an increase in production of oxygen free radicals and impairment in antioxydant defense mechanism. This study is designed to investigate the possible role of oxydant injury in renal failure seen in jaundiced patients. In this study, 28 rats were divided into four groups: Control(C) (N=7); Renal ischemia (RI) (N=7); Obstructive jaundice+renal ischemia (OJ+RI) (N=7); Obstructive jaundice (OJ) (N=7). All groups were compared with each other according to renal failure findings and enzyme activities, such as Xanthine oxidase (XOD), Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) and Catalase in renal cortex and Glutathione Peroxidase (GSH-Px), in blood at 3rd day after ischemia and reperfusion. Renal failure findings monitored by blood urea and creatinine levels, seemed more evident in OJ+RI than RI group (p <0.05). When compared with RI, in OJ+RI group, increase in XOD activity at 3rd day was statistically significant [0.259 ±0.01 U/g (tissue) and 0.362±0.03 U/g (tissue) respectively] (p <0.05). SOD and GSH-Px activities of each ischemic group at 3rd day were decreased compared to non-ischemic groups. This fall was significant (p <0.05). But there was no statistical difference between jaundiced and non-jaundiced groups. Alterations in catalase activities also had no statistical significance

Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Non-depressed Essential Tremor Cases and Controls: A Clinical and Audiometric Study

<p><strong>Background</strong>: Patients with essential tremor (ET) have an increased prevalence of hearing loss, and depression is a confounding issue for both conditions. We assessed hearing loss in non‐depressed ET patients and controls using a questionnaire and audiometric tests.</p><p><strong>Methods</strong>: The study included 34 patients with ET and 45 volunteers were included. Both groups were asked if they had hearing loss, and pure tone audiometry, speech recognition threshold, tympanogram, short increment sensitivity index (SISI), tone decay, and otoacoustic emission audiological tests were conducted.</p><p><strong> Results</strong>: Seventeen subjects (50.0%) in the patient group answered &ldquo;yes&rdquo; to the question &ldquo;Do you have hearing loss?&rdquo; compared to one (2.2%) subject in the control group (p&lt;0.001). The tone decay values of the right ear at 4,000 Hz were higher in the patient group. The number of subjects in which the otoacoustic emissions could not be obtained in the right ear was higher in the ET patients (p = 0.005).</p><p><strong>Discussion</strong>: The results support the presence of a cochlear pathology in ET and may indicate that ET and sensorineural hearing loss may be components of a common disease process.</p

Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson's Disease Is Reflected with Gradual Decrease of EEG Delta Responses during Auditory Discrimination

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Mild Cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia may come along with the disease. New indicators are necessary for detecting patients that are likely to develop dementia. Electroencephalogram (EEG) Delta responses are one of the essential electrophysiological indicators that could show the cognitive decline. Many research in literature showed an increase of delta responses with the increased cognitive load. Furthermore, delta responses were decreased in MCI and Alzheimer disease in comparison to healthy controls during cognitive paradigms. There was no previous study that analyzed the delta responses in PD patients with cognitive deficits. The present study aims to fulfill this important gap. 32 patients with Parkinson's disease (12 of them were without any cognitive deficits, 10 of them were PD with MCI, and 10 of them were PD with dementia) and 16 healthy subjects were included in the study. Auditory simple stimuli and Auditory Oddball Paradigms were applied. The maximum amplitudes of each subject's delta response (0.5-3.5 Hz) in 0-600 ms were measured for each electrode and for each stimulation. There was a significant stimulation x group effect [F(df = 6; 88 = 3,21; p < 0.015; eta(2)(p) = 0.180], which showed that the difference between groups was specific to the stimulation. Patients with Parkinson's disease (including PD without cognitive deficit, PD with MCI, and PD with dementia) had reduced delta responses than healthy controls upon presentation of target stimulation (p < 0.05, for all comparisons). On the other hand, this was not the case for non-target and simple auditory stimulation. Furthermore, delta responses gradually decrease according to the cognitive impairment in patients with PD

Analysis of Outcomes in Ischemic vs Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation A Report From the GARFIELD-AF Registry

IMPORTANCE Congestive heart failure (CHF) is commonly associated with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF), and their combination may affect treatment strategies and outcomes