Embolization of Ruptured Hepatic Hydatid Cyst to Pulmonary Artery in an Elderly Patient : Multidetector computed tomography findings

Pulmonary embolism due to hydatid disease is an unusual condition resulting from the rupture of a hydatic heart cyst or the opening of liver hydatidosis into the venous circulation. A 78-year old male patient complaining of dyspnea, cough and severe chest pain was admitted to our emergency department. A multidetector computed tomography of the chest revealed the presence of multiple nodules in both lungs especially in left and multiple hypodense filling defect in left main pulmonary artery and its branches. In addition, coronal reformatted multidetector computed tomography images also showed two hypodense cystic parenchymal masses on the left lobe of the liver with a cystic embolus in the right atrium. Pulmonary embolism should be kept in mind in patients who have hepatic hydatidosis if suddenly chest pain and dyspnoea occurs, especially in regions where hydatidosis is endemic

Oxidative stress markers in severe preeclampsia and preeclampsia-related perinatal morbidity — preliminary report

Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine maternal serum total antioxidant status (TAS), total oxidant status (TOS), oxidative stress index (OSI), paraoxonase (PON) and arylesterase levels in severe preeclamptic pregnants and also to investigate whether these parameters are implicated in the occurence of perinatal morbidity or not. Material and methods: A case-control study was carried out including 60 pregnant women (30 with severe preeclampsia and 30 healthy controls). The optimal cut off points of oxidative stress markers for the diagnosis of severe preeclampsia and for the prediction of adverse perinatal outcomes were evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses. Multi­variate logistic regression analysis was used to determine if a relationship between adverse perinatal outcomes and serum oxidative stress markers was present or not. Results: TAS (OR = 37.486, 95% CI 3.535–397.519, p = 0.003), TOS (OR = 15.588, 95% CI 2.135–113.818, p = 0.007) and ary­lesterase (OR = 31.356, 95% CI 2.284–430.548, p = 0.01) were found to be diagnostic for preeclampsia. Statistically significant positive correlation of adverse perinatal outcomes with serum TAS, PON and arylesterase levels were determined. Besides, a significant negative correlation was found between serum TAS levels and gestational week (r = –0.342, p = 0.007) and also between serum PON levels and birthweight (r = –0.262, p = 0.043). Conclusions: Increased maternal serum TAS, TOS and arylesterase levels are significantly associated with the presence of severe preeclampsia. Furthermore, elevated maternal serum TAS, PON and arylesterase levels are significantly and positively correlated with adverse perinatal outcomes. We suggest that in preeclampsia increased oxidative status may cause adverse perinatal outcomes and antioxidants may be increased in order to protect the fetus against oxidative damage

The efficacy of multiparametric prostate magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer

Aim: To investigate the accuracy of multiparametric prostate magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) in determining the diagnosis and treatment options of prostate cancer (PCa), and its pathology correlation. Methods: Between October 2017 and January 2018, 73 patients were subjected to an mpMRI at our clinic. Of these patients, 11 were radical prostatectomy (RP) after treatment, and four were post- radiation therapy (RT) follow-up. The remaining 58 patients were assigned to the PSA elevation and / or positive digital rectal examination (DRE) patient group in this study and their outcomes were evaluated. Results: Of the 58 patients included in the study, 13 were found to have a PI-RADS 5 on mpMRI and in 9 (90%) of 10 patients undergoing simultaneous biopsy, PCa was detected. The biopsy results of all cases evaluated as PI-RADS 1 were benign. All of the patients who were ISUP 3 and above had a PI-RADS 5. Patients with a PI-RADS score of 4 and above being ISUP 2 and above was statistically significant (p=0.011). A case had undergone a previous radical prostatectomy assessment revealed that tPSA increased to 2 ng/ml during the follow-up, and so RT was added to the treatment; although LAP was identified in the left iliac region on an mpMRI performed upon the continued increase of tPSA. During the follow-ups of the patient who had regional RT, the tPSA dropped below 0.01 ng/ml. Conclusion: The results of our study show that mpMRI can gain a new and important place in urology due to the guidance it provides in biopsies, facilitating targeted biopsy, its effectiveness in determining treatment modalities and its importance in post-PCa treatment follow-ups

Common bile duct stones detected after cholecystectomy: Advancement into the duodenum via the percutaneous route

Purpose: To report our experience in the use of percutaneous extraction of common bile duct stones detected in the post-cholecystectomy period

Determination of relationship between hardness and groundwater quality parameters by neural networks

All life forms on the earth contain water and water is crucial for any life form on the earth. Apart from being the essential ingredient if living organisms, water has numerous other uses and benefits. Groundwaters form a circle of the natural hydrologic chain like surface waters and the other water in the atmosphere. Hydrologic, hydraulic and geologic processes play important roles during underground water's formation, storage, underground flow and coming up to the surface of the earth. In this study, groundwater hardness quality at Samsun Incesu-Derekoy region was modeled by the use of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) structure. In the data set arrangement effective input variables are the five different water quality parameters (pH, chlorine, calcium, magnesium and total hardness) concentrations in the time "t", and the output variable (total hardness) is the concentrations in the time "t + 1". For the model 10,000 epochs were performed and the learning rate is equal to 0.1, and correlation coefficient (r) that achieved in this Study was found 0.591. As a result, we conclude that ANN is the effective modeling technique on estimation of environmental complex water quality problems

Methodology to Estimate the Transient Evoked Responses for the Generation of Steady State Responses

A method to acquire transient evoked responses at high rates, corresponding to traditional steady state responses (SSR) is developed. Continuous Loop Averaging Deconvolution (CLAD) method is used in conjunction with tailored, low-jitter stimulation sequences. A physiological brain convolution model for SSR generation is adapted and mathematically analyzed. A SSR synthesis method from acquired transient evoked potentials is proposed and implemented. The mathematical models are used to guide the stimulation sequence design method. Visual evoked potentials (VEP) at 10 Hz and auditory evoked responses (AER) at 40 Hz and 80 Hz are acquired using the specially designed and the traditional SSR sequences. Acquired and synthetically generated SSRs are then compared in time and frequency domains to asses the method consistency. The experimental results show an excellent agreement between the acquired and synthetic SSR in all three modalities

Audiometric threshold screening method using envelope detection filters of intensity ramping click auditory steady-state responses

The Auditory Steady-state Responses (ASSR) elicited by click stimuli can be utilized for hearing screening as is traditionally done with click-evoked Auditory Brainstem Responses (ABR). In a typical ASSR or ABR hearing screening, several recordings at different intensities are required to find the response threshold. In this study the use of binaural click stimulus with time ramping intensity produces dual-ear evoked potentials in only one recording session, decreasing significantly the recording time. To achieve this performance a one second sweep consisting of repetitive click stimuli, with logarithmically ramping up intensity, is presented to one or both ears simultaneously. Unique repetition frequencies for each ear are used in order to differentiate the responses coming from each ear. The stimuli sweep is repeated and the EEG data corresponding to each sweep is averaged until a pre-specified residual noise level is achieved. Hilbert-transform-based envelope detection filters in the time domain are used to estimate the signal and noise energy around the main stimulation rate. Because the stimulus time-intensity functions are known, thresholds can be estimated from the response onset time position by estimating the significance of the signal to noise ratio. Preliminary results indicate a strong agreement of the obtained thresholds with behavioral thresholds