Limb Lengths of Primary School Children in a City From Western Region of Turkey

Anthropometry has been used for the assessment of growth at different ages. Among the anthropometric measurements, weight, height, arm circumference, and lower and upper limb lengths are of the most important criteria showing the development of children in school age. The aim of the present study was to measure the lengths of upper (arm, forearm, hand) and lower (thigh, leg, foot) limbs of children studying in primary schools of Aydin, a city in the western region of Turkey, and to assess the differences according to the gender (female, male) and living areas (urban, rural). In different age groups, many differences were observed when compared for gender and area. Differences were also seen when compared with the other studies done in different part of Turkey. The data was the first one for the region and it might be useful for further regional studies or for national comparisons. More studies designed with bigger sample sizes that cover many cities belonging to the same region of the country are needed. In addition to cross-sectional studies, Longitudinal studies may give more useful knowledge for understanding the growth of children

The interrelations of radiologic findings and mechanical ventilation in community acquired pneumonia patients admitted to the intensive care unit: a multicentre retrospective study

BACKGROUND: We evaluated patients admitted to the intensive care units with the diagnosis of community acquired pneumonia (CAP) regarding initial radiographic findings. METHODS: A multicenter retrospective study was held. Chest x ray (CXR) and computerized tomography (CT) findings and also their associations with the need of ventilator support were evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 388 patients were enrolled. Consolidation was the main finding on CXR (89%) and CT (80%) examinations. Of all, 45% had multi-lobar involvement. Bilateral involvement was found in 40% and 44% on CXR and CT respectively. Abscesses and cavitations were rarely found. The highest correlation between CT and CXR findings was observed for interstitial involvement. More than 80% of patients needed ventilator support. Noninvasive mechanical ventilation (NIV) requirement was seen to be more common in those with multi-lobar involvement on CXR as 2.4-fold and consolidation on CT as 47-fold compared with those who do not have these findings. Invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) need increased 8-fold in patients with multi-lobar involvement on CT. CONCLUSION: CXR and CT findings correlate up to a limit in terms of interstitial involvement but not in high percentages in other findings. CAP patients who are admitted to the ICU are severe cases frequently requiring ventilator support. Initial CT and CXR findings may indicate the need for ventilator support, but the assumed ongoing real practice is important and the value of radiologic evaluation beyond clinical findings to predict the mechanical ventilation need is subject for further evaluation with large patient series

Investigation of IL-1 Beta, IL-1 Receptor Antagonist and IL-8 Gene Polymorphisms in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B and C

WOS: 000336195500008PubMed: 24819264The host immune response is closely related to the prognosis of disease and viral persistence in hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. Althought it is well known that cytokines and genetic factors play important roles in the pathogenesis of chronic HBV and HCV infections, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. This study was conducted to determine the role of interleukin (IL)-1 beta, IL-1 receptor antagonist (1L-1RA) and IL-8 gene polymorphisms in chronic hepatitis B and C infections. A total of 361 subjects, 171 with chronic hepatitis B (62 female, 109 male; age range: 18-74 yrs) and 104 with chronic hepatitis C (63 female, 41 male; age range: 25-79 yrs), and a control group of 86 healthy subjects (41 female, 45 male; age range: 18-72 yrs) were included in the study. Following the DNA extractions from peripheral blood leukocytes of the study groups, single nucleotide polymorphisms of 1L-1 beta -31, -511, +3954; IL-1RA and IL-8 -251, -353, -738, -845 gene regions were investigated by using specific primers with real-time PCR method. It was found that the genotype frequency of IL-8 -251 AT (OR: 7.895, p= 0.003) and IL-8 -738 TA (OR: 6.317, p= 0.007) in patients with chronic hepatitis B and the genotype frequency of IL-1 beta -31 CT (OR: 6.757, p= 0.001), IL-1 beta -511 CT (OR: 4.060, p= 0.004), IL-8 -251 AT, (OR: 13.622, p= 0.001), IL-8 -738 TA (OR: 14.058, p= 0.001), and IL-8 -845 TC (OR: 2.539, p= 0.004) in patients with chronic hepatitis C was significantly higher than the control group. When the allelic frequency was compared between chronic hepatitis B patients and the control group, it was determined that IL-1 beta +3954 T allel increased the disease risk 1.5 times (p 0.05). In conclusion, IL-1 beta -31, -511 and IL-8 -251, -738, -845 gene polymorphisms may play a role in the chronicity of hepatitis B and C infection. In order to determine the importance of this cytokine polymorphisms in hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus infections, large-scale studies with different patient groups such as carriers, chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma should be conducted to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the disease process

Anthropometric Methods in Evaluation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is mainly expressed by weight loss with especially fat-free mass (FFM) depletion and a low body weight correlates with increased mortality and a poor prognosis. We investigated whether anthropometric body composition equations could be used for evaluation of the body composition in COPD. Thirty clinically stable patients with COPD and 13 healthy age matched control subjects underwent the skinfolds and circumference measurements in addition to body mass index (BMI) calculations. Body fat mass (BFM) and FFM were determined by using anthropometric equations. The percent BFM, predicted from body density either using Siri’sor Brozek’sequations was determined lower than that of calculated with equations by using BMI, age and gender. The values of BFM and body weight were reduced in patients with FEV1<50%predicted compared to other participants. The FFM values also dropped depending on the severity of COPD. BMI was not statistically different among the participants while FFM index (FFMI) reflected the nutritional status of the disorders. Anthropometric equations easily and cost effectively applied for prediction of %BFM, FFM, and FFMI in patients with COPD. In addition, the FFMI can be possibly used for expressing COPD severity

Investigation of the Association between Chronic Hepatitis B and C Infection and Interleukin 2 (-330) Gene Polymorphism

WOS: 000386047900002Objective: Cytokines has an important role in the immunopathogenesis of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. Interleukin-2 (IL-2) secreted by Th1 cells which plays an important role in regulating both in activation of the immune system and homeostasis, is a cytokine having a wide spectrum of effects on the immune system. Although there are many studies investigating the relationship between IL-2-330 gene polymorphism and diseases, a few studied was found to investigate the role in the immunopathogenesis of HBV and HCV infections of this cytokine polymorphisms. This study was aimed to determine the relationship between IL-2-330 gene polymorphisms and chronic hepatitis B and C infections. Methods: A total of 139 patients with chronic hepatitis B, 101 patients with hepatitis C and 87 healthy subjects as control groups were included into this study. Approximately 2 ml of blood from patients and control groups were taken into tubes containing EDTA, and genomic DNA was isolated using DNA isolation kit. Single nucleotide polypmorphsim from the obtained DNAs was investigated using the polymerase chain reaction-confronting two-pair primers (PCR-CTPP) methods. Results: The genotype frequencies of IL-2-330 TT, GT, GG were detected as 23.7%, 53.2%, 23% in patients with chronic hepatitis B and 27.6%, 50.6%, 21.8% in control groups, respectively (p>0.05). The frequencies of TT, GT, GG genotypes were found to be 34.7%, 56.4%, 8.9% in patients with chronic hepatitis C and 27.6%, 50.6%, 21.8% in control group, respectively. GG genotype frequency was significantly lower in patient groups with hepatitis C compared with the control group (p0.05). The frequencies of T and G alleles were found to be 69.4%, 30.6% in patients with chronic hepatitis C and 52.9%, 47.1% in control groups, respectively (p<0.05). Conclusion: In our study while there was no statistically significant relationship between chronic hepatitis B and IL-2-330 gene polymorphisms, significant association was found between GG genotype and chronic hepatitis C. According to our findings the GG genotype in the-330 position of IL-2 gene may be preventive effect in chronicy of hepatitis C in Turkish population, however, further research can contribute to clarify the issue

Investigation of the Association Between Chronic Hepatitis B and C Infections and TNF-alpha(-308) Gene Polymorphism

WOS: 000378184000007PubMed: 27175496Cytokines and genetic factors play important roles in the pathogenesis of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and chronic hepatitis C (CHC) infections. Variations in cytokine genes may effect the gene expression and may lead to changes in the clinical manifestations of diseases. One of the single nucleotide polymorphisms in the promoter region of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) gene is the polymorphism at -308. position which was investigated in many studies by means of its relationship between CHB and CHC infections, however their results are incompatible. Furthermore, there is no sufficient data on this subject in our country. This study was aimed to determine the relationship between TNF-a(-308) gene polymorphism with CHB and CHC infections. A total of 271 patients with chronic hepatitis and 181 healthy subjects were included in the study. Of them 167 were CHB cases (67 female, 100 male; age range 18-74 years, mean age: 40.23 +/- 13.09) and 95 controls for CHB group (46 female, 49 male; mean age: 36.41 +/- 15.0 years), while 104 were CHC cases (63 female, 41 male; age range: 25-79 years, mean age: 52.8 +/- 12.6) and 86 controls for CHC group (41 female, 45 male; mean age: 36.4 +/- 14.9 years). After the isolation of genomic DNA from blood samples of the patient and control groups, TNF-alpha(-308)G/A (rs 1800629) polymorphism was investigated by using the real-time polymerase chain reaction from the obtained DNAs. Among CHB group, TNF-alpha(-308) GG, GA, AA genotypes were detected in 126 (75.4%), 38 (22.8%) and 3 (1.8%) of the patients, respectively, while these numbers were 84 (88.4%), 11 (11.6%) and 0 (0%) in control group, respectively. Among CHC group, TNF-a(-308) GG, GA, AA genotypes were detected in 37 (35.6%), 28 (26.9%) and 39 (37.5%) of the patients, respectively, while these numbers were 38 (44.2%), 8 (9.3%) and 40 (46.5%) in control group, respectively. The frequency of GA genotype was significantly higher in both patient groups compared to the control groups (p=0.024 for CHB and p= 0.006 for CHC). When the distribution of allele frequencies of TNF-alpha(-308)G/A polymorphism was evaluated in the patients and control groups, it was noted that G allele was found to be high in CHB patients comparing with controls (94.2% vs 86.8%), however A allele was identified to be lower than controls (5.8% vs 13.2%) (p= 0.008). In contrast, there was no significant difference in terms of allele frequency compared with CHC patients and the control group (p= 0.969). In conclusion, our data in accordance with the results of many studies in literature, determined that TNF-alpha(-308) polymorphisms can influence the chronicity of hepatitis B and C infections. Further studies on this subject would contribute to the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of chronic hepatitis B and C diseases

Clinical and MRI findings of cerebellar agenesis in two living adult patients

Cerebellar agenesis (CA) is an extremely rare entity. We present two adult patients with CA. The 61-year-old man had ataxia, dysarthria, abnormalities in cerebellar tests, severe cognitive impairment, and moderate mental retardation. The 26-year-old woman had dysmetria, dysdiadochokinesia, and dysarthria as well as mild cognitive impairment and mild mental retardation. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed complete absence of the cerebellum with small residual vermis. Brainstem was hypoplastic and structures above tentorium were normal. Supratentorial white matter bundles were unaffected in diffusion tensor tractography. Only few adult patients with CA have so far been published. These cases show that patients with CA present with a variety of developmental, clinical, and mental abnormalities; and emphasize the role of the cerebellum in normal motor, language, and mental development

Regulating the regulators in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A genetic association study of microRNA biogenesis pathways

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent complex psychiatric disorders in children as well as adults. ADHD impacts not only the affected individuals but also their families and social and professional networks. The clinical and diagnostic criteria for ADHD remain imprecise, in part, due to lack of robust biomarkers. ADHD comprises multiple subsets of diseases that present a shared set of downstream clinical findings, while displaying extensive molecular heterogeneity. This calls for innovation in diagnostic strategies that can help establish an ADHD diagnosis unequivocally as well as guiding precision medicine in this common mental health disorder. No study has examined, to the best of our knowledge, the upstream regulation of miRNAs that impact the downstream final ADHD phenotype. The latter focus on putative genetic biomarkers that regulate the regulators and can be tested empirically, for example, through genetic association analyses of the biogenesis pathways for miRNAs that impact the ADHD phenotype. Hence, we report here polymorphic variation in 10 miRNA biogenesis pathway candidate genes, including RNASEN, DGCR8, XPO5, RAN, DICER1, TARBP2, AGO1, AGO2, GEMIN3, and GEMIN4, in a large sample from the Eastern Mediterranean region (N = 355; 191 cases and 164 controls). We found that AGO1 rs595961 was significantly associated with ADHD susceptibility (p  \u3c 0.05). While polymorphic variation in other miRNA biogenesis pathway genes did not display a significant association in the present sample, the observations reported herein on miRNA biogenesis variation offer a new avenue of research for innovation in biomarker discovery concerning ADHD and other complex psychiatric diseases with major global health burden