Evaluation of the frequency of left renal vein variations in computed tomography and its relationship with cancer development

Background: Left renal vein (LRV) variations occur in 0.8–10.2% of the population. The most common LRV variations are retroaortic left renal vein (RLRV) and circumaortic left renal vein (CLRV). The purpose of this study is to determine the frequency of LRV variations in a large series on computed tomography (CT) and to investigate the association between LRV and malignancy development.Materials and methods: Between January 2015 and January 2017, an abdominal CT examination of 12,341 (5505 female, 6836 male) patients was evaluated retrospectively in this study. Patients’ clinical and demographic data were recorded using the Hospital Information System.Results: Left renal vein variations were detected in 314 (2.54%) of the 12,341 patients within the study. Of the 314 cases found to have LRV variations, 227 (1.84%) had RLRV, and 87 (0.70%) had CLRV. There was no statistical difference in total LRV variations (p = 0.083) and CLRV variation (p = 0.96) groups in terms of gender. However, the RLRV variation was found to be 1.32 times higher in males than in females (p = 0.039). Of the 314 patients with LRV variations, 73 (23.2%) had any sort of concomitant malignancy.Conclusions: A high incidence of malignancy was detected in patients with LRV variations. Of the LRV variations, RLRV variation is more common than CLRV variation. The presence of total LRV variations and CLRV variations is not associated with gender; whereas the presence of RLRV variation is more common in males

Antimicrobial activities of the extracts of marine algae from the coast of Urla (İzmir, Turkey)

Methanol, acetone, diethyl ether, and ethanol extracts of 11 seaweed species from the coast of Urla were tested in vitro for their antimicrobial activities against Candida sp., Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli with the disc diffusion method. Diethyl ether was the best solution for extracting the effective antimicrobial materials from the algae species used in this experiment, with the exception of D. linearis, for which ethanol was the most effective extraction solution. Diethyl ether extracts of fresh Cystoseira mediterranea, Enteromorpha linza, Ulva rigida, Gracilaria gracilis, and Ectocarpus siliculosus showed effective results against all test organisms. However, diethyl ether extracts of some species, such as Padina pavonica, Colpomenia sniosa, Dictyota linearis, Dictyopteris membranacea, Ceramium rubrum, and Acanthophora nojadiformis, gave different results. A significant difference in antimicrobial activity was not observed between the acetone and methanol extracts of each alga. In addition, as a result of the comparison of dried and fresh extract antimicrobial activity, it was found that all test organisms were more sensitive to fresh extracts of the algae. Although fresh extracts of G. gracilis, D. linearis, and E. siliculosus inhibited the tested bacteria and yeast, their dried extracts had no inhibition activity on either Gram-negative or Gram-positive bacteria. © TÜBİTAK