Neutropenic enteropathy

Neutropenic enteropathy (NE) is used to describe the inflammation of the bowel in neutropenic patients tinder aggressive chemotherapy, mainly for lymphoproliferative and hematologic malignancies. Surgical intervention may be required in patients with the advent of the disease. We report our experience in 7 children with NE who had to be treated surgically. Absolute neutrophil counts were less than 1000/mm(3) in all, with positive blood cultures in five patients. Four patients recovered with rapid resolution of neutropenia, while three patients died with persistent neutropenia

Abdominal tuberculosis in children

Abdominal tuberculosis (AT) is a rare cause of intraabdominal infection. Surgical intervention is rarely indicated, other than obtaining a specimen for histopathological diagnosis or for the treatment of complications

Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting in a 12-Year-old Girl with Familial Hypercholesterolemia

We present the case of a 12-year-old girl with familial hypercholesterolemia and coronary artery disease. She underwent triple-vessel coronary artery bypass grafting with bilateral pedicled internal mammary artery grafting without adverse events. Pediatric patients with familial hypercholesterolemia may present with premature coronary atherosclerosis requiring coronary artery bypass grafting.,In situ internal mammary artery grafts should be the graft of choice

Evaluation of neuromuscular transmission by using monopolar needle electrode

Objective: To evaluate the value of single-fibre electromyography (SFEMG) with monopolar electrode (MNPE) in revealing neuromuscular transmission dysfunction. Material and methods: We examined the extensor digitorum communis muscle by using single-fibre electrode (SFE) and MNPE sequentially, in randomly assigned 20 healthy volunteers and in 17 patients with known myasthenia gravis (MG). The high-pass filter setting was 3 kHz for MNPE. Ten individual jitter values were calculated for each electrode in every muscle. Repetitive nerve stimulation (RNS) test on trapezius muscle was performed on 15 patients. Results: In controls, the mean jitter values were 27 +/- 9 (10-59) mu s with SFE, and 21 +/- 7.2 (9-56) mu s with MNPE (P = 0.001). In the MG group, the mean jitter values were 52.4 +/- 38 (12-221) mu s with SFE, and 51.8 +/- 34.7 (12-179) mu s with MNPE. Both electrodes identified junction dysfunction in 14 patients. RNS revealed decrement in four patients but 11. Conclusion: SFEMG with SFE is still the gold standard; however, SFEMG with MNPE is superior to RNS like SFEMG with SFE

Bronchogenic cysts: A rare congenital cystic malformation of the lung

Purpose. Bronchogenic cysts are rare congenital cystic malformations of the lung. We retrospectively analyzed ten cases of bronchogenic cyst (BC) to reinforce the importance of recognizing this malformation

The effect of pentoxifylline on intestinal anastomotic healing after ischemia

The negative effects of ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) on intestinal anastomotic healing have been described in previous studies. To determine the effect of pentoxifylline (PTF) on small-bowel anastomoses performed after I RI, 20 male Wistar albino rats were studied. Under ketamine anesthesia, the superior mesenteric artery was occluded for 30 min and ileal resection-anastomosis was performed after 10 min of reperfusion. In group 1, no medication was given. In group 11, PTF 50 mg/kg was administered intraperitoneally before reperfusion and i.m. on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th postoperative days (POD). All rats were killed and anastomotic segments were removed on the 7th POD. Anastomotic bursting pressure (ABP) and hydroxyproline (HP) content were measured in the anastomotic segments; parameters were compared statistically with Student's t-test. In group 1, the mean ABP was 225.5 +/- 38.18 mmHg the and mean HP level was 16.03 +/- 1.91 mumol/g tissue. In group 11, these levels were 277 +/- 41.1 mmHg and 19.85 +/- 1.81 mumol/g tissue, respectively. The differences between the groups were significant (P < 0.005). Thus, PTF can improve anastomotic healing in an experimental model after IRI by promotion of collagen synthesis

Hamsi scoring in the prediction of unfavorable outcomes from tuberculous meningitis: results of Haydarpasa-II study

PubMedID: 25634680Predicting unfavorable outcome is of paramount importance in clinical decision making. Accordingly, we designed this multinational study, which provided the largest case series of tuberculous meningitis (TBM). 43 centers from 14 countries (Albania, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Hungary, Iraq, Italy, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Syria, Turkey) submitted data of microbiologically confirmed TBM patients hospitalized between 2000 and 2012. Unfavorable outcome was defined as survival with significant sequela or death. In developing our index, binary logistic regression models were constructed via 200 replicates of database by bootstrap resampling methodology. The final model was built according to the selection frequencies of variables. The severity scale included variables with arbitrary scores proportional to predictive powers of terms in the final model. The final model was internally validated by bootstrap resampling. A total of 507 patients’ data were submitted among which 165 had unfavorable outcome. Eighty-six patients died while 119 had different neurological sequelae in 79 (16 %) patients. The full model included 13 variables. Age, nausea, vomiting, altered consciousness, hydrocephalus, vasculitis, immunosuppression, diabetes mellitus and neurological deficit remained in the final model. Scores 1–3 were assigned to the variables in the severity scale, which included scores of 1–6. The distribution of mortality for the scores 1–6 was 3.4, 8.2, 20.6, 31, 30 and 40.1 %, respectively. Altered consciousness, diabetes mellitus, immunosuppression, neurological deficits, hydrocephalus, and vasculitis predicted the unfavorable outcome in the scoring and the cumulative score provided a linear estimation of prognosis. © 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg