A new perspective on the future of Turkish Society for Radiation Oncology: Young Radiation Oncologists Group (TROD/GROG 001)

Radiation oncology is a field of medicine that has been rapidly growing with advances in technology, radiobiology, treatment algorithms and quality of life of modern radiotherapy over the last century. In the context of these advances, it is critical to be aware of the role of the young radiation oncologists and enable them to discover new perspectives. For this purpose, “The Young Radiation Oncologists Group” (GROG) has been established by the Turkish Society for Radiation Oncology (TROD), a subgroup which has focused on the professional developments, early career and integrating into the TROD family while supporting education and innovative research of young radiation oncologists. The purpose of this paper was to outline the structure and responsibilities of GROG and its scientific and social activities within TROD and in its own right.

Microsurgical Clipping of Anterior Circle of Willis Aneurysms: A Retrospective Study

Objective: The surgical outcomes of anterior circle of Willis aneurysms were evaluated.Material and Methods: Between March 2015 and December 2016, 38 patients were operated and followed up for aneurysms. There were 15 female and 23 male patients with a mean age of 47 years (range: 17-78). Of the patients, 35 were diagnosed with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Of these patients, 54.2% (n=19) were operated within the first 24 hours. All patients were operated by the same surgeon with sylvian dissection. All clinical data in the hospital charts and outpatient records and radiological investigations stored in the archive were evaluated retrospectively.Results: The most commonly seen aneurysm was on the anterior communicating artery (44.8%). After that, aneurysms on the middle cerebral artery (31.6%), posterior communicating artery (13.2%), internal cerebral artery bifurcation (7.8%), and distal anterior cerebral artery were seen, respectively. There was a significant correlation between the location of the aneurysm and the mean age (p=0.009). All patients were followed in the intensive care unit after operation. After surgery, vasospasm was observed in 26.3% of patients. Patients with high SAH grade developed vasospasm significantly more frequently (p=0.03). Neurological examinations at discharge were normal in 17 patients with SAH and 3 patients without SAH. Four patients were discharged with minimal neurological deficit and 2 patients with severe deficit. Eight patients with World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS) grade 4-5, 2 patients with grade 3, and 2 patients with grade 1-2 were lost. Postoperative Glasgow Coma Scale and SAH WFNS grades were found to be determinants for dying.Conclusion: Despite the development of endovascular techniques in the treatment of aneurysm, microsurgical clipping remains the first choice method to treat anterior system aneurysms. Closure of the aneurysm is the treatment priority. It is well known that early surgery reduces mortality and morbidity

Sudden Onset of Tetraparesis During Taking of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in a Patient with Undiagnosed Cervical Spinal Stenosis: A Case Report

Objective: To report a case with sudden-onset tetraparesis during taking magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).Case report: A 73-year-old man was referred with complaints of paresis of his arms and legs. His tetraparesis had developed suddenly while an MRI was performed 10 days before. He had a severe tetraparesis with 0/5 motor strength in his legs and 2/5 motor strength in his arms. On the MRI, a serious spinal stenosis at C3-4 and C4-5 levels and a faint myleopathic signal of the spinal cord at the level of the C4-5 disc space were seen. After posterior decompression, the patient’s tetraparesis improved gradually and he could walk independently and perform his daily activities with mild spasticity after 13 months.Conclusion: It is known that sudden neurological deficits may be seen in cervical trauma in patients with cervical spinal stenosis due to spondylosis. However, this case who did not have a trauma history showed us that a long period of positioning the neck beyond the patient’s control, even during the execution of MRI, may cause sudden deterioration

Brain Inspired Cortical Coding Method for Fast Clustering and Codebook Generation

A major archetype of artificial intelligence is developing algorithms facilitating temporal efficiency and accuracy while boosting the generalization performance. Even with the latest developments in machine learning, a key limitation has been the inefficient feature extraction from the initial data, which is essential in performance optimization. Here, we introduce a feature extraction method inspired by energy–entropy relations of sensory cortical networks in the brain. Dubbed the brain-inspired cortex, the algorithm provides convergence to orthogonal features from streaming signals with superior computational efficiency while processing data in a compressed form. We demonstrate the performance of the new algorithm using artificially created complex data by comparing it with the commonly used traditional clustering algorithms, such as Birch, GMM, and K-means. While the data processing time is significantly reduced—seconds versus hours—encoding distortions remain essentially the same in the new algorithm, providing a basis for better generalization. Although we show herein the superior performance of the cortical coding model in clustering and vector quantization, it also provides potent implementation opportunities for machine learning fundamental components, such as reasoning, anomaly detection and classification in large scope applications, e.g., finance, cybersecurity, and healthcare

Accuracy of a new hysteroscopic method in the assessment of tubal patency: Hysteroscopic Chromotubation

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of hysteroscopic chromopertubation (HCT) in the assessment of tubal patency by comparing its results with laparoscopic chromopertubation (LCT). Study Design The population of this prospective cohort study consisted of both fertile and infertile women. Sixty-four women were included to the study. HCT was assessed by the observation of the transport of highly concentrated methylene blue from uterine cavity to tubal ostia. The results of HCT were compared with the results of LCT as a gold standard. The accuracy of HCT, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values in diagnosing tubal patency were calculated. Results The results of HCT and LCT were evaluated for right and left tubes, separately. One hundred and twenty-eight tubes were determined. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values for HCT were; 85.85%, 59.09%, 91% and 46.43%, respectively. Conclusion This study’s result showed that HCT had high sensitivity and moderate specificity values in the assessment of tubal patency. HCT during office hysteroscopy could give the chance to practitioners to assess tubal patency without subjecting the patient to multiple procedures

Epidemiological and clinical features of paediatric open globe injuries in southwestern Turkey

AIM:To evaluate the epidemiologic, anatomic, and clinical features of open globe injuries in children.METHODS: The medical files of patients under the age of 16 who had been operated for an open globe injury at Akdeniz University Hospital’s Department of Ophthalmology were retrospectively evaluated.RESULTS: A total of 90 patients were evaluated in this study. Among these patients, 26 (28.9%) were female and 64 (71.1%) were male. The mean age of the patients was 7.7±4.2 years. The male/female ratio was observed to increase with increasing age (P=0.006, r=7.48). Injuries were most likely to occur in spring and autumn (P=0.028). The time interval between the injury and the surgical repair was 9.36±27.4h. Forty (44.4%) of the injuries occurred in the home, 27 (30%) occurred in the yard, and 21 (23.3%) happened while playing in the street. The most common causes of injury were sharp metal objects (P<0.001). Injury to the cornea occurred in 47 (52.2%) of the patients (P<0.001). The most common complication to occur was cataract formation. Additional operations were necessary for 37 (41.1%) of the patients. The final visual acuity was correlated with both the initial visual acuity of the wounded eye prior to surgery and the length of the wound (P<0.001, r=0.502 and P<0.001, r=-0.442, respectively).CONCLUSION:Open globe injuries that are suffered in childhood generally occur either at home, in the yard, or on the street, with sharp metal objects being the most common cause of injury. The initial visual acuity and the length of the wound are the most important determinants of the final visual acuity