The effects of artistic and social activities during hemodialysis on the life quality, pain perception, anxiety status of the patients and intradialytic complications

Introduction: We aimed to investigate the effects of social and artistic activity support on quality of life, pain perception, and anxiety status in hemodialysis (HD) patients and the relation between occupational therapy and frequent complications of HD.Methods: Volunteer instructors trained 22 patients participated in this study for wood painting for 4 hours/day, 2-3 days a week for six months. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI I and STAI II) and Visual Analog Scale were applied before the social activity and at the 6th month. The quality of life evaluated with Short Form-36.Results: The patients who participated in the social activity more than 25 hours formed the study group (n=9), and those participated less than 25 hours made control group (n=13). There were significant differences in initial and 6th month values in both STAI I and STAI II scores of the study group, and only in STAI II score in the control group (p=0.008, p=0.015, p=0.003, respectively). In the study group, while STAI I and II mean was 49.9 and 52.8 in the first month, respectively, it decreased to 30.0 and 38.8 in 6th month, respectively. In the control group, in the first month mean of STAI II score was 56.9 and it decreased to 45.3 in the sixth month. The mean of physical function capacity from SF-36 parameters increased from 73.9 to 84.4 (p=0.026) in the study group and from 47.7 to 75.8 (p=0.002) in the control group. The difference between study and control group was statistically significant (p = 0.029). Conclusions: Our results support that social and artistic activities during HD have positive effects on chronic HD patients in terms of physical functioning level

Endoscopic Management of the Difficult Bile Duct Stones: A Single Tertiary Center Experience

Background. Most common bile duct (CBD) stones can be removed with standard techniques using endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), but in some cases additional methods are needed. In this study we aimed to investigate the management of patients with difficult stones and the factors that affect the outcome of patients that have undergone periodic endobiliary stenting. Materials and Methods. Data of 1529 patients with naive papilla who had undergone ERCP with an indication of CBD stones was evaluated retrospectively. Stones that could not be removed with standard techniques were defined as “difficult stones.” Cholangiograms of patients who had difficult stones were revised prospectively. Results. Two hundred and eight patients (13.6%) had difficult stones; 150 of these patients were followed up with periodic endobiliary stenting and successful biliary clearance was achieved in 85.3% of them. Both CBD (p<0.001) and largest stone size (p<0.001) were observed to be significantly reduced between the first and the last procedure. This difference was even more significant in successfully treated patients. Conclusions. Periodic endobiliary stenting can be used as an effective treatment for patients with difficult stones. Sizes of the CBD and of the largest stone are independent risk factors that affect the success rate

Two-Path All-pass Based Half-Band Infinite Impulse Response Decimation Filters and the Effects of Their Non-Linear Phase Response on ECG Signal Acquisition

This paper is based on the novel use of a very high fidelity decimation filter chain for Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal acquisition and data conversion. The multiplier-free and multi-stage structure of the proposed filters lower the power dissipation while minimizing the circuit area which are crucial design constraints to the wireless noninvasive wearable health monitoring products due to the scarce operational resources in their electronic implementation. The decimation ratio of the presented filter is 128, working in tandem with a 1-bit 3rd order Sigma Delta (ΣΔ) modulator which achieves 0.04 dB passband ripples and -74 dB stopband attenuation. The work reported here investigates the non-linear phase effects of the proposed decimation filters on the ECG signal by carrying out a comparative study after phase correction. It concludes that the enhanced phase linearity is not crucial for ECG acquisition and data conversion applications since the signal distortion of the acquired signal, due to phase non-linearity, is insignificant for both original and phase compensated filters. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, being free of signal distortion is essential as this might lead to misdiagnosis as stated in the state of the art. This article demonstrates that with their minimal power consumption and minimal signal distortion features, the proposed decimation filters can effectively be employed in biosignal data processing units

Turkish Primary Care Patients’ Overviews and Attitudes About Traditional and Complementary Medicine: A Cross-Sectional Study

Aim:Primary care physicians need to be aware of the types of traditional and complementary medicine (TCM) used by patients to be able to guide patients away from harmful approaches and to aim them toward useful or at least seeming benign approaches. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of the usage of TCM methods in Turkey and the level of knowledge and attitudes of applicants about these methods.Methods:The universe of this cross-sectional study consisted of individuals aged 18 and over who applied to the Family Health Centers and agreed to participate in the study in 12 provinces in different regions of Turkey between July and December 2016. The questionnaires were applied to the volunteer participants by the researchers using face-to-face interview techniques. The questionnaire had 25 questions.Results:80.6% of the participants benefited from TCM, and 86.4% stated they believed in the effectiveness of TCM. Women, university graduates of college who had private insurance used TCM (respectively; p=0.031; p=0.004; p=0.000), and women (83.3%) found TCM more useful than men (p=0.005). The most frequent reason for using TCM was “heard that it was useful”.Conclusion:The results of our study indicated that a large portion of Turkish primary care patients use TCM and recommend it to their relatives. Therefore, health policies and academic knowledge should be developed in this sense

Impact of Individual, Familial and Parental Factors on Adolescent Smoking in Turkey

The burden of adolescent cigarette smoking is substantial. We assess mothers’ and fathers’ attitudes and behaviours on adolescent smoking using a cross-sectional study of n = 707 adolescents. Associations between parental attitudes and behaviours in adolescent smoking were assessed using logistic regression separately for boys and girls. Occasional alcohol use by both parents increased odds of smoking once a day (OR = 2.44, 95% CI 1.26, 4.71, OR = 1.51, 95% CI 0.97, 2.35, respectively). Fathers smoking increased odds for girls (OR = 1.59, 95% CI 1.01, 2.52). A democratic mother decreased odds for boys (OR = 0.32, 95% CI 0.10, 0.93) whereas a protective, demanding mother increased the odds for girls (OR = 8.65, 95% CI 1.38, 54.22). Public health smoking prevention programs could support changing parental behaviours and attitudes in early years to address this burden in countries with authoritarian parenting styles

Hemodiyaliz sırasında gerçekleştirilen sanatsal ve sosyal faaliyetlerin hastaların yaşam kalitesi, ağrı, kaygı durumları ve intradiyalitik komplikasyonlar üzerindeki etkileri

Introduction: We aimed to investigate the effects of social and artistic activity support on quality of life, pain perception, and anxiety status in hemodialysis (HD) patients and the relation between occupational therapy and frequent complications of HD.Methods: Volunteer instructors trained 22 patients participated in this study for wood painting for 4 hours/day, 2-3 days a week for six months. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI I and STAI II) and Visual Analog Scale were applied before the social activity and at the 6th month. The quality of life evaluated with Short Form-36.Results: The patients who participated in the social activity more than 25 hours formed the study group (n=9), and those participated less than 25 hours made control group (n=13). There were significant differences in initial and 6th month values in both STAI I and STAI II scores of the study group, and only in STAI II score in the control group (p=0.008, p=0.015, p=0.003, respectively). In the study group, while STAI I and II mean was 49.9 and 52.8 in the first month, respectively, it decreased to 30.0 and 38.8 in 6th month, respectively. In the control group, in the first month mean of STAI II score was 56.9 and it decreased to 45.3 in the sixth month. The mean of physical function capacity from SF-36 parameters increased from 73.9 to 84.4 (p=0.026) in the study group and from 47.7 to 75.8 (p=0.002) in the control group. The difference between study and control group was statistically significant (p = 0.029). Conclusions: Our results support that social and artistic activities during HD have positive effects on chronic HD patients in terms of physical functioning level

Higher cancer antigen 125 level is associated with the presence of permanent atrial fibrillation in systolic heart failure patients

Introduction Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia in heart failure (HF). Recent studies have shown that serum cancer antigen-125 (CA-125) levels are elevated in HF, and high levels of CA-125 in HF patients with sinus rhythm have been shown to be associated with the development of new onset AF. However, the relation between CA-125 levels and the presence of AF in HF is unknown. In this study we investigated whether plasma CA-125 levels in patients with systolic HF could predict the presence of AF

Evaluation of the left venticular systolic function with the measurement of global longitudinal strain by Speckle tracking echocardiography in anaphylaxis

Background: It is not known how cardiac functions are affected during anaphylaxis. Objective: Our aim was to measure the cardiac functions shortly after an anaphylaxis attack using a new technique that detects subclinical left ventricular dysfunction

Neuroprotective effect of p-coumaric acid in rat model of embolic cerebral ischemia

Objective(s): Stroke poses a crucial risk for mortality and morbidity. Our study aimed to investigate the effect of p-coumaric acid on focal cerebral ischemia in rats. Material and Methods: Rats were randomly divided into four groups, namely Group I (control rats), Group II (ischemia rats), Group III (6 hr ischemia + p-coumaric acid rats) and Group IV (24 hr ischemia + p-coumaric acid rats). Cerebral ischemia was induced via intraluminal monofilament occlusion model. In all groups, the brain was removed after the procedure and rats were sacrificed. Malondialdehyde, superoxide dismutase and nuclear respiratory factor-1 were measured in the ischemic hemisphere. The histopathological changes were observed in the right hemisphere within the samples. Functional assessment was performed for neurological deficit scores. Results: Following the treatment, biochemical factors changed significantly. Histopathologically, it was shown that p-coumaric acid decreased the oxidative damage. The neurological deficit scores of p-coumaric acid-treated rats were significantly improved after cerebral ischemia. Conclusion:Our results showed that p-coumaric acid is a neuroprotective agent on account of its strong anti-oxidant and anti-apoptotic features. Moreover, p-coumaric acid decreased the focal ischemia. Extra effort should be made to introduce p-coumaric acid as a promising therapeutic agent to be utilized for treatment of human cerebral ischemia in the future