The role of antioxidant activity in the prevention and treatment of infertility caused by cisplatin in rats

Kurt, Nezahat/0000-0002-1685-5332; AKSOY, Ayse Nur/0000-0002-3793-9797; AKSOY, Mehmet/0000-0003-0867-8660WOS: 000350267200009PubMed: 25632879Background/Aims:To investigate the importance of antioxidant activity in infertility caused by cisplatin in rats. Methods: Rats in cisplatin control (CG), Vitamin E+cisplatin (ECG), Vitamin C + cisplatin (CCG), Hippophae rhamnoides extract (HRE) + cisplatin (HRECG), and thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) + cisplatin (TPPCG) groups were injected intraperitoneally (ip) with (100 mg/kg) Vitamin E, Vitamin C, HRE, and TPP, respectively. One hour later, ip cisplatin was administered (5 mg/kg), and then antioxidant medications were continued for 10 days. Cisplatin + Vitamin E (CEG-1), cisplatin + Vitamin C (CCG-1), cisplatin + HRE (CHREG-1), and cisplatin + TPP (TPPCG-1) rats received cisplatin (5 mg/kg, ip) and were kept for 10 days. At the end of that period, rats received antioxidant medications for 10 days. (n = 12, for each group). Six rats from each group were sacrificed. Ovaries were removed to measure malondialdehyde, total glutathione, glutathione S-transferase, and glutathione reductase levels. the remaining rats were kept in a suitable laboratory environment. Results: Cisplatin-induced oxidative stress was best prevented by HRE, Vitamin E, Vitamin C, and TPP, in that order. However, infertility caused by cisplatin was only prevented and treated by TPP. Conclusion: Oxidative stress is not a major component in the pathogenesis of cisplatin-associated infertility. (C) 2015 S. Karger AG, Base

Elektif sezaryen ameliyatı geçiren primipar ve multipar hastaların anestezi tekniği tercihlerinin karşılaştırılması

Amaç: Bu çalışmanın amacı, iki aşamalı anket formu kullanarak, elektif sezaryen operasyonu planlanan primipar ve multipar hastaların anestezi yöntemi tercihlerinin karşılaştırılmasıdır. Ayrıca, hastaların anestezi yöntemi tercihini etkileyen faktörlerin tespit edilmesi planlandı. Gereç ve Yöntem: Miad gebeliği olan, elektif sezaryen operasyonu planlanan 100 primipar ve 100 multipar hasta olmak üzere 200 hasta çalışmaya dahil edildi. Hastalardan iki aşamalı anket formununu doldurmaları istendi. Anket formu doldurulduktan sonra bir anestezi uzmanı tarafından anestezi yöntemleri hakkında sözel olarak bilgilendirme yapıldı. Sözel bilgilendirme sonrası hastalara tercih ettikleri anestezi yöntemini değiştirmek isteyip istemedikleri soruldu. Hastaların demografik-obstetrik bilgileri ile anket sorularına verdikleri cevaplar kaydedildi ve veriler uygun istatistiksel testler kullanılarak analiz edildi. Bulgular: Multipar hastalarının 98’i (%98) ve primipar hastalarının 65'i (%65) anestezi tekniği hakkında bilgili sahibiydi (p <0.001). Bilgi sahibi olan katılımcıların çoğunluğu (n=59,% 36.19) en fazla bilgiyi anestezi doktorlarından aldıklarını ifade etti. Primipar hastaların 21’i (%21), multipar hastaların 9’u (%9) başlangıçta bölgesel anesteziyi reddetti. Anestezi uzmanı tarafından yapılan sözel bilgilendirme sonrası bölgesel anesteziyi reddeden pimipar hastalardan 9'u (%42.8) tercihini bölgesel anestezi yöntemi olarak değiştirdi. Sonuç: Multipar hastalar bölgesel anestezi yöntemini primipar hastalara göre daha yüksek oranda tercih etmektedir. Anestezi doktoru tarafından anestezi tekniği ile ilgili ayrıntılı sözel bilgilendirme yapılması hastaların bölgesel anestezi tercihini artırabilir

Investigation of ceftazidime-avibactam susceptibility in clinical isolates of gram-negative bacteria

Background/aim: Our study investigated the susceptibility rate of ceftazidime-avibactam and the risk factors associated with its resistance by analyzing gram-negative bacteria isolated from various patient samples. Materials and methods: Between March and November 2020, 1119 gram-negative bacteria strains were isolated from patient samples in Acıbadem Healthcare Group hospitals; ceftazidime-avibactam susceptibility results were evaluated using a 10/4µg (Oxoid, UK) disc and evaluated according to Eucast 2020 recommendations. Patient and isolate characteristics that could be risk factors were retrospectively investigated and statistically analyzed using SPSS 25.0. Results: Male patients made up 52% (n = 581) of the study’s total patient population, and they averaged 55.5 ± 24.9 years old. Of 1119 gram-negative strains culture and antibiogram, 1023 (91.4%) were sensitive to ceftazidime-avibactam. An increased risk of resistance was observed with female gender (OR = 2.29; CI 95% [1.45–3.61]; p < 0.05), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (OR = 1.67, CI 95% [1.03–2.7]; p < 0.05), the presence of multidrug-resistance (MDR) (OR = 4.07, CI 95% [2.47–6.7]; p < 0.05) pandrug-resistance (PDR) (OR = 12, (CI) 95% [9.9–14.7] ]; p < 0.05) and admission to intensive care unit (ICU) (OR = 1.89, CI 95% [1.22–2.93]; p < 0.05). Conclusion: The resistance rate of ceftazidime-avibactam was found to be 8.6%, and it was thought that resistant strains produced metallo-ß-lactamase (MBL) type carbapenemase. Risk factors were female gender, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, MDR, PDR, and admission to ICU. Therefore, studying the ceftazidime-avibactam susceptibility test together with gram-negative bacteria identification, especially in groups at risk for resistance, is one of the important factors that can positively affect the success of treatment

A novel approach for cardiotocography paper digitization and classification for abnormality detection

Cardiotocography (CTG) is a clinical procedure that is used to track and gauge the severity of fetal distress. Although CTG is the most often used equipment to monitor and assess the health of the fetus, the high rate of false positive results due to visual interpretation significantly contributes to needless surgical delivery or delayed intervention. In this study, a novel approach is introduced where both printing CTG paper is digitized and a machine learning approach is employed to detect the abnormality in the digitized CTG signal. Image processing-based preprocessing steps are employed to make the printing of CTG paper more convenient to extract the CTG signal. Various signal-processing techniques are used to calibrate the extracted CTG signal. Then, Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) is used to decompose the CTG signal into its frequency components and instantaneous frequency and spectral entropy features are extracted. After feature normalization and feature selection with ReliefF algorithm, support vector machines (SVM) is used for the classification of the normal and abnormal classes. A novel dataset is used in the experimental works and various performance evaluation metrics are used for the evaluation of the achievement of the proposed method. 10-fold cross-validation-based experiments show that the proposed method is quite efficient in abnormality detection in printing CTG papers where an average accuracy score of around 90.0% is produced

The frequency of Duchenne muscular dystrophy/Becker muscular dystrophy and Pompe disease in children with isolated transaminase elevation: results from the observational VICTORIA study

IntroductionElevated transaminases and/or creatine phosphokinase can indicate underlying muscle disease. Therefore, this study aims to determine the frequency of Duchenne muscular dystrophy/Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD/BMD) in male children and Pompe disease (PD) in male and female children with isolated hypertransaminasemia.MethodsThis multi-center, prospective study enrolled patients aged 3–216 months with serum alanine transaminase (ALT) and/or aspartate transaminase (AST) levels &gt;2× the upper limit of normal (ULN) for ≥3 months. Patients with a known history of liver or muscle disease or physical examination findings suggestive of liver disease were excluded. Patients were screened for creatinine phosphokinase (CPK) levels, and molecular genetic tests for DMD/BMD in male patients and enzyme analysis for PD in male and female patients with elevated CPK levels were performed. Genetic analyses confirmed PD. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of the patients were analyzed.ResultsOverall, 589 patients [66.8% male, mean age of 63.4 months (standard deviation: 60.5)] were included. In total, 251 patients (188 male and 63 female) had CPK levels above the ULN. Of the patients assessed, 47% (85/182) of male patients were diagnosed with DMD/BMD and 1% (3/228) of male and female patients were diagnosed with PD. The median ALT, AST, and CPK levels were statistically significantly higher, and the questioned neurological symptoms and previously unnoticed examination findings were more common in DMD/BMD patients than those without DMD/BMD or PD (p &lt; 0.001).DiscussionQuestioning neurological symptoms, conducting a complete physical examination, and testing for CPK levels in patients with isolated hypertransaminasemia will prevent costly and time-consuming investigations for liver diseases and will lead to the diagnosis of occult neuromuscular diseases. Trial RegistrationClinicaltrials.gov NCT04120168

Ortaöğretim coğrafya ders kitaplarının doğal sistemler bölümlerinin yapılandırmacılık yaklaşımına göre değerlendirilmesi

ÖZETBu araştırmada, 2013-2014 öğretim yılında hazırlanan ortaöğretim 9, 10, 11, 12. sınıf coğrafya kitaplarının “Doğal Sistemler” bölümü incelenmiş ve konuların yapılandırmacılık yaklaşımına göre ele alınıp alınmadığı öğrenci görüşleri doğrultusunda tespit edilmeye çalışılmıştır. Bu amaçla araştırmacı tarafından, yapılandırılmış 24 maddelik likert tipi anket formu ile 4 adet açık uçlu soru hazırlanarak ortaöğretimde okuyan 80 öğrenciye uygulanmıştır. Amaçlarımızı gerçekleştirmek için nicel ve nitel yöntem kullanılmıştır. Elde edilen veriler istatistik programlarından yararlanılarak betimsel analize göre çözümlenmiştir. Analiz sonucunda ders kitaplarında; açıklamaların yetersiz olduğu, konuların anlaşılır bir şekilde anlatılmadığı, soruların üniversite sınavı için yetersiz olduğu, etkinliklerin ve sürece yönelik değerlendirmelerin yetersiz olduğu, konuların sonunda özetlerin olmadığı, 12. sınıf coğrafya ders kitabında anahtar kavramlara yer verilmediği ve öğrencilerin ünite içinde geçen kavramlarla ilgili yanılgıları yaşadıkları bulgularına ulaşılmıştır. Elde edilen bulgular yorumlanarak sonuçlandırılmış ve önerilerde bulunulmuştur.Anahtar Kelimeler: Yapılandırmacılık, Coğrafya, Ders kitabı, Coğrafya Eğitimi.ABSTRACTIn this study, "Natural Systems" section of 9, 10, 11, 12th grade secondary education geography books prepared in 2013-2014 academic year is examined and efforts are made in accordance with the view of students to identify whether subjects are based on constructivism approach or not. For this purpose, structured 24-item Likert-type questionnaire with four open-ended questions were prepared and applied to 80 students studying in secondary education.Qualitative methods were used to realize our goals. The obtained data were analysed in regard to descriptive analysis. The findings were finalized with interpreting and recommendations were made. As a result of analysis, it was found that in textbooks; explanations are insufficient, the subjects clearly were not well-documented, the questions are insufficient for the university exam, events and process-oriented assessments are insufficient, no summary takes place at the end of the subjects and key concepts are not included in 12th grade textbook. It was also found that students had misconceptions.Keywords: Constructivism, Geography, Textbook, Geography Education

Ortaöğretim coğrafya ders kitaplarının doğal sistemler bölümlerinin yapılandırmacılık yaklaşımına göre değerlendirilmesi

Bu araştırmada, 2013-2014 öğretim yılında hazırlanan ortaöğretim 9, 10, 11, 12. sınıf coğrafya kitaplarının “Doğal Sistemler” bölümü incelenmiş ve konuların yapılandırmacılık yaklaşımına göre ele alınıp alınmadığı öğrenci görüşleri doğrultusunda tespit edilmeye çalışılmıştır. Bu amaçla araştırmacı tarafından, yapılandırılmış 24 maddelik likert tipi anket formu ile 4 adet açık uçlu soru hazırlanarak ortaöğretimde okuyan 80 öğrenciye uygulanmıştır. Amaçlarımızı gerçekleştirmek için nicel ve nitel yöntem kullanılmıştır. Elde edilen veriler istatistik programlarından yararlanılarak betimsel analize göre çözümlenmiştir. Analiz sonucunda ders kitaplarında; açıklamaların yetersiz olduğu, konuların anlaşılır bir şekilde anlatılmadığı, soruların üniversite sınavı için yetersiz olduğu, etkinliklerin ve sürece yönelik değerlendirmelerin yetersiz olduğu, konuların sonunda lerin olmadığı, 12. sınıf coğrafya ders kitabında anahtar kavramlara yer verilmediği ve öğrencilerin ünite içinde geçen kavramlarla ilgili yanılgıları yaşadıkları bulgularına ulaşılmıştır. Elde edilen bulgular yorumlanarak sonuçlandırılmış ve önerilerde bulunulmuştur. Anahtar Kelimeler: Yapılandırmacılık, Coğrafya, Ders kitabı, Coğrafya Eğitimi. ABSTRACT In this study, "Natural Systems" section of 9, 10, 11, 12th grade secondary education geography books prepared in 2013-2014 academic year is examined and efforts are made in accordance with the view of students to identify whether subjects are based on constructivism approach or not. For this purpose, structured 24-item Likert-type questionnaire with four open-ended questions were prepared and applied to 80 students studying in secondary education. Qualitative methods were used to realize our goals. The obtained data were analysed in regard to descriptive analysis. The findings were finalized with interpreting and recommendations were made. As a result of analysis, it was found that in textbooks; explanations are insufficient, the subjects clearly were not well-documented, the questions are insufficient for the university exam, events and process-oriented assessments are insufficient, no summary takes place at the end of the subjects and key concepts are not included in 12th grade textbook. It was also found that students had misconceptions. Keywords: Constructivism, Geography, Textbook, Geography Education