Intelligent data analysis to interpret major risk factors for diabetic patients with and without ischemic stroke in a small population

This study proposes an intelligent data analysis approach to investigate and interpret the distinctive factors of diabetes mellitus patients with and without ischemic (non-embolic type) stroke in a small population. The database consists of a total of 16 features collected from 44 diabetic patients. Features include age, gender, duration of diabetes, cholesterol, high density lipoprotein, triglyceride levels, neuropathy, nephropathy, retinopathy, peripheral vascular disease, myocardial infarction rate, glucose level, medication and blood pressure. Metric and non-metric features are distinguished. First, the mean and covariance of the data are estimated and the correlated components are observed. Second, major components are extracted by principal component analysis. Finally, as common examples of local and global classification approach, a k-nearest neighbor and a high-degree polynomial classifier such as multilayer perceptron are employed for classification with all the components and major components case. Macrovascular changes emerged as the principal distinctive factors of ischemic-stroke in diabetes mellitus. Microvascular changes were generally ineffective discriminators. Recommendations were made according to the rules of evidence-based medicine. Briefly, this case study, based on a small population, supports theories of stroke in diabetes mellitus patients and also concludes that the use of intelligent data analysis improves personalized preventive intervention

The outcome of non-carbapenem-based empirical antibacterial therapy and VRE colonisation in patients with hematological malignancies

Background: Febrile neutropenia (FN) is generally a complication of cancer chemotherapy. Objective: We retrospectively evaluated the febrile neutropenia episodes and their outcomes with respect to modification rates of non-carbapenem-based empirical antibacterial therapy and vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE) colonisation that caused to VRE bacteremia in patients with hematological malignancies. Methods: All consecutive patients, who were older than 14 years of age and developed febrile neutropenia episodes due to hematological malignancies from September 2010 to November 2011 at the hematology department were included into the study. Results: In total, 86 consecutive neutropenic patients and their 151 febrile episodes were evaluated. The mean MASCC prognostic index score was 18,72 ± 9,43. Among 86 patients, 28 patients experienced a total of 30 bacteremia episodes of bacterial origin. Modification rates of both, empirical monotherapy and combination therapies, were found similar, statistically (P =0,840). Conclusion: Our results suggest that initiating of non-carbapenem based therapy does not provide high response rates in the treatment of febrile neutropenia attacks. Furthermore, non-carbapenem-based empirical therapy provides benefit in regard to cost-effectiveness and antimicrobial stewardship when local antibiotic resistance patterns of gram-negative bacteria are considered. Patients who are colonized with VRE are more likely to develop bacteremia with VRE strains as a result of invasive procedures and severe damage of mucosal barriers observed in this group of patients

Yr10 gene polymorphism in bread wheat varieties

Yellow rust resistance locus Yr10 located on chromosome 1B in Moro and originated from the Turkish line PI178383 was investigated in terms of polymorphism in seven winter type bread wheat cvs.(Triticum aestivum ssp. Aestivum) Altay2000, zgi2001, Sönmez2001 (yellow rust resistant), Aytýn98, ES14, Harmankaya99 (yellow rust susceptible) and PI178383 as control. Exon 1 (1 - 833 bp) and Exon 2 (1989 - 3630 bp) parts of Yr10 were amplified with three primers. Amplification was not observed with E2A primers in Harmankaya99, zgi2001 and Sönmez2001 cvs, while amplification products were observable at all tested varieties with the other primers. PCR results showed that E2A reverse primer is not able to anneal to the three varieties mentioned above. Sequence analysis and bioinformaticsanalysis proved that there has been single nucleotide changes especially in the second exon. The most similar sequences to the first exon of Harmankaya99, zgi01 and Sönmez2001 are AF509535 (Aegilops tauschii NBS-LRR-like gene), AF509534 (A. tauschii NBS-LRR-like gene sequence) and AF509534, respectively. These results could be helpful in revealing divergence between resistant and susceptible varieties