Evaluation of clinical, laboratory, and therapeutic features of 145 tularemia cases: the role of quinolones in oropharyngeal tularemia

Tularemia outbreaks have occurred in various regions of Turkey in recent years. In this study, clinical (145 patients) and laboratory (97 patients) features of patients with oropharyngeal tularemia were evaluated during the tularemia outbreak in the district of Golcuk in Kocaeli, Turkey. We analyzed the risk factors for therapeutic failure and prolonged recovery time, and compared the efficacy of three antibiotic groups, namely aminoglycoside, tetracycline and quinolone. The most common physical sign and laboratory findings in patients were lymphadenopathy (LAP) and increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate, respectively. Treatment failure was observed in 55 of the 145 (38%) patients during one-year follow-up and the most successful results were obtained in the quinolone group. It was determined that antimicrobial therapy initiated 14 days after onset of symptoms was a statistically significiant risk factor, reducing the success rate (p=0.0001, OR=13.10, 95% CI=5.69-30.15) and prolonging the recovery period (p=0.001, OR=3.23, 95% CI=1.63-6.40) in oropharyngeal tularemia cases. These results suggest that antimicrobial treatment should be started early, and quinolones such as moxifloxacin and ciprofloxacin seem to be new alternatives in the treatment of oropharyngeal tularemia

Biochemical and histological changes in osteoarthritic synovial membrane.

In order to investigate the relationship between the synovial inflammatory response and lysosomal enzyme activity in osteoarthritis, synovial specimens obtained from 19 osteoarthritic patients and control specimens from 10 normal joints were analysed for cathepsin D and acid phosphatase enzyme levels. In estimating enzyme activities methods previously developed for quantitative enzyme determination in cartilage were modified and applied to synovial tissues for the first time. In addition, samples of osteoarthritic synovium were histologically graded according to their degree of inflammation. It was found that in osteoarthritic synovium cathepsin D and acid phosphatase, which is a general marker for lysosomal enzyme activity, were significantly increased compared with normal control synovium. No significant relationship was found between the degree of synovial tissue inflammation and lysosomal enzyme activity

THE EFFICACY OF MEZLOCILLIN-AMIKACIN COMBINATION IN FEBRILE NEUTROPENIC CHILDREN WITH ONCOLOGIC DISEASE

The efficacy of mexlocillin-amikacin combination as empirical therapy for febrile neutropenic patients was studied in 30 children (21 males, 9 females) with various oncologic diseases aged 1-15 years (mean age 7.3 +/- 4.4) in the Istanbul Medical School, Oncologic Disease Research and Treatment Center, and Department of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology between January 1 and May 31, 1988

after ipsilateral testicular torsion

Objective To evaluate the effect of afferent nerve blockage by administration of capsaicin on apoptotic changes in the contralateral testis in rats undergoing ipsilateral testicular torsion,Materials and methods Twenty male albino rats were randomly divided into four groups. In groups 1 and 2, rats underwent a sham operation and testicular torsion. respectively, after the intraperitoneal administration of 0.9%, NaCl. Similarly, in groups 3 and 4 the rats underwent a sham operation and testicular torsion. respectively, after an intraperitoneal capsaicin injection. The testes were untwisted 24 h later and the contralateral testes harvested. Apoptosis was assessed in paraffin-embedded sections stained for nuclear DNA fragmentation. Fifteen cells were counted in each seminiferous tubule and the apoptotic cells recorded. A score was calculated for each group and the results compared using the Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance and Mann Whitney U-tests, with P < 0.05 considered to be significant.Results The mean apoptotic score of group 2 was significantly higher than that of the other groups, There was no difference between the apoptotic scores of groups 1 and 3. 1 and 4. and 3 and 4.Conclusion Capsaicin effectively prevented apoptosis in the contralateral testes of rats that had undergone testicular torsion