Outcomes and effectiveness of bilateral percutaneous transluminal renal artery stenting in patients with critical bilateral renal artery stenosis

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the effects of percutaneous bilateral renal artery stenting in patients with atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis and in-hospital and 4 month outcome of the procedure, focusing on the changes in renal function and blood pressure. Methods: Five consecutive patients (mean age: 64.8 ± 9.7 years, 1 women) with bilateral renal artery stenoses underwent percutaneous interventions. We compared blood pressure, number of oral antihypertensive medications, and renal function changes preprocedure and postprocedure at 4 months follow-up. Results: A total of 5 bilateral atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis patients underwent percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty and 10 stents were placed. Although systolic and diastolic blood pressures were significantly decreased in follow-up period, glomerular filtration rates were not significantly changed as compared with baseline data (p = 0.009, p = 0.008, p = 1.00, respectively). Also, the number of oral antihypertensive medications were significantly decreased at follow-up period (p = 0.03). Conclusions: Bilateral renal artery stenting provides a beneficial outcome such as stabilization of renal functions, significant improvement in blood pressure control and reduction in the number of oral antihypertensive medications at follow-up

Tissue transglutaminase-induced alterations in extracellular matrix inhibit tumor invasion

BACKGROUND: Alterations in the extracellular matrix (ECM) can affect host-tumor interactions and tumor growth and metastasis. Tissue transglutaminase (TG2, EC 2.3.2.13), a calcium-dependent enzyme that catalyzes covalent cross-linking of proteins, can render the ECM highly stable and resistant to proteolytic degradation. So we determined whether TG2 expression in a tumor or nontumor (stroma) environment could affect the process of metastasis. Two hundred archived samples from patients with breast cancer were studied for the TG2 expression. Also, in an in vitro model the invasive behavior of MDA-MB-231 cells in the presence or absence of exogenous TG2 was determined. RESULTS: Tumors associated with negative nodes showed significantly higher expression of TG2 in the stroma (P < 0.001). TG2 in the stroma was catalytically active, as revealed by the presence of isopeptide cross-links. Pretreatment of Matrigel with catalytically active TG2 resulted in strong inhibition of invasion of MDA-MB-231 cells through the Matrigel Transwell filters. CONCLUSION: TG2-induced alterations in the ECM could effectively inhibit the process of metastasis. Therefore, selective induction of catalytically active TG2 at the site of tumor may offer promising approach for limiting the metastasis

Assessing the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Trunk Impairment Scale in stroke patients

CONCLUSION: TIS is a scale used in measuring the motor derangement that develops after a stroke. It has sufficient reliability, internal consistency, and validity for use in clinical practice and stroke investigations. Our study has shown that TIS used for the evaluation of body balance is valid and reliable for the Turkish population

A novel prenatal index predicting the probability of neonatal intensive care in pregnants: amnion progesterone receptor to alfa fetoprotein rate

Introduction: Amniocentesis (AC) is the most used interventional procedure for prenatal diagnosis. The study aims to evaluate the pregnancy outcomes undergoing AC and the potential of amnion progesterone receptor (aPR) to alfa fetoprotein (AFP) rate for predicting the probability of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Material and methods: This prospective cross-sectional study population consisted of 85 pregnant women who underwent mid-trimester AC. All cases were screened by ultrasound before AC. Maternal venous and amniotic samples were obtained simultaneously to evaluate the serum progesterone (sPRG), aPR, and aAFP and analyzed with patient results. Results: Unlike sPRG and aAFP, aPR showed a positive correlation with NICU and a negative correlation with parity. In linear regression, the aPR-AFP rate showed strong linearity with NICU and parity. In an aPR-AFP rate analysis, we saw a strong predictivity for NICU compared to the other three parameters. It presented 73.4% specificity and 79% sensitivity at 0.0075 cut-off (AUC: 0.78; p = 0.003; 95% CI: 0.608–0.914). Conclusions: Evaluating the PR either alone or in a rational combination with AFP will provide physicians with valuable information about the advanced process of pregnancy and postpartum complications. The physicians might use the aPR-AFP rate to predict NICU potential for pregnancy and need further studies to make more vital predictions on postpartum complications

Obstrüktif uyku apneli ve horlayan erişkin erkek hastaların dentofasiyal özelliklerinin değerlendirilmesi

Amaç: Bu çalışmanın amacı obstrüktif uyku apne sendromu (OUAS) olan erişkin erkek hastaların kraniofasiyal morfolojik özellikleri değerlendirmektir. Gereç ve Yöntem: Çalışmada 80 erkek hastanın (60 sefalogramları değerlendirildi. Bireyler Grup 1: horlama (AHİ5); Grup 2: hafif OUAS (5AHİ15); Grup 3: orta OUAS(15 AHİ30) ; Grup 4: şiddetli OUAS (AHİ30) olarak değerlendirildi. Sefalogramlar üzerinde hyoid, dil kökü ve yumuşak damak konumu, kranioservikal postür ve havayolu genişliğini belirleyen ölçümler yapıldı. Gruplar arasındaki farklar normal dağılım gösteren değişkenlerde tek yönlü varyans analizi ve Duncan testiyle, normal dağılım göstermeyen değişkenlerde Kruskal düzeltmesi uygulanarak Mann Whitney U testiyle yapıld

A homozygous MED11 C-terminal variant causes a lethal neurodegenerative disease

Purpose: The mediator (MED) multisubunit-complex modulates the activity of the transcriptional machinery, and genetic defects in different MED subunits (17, 20, 27) have been implicated in neurologic diseases. In this study, we identified a recurrent homozygous variant in MED11 (c.325C>T; p.Arg109Ter) in 7 affected individuals from 5 unrelated families. Methods: To investigate the genetic cause of the disease, exome or genome sequencing were performed in 5 unrelated families identified via different research networks and Matchmaker Exchange. Deep clinical and brain imaging evaluations were performed by clinical pediatric neurologists and neuroradiologists. The functional effect of the candidate variant on both MED11 RNA and protein was assessed using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and western blotting using fibroblast cell lines derived from 1 affected individual and controls and through computational approaches. Knockouts in zebrafish were generated using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/Cas9. Results: The disease was characterized by microcephaly, profound neurodevelopmental impairment, exaggerated startle response, myoclonic seizures, progressive widespread neurodegeneration, and premature death. Functional studies on patient-derived fibroblasts did not show a loss of protein function but rather disruption of the C-terminal of MED11, likely impairing binding to other MED subunits. A zebrafish knockout model recapitulates key clinical phenotypes. Conclusion: Loss of the C-terminal of MED subunit 11 may affect its binding efficiency to other MED subunits, thus implicating the MED-complex stability in brain development and neurodegeneration

Risk factors for infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales: an international matched case-control-control study (EURECA)

Cases were patients with complicated urinary tract infection (cUTI), complicated intraabdominal (cIAI), pneumonia or bacteraemia from other sources (BSI-OS) due to CRE; control groups were patients with infection caused by carbapenem-susceptible Enterobacterales (CSE), and by non-infected patients, respectively. Matching criteria included type of infection for CSE group, ward and duration of hospital admission. Conditional logistic regression was used to identify risk factors. Findings Overall, 235 CRE case patients, 235 CSE controls and 705 non-infected controls were included. The CRE infections were cUTI (133, 56.7%), pneumonia (44, 18.7%), cIAI and BSI-OS (29, 12.3% each). Carbapenemase genes were found in 228 isolates: OXA-48/like, 112 (47.6%), KPC, 84 (35.7%), and metallo-beta-lactamases, 44 (18.7%); 13 produced two. The risk factors for CRE infection in both type of controls were (adjusted OR for CSE controls; 95% CI; p value) previous colonisation/infection by CRE (6.94; 2.74-15.53; <0.001), urinary catheter (1.78; 1.03-3.07; 0.038) and exposure to broad spectrum antibiotics, as categorical (2.20; 1.25-3.88; 0.006) and time-dependent (1.04 per day; 1.00-1.07; 0.014); chronic renal failure (2.81; 1.40-5.64; 0.004) and admission from home (0.44; 0.23-0.85; 0.014) were significant only for CSE controls. Subgroup analyses provided similar results. Interpretation The main risk factors for CRE infections in hospitals with high incidence included previous coloni-zation, urinary catheter and exposure to broad spectrum antibiotics

CP-violating WW gamma couplings in e gamma collision with polarized beams

WOS: 000266639500017We investigate the constraints on CP-violating triple WW gamma gauge boson couplings through the process e gamma -> W nu(e). Considering the longitudinal and transverse polarization states of the final W and incoming polarized beams, we find 95% confidence level limits on CP odd anomalous coupling parameters (lambda) over tilde and (kappa) over tilde with an integrated luminosity of 500 fb(-1) and root s = 0.5, 1 and 1.5 TeV energies. It is shown that the initial and final state polarizations improve the sensitivity limits of (lambda) over tilde by a factor of 1.3-1.6 and of (kappa) over tilde by a factor of 5.2-9.Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [BIDEB-2219]I acknowledge support from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) through grant no. BIDEB-2219

Acute effects of oral melatonin administration on arterial distensibility, as determined by carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity, in healthy young men

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of melatonin administration on arterial distensibility by using carotid-femoral (aortic) pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurements in healthy young men. Ten men were studied (five men in the melatonin group and five men in the placebo group) by physicians. Carotid-femoral (aortic) PWV, blood pressure and plasma melatonin were measured in the supine position before and 60 min after oral administration of melatonin or placebo. Although carotid-femoral (aortic) PWV, systolic blood pressure and mean blood pressure were decreased, pulse wave propagation time and plasma melatonin levels were increased at 60 min after oral melatonin (1 mg) administration (P=0.04, P=0.04, P=0.04, P=0.04 and P=0.04, respectively). No significant differences were found between all parameters in the placebo group (P>0.05). In conclusion, these findings indicate that melatonin administration, compared with placebo, decreased carotid-femoral PWV and systolic blood pressure in the supine position in healthy young men. Administration of melatonin may have an inhibitory effect on sympathetic tone. © 2006 Pulsus Group Inc. All rights reserved