Role of psychiatric disorders and irritable bowel syndrome in asthma patients

OBJECTIVES: The goals of the study were the following: 1) to determine the frequency of psychiatric disorders and irritable bowel syndrome in patients with asthma and 2) to compare the frequency of these disorders in patients with asthma to their frequency in healthy controls. INTRODUCTION: Patients with asthma have a higher frequency of irritable bowel syndrome and psychiatric disorders. METHODS: We evaluated 101 patients with bronchial asthma and 67 healthy subjects. All subjects completed the brief version of the Bowel Symptoms Questionnaire and a structured clinical interview for DSM-IV axis disorders (SCID-I/CV). RESULTS: There were 37 cases of irritable bowel syndrome in the group of 101 stable asthma patients (36.6%) and 12 cases in the group of 67 healthy subjects (17.9%) (p = 0.009). Irritable bowel syndrome comorbidity was not related to the severity of asthma (p = 0.15). Regardless of the presence of irritable bowel syndrome, psychiatric disorders in asthma patients (52/97; 53.6%) were more common than in the control group (22/63, 34.9%) (p = 0.02). Although psychiatric disorders were more common in asthma patients with irritable bowel syndrome (21/35, 60%) than in those without irritable bowel syndrome (31/62, 50%), the difference was not significant (p = 0.34). In asthma patients with irritable bowel syndrome and psychiatric disorders, the percentage of forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) was lower than it was in those with no comorbidities (p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Both irritable bowel syndrome and psychiatric disorders were more common in asthma patients than in healthy controls. Psychiatric disorders were more common in asthma patients with irritable bowel syndrome than in those without irritable bowel syndrome, although the differences failed to reach statistical significance. In asthma patients with IBS and psychiatric disorders, FEV1s were significantly lower than in other asthma patients. It is important for clinicians to accurately recognize that these comorbid conditions are associated with additive functional impairment

MANNOSE BINDING LECTIN (MBL) GENE POLYMORPHISMS AND THEIR RELATIONS WITH CLINICAL FEATURES IN PATIENTS WITH FAMILIAL MEDITERRANEAN FEVER (FMF)

WOS: 000424419500001Objective: Mannose-binding lectin (MBL), which takes part in the lectin pathway of the complement system as a component of innate immunity, is activated by the stimulation of various bacterial lectins. It is known that some of the MBL gene polymorphisms (eg, codon 52, codon 54) that may lead to alterations in MBL serum levels are responsible for the susceptibility to infectious diseases and contribute to the pathogenesis of various autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. In this study, we planned to investigate the frequencies of codon 52 and codon 54 polymorphisms of the MBL gene in FMF patients and their association with the clinical features of the disease. Materials and Methods: MBL gene polymorphisms of the R52C C>T and G54D G>A were investigated by sequencing in 157 FMF patients and 150 unrelated healthy controls. MEFV gene mutations in FMF patients were investigated by sequencing method. The clinical characteristics of the patients and the C-reactive protein (CRP) values in attack-free phase were recorded. Statistical analysis of the findings was performed with the SPSS version 18.0. Results: The MBL gene R52C C>T polymorphism was detected in 12.7% of the patients and 10.6% of the controls. G54D G>A polymorphism was detected in 26.7% of the patients and 26.6% of the controls. There was no significant difference between the two groups (p=0.794). No significant correlations between MBL gene polymorphisms and various clinical characteristics of patients (amyloidosis, fever, colchicine response) were found. Mean CRP level of the FMF patients was 4.90 +/- 6.72 mg/dL. In FMF patients with elevated serum CRP levels (>0.8 mg/L), codon 54 MBL polymorphism frequency was 14.8%, codon 52 polymorphism frequency was 25.2%. Codon 52 and codon 54 polymorphism frequencies were not different between the groups according to CRP level (p>0.05). In FMF patients, significant correlations were found between M694V and amyloidosis (p=0.002) as well as between M694I and colchicine resistance (p=0.016). Conclusion: The absence of a relationship between MBL polymorphisms and high CRP levels in attack-free phase of FMF patients suggests that the proinflammatory state in some FMF patients is not related to MBL mediated mechanisms. In our cases, the significant relationship between M694I and colchicine resistance is remarkable. Our finding of the significant relationship between M694V and amyloidosis is consistent with previous literature and demonstrating the importance of M694V in disease severity and prognosis

A Rare Cause of Pericardial Effusion: Giant Cell Arteritis

Giant cell arteritis is a granulomatous vasculitis characterized by medium or large sized vessel involvement. Although extracranial branches of the carotid artery are typically involved, involvement of aorta and its major branches can also be seen. Cardiac involvement has been encountered less frequently and pericardial effusion is rarely encountered. In this paper, a case has been presented in which pericardial effusion was determined during the examination and diagnosis was giant cell arteritis