Surgery for Hepatolithiasis: Single Center Experience of 12 Patients

Hellenic Journal of Surgery - Hepatolithiasis is the presence of stones within the intrahepatic bile ducts, regardless of common bile duct and gallbladder stones. It is rarely seen in our country...     

Prognostic implication of myocardial texture analysis in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Abnormal myocardial acoustic properties have been reported in patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC). The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between quantitative ultrasonic textural alterations of myocardium and clinical outcome in IDC. METHODS: Baseline clinical and echocardiographic variables were obtained from 28 patients with IDC. By using a videodensitometric approach, quantitative myocardial texture analysis was performed on images obtained from septum and posterior wall (PW). Cyclic variation (CV) index of mean gray level (MGL) was calculated according to the formula: (MGLdiast-MGLsyst)/MGLdiastx100. All patients were followed for an average of 11+/-5 months for the occurrence of cardiac death or repeated hospitalization due to worsening of heart failure. RESULTS: During follow-up, 10 patients experienced cardiac events (6 cardiac deaths and 4 heart failure events). The CV indexes of both septum and PW were significantly lower in patients with cardiac events than those of event free patients (6.8+/-9.6% vs. 13.6+/-8.2%, P<0.05 and 5.3+/-6.4% vs.15.7+/-7.2% P<0.001, respectively). Univariate analysis defined the following variables as predictors of outcome: PW-CV index (chi2=13.0, P=0.0003), transmitral E/A ratio (chi2=12.5, P=0.0004), symptom status (chi2=8.7, P=0.003), and septum-CV index (chi2=4.7, P=0.03). Multivariate stepwise regression analysis showed that the PW-CV index (chi2=7.5, P=0.006) and E/A ratio (chi2=6.5, P=0.01) were the independent predictors of outcome. The event-free survival rate of patients with PW-CV index <11% was significantly lower than those with an index > or = 11 (35.7% vs. 92.8%, P=0,001). CONCLUSION: The assessment of severely depressed CV index provides valuable prognostic information in patients with IDC.     

Evaluation of life satisfaction index of the elderly people living in nursing homes

The aim of our study was to evaluate the quality of life of the elderly living in nursing homes. A pool of 183 elderly people living in nursing homes were involved in the study. Data regarding the socio-demographic characteristics and life satisfaction index-A (LSI-A) of the participants were collected by means of a questionnaire during face-to-face interviews. The average LSI-A score of the whole group of participants was 25.26+/-5.51. When the mean LSI-A score of participants in relation to their independent variables was analyzed, no statistically significant differences were found for gender, socio-economic status or body mass indexes (BMI). However, the mean LSI-A score of those elderly people who spent some time in leisure activities was significantly higher than those who did not (p=0.03). In the stepwise linear regression analysis, the education level and place of residence were found to be the statistically significant independent predictors of LSI-A scores in the study group (p=0.05, p=0.001).     

Analysis of Potential Oral Cleft Risk Factors in the Kosovo Population

The aim of this study was to analyze the association of potential risk factors such as positive family cleft history, smoking, use of drugs during pregnancy, and parental age with oral clefts in offspring within the Kosovo population. We conducted a population-based case-control study of live births in Kosovo from 1996 to 2005. Using a logistic regression model, 244 oral cleft cases were compared with 488 controls. We have excluded all syndromic clefts. Heredity increases the risk of clefts in newborns [odds ratio (OR) = 8.25, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.12–23.52]. Clefts were also associated with smoking (OR = 1.87, 95% CI 0.75–4.08), use of drugs during pregnancy (OR = 2.25, 95% CI 0.82–5.12), increasing maternal age (OR = 1.83, 95% CI 1.42–2.49), and increasing paternal age (OR = 1.3, 95% CI 1.2– 1.4). We found heredity to be the most important factor for cleft occurrence in Kosovar newborns. Another significant potential risk factor for occurrence of clefts is the parental age. We found the use of drugs and smoking during pregnancy to be less significant.Key words: Oral clefts, Cleft lip with or without cleft palate, Cleft palate only, Potential risk factors, Logistic regression model, Dummy variablesCleft lip with or without cleft palate and isolated cleft palate are the most common facial birth defects. The etiology involves complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors.¹ Genetic factors appear to create the most susceptibility for clefts. When environmental factors (i.e., triggers) interact with a genetically susceptible genotype, a cleft develops during an early stage of development.² The aim of this study was to analyze the association of potential risk factors such as positive family cleft history, smoking, use of drugs during pregnancy, and parental age with oral clefts in offspring in Kosovo. Risk factors vary among populations, and our ultimate goal was to provide data that may show new potential risk factors influencing the occurrence of clefts in Kosovo. With this new information, we hope to increase public awareness of such risks and thereby help reduce the incidence of cleft in Kosovo.     

Hesperidin attenuates oxidative and neuronal damage caused by global cerebral ischemia/reperfusion in a C57BL/J6 mouse model

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of hesperidin (HP) on neuronal damage in brain tissue caused by global cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) in C57BL/J6 mice. For this purpose, a total of 40 mice were divided equally into four groups: (1) sham-operated (SH), (2) global cerebral I/R, (3) HP, and (4) HP+I/R. The SH group was used as a control. In the I/R group, the bilateral carotid arteries were clipped for 15 min, and the mice were treated with vehicle for 10 days. In the HP group, mice were administered HP (100 mg/kg) for 10 days without carotid occlusion. In the HP+I/R group, the I/R model was applied to the mice exactly as in the I/R group, and they were then treated with 100 mg/kg HP for 10 days. Cerebral I/R significantly induced oxidative stress via an increase in lipid peroxidation and a decrease in the components of the antioxidant defense system. Furthermore, cerebral I/R increased the incidence of histopathological damage and apoptosis in brain tissue. HP treatment significantly reversed the oxidative effects of I/R and inhibited the development of neurodegenerative histopathology. Therefore, the current study demonstrates that HP treatment effectively prevents oxidative and histological damage in the brain caused by global I/R. In this context, the beneficial effects of HP are likely a result of its strong antioxidant and free radical-scavenging properties. HP may be an useful treatment to attenuate the negative effects of global cerebral I/R.     

A Study of the pupal developments of Sarcophaga argyrostoma (Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830)

Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology - Forensic entomology is a discipline in which insect evidence is used to determine the minimum postmortem interval (PMImin). The insect evidence may also...     

A novel tool for improving the interpretation of isotope bone scans in metastatic prostate cancer

Objectives:The isotope bone scan (IBS) is the gold-standard imaging modality for detecting skeletal metastases as part of prostate cancer staging. However, its clinical utility for assessing skeletal metastatic burden is limited due to the need for subjective interpretation. We designed and tested a novel custom software tool, the Metastatic Bone Scan Tool (MetsBST), aimed at improving interpretation of IBSs, and compared its performance with that of an established software programme.Methods:We used IBS images from 62 patients diagnosed with prostate cancer and suspected bone metastases to design and implement MetsBST in MATLAB by defining thresholds used to identify the texture and size of metastatic bone lesions. The results of MetsBST were compared with those of the commercially available automated Bone Scan Index (aBSI) with regression analysis.Results:There was strong agreement between the MetsBST and aBSI results (R² = 0.9189). In a subregional analysis, MetsBST quantified the extent of metastatic disease in multiple bone sites in patients receiving multimodality therapy (radium-223 and external beam radiotherapy) to illustrate the differences in bone metastatic response to different treatments.Conclusion:The results of MetsBST and the commercial software aBSI were highly consistent. MetsBST introduces novel clinical utility by its ability to differentiate between the responses of different bone metastases to multimodality therapies.Advances in knowledge:MetsBST reduces the variability in assessment of tumour burden caused by subjective interpretation. Therefore, it is a useful aid to physicians reporting nuclear medicine scans, and may improve decision-making in the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer.