Effect of a micellar preparation of polyunsaturated phosphatidylcholine on platelet aggregationin vitro

Platelet aggregation was studied after incubation of cells with polyunsaturated phosphatidylcholine in platelet-rich plasma from healthy donors and coronary patients. The aggregation capacity of cells was found to be reduced after preincubation with the above drug. Statistical processing of the results using Student's and Van der Varden's tests showed more expressed effects of polyunsaturated phosphatidylcholine on cell aggregation in coronary patients than in donors. Translated fromByulleten's Eksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 121, N ^o 2, pp. 199–203, February, 1996 Presented by Yu. M. Lopukhin, Member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences     

Characteristics of the Turkish isolates of Francisella tularensis

In this study, cultures of patients with tularemia were evaluated, and antimicrobial susceptibilities of two Francisella tularensis strains were tested by disk diffusion and E-test methods. A high-resolution multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) comprising six variable-number tandem repeat loci was applied to elucidate the genetic relatedness among Turkish and Bulgarian isolates which were isolated in a recent outbreak. The patients were diagnosed in two outbreaks in two cities of Turkey in 2005 and 2006. A total of 16 samples from 12 patients were cultured, and PCR tests were carried out on 15 samples that were positive in five lymph node aspirates and two soft tissue aspirates. F. tularensis was isolated from the lymph nodes of two patients. Aminoglycosides, quinolones, chloramphenicole, tetracyclines, nitrofurantoin, and rifampicin inhibited growth of the isolates. The Turkish isolates appeared to share a common MLVA pattern with one of the four Bulgarian outbreak genotypes.     

Estimation of the femur length from its proximal measurements in Anatolian Caucasians by artificial neural networks

Femora are a well preserved section of the skeleton after death. Therefore, they are commonly used in the field of forensic sciences, physical anthropology and anatomy. In addition, femur morphometry is helpful in finding sex or side (left or right) differences. The femur also shows characteristics of certain populations. Femur length is important for calculation of individual stature. In this study, the artificial neural network method was used to estimate femur length. In total, 230 femora exemplar were used. The three input parameters of the method were the distance between trochanter major top point and trochanter minor bottom point, the diameter of caput femoris and the diameter of collum femoris. By using these parameters, the artificial neural network estimation on femur length was performed. The results show that the method is capable of performing this estimation. In addition, sex discrimination was performed and achieved with 82% accuracy. As well as the identification of sex or side differences, morphometry of the proximal femur is necessary and important for surgical procedures.     

Kinetic-Based Reactivity for Michael Acceptors: Structural Activity Relationships and Its Relationship to Excess Acute Fish Toxicity

Acute aquatic toxicity is divided into the “physical” mode governed by weak, non-covalent interactions and the “chemical” mode governed by covalent reactions. The potency of chemical interactions is typically expected to be greater than that for physical ones. This enhanced potency is called “excess” toxicity. As databases have become complex, substances thought to elicit a chemical mode reveal a lack of excess toxicity. One mechanism where the latter is prevalent is Michael-type addition. A series of α-β-unsaturated substances were evaluated for reactivity. Second order rate constants (k′) were calculated (M^?1 s^?1) and found to vary from >4000 to <0.0003. The electron-withdrawing capacity of the polar group impacts k′ values; the sequence is nitro > carbonyl or sulfone ? sulfoxide, nitrile or amide. When the α-carbon and/or the β-carbon of the π-system are substituted, the k′ value is sharply reduced. Excess toxicity is associated with k′ values >0.01 (M^?1 s^?1).     

Apoptosis and its relation with clinical course in patients with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a tick-mediated viral infection. Patients with CCHF may show various clinical presentations. The cause of this difference in the clinical course is not completely understood. Apoptosis is programmed cell death and plays an important role in regulating the immune system. Our knowledge of the role of apoptosis in CCHF disease is limited. We investigated the role of apoptosis and their relationship with the severity of the disease in CCHF. Thus, in 30 patients with CCHF and 30 healthy individuals, we analyzed the serum levels of cytochrome C, apoptotic protease activating factor-1 (Apaf 1), caspase 3, caspase 8, caspase 9, sFas, sFasL, perforin, granzyme B, and CK18 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. This is the first study that research the serum levels of the mentioned apoptosis markers in adult patients with CCHF. We found that the serum levels of sFasL, cytochrome C, Apaf 1, caspase 3, caspase 8, caspase 9, perforin, granzyme B, and M30 were statistically significantly different in the acute phase of the disease compared with healthy individuals and patients in convalescent period. There was no association between the clinical severity of the disease and apoptosis markers. In conclusion, the results of our study suggested that the extrinsic and intrinsic apoptosis pathway play an important role in CCHF.     

Flow diverter stents in the treatment of recanalized intracranial aneurysms

BackgroundWe assessed the safety and efficacy of flow diverter stents (FDSs) in the treatment of recanalized or residual intracranial aneurysms treated endovascularly.Materials & MethodsPatients whose recanalized or residual aneurysms were treated with FDSs in five tertiary hospitals were reviewed retrospectively. The patients’ demographic data, aneurysm characteristics, types of previous treatment, and clinical complications, or serious adverse events associated with FDSs, as well as the results of neurological and angiographic follow-up assessments, were recorded.ResultsEighty-six patients (37 males) with 87 aneurysms were included in this study. Eighty (91.9%) aneurysms were in the anterior and seven (8.1%) in the posterior circulation. The initial treatment methods were the primary coiling or balloon remodeling technique in 69 (79.3%) and stent-assisted coiling in 18 (20.7%) aneurysms. The endovascular procedure was successful in all patients. Complications occurred in four patients, for a total complication rate of 4.6%. A technical complication developed in one patient (1.2%). An in-stent thrombosis treated with tirofiban was seen in two cases. Late in-stent stenosis exceeding 50% was treated with balloon angioplasty in one patient. The mean length of follow-up was 21.0 months. The first angiographic follow-up (3–6 months) revealed the complete occlusion of 74 aneurysms (85.1%). While 76 aneurysms (87.4%) were occluded at the last angiographic follow-up (mean: 26.0 months), 11 aneurysms (12.6%) were still filling. Morbimortality was zero.ConclusionThe drawback of endovascular treatment is aneurysmal remnants or recurrences, which is safely and durably amenable to flow diversion.     

Role of magnetic resonance spectroscopy in differential diagnosis of solitary pulmonary lesions

PURPOSEThe aim of our study was to evaluate the availability of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) for the differentiation of benign or malignant pulmonary nodules and masses.METHODSA total of 59 patients (45 male, 14 female) with pulmonary nodules and masses were included in this prospective study. MRS was applied to the pulmonary lesions of the patients and choline levels were determined. Afterwards CT-guided percutaneous needle biopsy was performed. According to the biopsy results, pulmonary lesions were benign in 25 patients and malignant in 34 patients.RESULTSCholine levels were significantly higher in malignant lesions compared with benign lesions (p < 0.001). When the other conditions were kept constant, the probability of malignancy significantly increased by 17.38-fold (95% CI, 3.78–79.93) in those with choline levels >1.65 μmol/g compared to those with choline levels ≤1.65 μmol/g (p < 0.001).CONCLUSIONMRS is a noninvasive method that can be used in the differential diagnosis of pulmonary nodules and masses.

The majority of the solitary pulmonary nodules have a benign character (1). However, all pulmonary nodules should be considered as malignant lesions unless proven otherwise (2). The differential diagnosis of these lesions may be an important problem in routine medical practice. Computed tomography (CT) is the standard method for the examination of the nodules and mass lesions (3). CT imaging of morphological features like size, margins, and calcification enables the investigation of malignancy (4). However, there is some overlap so that some malignant lesions may appear benign, while some benign nodules may show morphological features typical for malignancy (5). CT imaging for differantial diagnosis have problems like false-negative and false-positive results, over-diagnosis, benign nodule resections, and exposure to radiation (6). Biopsy is the most reliable and effective method for the diagnosis of the pulmonary nodules and mass lesions. However, it may cause serious complications such as pneumothorax, hemoptysis, air embolism, tumor cell seeding and death (7, 8). In addition, the tolerability of this invasive intervention is rather low among patients.Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides information about the tumor morphology and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) provides biochemical information about the physiology and metabolism of the disease (9). MRS enables molecular analysis of the tissues based on the display of different chemical shifts of certain nuclei in the magnetic field (10). MRS was initially used in neuroradiology for characterization of tumor, stroke, epilepsy, infection, and neurodegenerative diseases. In recent years, it was also introduced in the evaluation of lesions in other organs like breast (11), liver (12), pancreas (13), and prostate (14). There are some in vitro studies in the literature on the use of MRS in lung cancer showing higher lactate and total choline peaks compared with normal tissues (15, 16). Also there is one case report in the literature regarding the feasibility of using MRS in lung cancer (17).The objective of this study was to demonstrate the value of MRS, which is a noninvasive method and does not require a contrast agent, in the differential diagnosis of pulmonary nodules and mass lesions.     

Is the Yedikule-solitary pulmonary nodule malignancy risk score sufficient to predict malignancy? An internal validation study

Open in a separate window OBJECTIVESWe aimed to develop a malignancy risk score model for solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs) using the demographic, radiological and clinical characteristics of patients in our centre. The model was then internally validated for malignancy risk estimation. METHODSA total of 270 consecutive patients who underwent surgery for SPN between June 2017 and May 2019 were retrospectively analysed. Using the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, cut-off values were determined for radiological tumour diameter, maximum standardized uptake value and the Brock University probability of malignancy (BU-PM) model. The Yedikule-SPN malignancy risk model was developed using these cut-off values and demographic, radiological and clinical criteria in the first 180 patients (study cohort) and internally validated with the next 90 patients (validation cohort). The Yedikule-SPN model was then compared with the BU-PM model in terms of malignancy prediction.RESULTSMalignancy was reported in 171 patients (63.3%). Maximum standardized uptake value and BU-PM scores were sufficient to predict malignancy (P < 0.001 for both), while the effectiveness of nodule size determined on thoracic computed tomography did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.09). When the Yedikule-SPN model developed with the study cohort was applied to the validation cohort, it significantly predicted malignancy (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve: 0.883, 95% confidence interval: 0.827–0.957, P < 0.001). Comparison of patients in the validation group with Yedikule-SPN scores above (n = 53) and below (n = 37) the cut-off value of 65.75 showed that the malignancy rate was significantly higher among patients with Yedikule-SPN score over 65.75 (86.8% vs 21.6%, P < 0.001, odds ratio = 23.821, 95% confidence interval: 7.805–72.701). When compared with the BU-PM model in all patients, the Yedikule-SPN model tended to be a better predictor of malignancy (P = 0.06).CONCLUSIONSThe internally validated Yedikule-SPN model is also a good predictor of the malignancy of SPN(s). Prospective and multicentre external validation studies with large patients’ cohorts are needed.