Health-related quality of life and its associations with mood condition in familial Mediterranean fever patients

The aim of the present study was to investigate the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and mood conditions in familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) patients. Ninety FMF patients (F/M 60/30, median age 29) and 67 control subjects (F/M 46/21, median age 30) were included in this study. HRQOL was assessed with short form-36 (SF-36) and mood conditions were assessed with hospital anxiety depression scale (HADS). FMF patients had significantly lower mean scores on SF-36 physical components compared to the control group. However, mental components were comparable between groups. FMF patients were significantly more likely to have depression and anxiety compared to the control group [30 (33%) vs. 8 (12%), respectively, χ ² = 9.58, OR (95% CI) = 3.7 (1.5–8.7), p < 0.01 for depression and 48 (53%) and 11 (16%), respectively, χ ² = 22.31, OR (95% CI) = 5.8 (2.7–12.5), p < 0.001 for anxiety]. When frequency of anxious subjects was adjusted for the presence of concomitant depressive status as a confounding factor, the difference between the groups remained statistically significant [χ ² = 11.86, OR (95% CI) = 5.4 (2.1–13.7), p < 0.01]. However, the difference of depression status between groups was not statistically significant when adjusted for the presence of concomitant anxiety status [χ ² = 0.08, OR (95% CI) = 1.3 (0.5–3.8), p = 0.78] and FMF was found to be independently associated with only anxiety [OR (95% CI) = 7.1 (2.3–20.3)]. In addition, pure anxious FMF subgroup had significantly lower scores of mental health and mental component summary when compared to normal mood subgroup. In conclusion, FMF might adversely affect HRQOL. Depression and anxiety are more frequent in FMF patients than healthy subjects.     

Expression of heat shock protein 70 and endothelial nitric oxide synthase in placental tissue of preeclamptic and intrauterine growth-restricted pregnancies

Ischemia, hypoxia, and elevated vascular resistance disturb placental functions by increasing oxidative stress. Heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) is an oxidative stress marker. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) is a nitric oxide enzyme with a key role in pathologic and physiologic angiogenesis and vasculogenesis. This study was performed to investigate the role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia and intrauterine growth-restricted (IUGR) pregnancies by comparing the levels of HSP70 and eNOS in placentas from women with these diseases and those with healthy pregnancies.     

Does urinary incontinence affect quality of life of Greek women less severely? A cross-sectional study in two Mediterranean settings

Objective  

Numerous studies have identified a reduced health-related quality of life (QoL) in patients with urinary incontinence (UI). The aim of this study was to assess and compare QoL in women with UI in the island of Crete, Greece, and in Turkey.     

The assembly of cell-encapsulating microscale hydrogels using acoustic waves

Microscale hydrogels find widespread applications in medicine and biology, e.g., as building blocks for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. In these applications, these microgels are assembled to fabricate large complex 3D constructs. The success of this approach requires non-destructive and high throughput assembly of the microgels. Although various assembly methods have been developed based on modifying interfaces, and using microfluidics, so far, none of the available assembly technologies have shown the ability to assemble microgels using non-invasive fields rapidly within seconds in an efficient way. Acoustics has been widely used in biomedical arena to manipulate droplets, cells and biomolecules. In this study, we developed a simple, non-invasive acoustic assembler for cell-encapsulating microgels with maintained cell viability (>93%). We assessed the assembler for both microbeads (with diameter of 50?μm and 100?μm) and microgels of different sizes and shapes (e.g., cubes, lock-and-key shapes, tetris, saw) in microdroplets (with volume of 10?μL, 20?μL, 40?μL, 80?μL). The microgels were assembled in seconds in a non-invasive manner. These results indicate that the developed acoustic approach could become an enabling biotechnology tool for tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, pharmacology studies and high throughput screening applications.     

Effect of erythropoietin on brain tissue after experimental head trauma in rats

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of EPO on LPO, on ultrastructural findings, and on antiapoptotic bcl-2 and survivin gene expressions after TBI. The authors also compared the activity of EPO with that of MPSS. METHODS: Wistar rats were divided into 6 groups: sham-operated, control, moderate TBI-alone (300 g/cm), TBI + EPO-treated (1000 IU/kg), TBI + MPSS-treated (30 mg/kg), and TBI + vehicle-treated (0.4 mL albumin solution) groups. RESULTS: Compared with the levels in control and sham-operated animals, LPO was significantly elevated in rats in the trauma-alone group. The administration of EPO and MPSS significantly decreased the LPO levels (P < .05). Trauma also increases the antiapoptotic bcl-2 gene expression significantly at 24 hours postinjury (P < .05), but it has no effect on survivin expression. The EPO and MPSS treatments caused significant elevation in both gene expressions (P < .05). It is also showed that MPSS has more protective effect than EPO on brain ultrastructure, especially on the structure of small- (P < .05) and medium-sized myelinated axons, after TBI. CONCLUSIONS: EPO has protective effects after moderate TBI, and this effect seems better than MPSS on antiapoptotic gene expression and LPO. The protection of cerebral subcellular organelles after traumatic injury is more prominent in MPSS-treated animals than EPO-treated animals quantitatively. This experimental study indicates that the benefits of EPO in the management of TBI have promising results and prompts further studies on the difference between EPO and MPSS in histopathological findings at the subcellular level.     

The trend of small cell lung cancer among young men

In this report, we investigated the distribution of histologic types of lung cancer by age in Turkey. Among 1354 lung cancer cases diagnosed in Social Security Agency Okmeydani Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey, we included 912 male cases with data on age, smoking status, and histopathologic type. We calculated the smoking-adjusted risk for histopathologic types by age. A majority of the cases were between 45 and 64 years of age (70.5%). The smoking-adjusted risk of squamous cell carcinoma increased with advancing age, while the risk of small cell carcinoma decreased with age. The risk of small cell carcinoma was 1.6 times higher among men younger than 45 years of age compared to older men (odds ratios (OR): 1.6, 95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.1-2.3). In conclusion, we found a significant decreasing trend for small cell carcinoma by increasing age, which resulted with an excess risk among men younger than age 45.