The Prevalence and the Characteristics of Tuberculosis Patients Undergoing Chronic Dialysis Treatment: Experience of a Dialysis Center in Southeast Turkey

Tuberculosis remains a significant health problem for patients receiving chronic dialysis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence, clinical characteristics, and outcomes of tuberculosis among patients with end-stage renal failure (ESRF) undergoing chronic hemodialysis and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. Between 1999 and 2006, we diagnosed 21 active tuberculosis patients among a total of 674-dialysis patient in our dialysis center (582 patients on hemodialysis and 92 patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis program). Fourteen patients developed extrapulmonary tuberculosis (generally tuberculous lymphadenitis, n = 8) and seven patients developed pulmonary tuberculosis. All patients who developed tuberculosis after starting dialysis had low creatinine clearances and, in general, anemia and hypoalbuminemia. Three of patients greater than 40 years died. In conclusion, tuberculous lymphadenitis was the most frequent form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis in our dialysis population. If no cause is found despite extensive investigations in an end stage renal failure case with fever, loss of weight, and/or atypical lymphadenopathy, the physician should consider the possibility of tuberculosis. Finally, it was considered that ESRF is associated with depressed immune system and elevated risk of tuberculosis; thus, in this population, clinicians must evaluate patients carefully.     

The Comparison in Terms of Early Complications of a New Technique and Percutaneous Method for the Placement of CAPD Catheters

Background. Starting continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) immediately after insertion of a peritoneal dialysis catheter is essential in end-stage renal disease (ESRD). In relation to the insertion methods, various mechanical and infectious complications may arise. In this study, we aimed to compare early complications of the laparoscopic tunneling method of CAPD placement that we developed recently in order to minimize the complications, with those of the conventional percutaneous method. Subjects and method. Included in this study were 12 consecutive patients with ESRD to whom we introduced catheters for CAPD by way of laparoscopic tunneling between April 2003 and July 2003 and followed up for at least 6 months, and 30 patients to whom the catheters were placed percutaneously in the same time period with the same follow-up time. The complications seen during the first 6 months after catheter placement with these two different methods were compared. Results. In all of the subjects, dialysis was started soon after catheter placement. No per-operative morbidity was seen in any of the patients. While with laparoscopic tunneling method no mechanical problem was seen, the percutaneous method resulted in early leakage in 10%, pericatheter bleeding in 3.3%, and hernia in 3.3% of the patients. As infectious complications, peritonitis occurred as one episode/36 patient-months in laparoscopic tunneling and one episode/22.5 patient-months in percutaneous method; catheter insertion site infection was seen in none in the laparoscopic method, while one episode/90patient-months was seen with the percutaneous method. Tunnel infection did not arise in any of the subjects. Conclusion. The authors of this study think that the peritoneal tunneling method for introducing CAPD, which has been recently developed and began to be routinely used by them, is rather safe in terms of early complications.     

β-Glucan treatment prevents progressive burn ischaemia in the zone of stasis and improves burn healing: An experimental study in rats

Saving the zone of stasis is one of the major goals of burn specialists. Increasing the tissue tolerance to ischaemia and inhibiting inflammation have been proposed to enable salvage of this zone. After a burn, excessive inflammation, including increased vascular permeability, local tissue oedema and neutrophil activation, causes local tissue damage by triggering vascular thrombosis and blocking capillaries, resulting in tissue ischaemia and necrosis. Oxygen radicals also contribute to tissue damage after a burn. However, macrophages play a pivotal role in the response to burn. We studied β-glucan because of its many positive systemic effects that are beneficial to burn healing, including immunomodulatory effects, antioxidant effects (free-radical scavenging activity) and effects associated with the reduction of the inflammatory response.     

Assessment of atherosclerosis risk due to the homocysteine–asymmetric dimethylarginine–nitric oxide cascade in children taking antiepileptic drugs

PurposeThe aim of this study was to assess the atherogenicity risk of antiepileptics in children by investigating the cascade, “hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) → asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) increase → nitric oxide (NO) decrease”, which is thought to contribute to the developmental process of atherosclerosis.MethodsThe participants included 53 epilepsy patients who received either valproic acid (VPA, n = 26) or oxcarbazepine (OXC, n = 27). Twenty-four healthy sex- and age-matched children served as controls. Fasting plasma total homocysteine (tHcy), ADMA and NO levels were measured.ResultsThe differences in Hcy, ADMA, NO, vitamin B₁₂ and folate levels between VPA, OXC and control groups were all insignificant (p > 0.05 for all). In the patient group (VPA and OXC groups), 22.6% of the children (12/53) had tHcy levels above the normal cutoff (13.1 μmol/l) for children and 17% of the children (9/53) had tHcy levels of greater than 15 μmol/l which is accepted as the critical value for an increased atherosclerosis risk (p < 0.05 for both). The difference in rate of HHcy between VPA and OXC groups was statistically insignificant (p > 0.05, for both cut off levels of HHCy). There was a positive correlation of tHcy levels and antiepileptic drug treatment duration in the patient group (r = +0.276, p < 0.05).ConclusionHHcy may develop in patients using OXC. Contrary to some previous publications, our data do not suggest that OXC is safer than VPA in terms of HHcy risk. Further prospective, large scale and longer term studies investigating all suggested pathways responsible for development of atherosclerosis due to HHcy should be conducted to define the exact mechanism responsible for AEDs related atherosclerosis.     

Psychiatric disorders and characteristics of abuse in sexually abused children and adolescents with and without intellectual disabilities

The purpose of this study was to compare sexually abused children and adolescents, with and without intellectual disabilities (ID), in terms of post-abuse psychiatric disorders, features of the sexual abuse, and sociodemographic characteristics. The study included sexually abused children aged 6–16 years, who were sent to three different child mental health units for forensic evaluation; there were 102 cases (69 girls and 33 boys) with ID and 154 cases (126 girls and 28 boys) without ID. Researchers retrospectively examined the files, social examination reports, and the judicial reports of the cases. It was determined that in the group with ID, sexual abuse types including penetration and contact had higher rates, they were exposed to more frequent repeated abuses, the abuses were revealed with their own reports at a later period and lower rates, and post-abuse pregnancies were more frequent. It was also determined that the abuser was a familiar person and a family member at lower rates and more than one abuser was encountered more frequently, compared to the group without ID. While no difference was determined between the two groups in terms of the frequency of post-abuse post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD), conduct disorder (CD) was observed more frequently in the group with ID. This study emphasizes that sexual abuse, which is an important problem in individuals with ID, has different features and effects.     

Quality of Evidence Supporting Major Psychotropic Drug-Drug Interaction Warnings: A Systematic Literature Review

Among pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic drug-drug interactions (DDIs), psychotropic drug-drug interactions (pDDIs) are of particular interest because psychopharmacologic agents mark one of the fastest growing therapeutic drug classes over the past 2 decades, and prescribing multiple psychotropic drugs has become increasingly prevalent in clinical practice. However, the documentation of pDDIs across drug references has lacked consistency. Thus we set out to review the primary evidence directly supporting 58 pDDIs that were uniformly reported as “major” or “contraindicated” in three prominent drug references: Clinical Pharmacology, Micromedex, and Lexicomp. We identified 134 citations from Micromedex in December 2017 and 4251 citations from Medline in March 2018 involving any of the 58 pDDIs. The included articles directly observed a clinical adverse effect or effects on drug plasma concentrations from the concomitant use of the two listed drugs in each pDDI. These articles were classified as controlled studies (e.g., randomized controlled trials, clinical trials, or observational studies) or uncontrolled studies (case reports). A total of 124 studies with 2716 patients were included in this review. Commonly evaluated adverse effects related to the studied pDDIs included decreased effectiveness, central nervous system depression, neurotoxicity, QT-interval prolongation, and serotonin syndrome. Among the 58 pDDIs, 18 (31%) were not supported by any primary studies. Among the remaining 35 pDDIs supported by studies on clinical adverse effects, only 14 (40%) included evidence from controlled study designs. Only 7 (12.1%) of the 58 pDDIs had evidence from studies with a combined sample size of more than 100 patients. This literature review highlights the poor quality of evidence supporting major or contraindicated psychotropic DDI warnings. Most DDIs lacked support from controlled studies that evaluated clinically significant adverse effects, leaving uncertainty about the clinical relevance of the warning. More postmarketing studies are needed to evaluate the safety of psychotropic combination therapy.     

Comparison of Risk Factors for Unplanned Conversion from Laparoscopic and Robotic to Open Colorectal Surgery Using the Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative (MSQC) Database

Robotic colorectal surgery has been shown to have lower rates of unplanned conversion to open surgery when compared to laparoscopic surgery. Risk factors associated with conversion from robotic to open colectomy and comparisons of the risk factors between robotic and laparoscopic approaches have not been previously reported. Patients who underwent elective laparoscopic and robotic colorectal surgeries between July 1, 2012 and April 28, 2015, were identified in the Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative registry. Candidate covariates were identified, and hierarchical logistic regression models were used to identify risk factors for conversion. There were 4796 cases that met study inclusion criteria. Conversion was required in 18.2 % of laparoscopic and 7.7 % of robotic cases (p?<?0.0001). Risk factors for conversion in the laparoscopic group included the following: moderate/severe adhesions, obesity, colorectal cancer, hypertension, rectal operations, urgent priority, and tobacco use. Risk factors for conversion in the robotic group included the following: severe adhesions, bleeding disorder, presence of cancer, cirrhosis, and use of statins. Higher surgeon volume was protective in both groups. Conversion rates are lower for robotic than for laparoscopic colorectal surgery with fewer predictors of conversion. Recognition of factors predicting conversion may allow surgeons to choose an operative approach that optimizes the benefits of the available technologies.     

Chronic exposure to Helicobacter pylori impairs dendritic cell function and inhibits Th1 development

Helicobacter pylori causes chronic gastric infection that affects the majority of the world's population. Despite generating an inflammatory response, the immune system usually fails to clear the infection. Since dendritic cells (DCs) play a pivotal role in shaping the immune response, we investigated the effects of H. pylori on DC function. We have demonstrated that H. pylori increased the expression of activation markers on DCs while upregulating the inhibitory B7 family molecule, PD-L1. Functionally, H. pylori-treated DCs resulted in the production of interleukin-10 (IL-10) and IL-23 but not of alpha interferon (IFN-alpha). While very little or no IL-12 was produced to H. pylori alone, simultaneous ligation of CD40 on DCs induced IL-12 release. We also demonstrated that DCs treated with H. pylori-induced IFN-gamma production by allogeneic naive T cells. However, stimulation of DCs with H. pylori for an extended period of time impaired their ability to produce cytokines after CD40 ligation and limited their ability to promote IFN-gamma release, suggesting that the DCs had become exhausted by the prolonged stimulation. The effect of chronic infection with H. pylori on DC function was further investigated by focusing on DC development. Demonstrating that monocytes differentiated into DCs in the presence of H. pylori exhibited an exhausted phenotype with an impaired ability to produce IL-12 and a downregulation of CD1a. Our results raise the possibility that in chronic H. pylori infection DCs become exhausted after prolonged antigen exposure leading to suboptimal Th1 development. This effect may contribute to persistence of H. pylori infection.