Enthesopathy in patients with familial Mediterranean fever: increased prevalence in M694 V variant

Enthesopathy is pathology of bony insertions of tendons, ligaments or joint capsules. It is a frequent finding in rheumatic diseases, like ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and Behçet’s disease. Musculoskeletal complaints are common in patients with familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), and these could be a clinical manifestation of enthesopathy. Hence, we investigated the possible association between FMF and enthesopathy. Fifty-six patients with FMF and 11 patients with FMF-associated spondyloarthropathy (FMFS) were enrolled. Forty-seven healthy individuals and 36 patients with AS formed the healthy and diseased control groups. Musculoskeletal complaints were meticulously questioned, and all patients underwent a detailed physical and ultrasonographic (US) examination of the lower limbs. US scorings of enthesopathy was performed according to the Glasgow Ultrasound Enthesitis Scoring System (GUESS). Demographic data, disease characteristics, MEFV genotypes and HLA B27 results were retrieved from the medical records. Patient-reported pain and physical examination findings consistent with enthesopathy were frequent in all groups with the highest prevalence in the FMFS group. Heel was the most common region affected in all patient groups. FMF patients harboring M694 V variant had higher GUESS scores compared to patients with other variants (2.78 ± 2.43 vs. 1.37 ± 1.67, p = 0.026). There was no statistically significant difference in the mean ± SD GUESS scores between healthy subjects and those FMF patients with genetic variants other than M694 V (1.38 ± 1.42 vs. 1.37 ± 1.67, p > 0.05). Enthesopathy may not be a feature of general FMF population; rather, it might be specifically associated with the presence of M694 V variant. Our results further support the previous evidence regarding M694 V mutation and spondyloarthropathy association.     

End-to-end microvascular anastomosis in the rat carotid artery using continuous horizontal mattress sutures

This paper reports a continuous horizontal mattress suture technique with advantages such as decreased time for anastomosis, minimized anastomotic leakage, eversion around the vessel edges, and other advantages which the continuous anastomosis technique has. This technique was compared with the classical interrupted and classical continuous suture techniques on a total of 59 Sprague-Dawley rat common carotid arteries: Group 1 (n = 19), interrupted suture technique; Group 2 (n = 20), standard continuous technique, and Group 3 (n = 20), continuous horizontal mattress technique. Early (30 min) and late (21 days) patency rates, anastomosis time, leakage on clamp release, oozing duration, additional sutures needed, and total number of sutures placed were statistically compared between groups. Specimens were taken at the 21st day randomly, and light microscopy (LM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and angiographic studies were performed. Results revealed that the continuous mattress suture technique has the advantages of providing a water-tight anastomosis with less suture materials in a shorter time, and minimal intraluminal suture material which can incite thrombosis. On the other hand, a tendency to anastomotic stricture was found to be the sole disadvantage of this technique.     

WISC-R subtest differences for male and female LD children and youth

Investigated the performance on the WISC-R of 98 learning disabled children and youth (69 males/29 females), who ranged in age from 6-3 to 13-6 to determine whether there were any significant subtest scale score differences between sexes. A 2 × 10 analysis of variance was used to analyzed these data. Differences between the individual subtest means were analyzed by using Newman Keuls test for simple effects. Results indicated that males obtained higher (but not significant) scores on the six verbal subtests. Females scored significantly higher on coding than did their counterparts. In addition, the Verbal vs. Performance IQ dichotomy did not appear as useful evidence in the diagnosis of learning disabilities. Evidence from the investigation did not indicate that a significant interaction effect existed between sexes and WISC-R subtest scores.     

EPCR gene A3 haplotype and elevated soluble endothelial protein C receptor (sEPCR) levels in Turkish pediatric stroke patients

INTRODUCTION: High plasma levels of sEPCR lead to dysfunction of the EPCR-mediated coagulation. We have evaluated the role of EPCR A3 haplotype with its representative promoter variant 1651 C-G in a total of twenty-seven pediatric stroke patients and fifty-nine healthy subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Genotyping of the A3 haplotype was performed with RFLP analysis. Plasma sEPCR levels were measured with ELISA. The mutant 1651 G allele frequency was observed to be 0.166 in the patient group. Common risk factors such as FV 1691 G-A and PT 20210 G-A mutations were also screened. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: None of the patients with sEPCR levels below 100 ng/ml carried the A3 haplotype, while patients with elevated sEPCR levels carried the A3 haplotype either in a heterozygous or homozygous state. Our study confirms that there is a strong association between A3 haplotype and elevated sEPCR levels. We suggest that elevated sEPCR levels might increase the risk of stroke at pediatric age when compared to controls. Studies with large series of patients are warranted to confirm this hypothesis.     

Automated Reconstruction of Dendritic and Axonal Trees by Global Optimization with Geometric Priors

We present a novel probabilistic approach to fully automated delineation of tree structures in noisy 2D images and 3D image stacks. Unlike earlier methods that rely mostly on local evidence, ours builds a set of candidate trees over many different subsets of points likely to belong to the optimal tree and then chooses the best one according to a global objective function that combines image evidence with geometric priors. Since the best tree does not necessarily span all the points, the algorithm is able to eliminate false detections while retaining the correct tree topology. Manually annotated brightfield micrographs, retinal scans and the DIADEM challenge datasets are used to evaluate the performance of our method. We used the DIADEM metric to quantitatively evaluate the topological accuracy of the reconstructions and showed that the use of the geometric regularization yields a substantial improvement.     

Comparative biochemical and pharmacological characterization of a novel,NOP receptor selective hexapeptide,Ac-RYYRIR-ol

Nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) is an endogenous neuropeptide, which is widely distributed in central and peripheral nervous system. Some N/OFQ sequence unrelated hexapeptides can effectively bind to the N/OFQ peptide (NOP) receptor and they were used as template for structure-activity studies that lead to discovery of the new NOP selective ligands. In the present study, the pharmacological profile of the novel hexapeptide Ac-RYYRIR-ol was investigated using various in vitro assays including receptor binding and G-protein activation in rat brain membranes, mouse and rat vas deferens, guinea pig ileum, mouse colon and Ca²⁺ mobilization assay in chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells co-expressing the human recombinant NOP receptor and the C-terminally modified Gα_qi5 protein. In rat brain membranes Ac-RYYRIR-ol displaced both [³H]nociceptin/OFQ and [³H]Ac-RYYRIK-ol with high affinity (pK_i 9.35 and 8.81, respectively) and stimulated [³⁵S]GTPγS binding showing however lower maximal effects than N/OFQ (α = 0.28). The stimulatory effect of Ac-RYYRIR-ol was antagonized by the selective NOP receptor antagonist UFP-101. In the electrically stimulated mouse vas deferens Ac-RYYRIR-ol displayed negligible agonist activity while antagonizing in a competitive manner (pA₂ 7.99) the inhibitory effects of N/OFQ. Similar results were obtained in the rat vas deferens. In the mouse colon Ac-RYYRIR-ol produced concentration dependent contractile effects with similar potency and maximal effects as N/OFQ. Finally, in the Ca²⁺ mobilization assay performed with CHO-hNOP-Gα_qi5 cells Ac-RYYRIR-ol displayed lower potency and maximal effects (α = 0.87) compared with N/OFQ. In conclusion, the novel NOP receptor selective hexapeptide Ac-RYYRIR-ol has been shown to have fine selectivity, high potency, furthermore agonist and antagonist effects toward the NOP receptors were measured in various assays; this is likely due to its partial agonist pharmacological activity.     

Validity and Reliability of the Turkish Version of Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-Revised

ObjectiveThis study aims to assess the psychometric values of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-Revised (GADS-R) which measures the intensity and duration of worry, various coping and avoidance strategies to cope with worrying, and positive and negative metacognitive beliefs about worrying. Methods114 patients with generalized anxiety disorder and 198 healthy controls were included in the study. These patients were diagnosed according to DSM-IV TR, and the primary diagnosis of the patients was generalized anxiety disorder which was confirmed via SCID I and II, subsequently. Sociodemographic form, GADS-R total and subscale scores, and Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire-30 (MCQ-30), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Scale (GAD-7), and Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) were used to assess validity, reliability and cut-off point. ResultsGADS-R total and subscale scores and MCQ-30, BDI, BAI, GAD-7, and PSWQ were found to be statistically higher in the patients with GAD compared to a healthy control group. GADS-R has five factors and showed relatively acceptable sensitivity and specificity for detecting anxiety disorders at a cut-off point of 1188. ConclusionThe GADS-R is a valid and reliable scale that can be used in the Turkish population as an assessment tool.     

Adaptation of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Its Association with Psychological Distress and Life Satisfaction in Turkey

International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction - The world is currently experiencing a pandemic of an infectious disease called COVID-19 which has drawn global intensive attention. While...     

A Case of Distal Vaginal Agenesis Presenting with Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection and Pyuria in a Prepubertal Girl

Background

Isolated distal vaginal agenesis is a rare anomaly and mostly becomes symptomatic after menarche. We describe an unusual presentation of this anomaly in a prepubertal girl.