Investigation of perfusion defects by Q-SPECT/CT in patients with mild-to-moderate course of COVID-19 and low clinical probability for pulmonary embolism

Annals of Nuclear Medicine - Pulmonary embolism is a severe source of mortality and morbidity in patients with severe and critical coronavirus disease 2019. It is not yet clear whether the tendency...     

Asthma insights and reality in Turkey (AIRET) study

BACKGROUND: Several international surveys have reported low levels of asthma control compared to the levels set by the Global Initiative for Asthma guidelines. METHODS: In Turkey, 8350 households were surveyed and 400 current asthmatics responded a structured questionnaire on symptom severity, activity limitations and disease management. RESULTS: Most of the 55 children and 345 adults were classified as having persistent asthma (72.7% and 88.1%, respectively). In adult asthmatics, 31.3% reported current cigarette smoking and 10.7% being former smokers. Guideline-based asthma control was achieved in only 1.3% of participants. Three-quarters of children and more than 90% of adults were experiencing daytime symptoms. Most of adult patients and children reported an unfavorable impact of asthma on their social lives, and only half had ever had a lung function test. Daily anti-inflammatory therapy, including inhaled corticosteroids, was low in patients with persistent disease. Patients underestimated their disease severity and overestimated their level of disease control. CONCLUSIONS: The low level of asthma control in this Turkish population, together with the underestimation of disease severity and control by the patients, high smoking rates and low level of preventive medicine usage indicate a need for better implementation of current guidelines and patient education on asthma in Turkey.     

Prevalence and risk factors of allergies in Turkey: Results of a multicentric cross-sectional study in children

The Prevalence And Risk Factors of Allergies in Turkey (PARFAIT) study was planned to evaluate prevalence and risk factors of asthma and allergic diseases and also to find out which geographical variables and/or climatic conditions play a role determining the prevalence of allergic diseases in Turkish school children. Study was planned as cross-sectional questionnaire-based. About 25,843 questionnaires from 14 centers were appropriate for analysis. Parental history of allergy, having an atopic sibling and other atopic disease in index case was significant risk factors for all allergic diseases. Breast feeding decreased the risk of current asthma (OR: 0.92, CI: 0.86-0.99) and wheezing (OR: 0.93, CI: 0.87-0.99) but not allergic rhinitis and eczema. Respiratory infection in the past was an important risk factor for the occurrence of allergic diseases especially for asthma which was increased 4.53-fold. Children exposed to household smoke were significantly at higher risk of asthma, wheezing, and allergic rhinitis (OR: 1.20, CI: 1.08-1.33; OR: 1.21, CI: 1.09-1.34; and OR: 1.32, CI: 1.21-1.43, respectively). All allergic diseases were increased in those children living in areas which have altitude of below 1000 m and mean yearly atmospheric pressure above 1000 mb. The study has suggested that household and country-specific environmental factors are associated with asthma, wheezing, allergic rhinitis, and eczema risk during childhood in Turkey.     

Morphological Observation and DNA Quantitative Analysis of Murine H_(22) Hepatoma after Injection of Hematoporphyrin Derivatives in Different Pathways and Light Irradiation

By means of light and electron microscopy and texture analysissystem, the morphologic changes and the content of DNA after injection ofhematoporphyrin derivatives (HPD) in different pathways and the lightirradiation on mice H_(22) hepatoma were observed. This study showed thatintravenous injection of HPD and local administration in the tumor andred-light irradiation could result in obvious injury of tumor cells, especiallythe tumor local injection and light irradiation. In order to reduce variousside-effects, tumor local injection and light irradiation may be used inclinical treatment. This article provides morphological basis for reference.     

Evaluation of laryngeal findings in users of inhaled steroids

The objective of the prospective study is to examine the laryngeal changes by laryngeal videostroboscopy and electromyography (EMG) regarding new-onset dysphonia in asthmatic patients taking inhaled corticosteroids (ICS). Laryngeal changes and electrophysiological status of the laryngeal muscles were evaluated by these methods in 12 patients both at the time of presentation of dysphonia and after cessation of therapy. Laryngeal changes of our patients were mucosal edema, erythema, thickening, adduction deficit, nodule and irregularity in videostroboscopy. Significant correlations were found between laryngeal pathology and dosage and duration of ICS therapy. We detected myopathy by EMG in most of the patients. Also, EMG revealed that cricothyroid muscle was much more affected than thyroarytenoid muscle. In conclusion, we consider that steroid myopathy or mucosal inflammatory theory alone is not sufficient to explain the etiopathogenesis of dysphonia in asthmatic patients taking ICS. The laryngeal mucosal changes were detected by laryngeal videostroboscopic examination in some asthmatic patients, with dysphonia using ICS, and/or laryngeal myopathy was found by laryngeal EMG in some of them in this study. Thus, various factors may have role simultaneously in the occurrence of dysphonia.     

Building data quality into clinical trials

Meaningful data begin with the collection process. Pharmaceutical companies are using several different strategies in clinical trials to ensure the highest quality of data. This article will examine these approaches, with an emphasis on case report form development through database release.