Coronary sinus dilatation a simple additional echocardiographic indicator of severe rheumatic mitral and tricuspid valve disease

To evaluate the usefulness of examining the coronary sinus [CS] anatomic diameter as an additional surrogate marker of severity in chronic rheumatic valve disease [RVD]. In this cross-sectional observational study, we echocardiographically analyzed 88 patients with RVD, and 104 normal subjects in the Department of Cardiology, Gaziantep University Medical Faculty, Gaziantep, Turkey between February 2007 and April 2007. Echocardiographically all valve regurgitation, stenosis, left ventricular function, left/right atrial volume, and pulmonary artery pressure were obtained. Coronary sinus was assessed as a sonolucency in the posterior atrioventricular groove. Strong positive correlation was present between CS measurements and mitral mean gradient, mitral and tricuspid regurgitation grade, tricuspid stenosis gradient, pulmonary artery systolic pressure, left and right atrial volume, and New York Heart Association class. A statistically negative correlation was present between CS measurements and mitral valve area and ejection fraction. Only the mitral valve area, tricuspid regurgitation grade, and the right atrial volume were predictors of body surface area adjusted mean CS dilatation. In this preliminary study, we showed that echocardiographic assessment of dilated CS may provide useful additional information in predicting the severity of mitral/tricuspid RVD. Findings of this study needs to be confirmed in further studies

Computed tomography based measurement of the dimensions of foramen ovale and rotundum in trigeminal neuralgia

To compare sizes of the foramen ovale and rotundum in trigeminal neuralgia [TN] patients and healthy individuals on CT images. Twenty-one TN patients and 24 healthy volunteers were included in the retrospectively designed study, carried out at the Department of Anatomy, Medical School, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey, between May 2004 and August 2009. The dimension of the foramen ovale on the cross-sectional images, and the foramen rotundum on coronal sections on CT images were examined. The mean sizes of the foramen rotundum on the right and left sides were 3.04x3.2 mm and 2.8x2.9 mm in TN patients, and 2.4x3.2 mm and 2.5x3.1 mm in controls. The mean sizes of the foramen ovale on the right and left sides were 4.8x6.04 mm and 4.9x5.5 mm in TN patients, and 3.7x8.2 mm and 4.1x7.6 mm in controls.The dimension of left and right foramens were not significantly different in both TN patients, and 3.7x8.2 mm and 4.1x7.6 mm in controls. The dimensions of left and right foramens were not significantly different in both TN patients and controls [p>0.05]. Furthermore, a statistically significant difference was not found between the foraminal dimensions of the TN patients and controls [p>0.05]. This study revealed that the sizes of foramen ovale and rotundum are highly symmetrical in both groups, suggesting that sizes of the foramina are not associated with the occurrence of TN

effect of age and gender on the anatomic structure of Caucasian healthy eyelids

To determine the normal values of the eyelid parameters in Caucasians and to describe the effects of age and gender on eyelid and eyebrow anatomy. We evaluated the effects of age and gender on eyelid structures in 100 Caucasian volunteers in the Ophthalmology and Anatomy Departments, University of Gaziantep Medical School, Turkey between 2003 and 2004. Forty-five females with mean age of 36 years [5-80 years] and 55 males with mean age of 39 years [3-68 years] participated in the study. We divided subjects into 6 groups according to decades. We measured the palpebral fissure length [PFL], the distance between the pupil center and the upper eyelid [PC-UE] and lower eyelid margin [PC-LE], the eyebrow height [EH], the eye crease height [ECH] and the distance from the reference line to the pupil center [RL-PC], using a reference line through the medial canthus and vertical line through the pupil center of the frontal slides. The measurements of PFL were between 23.5 mm and 29 mm in females, 24.8 mm and 29.1 mm in males and showed a gradual decrease with age. The PC-UE, PC-LE, ECH and RL-PC remained stable throughout life and were identical for both gender. However, EH ranging from 10.7 - 12 mm in females and 6.5 - 11 mm in males appeared to have a significant association with gender, which was higher in females than males, but was not effected with age. These results demonstrate the importance of providing a normal anatomic relationship that relates to the patient's age and gender