Multi-inflammatory index as a new predictive and prognostic marker of acute symptomatic seizures in patients with cerebral venous sinus thrombosis.

BACKGROUND: The multi-inflammatory index (MII) is a novel marker that indicates the diagnosis, prognosis, and clinical severeness of inflammation-associated diseases. It is indicated that inflammatory biomarkers may help predict the occurrence of acute symptomatic seizures(ASS) after ischemic stroke. OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to search the predictive and prognostic capability of the MII-1 and MII-2 for ASS in cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) patients. METHOD: 91 patients with CVST were retrospectively analyzed from the medical records of patients between 2010 and 2023 and divided into the ASS group and non-ASS group. The MII-1 and MII-2 levels on admission, demographic and clinic features, predisposing risk factors, radiological characteristics involving thrombotic cerebral veins, and the type of parenchymal lesions were documented. Modified Rankin Scale (mRS) on admission and at the 3rd month were evaluated to determine the disability. RESULTS: MII-1 and MII-2 were statistically significantly higher in the ASS group and predictors for the occurrence of seizures with CVST in multivariate analysis. The area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve for MII-1 was 0.791 (95 %CI = 0.691-0.891, p < 0.001), and AUC for MII-2 was 0.761 (95%CI = 0.660-0.861, p < 0.001). When the clinical variables that were included in the multivariate analysis and MII-1 and MII-2 were combined, the predictive power was greater with the AUC of 0.959. A significant positive correlation was found between mRS at the 3rd month and MII-1 and MII-2 in the ASS group. CONCLUSION: MII-1 and MII-2 can be used as new predictive and prognostic markers of ASS in patients with CVST.

Are there any preventable risk factors for women who had surgery for Pelvic Organ Prolapse and stress Urinary Incontinence?

OBJECTIVE: The present study evaluates the preventable risk factors in symptomatic women with previous surgery for pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and/or stress urinary incontinence (SUI). METHODS: Four hundred and one women previously operated were divided into two groups as; women operated for POP (325 cases) and women operated for SUI (76 cases). The control group consisted of 233 age and body mass index (BMI)-matched subject operated for benign gynecologic reasons and exhibited no evidence of POP or SUI. These groups were compared in terms of age, BMI, gravida, parity, mode of delivery, smoking status, menopause status and chronic diseases. RESULTS: Grand_multiparity (parity ≥5) increased the risk of POP/SUI surgery and POP surgery 2.71 and 2.94 times, respectively (p=0.0003 and p=0.0001, respectively). Vaginal birth increased the risk of POP/SUI surgery 2.33 times (p=0.03). CONCLUSION: Grand_multiparity increased the risk of POP/SUI surgery and POP surgery while vaginal birth increased the risk of POP/SUI surgery. Among them, particularly, grand_multiparity seem to be the only preventable risk factors.

Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy is not associated with diabetes mellitus development in pregnant women at low risk for gestational diabetes.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the effect of vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor for the development of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) among pregnant women without known risk factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted on pregnant women who had been under regular follow-up and had low risk for GDM development. The patients were divided into two groups according to the presence of GDM; GDM and no GDM (control) group. Body mass index (BMI), sociodemographic data including level of education and nutritional habits were recorded. Serum 25 (OH) vitamin D3 levels, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) values were measured. An oral glucose tolerance test was performed, between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy. RESULTS: GDM ratio was calculated as 4.6%. The false positive rate of 50 g oral glucose load screening test was found to be 16.5%. The BMI levels of women diagnosed as having GDM and those with no GDM group at the beginningof the pregnancy period were calculated as 24.3±2.6 and 22.8±1.6 kg/m2 respectively, exhibiting a statistically significant difference between the two groups (p=0.001). Hemoglobin, hematocrit, and MCV values did not show a statistically significant difference between the two groups (p>0.05). The levels of 25 (OH) vitamin D3 of the study groups were found comparable in both groups (p=0.13). CONCLUSION: Plasma levels of vitamin D may not be a contributing factor for the development of GDM in women with a low risk for GDM.

Comparison of low level laser and arginine-calcium carbonate alone or combination in the treatment of dentin hypersensitivity: a randomized split-mouth clinical study.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to compare the efficacy of low-level laser (LLL) and desensitizing paste (DP) containing 8% arginine-calcium carbonate, in the treatment of dentin hypersensitivity (DH) and also to determine whether their combined application would improve the efficacy of the treatment. BACKGROUND DATA: There are various options for the treatment of DH; however, superiority of one method over others alone has not been currently demonstrated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-one patients with 156 teeth affected by DH were included in the study. Selected teeth were randomly divided into five groups: LLL, DP, laser followed by DP (LLL+DP), DP followed by laser (DP+LLL) applied to one of the quadrants, and a control group, consisting of a randomly selected additional tooth in one of the quadrants. Teeth were irradiated by the 685 nm diode laser treatment with 25 mW at 9 Hz for 100sec at 1 cm(2) area (2J/cm(2)) in interrupted mode. Pain response to evaporative stimulus was quantified on a visual analogue scale (VAS) over a 90-day period. RESULTS: All four treatment groups experienced significant and persistent decrease in the mean VAS score immediately post-treatment until the end of the study, whereas the placebo group had high VAS scores throughout the study. On day 90, percent reduction in VAS scores was 72% for LLL, 65.4% for DP, 54.6% for LLL+DP, and 69.6% for DP+LLL, whereas the placebo group showed an increase of 7.8%. CONCLUSIONS: The application of either LLL or DP containing 8% arginine-calcium carbonate appears to be effective in decreasing DH. However, their combined use does not improve the efficacy beyond what is attainable with either treatment alone.

The effect of nonsurgical periodontal treatment on serum and saliva chitotriosidase activities in patients with periodontitis and coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND: Plasma chitotriosidase activity, which is a marker of macrophage activation, has been reported to increase in inflammatory conditions and atherosclerosis. Chronic periodontitis has likely an important role in the development of coronary artery disease. In this study, we aimed to analyze the effect of chronic periodontitis on salivary and plasma chitotriosidase activities in patients with or without coronary atherosclerosis. METHODS: Fifty subjects were divided into four groups as controls (n=13), periodontitis (n=11), coronary artery disease (n=13), and periodontitis + coronary artery disease (n=13). Plasma and saliva chitotriosidase activities were measured by a fluorimetric method in all groups before the nonsurgical treatment of periodontitis and 5 weeks posttreatment in periodontitis groups. RESULTS: Salivary chitotriosidase activity was decreased after nonsurgical periodontal treatment in patients having periodontitis with or without coronary atherosclerosis. However, plasma activities remained unchanged. CONCLUSION: Although this study has some limitations like small sample size and short study duration, it can suggest that salivary chitotriosidase can have the potential to be used as a very useful and practical marker to evaluate the success of the periodontal treatment and/or host response. KEY FINDING: Salivary chitotriosidase can be used as a marker for the evaluation of the success of the periodontal treatment and/or host response.

Immune thrombocytopenic purpura presenting as unprovoked gingival hemorrhage: a case report.

Immune thrombocytopenic purpura is an autoimmune disease characterized by auto-antibody induced platelet destruction and reduced platelet production, leading to low blood platelet count. In this case report, the clinical diagnose of a patient with immune thrombocytopenic purpura and spontaneous gingival hemorrhage by a dentist is presented. The patient did not have any systemic disease that would cause any spontaneous hemorrhage. The patient was referred to a hematologist urgently and her thrombocyte number was found to be 2000/µL. Other test results were in normal range and immune thrombocytopenic purpura diagnose was verified. Then hematological treatment was performed and patient's health improved without further problems. Hematologic diseases like immune thrombocytopenic purpura, in some cases may appear firstly in the oral cavity and dentists must be conscious of unexplained gingival hemorrhage. In addition, the dental treatment of immune thrombocytopenic purpura patients must be planned with a hematologist.

Effects of chemical additives and ensiling time on whole plant wheat silage microbial profiles inferred by phenotypic and 16S ribosomal DNA analyses.

The objectives of this study were to test the effects of various chemical additives, and ensiling time periods on microbial profiles of whole plant wheat silage (WPWS). WPWS was harvested at dough maturation stage, and ensiled with sodium chloride (T), sodium bicarbonate (N), sucrose (S), or urea (U) at 1% dry matter (DM) (w/w). Each WPWS treatment (i.e. T, N, S, and U) was ensiled in 1 dm(3) duplicate anaerobic jars for 7, 14, 28, 35, 42, 49, and 56 days. The highest lactic acid concentration was detected for U (5.9% DM) compared to the control (0.5% DM) at day 56. Similarly, the highest ammonia concentration was observed for U (9.3% DM) compared to the control; T, N, and S treatments averaged 2.4% DM. A higher lactic acid bacteria (LAB) count was observed between days 14 and 56 for all treatments relative to control WPWS, which averaged 6.7 and 5.6 c.f.u./g of fresh material, respectively. The highest quality silage was observed for N and U treated WPWS, with an absence of yeasts and molds from days 7 to 49. Identification of bacterial isolates at days 7 and 56 from each individual silage treatment was performed based on phenotypic (biochemical tests), and molecular (16S rDNA partial gene sequence) methods. 16S rDNA sequence results identified U7 and N56 isolates as Enterococcus faecium, and demonstrated positive galactose, ribose, lactose, maltose, mannitol, mannose, sucrose, and trehalose fermenting characteristics. In addition, most isolates exhibited growth potential in 6.5% NaCl. Overall sequence alignment results supported phenotypic identification, and indicated that U and N treated WPWS were LAB (Enterococcus) dominant compared to the control (non-LAB).

Characterization of an anti-listerial enterocin from wheat silage based Enterococcus faecium.

Two Enterococcus faecium and one E. faecalis strains isolated and identified from wheat silage were characterized based on plasmid content, hemolytic activity, antibiotic resistance patterns, bacteriocin production potential, and presence of enterocin structural genes (entA, entB, entP, entL50B). Among the isolates, only the E. faecium U7 strain exhibited bacteriocin activity against Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 7644, and vancomycin resistant Enterococcus spp. (VRE). A combination of three structural genes (entA, entB, and entP) was detected in E. faecium U7. A relationship between the presence of enterocin structural genes, and bacteriocin activity was detected in E. faecium U7; therefore partially purified enterocin (PPE) was further investigated from the isolate. Several bands of different molecular weights were expressed from PPE extracts following tricine SDS-PAGE analysis. However, the only band showing bacteriocin activity was in an approximate 4-kDa region. PPE treatment with proteinase K, lysozyme, and α -amylase caused complete loss of bacteriocin activity. PPE heat treatment at various temperatures resulted in a notable reduction in bacteriocin expression. Enterocin U7 was relatively heat stable, and presumably exhibits a glucoprotein nature with distinct inhibitory properties. Specific bacterial inhibitory activity of enterocin U7, and the producer strain absence of ß -hemolysis and vancomycin susceptibility features deserves further investigation to evaluate its potential application in silage inoculation and food preservation.

Antimicrobial susceptibilities of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) and streptococci from bovine subclinical mastitis cases.

The prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibilities of Staphylococci and Streptococci were assessed from subclinical mastitis cases. One hundred Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci (CNS) and 34 Streptococci were identified. The most frequently isolated species were Staphylococcus haemolyticus (27%) and Staphylococcus simulans (24%). Susceptible CNS species revealed the highest resistance to penicillin G (58%), ampicillin (48%), neomycin (20%), and oleandomycin (14%). CNS methicillin resistance rates within 82 isolates were 21.95% and 1.22% by disk diffusion and PCR methods, respectively. These results suggested the disk diffusion method was more prone to yield false positives. Partial sequencing of the 16S rRNA region from the mecA carrying isolate (S. haemolyticus) was homologous with S. haemolyticus sequences/accessions obtained from GenBank. However, the mecA gene sequence from this isolate was more closely allied with the S. aureus mecA gene of human origins. Identical sequence data was acquired from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database, suggesting horizontal gene transfer between the two species. CNS beta-lactamase activity within 81 isolates was 29.63%. The most frequently isolated Streptococcus species were S. uberis (52%) and S. agalactiae (15%). Oleandomycin was the least effective antimicrobial agent on these isolates with 59% susceptibility. Results indicated that CNS and Streptococci exhibited various antimicrobial resistance responses. Consequently, isolation and identification of udder pathogens in herds suffering from subclinical agents is essential to select the most effective antimicrobial agent. Moreover, multiple resistance features of methicillin resistant (MR) isolates should be considered during antimicrobial susceptibility tests.