Outcomes of Planned Home Visits of Intern Public Health Nurses: An Example from Turkey.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed at evaluating the outcomes of planned home visits of intern public health nurses enrolled to a school of health over 8 educational years. METHOD: The descriptive research consisted of 181 families (N = 745 individuals) who received primary services through the planned home visits undertaken by 431 intern public health nurses at Kocaeli province in Turkey. The data were collected from Family Nursing Process Records and Family Health Achievement Forms. Both of these data collection forms were classified according to North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) Taxonomy II. RESULTS: Intern public health nurses provided primary health services to 181 families (N = 745 persons) with a total of 8771 planned home visits undertaken over 802 days and 14.874 student/practice days. A total of 1539 nursing diagnoses were identified and 1677 achievements about these diagnoses were reported. Nursing diagnosis per family and per individual turned out to be 8.50 and 2.1, respectively, and achievements were 9.3 per family and 2.3 per individual. Among the nursing diagnosis domains, health promotion (20.3%), safety/protection (16.8%), and activity/rest (16.0%) were the top 3 domains identified. The most common diagnoses turned out to be ineffective health maintenance (47.4%) in health promotion domain and risk for trauma (18.2%) in safety/protection domain. The achievements were reported most in health promotion (37.9%), activity/rest (17.6%), and safety/protection (9.6%), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Planned and continuous home visits by intern public health nurses resulted in positive health achievements in families, especially for women and children.

Evaluation of medial and lateral meniscus thicknesses in early osteoarthritis of the knee with magnetic resonance imaging.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate early changes occurring in both medial and lateral meniscus thickness from the knees of patients with osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: We conducted this study in the Department of Anatomy and Division of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kocaeli University, Kocaeli, Turkey during the period 2004 to 2005. In this study, we measured the thickness of the medial and lateral meniscus in a group of 36 (50 knees) consecutive patients with chronic knee pain, and clinical findings of early OA, and 10 (20 knees) control subjects using MRI. RESULTS: The thickness of the posterior horn of the medial meniscus and anterior horn of the lateral meniscus were significantly higher in the OA patients compared with the control subjects. CONCLUSION: This study showed that meniscal degeneration in early stage OA is not evenly distributed in the knee. Thickening of the menisci in some areas may occur due to their own localization and biomechanics.

Rapid Detection of the Apoptosis Related Genes (BCL-2, BAD, BAX) in 12 Hours 1,25 (OH)2D3 Treated HL-60 Cells Using Real-Time Quantitative RT-PCR.

HL-60 cell line offers an interesting model to study apoptosis. Our aim was to detect the expressions of three apoptotic genes (BCL-2, BAD and BAX) using Real-Time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). HL-60 cells were incubated with 1,25 (OH)2D3 (5 x 10-8 M). RNA portions were isolated and LightCycler analysis were performed on cDNA samples. 1,25 (OH)2D3 incubated cell portions were compared to nontreated portions. We observed down-regulated levels of three genes at the end of the 12 hours. Gene expression ratios were 0.98 for BAX, 0.41 for BAD, 0.81 for BCL-2. For the first time, this study represents the expression levels of these three apoptosis related genes together during early phase (12 hours) of 1,25 (OH)2D3 treatment of HL-60 cells. Data indicate that expression differences of these apoptosis genes take place so early in exposure to 1,25 (OH)2D3. This optimised strategy would be used in rapid understanding of similar apoptotic deregulations.

Quantification of the FLI1 and CXCR4 gene expressions in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients with t(12,21).

The presence of the t(12,21) is associated with good response to therapy in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) but molecular background of this pathology is not clear. FLI1 gene plays important roles in normal regulation of myeloid hematopoiesis and leukemogenesis. The chemokine receptor CXCR4 gene may play a role in the homing of hematopoietic stem cells. Our aim was to investigate possible relationships between t(12,21) existence and expression changes of these two genes (FLI1, CXCR4) in ALL. Thirty-one ALL patients were investigated. Twenty-one of these patients were t(12,21) carriers. We used the Quantitative Real-Time RT-PCR. Obtained results were compared to normal bone marrow samples of five healthy subjects. Expression differences were not found significant in both groups. Our study was the first attempt to quantify these genes in t(12,21) patients. We conclude that Quantitative RT-PCR is a reliable method for the monitoring of these gene expressions and similar studies should expand to other translocations in haematology.