Publications by authors named "Bal K"

Background: Peyronie's disease (PD) is a progressive fibrotic disorder of the penis that can induce pain and erectile dysfunction and has various treatment modalities, including surgical, pharmaceutical, and injection therapies.

Methods: The authors used electronic medical records from Kaiser Permanente Southern California, an integrated health care system that consists of 15 medical centers, and identified patients diagnosed with stable PD without concomitant erectile dysfunction from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2020. Baseline characteristics between surgical and injection groups were compared using Chi-squared and Kruskal-Wallis tests.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this study, we investigated the effect of chitosan modification with tricine on transfection efficiency by preserving its ability to form complexes with plasmid DNA (pDNA) and increasing its hydrophilicity. The inherent limitations of chitosan, such as poor solubility at physiological pH, insufficient cellular uptake, and strong ionic interactions with pDNA, typically result in low transfection efficiency. To overcome these challenges, Tricine, a hydrophilic molecule containing a secondary amine group, was conjugated to chitosan.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: We planned this study considering that complications of deep neck infections can be seriously life threatening.

Aim: To raise awareness that introthoracic complications and necrotizing fasciitis are causes of serious mortality and morbidity.

Methods: This study was carried out with the participation of 188 patients who were treated at Mersin University Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery at January 1, 2024.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on creating a new amphiphilic chitosan (Chi-MA) by combining myristic acid and tertiary amine groups for better gene delivery.
  • The modified chitosan underwent thorough chemical characterization and was used to form nanoparticles, which were tested for their size, stability, and capabilities to deliver genes effectively.
  • Results showed that Chi-MA significantly improved gene complexing (8-fold increase) and transfection efficiency without causing toxicity to HEK293T cells, highlighting it as an effective gene carrier.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Internal carotid artery (ICA) aneurysms, although rare, can lead to serious health issues like nerve compression and severe bleeding if they rupture.
  • Symptoms often include neurologic signs, and detection may reveal pulsatile masses in the ear or nasal cavity.
  • Diagnostic imaging, particularly cerebral digital subtraction angiography, is crucial before any surgical intervention, as demonstrated in a case study of a 48-year-old woman experiencing severe nosebleeds due to an ICA aneurysm.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: The precise location of the endolymphatic sac (ES) may be difficult during surgical approaches. This morphometric study aimed to determine the exact location of ES in adult human cadavers for the management of pathologies such as Meniere's disease.

Methods: Twenty temporal bones of 10 adult cadavers (mean age: 70 ± 13.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Snakebites are a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Snake envenomation can cause acute local and systemic effects leading to severe complications, even death. Neurological complications such as intracranial hemorrhage, subarachnoid bleed, ischemic strokes, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, and leukoencephalopathy have been reported.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: This cadaveric anatomical study aimed to explore precise morphometric measurements of the eustachian tube (ET) and adjacent structures in the middle cranial fossa, focusing on identifying reliable surgical landmarks when traditional markers are compromised due to tumors or trauma.

Methods: Twenty-two temporal bones from 11 adult cadavers (mean age: 75.70 ± 13.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are inflammatory bowel diseases with uncertain etiology. We aimed to determine the amounts of Akkermansia muciniphila and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in the intestinal microbiota of these patients and to correlate their amounts with blood IL-8, IL-10, and IL-12 cytokine levels.

Methods: Thirty UC, 30 CDs, and 46 healthy controls were included.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Tongue abscess (TA) is a rare but serious condition that requires prompt treatment, primarily through surgical drainage.
  • This study reviews the clinical and lab findings of 11 patients with TA, highlighting their demographics and the locations of the abscesses.
  • The research underscores the urgent need for interventions, such as tracheotomy, due to the risk of airway obstruction, and notes challenges in treating abscesses found in unexpected areas.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Deep neck infections are serious conditions and can present with acute upper airway obstruction. Our priority in the treatment is to ensure airway safety, and tracheotomy may be needed to overcome the upper airway obstruction. Unceasing dyspnea after tracheotomy should suggest serious pulmonary pathologies in patients with upper airway obstruction due to deep neck infection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hydatid cyst is an endemic disease in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries, Eastern European countries, East Africa, China, New Zealand, Australia. We aimed to present this educational case, which is endemic in our country and seen in a very rare localization, with the combined surgical approach, within the literature.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To analyze the demographic characteristics and the pathological results of neck dissection in primary parotid gland (PG) cancer patients, and to investigate the effects of histopathological parameters (perineural invasion, lymphovascular invasion, and extracapsular spread), neck metastasis, stage and lymph node ratio (LNR) on survival.

Methods: Patients who underwent parotidectomy for malignant PG tumors between 2000 and 2019 years were retrospectively reviewed from the medical records. Thirty patients who were treated with parotidectomy and neck dissection were included in the study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: There is limited data about the prevalence of frequent gastrointestinal diseases in developing parts of the world based on community-based screening studies. Therefore, we aimed to present the detailed transabdominal ultrasonography results of the previously completed Turkey Cappadocia cohort study, which included a population-based evaluation of gastrointestinal symptoms and diseases in adults.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Cappadocia cohort.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the prevalence and analysis of thyroid nodules in geriatric patients, focusing on results from ultrasound (USG) and fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) across 129 patients.
  • Findings show varying levels of suspicion for thyroid cancer based on ACR TIRADS grading, but there is no significant correlation between TIRADS results and FNAC outcomes.
  • The researchers conclude that managing thyroid nodules in elderly patients should involve careful monitoring incorporating both imaging data and clinical evaluations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: This study aimed to find the prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms in hospitalized COVID-19 patients and to investigate the effects of gastrointestinal symptoms on the course of the disease during hospitalization.

Methods: Patients who were hospitalized due to COVID-19 were included in this retrospective study. The diagnostic method of COVID-19 was either a positive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test or a typical finding in chest computed tomography.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: In this study, we aimed to determine the differences in normospermic, oligospermic and azoospermic infertile men by performing voice analysis and to discuss this in the light of the literature.

Methods: 71 male patients who applied to the urology clinic due to infertility and were then referred to us were included in the study. Hormone analysis and spermiogram were requested from the patients for routine infertility tests.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We calculate bubble nucleation rates in a Lennard-Jones fluid through explicit molecular dynamics simulations. Our approach-based on a recent free energy method (dubbed reweighted Jarzynski sampling), transition state theory, and a simple recrossing correction-allows us to probe a fairly wide range of rates in several superheated and cavitation regimes in a consistent manner. Rate predictions from this approach bridge disparate independent literature studies on the same model system.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The prevalence of athletes who specialize in sports has increased in recent years. Substantial literature on youth sports has linked early sport specialization to negative consequences, such as burnout and injury. However, empirical evidence comparing rates of burnout and specialization in NCAA athletes is limited.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We introduce a simple enhanced sampling approach for the calculation of free energy differences and barriers along a one-dimensional reaction coordinate. First, a small number of short nonequilibrium simulations are carried out along the reaction coordinate, and the Jarzynski equality is used to learn an approximate free energy surface from the nonequilibrium work distribution. This free energy estimate is represented in a compact form as an artificial neural network and used as an external bias potential to accelerate rare events in a subsequent molecular dynamics simulation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Tranexamic acid reduces blood loss in surgery and the risk of death in trauma patients. Meta-analyses of small trials suggest that tranexamic acid decreases the number of deaths from gastrointestinal bleeding, but these meta-analyses are prone to selection bias.

Objective: The trial provides reliable evidence of the effect of tranexamic acid on mortality, rebleeding and complications in significant acute gastrointestinal bleeding.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Spontaneous point mutations in genes encoding gyrA/B subunits of DNA gyrase are responsible for fluoroquinolone resistance. We aimed to determine the clarithromycin and levofloxacin resistance phenotypically in H. pylori strains and to investigate the mutations responsible for levofloxacin resistance and the effects of these mutations on dual antibiotic resistance.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The evaluation of nucleation rates from molecular dynamics trajectories is hampered by the slow nucleation time scale and impact of finite size effects. Here, we show that accurate nucleation rates can be obtained in a very general fashion relying only on the free energy barrier, transition state theory, and a simple dynamical correction for diffusive recrossing. In this setup, the time scale problem is overcome by using enhanced sampling methods, in casu metadynamics, whereas the impact of finite size effects can be naturally circumvented by reconstructing the free energy surface from an appropriate ensemble.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Patients with emerging anosmia may be asymptomatic carriers of coronavirus disease 2019 infection requiring self-isolation; otherwise, there are risks of facilitating the spread of the diseaseThis study aims to evaluate the loss of smell with visual analogue scale and to determine the relationship between the loss of smell and blood parameters.All patients' coronavirus disease 2019 swab cultures were polymerase chain reaction positive and pneumonia was found in computed tomographies consistent with oronavirus disease 2019. The study was conducted on 114 patients hospitalized between 01.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF