Publications by authors named "Cirak A"

Article Synopsis
  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often leads to hospital readmissions, with a study involving 415 patients in Turkey revealing significant readmission rates of 42.4% within 30 days and 46% within 90 days after severe exacerbations.
  • Key risk factors for 30-day readmissions include high anxiety and depression scores, a history of severe exacerbations, hospital-acquired pneumonia, and frequent antibiotic use.
  • For 90-day readmissions, factors such as severe heart regurgitation, multiple moderate exacerbations, immunosuppression, and being hospitalized via the emergency department were significant contributors.
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Article Synopsis
  • COPD exacerbations can lead to increased morbidity and mortality, with prolonged hospital stays linked to various risk factors despite optimal care.
  • A study analyzed 434 COPD patients to identify factors influencing hospital length of stay (LOS), categorizing them into patient-related, disease-related, treatment-related, and hospital utility-related.
  • Key findings indicated that factors like biomass exposure, previous non-invasive mechanical ventilation, low bicarbonate levels, and increased oxygen needs were associated with difficult-to-manage exacerbations and longer hospitalizations.
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Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that is the third leading cause of death in the world is one of the main economic burden. The cost is primarily due to COPD exacerbations and hospitalizations. We aimed to determine the factors associated with increasing costs in severe COPD exacerbation.

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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the speech outcomes, reveal postoperative rates of obstructive sleep apnea, and characterize changes in the pharyngeal flap and velopharyngeal anatomy following pharyngeal flap surgery for velopharyngeal insufficiency. A retrospective chart was reviewed for patients with clefts who underwent pharyngeal flap surgery between November 2020 and November 2021. The data collected included age, gender, cleft palate type, age at pharyngeal flap surgery, postoperative complications, age and type of primary palatoplasty, preoperative and postoperative speech assessments, magnetic resonance imaging findings, and obstructive sleep apnea outcomes.

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Objective: Risk analysis models, which are used in the diagnostic algorithm of incidental pulmonary nodules, are based on patient data from developed countries. Mayo Clinic, Brock University and Herder are among the most known models. We aim to compare the reliability of these models in patients with indeterminate solid nodules and to investigate the contribution of the predictors used to the model.

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Purpose: Pulmonary hydatid cyst (PHC) can imitate many diseases. Sometimes, positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is performed in terms of malignancy exclusion for complicated cysts. Although some specific findings (doughnut sign) have been identified in hydatid cyst of the liver, there is no specific sign described for PHC.

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Aim And Introduction: Diagnosing of interstitial lung disease (ILD) is difficult and expensive. The standard diagnostical approaches to ILD are bronchoalveolar lavage, transbronchial lung biopsy, transbronchial lung cryobiopsy (TBLC) and surgical lung biopsy (SLB). SLB is gold standard for the confident diagnosis of ILD but because of the poor performance of the patients it's use is limited.

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Introduction: The aim of our study is to investigate the etiological distribution of ILD in Turkey by stratifying the epidemiological characteristics of ILD cases, and the direct cost of initial diagnosis of the diagnosed patients.

Material-method: The study was conducted as a multicenter, prospective, cross-sectional, clinical observation study. Patients over the age of 18 and who accepted to participate to the study were included and evaluated as considered to be ILD.

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Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation of preoperative 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/computed tomography maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) in operated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases with other prognostic parameters and survival.

Patients And Methods: NSCLC patients treated by surgical resection were imaged with PET within 60 days before surgery.

Results: Overall, 525 cases consecutive patients were retrospectively reviewed.

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Purpose: This study aims to investigate whether there is a significant difference between typical and atypical parenchymal patterns in the development of fibrosis, which is the most crucial factor affecting morbidity in pulmonary sarcoidosis.

Methods: In our hospital, 145 cases with Siltzbach Types 2 and 3 sarcoidoses diagnosed by clinical, radiological, and histopathologic were retrospectively investigated. Perilymphatic nodules, accompanying mosaic attenuation, and interlobular septal thickening and central peribronchovascular bunch-like thickening on high-resolution computed tomography were assessed as typical.

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Objective: Most exacerbations are mild to moderate, and antibiotic treatment for acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) is recommended for patients with severe exacerbations or severe underlying chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Therefore, we aimed to investigate the patient factors that are associated with the prescription of antibiotics for inappropriate indication in AECOPD.

Material And Methods: This study was an observational cross-sectional study conducted in an outpatient clinic.

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Background/aim: Two different scoring systems were developed to determine the severity of bronchiectasis: FACED scoring and the bronchiectasis severity index (BSI). In this study, we aim to compare these 2 scoring systems according to the 6-min walking distance test and a disease-specific health status questionnaire in patients with noncystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (NCFB).

Materials And Methods: Smoking history, emergency and hospital admissions, and body mass index were obtained from NCFB patients admitted to our hospitals’ pulmonary rehabilitation unit between 2013 and 2018.

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Introduction: Brain metastasis prevalence is higher in patients with positive epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation, anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) and C-ROS oncogene 1 (ROS-1) fusion change in lung adenocarcinoma.

Objectives: The purpose of our study is to investigate the relation between the genetic change type and the initial distant metastasis in stage IV lung adenocarcinoma patients with genetic changes.

Methods: The study was conducted between January 2007 and December 2018 in a retrospective fashion with patients who had lung cancer diagnosed as stage IV adenocarcinoma.

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Objectives: Neuroendocrine tumors of the lungs are a clearly different group of tumors with definite ultrastructural, immunohistochemical, and molecular features. We reported and analyzed the incidence, clinicopathological features, surgery rates, responses to first-line therapy, and survival outcomes of this rare condition according to our lung cancer patient database.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively collected the data of 62 patients who were histopathologically diagnosed with large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of lung (LCNEC) between January 2010 and January 2016.

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Background/aim: Diagnosis of interstitial lung diseases requires a multidisciplinary approach, and a gold standard for histological diagnosis is open lung biopsy. Transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) and in recent years an alternative method, cryobiopsy (TBLC), are used for the diagnosis of parenchymal lung lesions. The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy of concomitant conventional TBLB and TBLC.

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Objectives: Among the nodule types, the most controversial group are indeterminate solid nodules from 1 to 2 cm in size with the first choice being transthoracic needle biopsy (TTNB) or positron emission tomography (PET-CT) or both methods together. However, no single diagnostic algorithm could be applied to all cases. This research discusses the diagnostic success of PET-CT and TTNB.

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Background And Purpose: There is little information about the desired place of death of nursing home residents because they are usually not interviewed in population-based representative surveys. In preparation of support services for advance care planning the kind of care and support that nursing home residents desire needs to be systematically determined.

Method: From October 2016 to January 2017 the residents of 5 nursing homes, municipally owned by Würzburg, were interviewed face-to-face.

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Aim Of The Study: Determining the pre-treatment prognostic factors in malignant pleural mesothelioma is important in terms of estimating the course of the disease and selecting patients who are candidate for multimodal therapy. The aim of the study was to determine the prognostic factors affecting survival in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Study Design: One hundred and twenty-five patients who had been diagnosed histologically as having malignant pleural mesothelioma over the past 5 years were evaluated retrospectively.

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Introduction: To determine the diagnostic value of pleural fluid procalcitonin (PF-PCT) and serum PCT (S-PCT) levels in the diagnosis of parapneumonic pleural effusion (PPPE).

Materials And Methods: Sixty five inpatients with exudative pleural fluid were consecutively included in this prospective study. Biochemical (total protein, albumin, LDH, glucose, pH, PCT) studies were performed in concurrently obtained pleural fluid and venous blood samples, cytologic and microbiologic (acid-fast bacillus smear/culture, nonspecific bacterial Gram stain/culture, fungal culture) studies were performed in pleural fluid.

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Background: Diagnosis of tuberculous pleurisy is difficult and better diagnostic tools are needed. Interferon gamma release assays (IGRAs) are in vitro immunologic diagnostic tests used to identify Mycobacterium TB infections. They cannot differentiate between latent and active infections.

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Background/purpose: The purpose of our study was to define the factors related to recurrence of labial fusion.

Methods: The data of 110 patients diagnosed with labial fusion were gathered. The data collected and queried included age and body weight of the patient, season of presentation/occurrence, frequency of diaper change, frequency of diaper dermatitis, products used for hygiene, duration of breast milk feeding, infections, presence of allergy, thickness of the adhesion, mother's use of oral contraceptive drugs before pregnancy, mother's use of alcohol/drugs/cigarettes or presence of disease during pregnancy, the number of recurrences, treatment method, presence of labial fusion among maternal sisters or any relatives, and blood estrogen levels.

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Background And Objectives: Pulmonary hydatid cyst (PHC) is a parasitic infestation caused by larvae of Echinococcus granulosus. The lung is the most commonly involved organ after the liver. There is lack of enough data on the efficacy of bronchoscopy in patients with PHC, and the diagnostic usefulness of bronchoscopy is still controversial.

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Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) is a rare and diffuse lung process, characterized by the presence of alveolar spaces filled with amorphous eosinophilic material. Impaired macrophage function and impaired host defence due to abnormalities of surfactant proteins may favor the growth of microorganisms. The association of alveolar proteinosis with mycobacterial infections is rarely reported.

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Background/Aim. Previous population-based studies found association between duration of sleep and cardiovascular and metabolic comorbidities. Our aim was to investigate the association between the duration of sleep and cardiovascular and metabolic comorbidities in OSAS.

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Although the sensitivity and specificity of nucleic acid amplification assays are high with smear-positive samples, the sensitivity with smear-negative and extrapulmonary samples for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in suspicious tuberculosis cases still remains to be investigated. This study evaluates the performance of the GenoType Mycobacteria Direct (GTMD) test for rapid molecular detection and identification of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and four clinically important nontuberculous mycobacteria (M. avium, M.

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