Lung parenchymal changes in patients with ankylosing spondylitis.

Aim: To assess lung parenchymal changes in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) using high resolution computed tomography (HRCT).

Methods: We included 78 AS patients whose average age was 33.87 (18-56) years with a ratio of 53 males to 25 females who were followed up for 3.

Excision of Nonpalpable Breast Cancer with Indocyanine Green Fluorescence-Guided Occult Lesion Localization (IFOLL).

BACKGROUND: Currently employed techniques for the localization of nonpalpable breast lesions suffer from various limitations. In this paper, we report on 2 patients in order to introduce an alternative technique, indocyanine green fluorescence-guided occult lesion localization (IFOLL), and determine its applicability for the surgical removal of this type of breast lesions. CASE REPORTS: Preoperatively, one of the patients had a needle biopsy-proven diagnosis of breast cancer, and the other one had suspicious findings for malignancy.

The effects of provocation by foods with raised IgG antibodies and additives on the course of Crohn's disease: a pilot study.

Background/aims: This study was designed to assess the role of foods with raised IgG antibodies and additives on the symptoms and inflammation of Crohn's disease.

Methods: Eight patients with Crohn's disease in remission were studied. They followed a strict diet during phase I.

Validation of a stopping rule at week 12 using HBsAg and HBV DNA for HBeAg-negative patients treated with peginterferon alfa-2a.

Background & Aims: It was recently demonstrated that none of the hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative patients without any serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) decline and with <2log hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA decline at week 12 of a 48-week peginterferon alfa-2a (PEG-IFN) treatment course achieved a sustained response (SR). We aimed at validating this stopping rule in two independent trials.

Methods: HBeAg-negative patients receiving 48 or 96 weeks of PEG-IFN in the phase III registration trial (N=85) and PegBeLiver study (N=75) were stratified according to the presence of any HBsAg decline and/or 2log HBV DNA decline at week 12.

The epidemiology of foot wounds in patients with diabetes: a description of 600 consecutive patients in Turkey.

Epidemiological studies describing demographic, clinical, and surgical characteristics of diabetic foot wounds are lacking in Turkey. To further describe the epidemiology of diabetic foot wounds in Turkey, we developed an evaluation form and performed a retrospective cohort study that entailed 600 diabetic patients who were admitted to the hospital for treatment of their foot wound(s). The mean age of the cohort was 62.

Simultaneous excision of ipsilateral nonpalpable multiple breast lesions using radioguided occult lesion localization.

The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of ROLL technique for the identification and excision of ipsilateral nonpalpable multiple breast lesions. Between August 2005 and August 2010, eight women, aged 40-61 years, with a radiographic evidence of two separate nonpalpable lesions within the same breast underwent ROLL, as we termed it, double-ROLL. Each lesion was localized with Tc-99m-labeled human serum albumin macroaggregate under ultrasonography or mamography control.

A reliable surgical approach for the two-staged amputation in unsalvageable limb and life threatening acute progressive diabetic foot infections: tibiotalar disarticulation with vertical crural incisions and secondary transtibial amputation.

Background: If all efforts to treat acute progressive diabetic foot infection remain insufficient, the decision of major amputation should be undertaken. For this purpose, guillotine amputation is usually performed first. However, guillotine amputation below the knee level may cause the corresponding infection to spread to preserved anatomical spaces.

Peripheral artery disease assessed by ankle-brachial index in patients with established cardiovascular disease or at least one risk factor for atherothrombosis--CAREFUL study: a national, multi-center, cross-sectional observational study.

Background: To investigate the presence of peripheral artery disease (PAD) via the ankle brachial index (ABI) in patients with known cardiovascular and/or cerebrovascular diseases or with at least one risk factor for atherothrombosis.

Methods: Patients with a history of atherothrombotic events, or aged 50-69 years with at least one cardiovascular risk factor, or > = 70 years of age were included in this multicenter, cross-sectional, non-interventional study (DIREGL04074). Demographics, medical history, physical examination findings, and physician awareness of PAD were analyzed.

Effect of corticosteroid dose and duration of administration on colonic anastomosis.

Background: Surgical intervention under concomitant steroid therapy can be complicated by impaired anastomotic healing. The aim of this experimental study was to investigate the effects of a corticosteroid (methylprednisolone) on healing colonic anastomoses in relation to the dose and duration of administration.

Methods: Fifty male Spraque-Dawley rats weighing 200-220 g were divided into five groups each containing 10 rats.

Hypoglossal schwannoma presenting only with headache.

Hypoglossal schwannoma is a rarely encountered skull base lesion that has generally both intracranial and extracranial parts. This article reports a case of hypoglossal schwannoma that is purely extracranial and presents itself only with persistent headache. Magnetic resonance imaging delineated a mass at the skull base that consisted of both cystic and solid components, consistent with a nerve sheath tumor.

[Long-term results of suprascapular pulsed radiofrequency in chronic shoulder pain].

Objectives: Suprascapular nerve block has been shown to be effective in acute, postoperative and chronic shoulder pain. The understanding of providing analgesia without destruction of neural tissue makes pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) lesioning attractive as a nondestructive method. In this study, the effectiveness of suprascapular PRF in chronic shoulder pain in both the short- and long-term was assessed.

Magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and facial dysmorphism in a case of Lowe syndrome with novel OCRL1 gene mutation.

Lowe syndrome is a multisystem disorder characterized by anomalies of the eye, the nervous system, and the kidney. It is an uncommon, X-linked disease. Bilateral cataract and severe hypotonia are present at birth.

Concomitant laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding and laparoscopic cholecystectomy in a super-obese patient with situs inversus totalis who previously underwent intragastric balloon placement.

Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding has been increasingly performed since its introduction in 1990. Situs inversus totalis is a rare anomaly in which transposition of organs to the opposite side of the body occurs. Laparoscopic gastric banding in such few patients has been reported in the literature.

Is Boyd's operation a last solution that may prevent major amputations in diabetic foot patients?

We had several difficulties in dealing with diabetic foot lesions and infections at the level of midfoot and hindfoot. At this level of the foot, bone and joint involvement is quite common. We had to perform major amputations in most of these patients.

Effects of prolongation of overall treatment time due to unplanned interruptions during radiotherapy of different tumor sites and practical methods for compensation.

The prescribed total radiation dose should be administered within a specific time. In daily clinical practice, however, unplanned treatment interruptions resulting in prolongation of the overall treatment time are predictable. The present review evaluated the existing published data regarding the affect of the prolongation of the overall treatment time on the tumor control rate and outcome of patients with head-and-neck, lung, and uterine cervical cancer and other treatment sites.

Laparoscopic treatment of pyogenic liver abscess complicating Crohn's disease: a case report.

Pyogenic liver abscess in patients with Crohn's disease is not common, but the mortality has been reported to be high if diagnosis or treatment is delayed. Herein, we report the case of a 42-year-old man in whom multi-locular liver abscess was encountered in the right lobe of the liver as a complication of Crohn's disease. On his admission to the emergency unit, he had right upper quadrant pain, fever of 39 degrees C and hepatomegaly.

A new face by combined surgery for patients with complex dentofacial deformity.

Background: This article aims to present and discuss 53 patients who received a new identity because of major changes to the face after treatment with bimaxillary osteotomy, concomitant maxillomalar augmentation, genioplasty, and rhinoplastic procedures for their complex dentofacial skeletal deformity and class 3 malocclusion.

Methods: During a 12-year period (January 1993 to April 2005), more than 500 patients with dentofacial deformities and malocclusions have undergone orthognathic surgery performed by a team consisting of the same plastic surgeons and orthodontists. Among this group, 53 patients (30 women and 23 men) underwent surgery for both aesthetic and functional concerns.

Patency or recanalization of the arterial duct after surgical double ligation and transfixion.

Objective: The frequency of residual shunting or recanalization was investigated in patients in whom a persistently patent arterial duct had been doubly ligated and transfixed during surgical closure.

Methods: We investigated in retrospective fashion for any residual shunting 325 patients who, between January 1990 and December 2004, had undergone surgical double ligation and transfixion of a persistently patent arterial duct. Shunting was discovered in 10 patients, of whom four male and six female.

Selective jejunal artery pseudoaneurysm embolization in a patient with massive gastrointestinal bleeding due to intestinal tuberculosis.

Gastrointestinal bleeding is a life-threatening manifestation of intestinal tuberculosis that is generally attributed to oozing of blood from the mucosal ulcers. We report a case of intestinal tuberculosis presenting with massive upper gastrointestinal bleeding from jejunal artery pseudoaneurysm diagnosed with angiography and successfully embolizated by histoacril (glue).

Generalized linear porokeratosis.

A 23-year-old woman was seen for widespread skin lesions present since the age of 2.5 years. Twenty years ago, she developed a brown macular lesion on her right buttock.

A randomized trial of intravenous iloprost (a stable prostacyclin analogue) versus lumbar sympathectomy in the management of Buerger's disease.

Aim: The aim of this study was to compare the effects of iloprost and lumbar sympathectomy (LS) in the treatment of Buerger's disease.

Methods: Two hundred patients with rest pain and/or ischemic ulcers were randomized to undergo LS or 28-day intravenous treatment of iloprost. The primary endpoint was complete healing without pain or major amputation at 4 and 24 weeks.

The influence of age in peripheral facial palsy on brainstem reflex excitability.

Background: Neuronal plasticity is expected to be different at different ages and adaptive changes developing after peripheral facial palsy (PFP) may provide a clue in this respect.

Aims: To investigate the difference in the reorganization developing after facial nerve damage between patients who developed PFP at childhood-youth and middle-old age.

Patients And Methods: Twenty-two patients were divided into two groups according to the age-at-onset of PFP; young (PFP 1), and elderly (PFP 2).

Reliability and validity of the Geriatric Depression Scale in depression in Parkinson's disease.

The objective of this study was to investigate reliability and validity of the self rated 30 item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) in screening and diagnosis of depression in Parkinson's disease (PD). The study sample comprised 109 non-demented patients with PD admitted to the movement disorders outpatient unit. The reference diagnosis of depression was made according to DSM-IV criteria.

Somatosensory evoked blink response in hemifacial spasm and peripheral facial palsy.

Somatosensory blink response (SBR) is produced by electrical stimulation of peripheral nerves or skin areas remote from the face. We investigated the presence of SBR in cases with hemifacial spasm (HFS) and peripheral facial palsy (PFP). Fifty-seven cases of HFS, 54 cases of PFP and 39 normal subjects were included in the study.