Başkent University

About: Başkent University is a education organization based out in Ankara, Turkey. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Transplantation & Population. The organization has 4652 authors who have published 10380 publications receiving 143117 citations. The organization is also known as: Başkent Üniversitesi.

Effects of spironolactone on heart rate variability and left ventricular systolic function in severe ischemic heart failure

Abstract: Recent data show that blockade of aldosterone receptors by spironoloctone reduces the risk of morbidity and death among patients with severe heart failure. Heart failure secondary to ischemia is characterized by an imbalance of the autonomic nervous system, which can be assessed by analysis of the heart rate variability (HRV). Spironolactone's effects on HRV are not well defined. If spironolactone has beneficial effects on HRV, this would contribute to favorable results. We therefore measured Holter-derived HRV indexes in a group of 126 patients with heart failure, aged 36 to 83 years, with angiographically proved coronary artery disease, on 3 separate occasions. Patients' sodium intake was restricted; therapy with enalapril, furosemide, and digoxin was begun, and 2 weeks after this standard therapy, spironolactone 50 mg/day was added. Evaluations were done at baseline, and the first and 12th months. After spironolactone, the triangular interpolation of the NN histogram (from 233.0 +/- 98 to 291.7 +/- 74 ms and 340.5 +/- 130 ms, p 50 ms over a 24-hour electrocardiography (from 2.9 +/- 2.4% to 4.3 +/- 5.2% and 3.9 +/- 2.6%, p 50 ms over a 24-hour electrocardiography, and observed at 1 month after therapy, persisted in the long term.

CT and MRI in the evaluation of extraspinal sciatica

Abstract: Sciatica is the most frequently encountered symptom in neurosurgical practice and is observed in 40% of adults at some point in their lives. It is described as pain of the hip and the lower extremity secondary to pathologies affecting the sciatic nerve within its intraspinal or extraspinal course. The most frequent cause is a herniating lumbar disc pressing on the neural roots. Extraspinal causes of sciatic pain are usually overlooked because they are extremely rare and due to intraspinal causes (lumbar spinal stenosis, facet joint osteoarthritis, fracture, and tumors of the spinal cord and spinal column) being the main consideration. Early diagnosis of sciatica significantly improves the likelihood of relieving symptoms, as well as avoiding any additional neurologic injury and unnecessary surgery. We evaluate histolopathologically confirmed extraspinal causes of sciatica cases, accompanied by their presented computed tomography and/or magnetic resonance imaging findings.

Validity and reliability of Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory for 2- to 4-year-old and 5- to 7-year-old Turkish children

Abstract: In this study, we attempted to examine the reliability and validity of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQLTM 4.0) for 2- to 4-year-old and 5- to 7-year-old Turkish children. Parents of 223 children in the 2- to 4-year-old age group and 198 children in the 5- to 7-year-old age group and their parents were enrolled in the study. Children were grouped as healthy, those with acute health conditions, and those with chronic health conditions. Internal consistency reliability alpha coefficients (Cronbach’s coefficient alpha) of the PedsQLTM 4.0’s total scale score for the parent proxy reports of 2- to 4-year-old children and 5- to 7-year-old age groups and for the child’ s self-report of the 5- to 7-year-old age group were 0.85, 0.86, and 0.80, respectively. Most subscale scores were acceptable for group comparisons. For all items in the child self-report and parent proxy report, item internal consistency was found to be more than 0, 40. Children with chronic health conditions scored less than healthy children and the children with acute health conditions in parent proxy reports. However, in the child self-reports of the 5- to 7-year-old group, there was no significant statistical difference in the scores between the groups. Generally, there was a low–medium inverse correlation between the total scale scores (and most subscale scores) and the indicators of morbidity and illness burden. The correlation between the child self-report and the parent proxy reports were significant direct but low correlations. No significant difference was observed in subscale scores between genders except in the school functioning scores in parent reports of healthy children 2–4 years of age and the acute health condition group of 5–7 years of age. School functioning scores of boys were significantly lower than for girls. The parent proxy reports of the Turkish translation of the PedsQLTM 4.0 may be used in research for group comparisons for 2- to 7-year-old Turkish children.

Innate Immunity-Mediated Allograft Rejection and Strategies to Prevent It

Abstract: Experimental and clinical evidence has accumulated in support of the notion that oxidative injuries to allografts induce an adaptive alloimmune response which leads to acute rejection. The link between the initial injury and subsequent rejection is the innate immune system represented by injury-activated donor-derived and recipient-derived dendritic cells which interact with naive T cells of the recipient to induce an alloimmune T-cell response. Therefore, time is mature to consider potential therapeutic strategies that are able to suppress events of innate immunity. Such strategies refer to a "time-restricted therapeutic window" that includes treatment of the donor during organ removal and the recipient during allograft reperfusion. Major targets of such treatment include (1) mitigation of the oxidative allograft injury; (2) inhibition of injury-induced activation of complement; (3) inhibition of Toll-like receptor (TLR)-mediated and innate lymphocyte-triggered maturation of dendritic cells; and (4) blockade of innate effector functions. A considerable variety of promising experimental studies about the prevention/inhibition of innate immune events has already been performed, including the successful experimental use of gene silencing methods, eg, using RNA interference technology with the application of small interfering RNA (siRNA). In addition, a few clinical trials with antioxidants (edaravone, SOD-mimetics), complement inhibitors (pexelizumab, TP-10) in patients with acute myocardial infarction, and TLR4 antagonists (TAK-242, E-5564) in patients with sepsis have been performed or are underway. Performance of similar clinical trials in transplant patients with antioxidative drugs, complement inhibitors, and/or TLR4 antagonists is urgently warranted; siRNAs appear to be extremely attractive for investigation in experimental allogeneic transplant models.

Robust diagnosis of Ewing sarcoma by immunohistochemical detection of super-enhancer-driven EWSR1-ETS targets

Abstract: Ewing sarcoma is an undifferentiated small-round-cell sarcoma. Although molecular detection of pathognomonic EWSR1-ETS fusions such as EWSR1-FLI1 enables definitive diagnosis, substantial confusion can arise if molecular diagnostics are unavailable. Diagnosis based on the conventional immunohistochemical marker CD99 is unreliable due to its abundant expression in morphological mimics. To identify novel diagnostic immunohistochemical markers for Ewing sarcoma, we performed comparative expression analyses in 768 tumors representing 21 entities including Ewing-like sarcomas, which confirmed that CIC-DUX4-, BCOR-CCNB3-, EWSR1-NFATc2-, and EWSR1-ETS-translocated sarcomas are distinct entities, and revealed that ATP1A1, BCL11B, and GLG1 constitute specific markers for Ewing sarcoma. Their high expression was validated by immunohistochemistry and proved to depend on EWSR1-FLI1-binding to highly active proximal super-enhancers. Automated cut-off-finding and combination-testing in a tissue-microarray comprising 174 samples demonstrated that detection of high BCL11B and/or GLG1 expression is sufficient to reach 96% specificity for Ewing sarcoma. While 88% of tested Ewing-like sarcomas displayed strong CD99-immunoreactivity, none displayed combined strong BCL11B- and GLG1-immunoreactivity. Collectively, we show that ATP1A1, BCL11B, and GLG1 are EWSR1-FLI1 targets, of which BCL11B and GLG1 offer a fast, simple, and cost-efficient way to diagnose Ewing sarcoma by immunohistochemistry. These markers may significantly reduce the number of misdiagnosed patients, and thus improve patient care.