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A Salmonella ovarian abscess is a rare entity, and is similarly uncommon in cases with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. To the best of our knowledge, thirty four cases of Salmonella ovarian abscess have been published in the literature, and only four of them were related to Systemic Lupus Eritematosus. Our aim is to review this clinical entity using information from our own experience as well as that from published cases. © 2020, Yuzuncu Yil Universitesi Tip Fakultesi. All rights reserved.

Background and Design: Despite a very uncommon disease in developed countries, cutaneous anthrax (CA) is currently endemic in our countries. In this study, we aimed to bring out characteristic of anthrax of Turkey by comparing our results and the other CA reports in Turkey. Materials and Methods: Sixty three inpatients with CA between October 2009 and December 2012 were investigated retrospectively. All patients were diagnosed CA by clinical finding and/or microbiological examination. The demographic characteristics patient, routine tests, wound culture and gram staining results were recorded. Results were recorded on statistical program of SPSS 13.0 and were written using percent (%). Results: There were 63 inpatients (41 female (65.1%), 22 male (34.9%), mean age 35.9 years range10-83). Forty nine patients (77.8%) had a history of contact with animals or animal product. Thirty-eight (60.3%) and twenty-one (33.3%) patients were found in the summer and fall season, respectively. Gram staining and culture were performed in 51 patients. Gram-positive bacilli were detected in 17 patients (33.3%) by gram smear. Bacillus anthracis bacilli were produced in 11 patients (21.5%) in cultures test. The lesions were mostly seen on the left hand (30.2%). Penicillin was most frequently preferred in treatment of CA (87.3%). Conclusion: CA is still endemic in Eastern Anatolia and continues to increase in recent years. Women living in the villages in which income is obtained from buying and selling of animals constitute the most important risk group. Preventive actions such as training of the risky society, vaccination of animals, and obstructing of illegal animal entries across the border, will reduce the incidence of CA.

Background/aim: Broad-spectrum antibiotics have become available for use only with the approval of infectious disease specialists (IDSs) since 2003 in Turkey. This study aimed to analyze the tendencies of doctors who are not disease specialists (non-IDSs) towards the restriction of antibiotics., Materials and methods: A questionnaire form was prepared, which included a total of 22 questions about the impact of antibiotic restriction (AR) policy, the role of IDSs in the restriction, and the perception of this change in antibiotic consumption. The questionnaire was completed by each participating physician., Results: A total of 1906 specialists from 20 cities in Turkey participated in the study. Of those who participated, 1271 (67.5%) had 5 years of occupational experience in their branch expressed that they followed the antibiotic guidelines more strictly than the JSs (P < 0.05) and 755 of physicians (88%) and 720 of surgeons (84.6%) thought that the AR policy was necessary and useful (P < 0.05)., Conclusion: This study indicated that the AR policy was supported by most of the specialists. Physicians supported this restriction policy more so than surgeons did.

Hakkari State Hospital, Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology1, Hakkari, Yüzüncü Yıl University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology2, Van, Adıyaman State Hospital, Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology3, Adıyaman, Turkey Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease, which may be manifested by multisystemic involvement. While the complications related to musculoskeletal and gastrointestinal system are frequently seen, those related to the other systems are rarely encountered. In this paper, we present a brucellosis lymphadenitis case in the right side of the neck in a 20 years old female patient, presenting with a mass formation in the soft tissue mimicking scrofuloderma, with dimensions of 10x6x4 cm. Especially in endemic areas, brucellosis lymphadenitis should also be remembered in addition to scrofuloderma

Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) is the main endogenous inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase and is considered to be associated with endothelial dysfunction. Brucellosis, a zoonotic disease caused by Brucella spp., can manifest as vasculopathy. The present study was performed to investigate the relationship between ADMA and brucellosis. Serum samples from 39 patients with an accurate diagnosis of brucellosis and from 18 healthy control individuals were included in this study. ADMA levels were significantly higher in the patient group than the controls (P < 0.001). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis indicated that ADMA level a parts per thousand yen0.61 had a sensitivity of 79.5 %, specificity of 88.9 %, positive predictive value of 93.9 %, and negative predictive value of 66.7 %. This is the first report of an association between brucellosis and high levels of ADMA. In conclusion, ADMA levels should be tested in brucellosis cases and that further studies to clarify the mechanism underlying the association between ADMA and brucellosis are required.

WOS: 000318844400014 PubMed: 24426265 Influenza viruses are common respiratory pathogens in humans and can cause serious infection that leads to the development of pneumonia. In this study, the clinical and laboratory features of 36 patients from Turkey who are hospitalized in intensive care unit due to pandemic influenza A (H1N1) associated pneumonia and respiratory failure were retrospectively evaluated. The most common symptoms were cough and fever. Consolidation (36.1 %) and interstitial changes (30.6 %) were the most frequently identified findings on chest radiographs at the time of admission. Six of the patients (16.7 %) died. Mortality occurred in 3 of 13 patients (23.1 %) with underlying disease, whilst it occurred in only 3 of 23 patients (13 %) who were previously healthy. Mortality was found to be significantly associated only with an elevated lactate dehydrogenase level. A significant relationship was determined only between the presence of lymphopenia and acute respiratory distress syndrome and the need for intensive care treatment. The average time elapsed from the onset of the symptoms until admission was 8.67 +/- A 2.87 days for the patients died, and 6.0 +/- A 3.8 days for the patients survived.

The role of infection in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis has been increasingly discussed. Previous studies have suggested that increased myeloperoxidase activity plays an important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the serum myeloperoxidase activity and catalase activity along with lipid hydroperoxide (LOOH) levels in patients with acute brucellosis.Thirty-two patients with brucellosis and 33 healthy controls were enrolled. Serum myeloperoxidase activity, catalase activity and LOOH levels were determined.Serum myeloperoxidase activity and LOOH levels were significantly higher in patients with brucellosis than controls (p0.05, p0.001), while catalase activity were significantly lower (p0.001). LOOH levels were found to be significantly positively correlated with MPO activity (r=0.297, p=0.016) in patients.These results indicate that increased myeloperoxidase activity and decreased catalase activity is associated with increased oxidative stress, which may have a role in atherosclerotic processes in brucellosis patients.

WOS:000334615100001 PubMed: 24669818 Background: Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), the main endogenous inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase, is considered to be associated with endothelial dysfunction. High ADMA levels have been shown to be related with disorders causing vascular inflammation such as hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis, chronic heart failure, stroke and sepsis. Cutaneous anthrax (CA) is a serious infectious disease which may cause vasculitis. The aim of the study was to investigate the serum ADMA levels in patients with CA. Methods: A total of 35 serum samples of the patients with CA and 18 control sera were tested for ADMA levels using ADMA ELISA kit (Immunodiagnostik AG, Bensheim, Germany). Results: ADMA levels were found to be significantly higher in the patients group than the controls (p < 0.001). In addition, ADMA levels were found to be positively associated with sedimentation rates (R = 0.413; p = 0.026), and inversely associated with international normalized ratio (INR) levels (R = -0.46; p = 0.011). A cut-off value of 0.475 of ADMA had a sensitivity of 74.3%, specificity of 77.8%, and accuracy of 75.5% in the diagnosis of CA. Conclusion: Although the exact mechanism still remains unclear, ADMA levels could be related to immune activation in CA. In addition, these data might suggest the higher ADMA levels in patients could be due to the perivascular inflammation and vasculitis in CA.

Background Tuberculosis is a disease that can involve every organ system. While pulmonary tuberculosis is the most common presentation, extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPT) is also an important clinical problem. The current study aimed to outline and compare the demographic and clinical features of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis cases in adults. Methods Medical records of 411 patients (190 women, 221 men) treated between January 2010 and July 2014 in provincial tuberculosis control dispensary was retrospectively reviewed. Demographic and clinical characteristics were compared for pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis cases. Results Of these 411 cases, 208 (50.6 %) had pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and 203 were diagnosed with extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) (49.4 %). The average ages for PTB and EPTB groups were 33.00-27.00 and 31.00-29.75, respectively (p = 0.513). Men were more frequently affected by PTB (59.6 %), while EPTB was more commonly detected in women (52.2 %) (p = 0.016). Main diagnostic modalities for PTB were sputum/smear analyses (72.7 %), clinical-radiological data (21.7 %) and biopsy (6.1 %); while biopsy (71.5 %), sputum/fluid analysis (18.8 %) and clinical-radiological data (4.9 %) were used for confirming EPTB (p