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Cardiotocography (CTG) is a clinical procedure that is used to track and gauge the severity of fetal distress. Although CTG is the most often used equipment to monitor and assess the health of the fetus, the high rate of false positive results due to visual interpretation significantly contributes to needless surgical delivery or delayed intervention. In this study, a novel approach is introduced where both printing CTG paper is digitized and a machine learning approach is employed to detect the abnormality in the digitized CTG signal. Image processing-based preprocessing steps are employed to make the printing of CTG paper more convenient to extract the CTG signal. Various signal-processing techniques are used to calibrate the extracted CTG signal. Then, Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) is used to decompose the CTG signal into its frequency components and instantaneous frequency and spectral entropy features are extracted. After feature normalization and feature selection with ReliefF algorithm, support vector machines (SVM) is used for the classification of the normal and abnormal classes. A novel dataset is used in the experimental works and various performance evaluation metrics are used for the evaluation of the achievement of the proposed method. 10-fold cross-validation-based experiments show that the proposed method is quite efficient in abnormality detection in printing CTG papers where an average accuracy score of around 90.0% is produced.

Background: The objective of this study was to conduct a randomized controlled trial in order to examine the hemodynamic impacts of two different doses of intrathecal isobaric bupivacaine (5 mg and 7 mg) when combined with 15 µg fentanyl in the context of patients undergoing caesarean section under combined spinal epidural anesthesia. Methods: Eighty patients with American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I and II, aged between 16–50 years, who would undergo elective caesarean section under combined spinal epidural anaesthesia were randomly allocated to Group A and Group B (n = 40, for each group). Group A patients received a solution containing 5 mg isobaric bupivacaine + 15 µg fentanyl (1.3 mL), while Group B patients received a solution containing 7 mg isobaric bupivacaine + 15 µg fentanyl (1.7 mL) intrathecally. Incidences of hypotension, intraoperative systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, motor block resolving time, and analgesia duration were recorded. Results: Group A had a substantially lower incidence of hypotension than Group B (p = 0.022). Patients in Group B had significantly lower systolic blood pressure values at the 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 15th, and 30th minutes of the surgery compared to Group A (p = 0.012, p = 0.014, p = 0.005, p = 0.016, p < 0,001, p = 0.002, and p = 0.011; respectively). Both groups had similar diastolic blood pressure and heart rate values during surgery (p > 0.05). The motor block resolving time and analgesia duration were longer in Group B compared to Group A (p < 0.001 for both). Two (5%) patients in Group A and ten (25%) patients in Group B experienced postoperative itching (p = 0.012). Conclusions: We concluded that combining 5 mg isobaric bupivacaine with 15 mcg of fentanyl administered intrathecally provides adequate anaesthesia while maintaining better hemodynamic stability in patients undergoing caesarean section. Clinical Trial Registration: The study has been registered with registration number NCT05136040 on https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?cond=&term=+NCT05136040&cntry=&state=&city=&dist=.

Background We aimed to estimate the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and to determine the relationship between GFR with C-reactive protein (CRP) and uric acid. Materials and Methods In this cross-sectional study, one-hundred and forty PCOS women and 60 healthy subjects were evaluated. The study was carried out at Endocrinol- ogy Outpatient Clinic, Erzurum Training and Research Hospital, Erzurum, Turkey, from December 2010 to January 2011. GFRs were estimated by Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) formula. CRP, urinary albumin excretion (UAE) and uric acid levels were also measured. Results GFRs were significantly higher in PCOS group than control (135.24 ± 25.62 vs. 114.92 ± 24.07 ml/min per 1.73 m2). CRP levels were significantly higher in PCOS patients (4.4 ± 3.4 vs. 2.12 ± 1.5 mg/l). The PCOS group had significantly higher serum uric acid levels (4.36 ± 1.3 mg/dl vs. 3.2 ± 0.73 mg/dl). There was also significantly higher proteinuria level in PCOS patients. Conclusion Even though PCOS patients had higher GFR, serum uric acid and UAE val- ues than control patients, the renal function was within normal limits. Increased GFR in PCOS women positively correlates with elevated serum CRP and uric acid.

In this study, xanthine oxidase (XO), malondialdehyde (MDA), myeloperoxidase (MPO) and glutathione (GSH) levels in the ovarian tissues of rats during the development of ischemia and postischemia-induced reperfusion were investigated, and the effect of ATP on ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) damage was biochemically and histopathologically examined. The results of the biochemical analyses demonstrated that ATP significantly reduced the level of XO and MDA and increased the amount of GSH in both ischemia and I/R-applied ovarian tissue at the doses administered. Furthermore, ATP significantly suppressed the increase in MPO activity that occurred following the application of post ischemia reperfusion in the ovarian tissue. The biochemical results obtained in the present study coincide with the histological findings. The severity of the pathological findings, such as dilatation, congestion, haemorrhage, oedema and polymorphonuclear nuclear leukocytes (PMNLs), increased in parallel with the increase observed in the products of XO metabolism. In conclusion, exogenously applied ATP prevented I/R damage by reducing the formation of XO in ischemic ovarian tissue.

This study investigated the association between fear of childbirth (FOC) and women’s knowledge about painless childbirth methods. The study was performed on 900 multiparous women within the last month of pregnancy. Data was obtained through a questionnaire including the Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire (W-DEQ) Turkish form A. FOC was defined as W-DEQ sum score ≥85. Women were questioned about their knowledge about painless childbirth and the most important source of this knowledge. Group 1 consists of participants with knowledge about painless childbirth. Group 2 consists of participants without knowledge about painless childbirth. Five hundred and twenty-four women (58.2%) had knowledge while 376 women (41.7%) had no knowledge about painless childbirth. Mean W-DEQ scores in group 1 (68.46±12.53) were found to be lower than group 2 (71.35±12.28) (P=0.001). FOC was associated with increased maternal request for elective caesarean section (OR 4.22, 95% CI 2.91–6.11). Better informed pregnant women about painless childbirth methods may reduce the number of women with FOC and the rate of preferred elective caesarean section.

Amaç: Bu çalışmanın amacı, iki aşamalı anket formu kullanarak, elektif sezaryen operasyonu planlanan primipar ve multipar hastaların anestezi yöntemi tercihlerinin karşılaştırılmasıdır. Ayrıca, hastaların anestezi yöntemi tercihini etkileyen faktörlerin tespit edilmesi planlandı. Gereç ve Yöntem: Miad gebeliği olan, elektif sezaryen operasyonu planlanan 100 primipar ve 100 multipar hasta olmak üzere 200 hasta çalışmaya dahil edildi. Hastalardan iki aşamalı anket formununu doldurmaları istendi. Anket formu doldurulduktan sonra bir anestezi uzmanı tarafından anestezi yöntemleri hakkında sözel olarak bilgilendirme yapıldı. Sözel bilgilendirme sonrası hastalara tercih ettikleri anestezi yöntemini değiştirmek isteyip istemedikleri soruldu. Hastaların demografik-obstetrik bilgileri ile anket sorularına verdikleri cevaplar kaydedildi ve veriler uygun istatistiksel testler kullanılarak analiz edildi. Bulgular: Multipar hastalarının 98’i (%98) ve primipar hastalarının 65'i (%65) anestezi tekniği hakkında bilgili sahibiydi (p

Polyphenols which are produced by plants are very important functional foods in our nutrition. Because of their diverse chemical structures, they are subject to main classification among them. The main groups of polyphenols are; flavanoids, lignans, stilbenes and phenolic acids. At the present time, the health effects of them have been investigated in several in vivo and in vitro studies. In addition to their antioxidant effects, they are known to have a pro-oxidant character. Polyphenols have important effects in protecting the body against external factors and the cleansing of reactive oxygen species which occur as a consequence of some diseases. Furthermore, polyphenols have effects on protection from specific diseases and stop their progression with certain mechanisms. In this review, various effects of polyphenols including antioxidant, pro-oxidant, cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory, antihypertensive, anti-diabetic are discussed which obtained from in vitro, in vivo experimental animal and clinical investigations.