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Introduction: This study investigated the clinical and radiological characteristics and demographics of patients who developed pulmonary embolism (PE) after Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) vaccination. Methods: The cases of PE were analyzed retrospectively. Data on clinical, demographic, and radiologic characteristics, laboratory findings, Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index (PESI) scores, early mortality scores, PE severity classes, and risk categories for early mortality (low-risk, intermediate-high-risk, intermediate-low-risk and high-risk) were collected from patient files as defined in the European Society of Cardiology guidelines. Patients were divided into two groups: those who had received a COVID-19 vaccine (group 1) and those who had not (group 2). Patients who developed PE within 1 month after vaccination were analyzed separately. Results: A total of 97 patients were included in the study, of whom 61 (62.9%) patients were female. Seventy-five (77.3%) study patients with PE had a history of COVID-19 vaccination (group 1), and 22 (22.7%) had never been vaccinated (group 2). Five (6.6%) patients had received a vaccine within 1 month before PE developed. No significant differences were found between groups 1 and 2 regarding demographics, clinical and radiologic characteristics, laboratory findings, PESI scores, early mortality scores, and PE severity classes (p>0.05), except for mean pulmonary artery pressures. The mean age of patients who developed PE within 1 month after vaccination was 74.6 years, and 80% of these patients were female. The average time to PE after vaccination was 22.2 days, and the mean PESI score was 86.6. Two patients (40%) were in the low-risk category for early mortality and one patient (20%) was in the intermediate/high-risk category. Conclusion: Overall, the characteristics of patients who developed PE after COVID-19 vaccination were comparable to those of patients who had not received a vaccine injection. No statistically significant increases in the incidence of PE were observed within the first month after being vaccinated.

INTRODUCTION[|]In the management of asthma disease, the aim is to keep the disease under control with treatment. Asthma control test (ACT) is the most widely used and important test that is easily figured out by the patients. This test is filled by the patient during the clinical practice. The present study aims to evaluate how the filling of ACT by the physician will affect the outcome and the concordance of results with clinical and functional parameters.[¤]METHODS[|]Patients who applied to the Outpatient Clinic of Chest Diseases in our Hospital between dates of June–August 2016 and who had at least one year of asthma diagnosis were included in this study. The patients filled their own answers to the ACT before the outpatient clinic examination. The same test was given to the patients by the doctor during physical examination.[¤]RESULTS[|]A total of 105 asthma patients were included in this study whose mean age was 38.8+-13.6 (14–76) years, 58 (55%) of them were female and 47 (44.8%) of them were male. Mean ACT score of the cases was 14.5+-5.8, while it was 13.9+-4.4 in the tests filled by the doctor. 33.3% of the cases were college graduates, 23.8% of them were high school graduates, 38.1% of them were primary school graduates, and 4.8% of them were middle school graduates. A statistically significant difference was detected (p=0.02) between the results of asthma control tests filled by the doctor and that of those filled by the patients. It was detected that the status of education of the patient was the factor with the highest impact on the situation. It was found that ACT results filled by doctors were in higher concordance with clinical and functional parameters.[¤]DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION[|]Our study demonstrated that ACT being filled by the doctor in societies with lower levels of educational status would yield results that were in higher concordance with asthma control.[¤]

INTRODUCTION[|]Pleural effusion is an important problem in cancer patients as it will affect the stage, prognosis and treatment. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish between paramalignant and malignant effusions. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of PET-CT in the evaluation of pleural effusion.[¤]METHODS[|]Patients diagnosed with malignancy and associated pleural effusion and evaluated by PET-CT were prospectively included in this study. SUDmax values of pleural fluid were recorded in consideration of the demographic information and PET-CT findings. In all patients, biochemical parameters, including glucose, LDH, albumin and total protein and pH values of the pleural fluid obtained by thoracentesis, were measured. All pleural fluid samples were sent for cytological evaluation. After cytological evaluation, patients were defined as having malignant or paramalignant pleural effusion and accordingly divided into two groups. The t-test was used to compare SUDmax values between the groups. A chi-square test was used to compare categorical data.[¤]RESULTS[|]A total of 69 patients (30 women [43%] and 39 men [57%]) with a mean age of 63.55 (37–88) years were included in this study. The cytological analysis revealed malignant pleural effusion in 53 patients. In the follow-up of 16 patients, pleural fluid was accepted as of paramalignant nature due to the absence of both atypical cells in the fluid cytology and also clinical findings favoring malignancy. The mean SUDmax value was found to be 1.43 in paramalignant fluids and 1.5 in malignant fluids but without any statistically significant difference. Malignant cytological findings were detected despite the absence of FDG involvement in 23 (33%) cases, including patients with lung cancer (n=13), mesothelioma (n=3), breast cancer (n=2), colon cancer (n=2), ovarian cancer (n=1), gastric cancer (n=1), or endometrial cancer (n=1). PET had a sensitivity of 56.6% and a specificity of 50% in the detection of malignant pleural effusions with a 78.9% positive, and 25.8%negative predictive value.[¤]DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION[|]Distinguishing between malignant and paramalignant effusions according to FDG uptake in pleural fluids may cause misleading results. Therefore, we suggest that advanced diagnostic procedures should be used in cases where the presence of malignant fluid will change the clinical approach.[¤]

Amaç: Akciğerin sarkomatoid karsinomlarının SK klinik ve radyometabolik PET-BT özelliklerinin incelenmesi ve bu özelliklerin sağ kalım üzerine etkisini araştırmak. Gereç ve Yöntem: Ocak 2014-Aralık 2016 arasında akciğer kanseri tanısı alan olguların kayıtları retrospektif olarak incelendi. Küçük hücreli dışı akciğer kanseri KHDAK ve SK tanısı alan olguların dosyaları ayrıldı. Bu olguların klinik ve radyometabolik özellikleri birbirleri ile karşılaştırıldı. Gruplara ait veriler Ki Kare, Mann Whitney U ile karşılaştırıldı. Sağ kalım analizleri Kaplan-Meier, Logrank yöntemi ile hesaplandı. Tüm testlerde p

INTRODUCTION[|]The association of lymphopenia detected in patients with sarcoidosis with disease activity was investigated in the present study.[¤]METHODS[|]Patients who were diagnosed as having sarcoidosis and healthy volunteers/individuals with no diagnosis of active disease between July 2016 and June 2017 were included in this study. Patients who were detected to have an absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) of 80% was 2+-0.7 (p=0.016). A positive correlation was detected between ALC and DLCO% (p=0.044, r=0.230). Although lymphopenia was detected in 42% of patients whose DLCO value was 80% (p=0.01). No significant association was detected among the sarcoidosis stage, symptom, and radiologic findings of the patients with the absolute lymphocyte count (p>0.05). [¤]DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION[|]Lymphopenia is frequently detected in patients with sarcoidosis. Lower DLCO values may be detected in patients with lymphopenic sarcoidosis.[¤]

INTRODUCTION[|]Seasonal and weather changes may affect the development of pulmonary embolism. The effects of seasonal and meteorological factors on mortality are controversial. We aimed to investigate the effects of seasons and meteorological data on patients with a low and high pulmonary embolism severity index and those with 30-day mortality. [¤]METHODS[|]Pulmonary embolism cases were included in our study. Daily pressure, humidity, temperature, and wind values were taken from the general online information by the Directorate of Meteorology. All cases were divided into the low-risk and high-risk group, using a simplified pulmonary embolism severity index. [¤]RESULTS[|]Eighty-six patients diagnosed with pulmonary thromboembolism were included in the study. Comparison between the two groups revealed that the disease was detected during winter in the high-risk group (31.3%) and during summer in the low-risk group (59.1%) (p=0.011). No statistically significant results were found on the day of diagnosis and pressure, humidity, temperature, and wind averages on the 7th day based on the severity index (p>0.05). There were no statistically significant results detected when comparing the average air pressure, humidity, air temperature, season, and wind for mortality in 30 days (p>0.05). [¤]DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION[|]In the light of these data, it was determined that seasonal and meteorological factors had no effect on mortality in pulmonary embolism.[¤]

Semiclassical JWKB method and method of modified Airy functions (MAF) are the fundamental conventional tools in quantum mechanical and optical waveguide systems and yet their classical mechanical applicability has somehow escaped much attention. In this work, semiclassical JWKB and MAF solution of a classical mechanical problem regarding the Lengthening Pendulum (LP) is being studied to reinforce the power of the semiclassical methods in this aspect. Here, JWKB and MAF solutions of the associated Bessel’s equation is being obtained by transforming it first into one of the normal forms via change of dependent variable on the contrary to our previous work where change of independent variable was used for the JWKB solution. By the same motivation for the suggested change of dependent variable here, we once again, obtain advantageous results in comparison to the conventional numerical exact solutions given in the literature where adiabatic LP systems with very low lengthening rates are required. We obtain both JWKB and MAF approximated Bessel functions successfully and our semiclassical solutions for the LP system works with a great accuracy even for much higher lengthening rates in comparison to these conventional numerical methods. Here we study under what conditions our semiclassical solutions can give accurate results by using the conventional JWKB and MAF applicability criteria. In effect, the semiclassical JWKB and MAF methods which is normally known to be used in quantum mechanical and optical waveguide systems are being used to solve the pure classical-mechanical LP system successfully and advantageously here and the applicability criteria of these semiclassical methods in terms of the physical LP system parameters are being determined and presented.