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Aim: COVID-19 is a virus capable of causing cardiovascular complications. This study investigates whether any cardiac effect is present in patients presenting with suspected COVID-19 in the light of Electrocardiography (ECG) findings.Material and Method: This prospective study involved patients with chest pain presenting to the pandemic clinic with suspected COVID-19. Patients were divided into two groups based on their PCR results, PCR-positive and -negative. All participants’ demographic characteristics, presentation symptoms and the duration thereof, physical examination findings, laboratory results, and ECG findings were recorded. Patients with positive PCR results were invited for checks on the 15th day, when repeat ECG was performed. Results: A-50 patients with positive PCR results and 50 with negative PCR results were included in the study. The mean age of the entire patient group was 52.30±16.02 years, and 56% were women. No difference was determined between the positive and negative PCR result patients in terms of age or sex (p=0.116; 0.687, respectively). Presentation high sensitive cardiac Troponin (hs-cTn) levels were significantly higher in the patients with positive PCR results than in the PCR-negative patients (p, Amaç: COVID-19 kardiyovasküler komplikasyonlara neden olabilen bir virüstür. Bu çalışmada, COVID-19 şüphesi ile başvuran göğüs ağrılı hastalarda kardiyak etkilenme olup olmadığı Elektrokardiyografi (EKG) bulguları eşliğinde araştırılmıştır.Gereç ve Yöntem: Bu çalışma, Pandemi polikliniğine COVID-19 şüphesi ile başvuran göğüs ağrılı hastalar üzerinde prospektif olarak yapıldı. Hastalar PCR sonucuna göre: PCR sonucu pozitif ve negatif olmak üzere iki gruba ayrıldı. Tüm katılımcıların demografik özellikleri, başvuru şikayetleri ve şikayetlerinin mevcudiyet süresi, fizik muayene bulguları, laboratuvar sonuçları ve EKG bulguları kaydedildi. PCR sonucu pozitif olan hastalar, 15. günde kontrole çağırılarak yeniden EKG çekildi. Bulgular: Çalışmaya 50 PCR sonucu pozitif ve 50 PCR sonucu negatif hasta dahil edildi. Tüm hastaların yaş ortalaması 52.30±16.02/yıl ve %56’sı kadındı. PCR sonucu pozitif olanlarla PCR sonucu negatif olanlar arasında yaş ve cinsiyet bakımından farklılık saptanmadı (Sırasıyla p=0.116; 0.687). Başvuru yüksek duyarlıklı kardiyak Troponin (hs-cTn) düzeyi, PCR sonucu pozitif olanlarda PCR sonucu negatif olanlara göre anlamlı olarak daha yüksekti (p

Objective: The COVID-19 virus has become a global threat by spreading all over the world. Countries are often unprepared for pandemics or other disasters, especially in the beginning, they experience organizational problems and the health system is adversely affected by this situation. The aim of this study is to analyze the patients who applied to the emergency department from the date of the first case in our country to the first day of the normalization process and to investigate the effects of different restraint decisions on the emergency patient characteristics.Material and Methods: This study was carried out retrospectively on patients who applied to the emergency department of Kırıkkale University Medical Faculty Hospital between 11.03.2020 and 01.06.2020. During this period, the dates of the critical restriction decisions regarding the pandemic were determined, and the patients were divided into four different periods according to the time of admission. Period-I: Between 11 March and 21 March, Period-II: Between 21 March and 3 April, Period-III: Between 3 April and 4 May, and Period-IV: Between 4 May and 1 June. Demographic data, application forms, units for which consultation was requested, diagnoses and hospitalization status of all patients were recorded. Obtained data were evaluated with SPSS 22.0 program and p, Amaç: COVID-19 virüsü tüm dünyaya yayılarak küresel bir tehdit haline gelmiştir. Ülkeler pandemi veya diğer afetler karşısında çoğu zaman hazırlıksız olup, özellikle başlangıçta organizasyon problemleri yaşamakta ve sağlık sistemi bu durumdan olumsuz etkilenmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, ülkemizde ilk vakanın görüldüğü tarihten, normalleşme sürecinin başladığı ilk güne kadarki süreçte acil servise başvuran hastaları analiz ederek, alınan farklı kısıtlama kararlarının acil hasta karakteristiği üzerine etkilerini araştırmaktır. Gereç ve yöntemler:Bu çalışma 11.03.2020 ile 01.06.2020 tarihleri arasında Kırıkkale Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Hastanesi acil servisine başvuran hastalar üzerinde retrospektif olarak yapıldı. Bu dönem içerisinde pandemi ile ilgili alınan kritik kısıtlama kararlarına ait tarihler belirlenerek, hastalar başvuru zamanlarına göre dört farklı döneme ayrıldı. Dönem-I: 11 Mart – 21 Mart tarihleri arası, Dönem-II: 21 Mart – 3 Nisan tarihleri arası, Dönem-III: 3 Nisan – 4 Mayıs tarihleri arası ve Dönem-IV: 4 Mayıs – 1 Haziran arası dönemleri kapsıyordu. Tüm hastaların demografik verileri, başvuru şekilleri, konsültasyon istenen birimler, tanıları ve hastaneye yatış durumları kaydedildi. Elde edilen veriler SPSS 22.0 programı ile değerlendirildi ve p

The precisionFDA Truth Challenge V2 aimed to assess the state of the art of variant calling in challenging genomic regions. Starting with FASTQs, 20 challenge participants applied their variant-calling pipelines and submitted 64 variant call sets for one or more sequencing technologies (Illumina, PacBio HiFi, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies). Submissions were evaluated following best practices for benchmarking small variants with updated Genome in a Bottle benchmark sets and genome stratifications. Challenge submissions included numerous innovative methods, with graph-based and machine learning methods scoring best for short-read and long-read datasets, respectively. With machine learning approaches, combining multiple sequencing technologies performed particularly well. Recent developments in sequencing and variant calling have enabled benchmarking variants in challenging genomic regions, paving the way for the identification of previously unknown clinically relevant variants.

A direct way to spot structural features that are universally shared among proteins is to find proper analogues from simpler condensed matter systems. In most cases, sphere-packing arguments provide a straightforward route for structural comparison, as they successfully characterize a wide array of materials such as close packed crystals, dense liquids, and structural glasses. In the current study, the feasibility of creating ensembles of artificial structures that can automatically reproduce a large number of geometrical and topological descriptors of globular proteins is investigated. Towards this aim, a simple cubic (SC) arrangement is shown to provide the best background lattice after a careful analysis of the residue packing trends from 210 proteins. It is shown that a minimalistic set of ground rules imposed on this lattice is sufficient to generate structures that can mimic real proteins. In the proposed method, 210 such structures are generated by randomly removing residues (beads) from clusters that have a SC lattice arrangement until a predetermined residue concentration is achieved. All generated structures are checked for residue connectivity such that a path exists between any two residues. Two additional sets are prepared from the initial structures via random relaxation and a reverse Monte Carlo simulated annealing (RMC-SA) algorithm, which targets the average radial distribution function (RDF) of 210 globular proteins. The initial and relaxed structures are compared to real proteins via RDF, bond orientational order parameters, and several descriptors of network topology. Based on these features, results indicate that the structures generated with 40% occupancy via the proposed method closely resemble real residue networks. The broad correspondence established this way indicates a non-superficial link between the residue networks and the defect laden cubic crystalline order. The presented approach of identifying a minimalistic set of operations performed on a target lattice such that each resulting cluster possess structural characteristics largely indistinguishable from that of a coarse-grained globular protein opens up new venues in structural characterization, native state recognition, and rational design of proteins.

Objective: Methanol poisoning has become a frequently encountered type of poisoning in our country recently. In case of poisoning, mortality and morbidity rates can be reduced by rapidly recognizing and treating the cases. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between survival and the demographic characteristics, physical examination findings and laboratory results of methanol poisoning patients admitted to the emergency department.Material and Methods: Patients were divided into 2 different groups as exitus after methanol poisoning and survivors after methanol poisoning. Demographic characteristics, presentation complaints, physical examination findings and laboratory results and clinical outcomes of all patients were recorded. Chi-square, Student t-test and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to compare the groups. A value of p, Amaç: Metanol zehirlenmesi ülkemizde son zamanlarda sıkça karşılaşılan bir zehirlenme türüdür. Zehirlenme durumunda vakaların hızla tanınıp tedavi altına alınması sayesinde mortalite ve morbidite oranları azaltılabilir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, acil servise başvuran metanol zehirlenmesi hastalarının demografik özellikleri, fizik muayene bulguları ve laboratuvar sonuçları ile sağ kalım arasındaki ilişkiyi araştırmaktır.Gereç ve Yöntemler: Hastalar metanol zehirlenmesi sonrası eksitus olanlar ve hayatta kalanlar olmak üzere 2 farklı gruba ayrıldı. Tüm hastaların demografik özellikleri, başvuru şikayetleri, fizik muayene bulguları ve laboratuvar sonuçları ve klinik sonlanımları kaydedildi. Grupların karşılaştırılmasında Chi-square, Student t-test ve Mann-Whitney U testi kullanıldı. p

Graph-based genome reference representations have seen significant development, motivated by the inadequacy of the current human genome reference to represent the diverse genetic information from different human populations and its inability to maintain the same level of accuracy for non-European ancestries. While there have been many efforts to develop computationally efficient graph-based toolkits for NGS read alignment and variant calling, methods to curate genomic variants and subsequently construct genome graphs remains an understudied problem that inevitably determines the effectiveness of the overall bioinformatics pipeline. In this study, we discuss obstacles encountered during graph construction and propose methods for sample selection based on population diversity, graph augmentation with structural variants and resolution of graph reference ambiguity caused by information overload. Moreover, we present the case for iteratively augmenting tailored genome graphs for targeted populations and demonstrate this approach on the whole-genome samples of African ancestry. Our results show that population-specific graphs, as more representative alternatives to linear or generic graph references, can achieve significantly lower read mapping errors and enhanced variant calling sensitivity, in addition to providing the improvements of joint variant calling without the need of computationally intensive post-processing steps.

SummaryThe precisionFDA Truth Challenge V2 aimed to assess the state-of-the-art of variant calling in difficult-to-map regions and the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC). Starting with FASTQ files, 20 challenge participants applied their variant calling pipelines and submitted 64 variant callsets for one or more sequencing technologies (~35X Illumina, ~35X PacBio HiFi, and ~50X Oxford Nanopore Technologies). Submissions were evaluated following best practices for benchmarking small variants with the new GIAB benchmark sets and genome stratifications. Challenge submissions included a number of innovative methods for all three technologies, with graph-based and machine-learning methods scoring best for short-read and long-read datasets, respectively. New methods out-performed the 2016 Truth Challenge winners, and new machine-learning approaches combining multiple sequencing technologies performed particularly well. Recent developments in sequencing and variant calling have enabled benchmarking variants in challenging genomic regions, paving the way for the identification of previously unknown clinically relevant variants.

Purpose. To compare perioperative visual field (VF), balance functions (BF), and changes in the other ocular parameters in patients undergoing upper eyelid dermatochalasis (DC) surgery. Methods. One hundred and fifty-eight eyes of 79 patients who underwent DC surgery were included in the study. The VF, BF, intraocular pressure (IOP), pachymetry (PM), macular, and optic nerve measurements were recorded. Measurements were repeated at postoperative month 1. The preoperative and postoperative ocular measurements and the balance data were compared. Results. Nineteen of 79 (24.05%) patients were male and 60 of 79 (75.95%) were female, while the mean age of the patients was 58.65 ± 7.38 years. There were statistically significant differences in terms of VF and macular thickness between the preoperative and postoperative values. The improvements in mean defect, standard loss variance, and mean sensitivity values of global VF parameters in both eyes were statistically significant after surgery. Central macular thickness, mean macular thickness, and macular volume decreased significantly in all eyes after surgery (p<0.05). Conclusions. Although a marked improvement was observed in VF and peripheral vision after surgery, no significant change was found in BF parameters including primarily falling risk. The significant change in the macular parameters was only remarkable, and we think that the decrease was due to subtle vasospasm. There is a need for further comprehensive studies including especially patients older than 65 with a view to understanding the effect of DC surgery on BF.

INTRODUCTION: To evaluate the results of limbal conjunctival autograft transplantation (LCAT) in patients with primary and recurrent pterygium.METHODS: Forty-two eyes of 38 patients were included in the study. 26 of them were primary, while 16 were recurrent pterygium. Limbal conjunctival autograft transplantation was performed after the pterygium excision to all eyes. Patients having a follow-up of at least 12 months were evaluated with respect to demographic data, pterygium grade, surgical complications, recurrence rate, refractive astigmatism and visual acuity.RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 44 ± 8.5. Twenty-six (68.4%) patients were male and 12 (31.6%) were female. No recurrence were observed in primary pterygium group, whereas two recurrences were observed in recurrent pterygium group. The overall recurrence rate was 4.7%. Buttonhole complication occurred while forming the graft in three patients. Conjunctival inclusion cyst developed in 2 patients with recurrent pterygium.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Limbal conjunctival autograft transplantation seems to be an effective and safe surgical option in both primary and recurrent pterygiums., GİRİŞ ve AMAÇ: Primer ve rekürren pterjiyumlu olgularda gerçekleştirdiğimiz limbal konjonktival otogreft transplantasyonu (LCAT) sonuçlarını değerlendirmek.YÖNTEM ve GEREÇLER: Çalışmaya 38 hastanın 42 gözü dahil edildi. Bunlardan 26’sı primer iken 16’sı rekürren pterjiyumdu. Tüm gözlere pterjiyum eksizyonu ile birlikte limbal konjonktival otogreft transplantasyonu uygulandı. En az 12 ay boyunca takip edilen hastalar, demografik veriler, pterjiyum evresi, cerrahi komplikasyonlar, nüks oranı, refraktif astigmatizma ve görme keskinliği açısından değerlendirildi.BULGULAR: Hastaların ortalama yaşı 44 ± 8.5 idi. Hastaların 26’sı (% 68.4) hasta erkek, 12'si (% 31.6) kadındı. Primer pterjium grubunda nüks görülmezken, tekrarlayan pterjium grubunda iki nüks gözlendi. Toplam nüks oranı %4.7 idi. Üç hastada greft oluşturulurken düğme iliği (buttonhole) komplikasyonu meydana geldi. Rekürren pterjiyumlu 2 hastada konjonktival inklüzyon kisti gelişti.TARTIŞMA ve SONUÇ: Hem primer hem de rekürren pterjiyum tedavisinde limbal konjonktival otogreft transplantasyonu etkili ve güvenilir bir cerrahi seçenek olarak gözükmektedir.

Ayan, Ayse/0000-0001-9488-2611; Kucuk, Mehmet Fatih/0000-0002-2548-7869; EROL, Muhammet Kazim/0000-0002-1720-8065 WOS: 000492324700003 PubMed: 31650451 Aims Determining whether nailfold capillary involvement is present in patients with Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and whether there are different nailfold capillaroscopy findings between wet and dry types. Methods From January 2016 to December 2017, with an initial diagnosis of AMD, 53 consecutive adult patients (AMD group) and 91 age- and sex-matched healthy individuals were studied prospectively. There was no history of any other ocular disease and other disease affecting nailfold capillaries. All subjects underwent a complete ophthalmic examination. The classified and advanced stages of wet and dry types were not included. All nailfold capillaroscopy examinations were performed by the same rheumatologist. Results It was found that the frequency of major capillaroscopic findings such as capillary ectasia, micro-hemorrhage, tortuosity, neo-formation, bizarre capillary, and bushy capillaries increased in the AMD group according to the normal group, but no significant relationship was found for capillary aneurysm. In dry or wet type of AMD in terms of ectasia, micro-hemorrhage, tortuosity, neo-formation, bizarre structure, bushy structure, or aneurism of nailfold capillaries, no significant correlation was found. Conclusions Nailfold capillaroscopy can detect microvascular changes in the nailfold capillary, in early and late stages of AMD. There were morphological changes in the nailfold capillaries of AMD patients, suggesting that there are systemic superficial microvascular changes that may be due to the systemic nature of the disease.

To evaluate the effect of colour discrimination ability on the stereoscopic acuity by comparing individuals having congenital colour vision deficiency (CCVD) with healthy individuals.A comparative study.The study included 53 binocular males, of whom 26 (mean age, 36.04 ± 9.30 years) were in the healthy group and 27 (mean age, 33.04 ± 9.81 years) were in the CCVD group.The following tests were used: the Ishihara pseudo-isochromatic plate test for detecting CCVD, the Farnsworth Munsell 100 (FM100) hue test for colour discrimination ability, the TNO and Titmus stereo tests for stereoscopic acuity.In the CCVD group, 20 males were deutan and 7 males were protan. According to the FM100 hue test, total error score (TES), blue/yellow (b/y) local error score (LES), and red/green LES were significantly lower in the healthy group (30.23 ± 18.78, 15.15 ± 10.38, and 13.88 ± 11.93, respectively) than in the CCVD group (133.59 ± 67.45, 41.15 ± 22.03, and 89.15 ± 52.16, respectively) (p0.01 for each). The stereo test scores revealed significantly higher stereoscopic acuity in the healthy group (43.85 ± 33.92 arcsec for the TNO test and 40.00 ± 0.00 arcsec for the Titmus test) than in the CCVD group (93.33 ± 90.51 arcsec for TNO stereo test and 52.96 ± 24.62 arcsec for the Titmus test) (p0.05 for each). The TNO test score was significantly and positively correlated with the TES (r = 0.390, p = 0.049) and b/y LES (r = 0.490, p = 0.011) in the healthy group.Colour discrimination ability affected stereoscopic acuity. Moreover, stereoscopic acuity increased with increasing colour discrimination ability, which could be originated from the b/y colour region.

A 33-year-old male presented to our clinic with low vision in both eyes that started during the previous week. Visual acuity was 20/63 in the right eye and 20/50 in the left eye. Fundus examination revealed signs of hypertensive retinopathy; thus, a multidisciplinary approach was adopted for the diagnosis and treatment of this patient. We consulted the nephrology and cardiology departments on this case. Upon diagnosing malignant hypertension and renal failure, the patient was put on hemodialysis. His visual acuity was 20/20 at 6 months, whereas foveal assessment on optical coherence tomography angiography revealed neither marked superficial and deep capillary density loss and foveal avascular zone enlargement nor a decrease in disc flow and radial peripapillary capillary density. Early diagnosis and treatment of malignant hypertension are critical in preventing progression of end-organ damage including the eyes. Optical coherence tomography angiography may be useful in cases when fundus fluorescein angiography is relatively contraindicated (e.g., renal failure).

Objective Silent sinus syndrome (SSS) is a clinical syndrome that occurs as a result of chronic maxillary sinus atelectasis (CMA) and is seen with progressive enophthalmos and hypoglobus. The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between radiological findings and clinical findings in patients with radiologically asymmetrical reduced maxillary sinus volume. Material and method A comparison was made of patients with CMA through evaluation of paranasal sinus computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging examination of maxillary sinus volume of the CMA side and the contralateral side, thickness of the retroantral fat tissue, infraorbital bone curve, uncinate process lateralisation measurement, middle concha diameter, and calculation of the change in location of the inferior rectus muscle. Results The study included 16 patients. Although a statistically significant difference was determined between the healthy and the pathological sides in respect to maxillary sinus volume, thickness of the retroantral fat tissue, infraorbital bone curve, uncinate process lateralisation measurement, and middle concha diameter (p = 0.00, p = 0.002, p = 0.020, p = 0.020, p = 0.007), no significant difference was determined in respect to the change in location of the inferior rectus muscle (p = 0.154). A positive correlation was determined between the increase in sulcus depth and maxillary sinus volume and inferior orbital bone curve (p Conclusion In CMA patients suspected of having SSS, radiological maxillary sinus volume analysis, determination of retroantral fat thickness, measurement of the infraorbital bone curve, and measurement of the uncinate process lateralisation can be used as objective tests. However, it should be kept in mind that radiological findings may not always be compatible with the ophthalmological examination findings.

PurposeJuvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) is commonly associated with photoparoxysmal response (PPR) with a reported prevalence of 25–42%. In this study, we aim to explore the relationship between the PPR and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) parameters in order to determine whether optic nerve fiber layer or other structural differences have a pathophysiological role of photosensitivity in patients with JME.MethodsWe studied 53 consecutive patients with Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) at our outpatient department. The interictal electroencephalogram (EEG) findings for each patient were analyzed for the presence of photoparoxysmal features. The peripapillary Retina Nerve Fiber Layer (RNFL) thickness, ganglion cell thickness, macular thickness and choroid thickness levels were analyzed using OCT.ResultsWe classified the patients into two groups as those with PPR (Group 1) and those without PPR (Group 2). There were statistically significant differences in the average RNFL thickness values of the left eye between the two groups (p