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Background/objectives: Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices directly affect child health, development, and survival, especially under 2 years of age and ultimately affect adult life well-being. As the primary caregivers of the children, mothers with higher health literacy may better perceive the benefits of optimal complementary feeding practices, leading to improved health outcomes for their children. In this study, we aimed to assess complementary feeding practices among children aged 6-23 months in Turkey according to 2021 World Health Organization IYCF indicators [minimum dietary diversity (MDD); minimum meal frequency (MMF); minimum acceptable diet (MAD); egg and/or flesh food consumption (EFF); sweet beverage consumption (SwB); unhealthy food consumption (UFC); zero vegetable or fruit consumption (ZVF); and bottle feeding (BoF)] and investigate their associations with sociodemographic characteristics and mothers' health literacy., Methods: With a descriptive study design, we reached 572 mothers of children aged 6-23 months from five regions of Turkey. We used the Turkey Health Literacy Scale-32 (TSOY-32) to assess mothers' health literacy., Results: While maternal and child age are significantly associated with more complementary feeding practices, specifically MDD, MAD, and EFF, having multiple children has negative impacts on several complementary feeding indicators, including MDD, MMF, MAD, UFC, and ZVF. The only indicator associated with mothers' TSOY-32 scores was zero fruit and vegetable consumption., Conclusion: Raising awareness among mothers about the importance of complementary feeding practices and identification of vulnerable groups will guide practitioners and policymakers to improve child health and nutrition.

Importance: Cancer was a common noncommunicable disease in Syria before the present conflict and is now a major disease burden among 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey. Data to inform health care practice are needed., Objective: To explore sociodemographic characteristics, clinical characteristics, and treatment outcomes of Syrian patients with cancer residing in the southern border provinces of Turkey hosting more than 50% of refugees., Design, Setting, and Participants: This was a retrospective hospital-based cross-sectional study. The study sample consisted of all adult and children Syrian refugees diagnosed and/or treated for cancer between January 1, 2011, and December 31, 2020, in hematology-oncology departments of 8 university hospitals in the Southern province of Turkey. Data were analyzed from May 1, 2022, to September 30, 2022., Main Outcomes and Measures: Demographic characteristics (date of birth, sex, and residence), date of first cancer-related symptom, date and place of diagnosis, disease status at first presentation, treatment modalities, date and status at last hospital visit, and date of death. The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision and International Classification of Childhood Cancers, Third Edition, were used for the classification of cancer. The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results system was applied for staging. The diagnostic interval was defined as the number of days from first symptoms until the diagnosis. Treatment abandonment was documented if the patient did not attend the clinic within 4 weeks of a prescribed appointment throughout the treatment., Results: A total of 1114 Syrian adult and 421 Syrian children with cancer were included. The median age at diagnosis was 48.2 (IQR, 34.2-59.4) years for adults and 5.7 (IQR, 3.1-10.7) years for children. The median diagnostic interval was 66 (IQR, 26.5-114.3) days for adults and 28 (IQR, 14.0-69.0) days for children. Breast cancer (154 [13.8%]), leukemia and multiple myeloma (147 [13.2%]), and lymphoma (141 [12.7%]) were common among adults, and leukemias (180 [42.8%]), lymphomas (66 [15.7%]), and central nervous system neoplasms (40 [9.5%]) were common among children. The median follow-up time was 37.5 (IQR, 32.6-42.3) months for adults and 25.4 (IQR, 20.9-29.9) months for children. The 5-year survival rate was 17.5% in adults and 29.7% in children., Conclusions and Relevance: Despite universal health coverage and investment in the health care system, low survival rates were reported in this study for both adults and children with cancer. These findings suggest that cancer care in refugees requires novel planning within national cancer control programs with global cooperation.

Objective: In previous studies, it has been shown that both simvastatin (chlolesterollowering drug) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) were capable of promoting bone formation. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of PRP and simvastatin on healing of critical-size bone defects., Methods: A total of 33 rats (3 for PRP preparation) were used in the experiment. Critical-size defect 8-mm diameter was created in 30 rats' calvarium. Rats were divided into 3 groups. Each group contained 10 animals. In Group A the defect was filled with phosphate-buffered saline only, in Group B with 0.5 mL PRP, and in Group C with 0.1 mg simvastatin. The defects were evaluated by radiographic analysis at 8th and 16th weeks. The animals were sacrificed 16 weeks after the surgery. Histological examination was performed to assess the new bone-forming area. Vessels, fibroblasts, osteoblasts, and osteoclasts were marked in 524749.1-μm area and counted with using Clemex Vision Lite 3.5 Image Analysis program. The results were statistically analyzed.

The sensitivity and specificity of bloody diarrhea in the diagnosis of shigella gastroenteritis in a Shigella sonnei prevalent center was investigated. The shigella-proven gastroenteritis cases who were admitted to Hacettepe University Ihsan Doğramaci Children's Hospital Diarrheal Diseases Unit (Jan 2003 - Oct 2006) constituted the study group (n=65). Age- and sex-matched children admitting to the same center with non-shigella diarrhea constituted the control group (n=65). The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of bloody diarrhea were found to be 30%, 100%, 100% and 58%, respectively. Sensitivity of bloody diarrhea in the diagnosis of shigella gastroenteritis was low in this center. New strategies and recommendations in the management of mild nonbloody cases are needed.

We aimed to discuss the risk assessments of patients with hip fractures due to the fall-related moderate or minimal trauma and compare them with non-fractured control patients by bone mineral density (BMD) and proximal femur geometric measurements to assess whether geometric measurements of femoral dimensions were associated with femoral strength and hip fracture risk. Forty-two osteoporotic patients with proximal femur fracture and 40 osteoporotic non-fractured age and gender-matched controls were included in the study. Lunar DXA was used for BMD measurements and proximal femur geometric measurements were performed manually on direct X-rays as hip axial length (HAL), femoral length (FL), and femoral neck width (FW). The trochanteric and total BMD values of the fracture group were significantly lower than the control group. There was a significant increase in FW/FL ratio in the fracture group that would be of specific importance for guidance: if FL values did not increase as did FW, it would point out a risk for fracture. The trochanteric BMD values were correlated with all increased measurements in the control group. There are genetically determined adaptive differences among individuals concerning bone morphology and bone mineral distribution. These different adaptations result in different bone strengths and fracture formation risk., ((c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

In this study we aimed to evaluate the in vivo effects of myrtle oil (myrtii oleum) on the antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase and catalase, the levels of malondialdehyde in liver tissues as an index of lipid peroxidation and nitrite-nitrate levels in normoglycaemic and alloxan-induced diabetic and MO-treated rabbits. In our previous study, we assumed that MO with a dose of 50 mg/kg, possesses a hypoglycemic activity and this activity was independent from the effects of insulin. Myrtle oil exerts its hypoglycemic activity by enhanced glycolysis, glycogenesis and decreased glycogenolysis. What is more glucose load data strongly suggest that MO treatment produces hypoglycemia mainly by reducing intestinal absorption of glucose, so MO could be an alpha-glycosidase enzyme inhibitor which had a hypoglycaemic effect only on alloxan-induced diabetic rabbits on the fourth hour and on orally glucose loaded group. The major finding of this new study is that, MO may not offer any protection against oxidative stress during acute studies in normoglycemic and diabetic groups. Although the levels of superoxide dismutase and catalase enzyme activities did not change during acute studies in diabetes + MO group, there was a significant change at the end of 21 days. There is a very limited knowledge about MO and its effects on diabetes. Therefore, we tried to explain the mechanism that might underlie the protective effects of MO with this paper.

There is emerging evidence that matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) might be involved in blood brain barrier (BBB) breakdown in multiple sclerosis. A group of natural tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPS) regulates proteolytic activity to prevent tissue damage. TIMP-1 and MMP-9 are known to be secreted as heterodimers and TIMP-1 preferentially functions to inhibit MMP-9 activity. In this present study, the effects of IFNbeta-1a on serum MMP-9 and TIMP-1 were evaluated longitudinally during a one-year period. The MMP-9 levels showed no significant changes while TIMP-1 levels gradually and significantly increased during 3rd and 6th months of therapy compared with pretreatment levels.