Human & experimental toxicology
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Food-borne botulism is a rare disease that results from ingestion of the toxins produced by Clostridium botulinum. The most common cause of the disease is the consumption of home-canned foods prepared under inappropriate conditions, especially in rural environments. ⋯ The clinical features, symptoms and prognosis of the five botulism patients involved in this outbreak are presented. The clinical progressions, treatments, durations of mechanical ventilation, intensive care unit stays and hospital stays of the three patients admitted to Akdeniz University Hospital are reported.
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As acute poisoning continues to be an important public health problem, and represents a frequent cause of admission in emergency departments, there is a constant need to have up to date information about it. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the demographical, aetiological and clinical characteristics of acute poisonings who were admitted to a university hospital in the south part of Turkey. ⋯ Further studies are necessary to collect more data and these data will be helpful not only for determining risk factors of acute poisonings but also for developing education and prevention programmes.
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The aim of this study was to investigate the possible beneficial effects of Nigella sativa (NS) in comparison to methylprednisolone on experimental spinal cord injury (SCI) in rats. SCI was performed by placing an aneurysm clip extradurally at the level of T11-12. Rats were neurologically tested over 24 h after trauma and spinal cord tissue samples were harvested for both biochemical and histopathological evaluation. ⋯ The morphology of neurons in methylprednisolone and NS-treated groups were well protected, however, not as well as the neurons of the control group. The number of neurons in the spinal cord tissue of the SCI and placebo groups was significantly less than the control, laminectomy, methylprednisolone and NS-treated groups. In conclusion, NS treatment might be beneficial in spinal cord tissue damage, and therefore shows potential for clinical implications.
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Comparative Study
Oxidative stress in operating room personnel: occupational exposure to anesthetic gases.
Health professionals exposed to anesthetic gases are at higher risk of reproductive, neurological, hematological, immunological, hepatic and renal system diseases. We investigated if oxidative stress induced by chronic exposure to anesthetic gases has any association with this matter. Plasma lipid peroxidation, total antioxidant capacity and total thiol molecule levels were measured in 66 operating room staff in comparison with 66 controls. ⋯ Total antioxidant capacity of the body was no different among exposed and not exposed subjects. Increased lipid peroxidation in the blood of exposed subjects warns that oxygen free radicals have increased in the body and thus might attack cells, which, in the long-term, results in multi-organ damage. The remaining blood total antioxidant capacity at normal values is promising and means that other non-thiol antioxidants, such as uric acid, transferrin, ceruloplasmin, albumin, and vitamin antioxidants, such as alpha-tocopherol and ascorbic acid, have been stimulated to maintain the total anti-oxidant power of the body at normal state.
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In our previous in situ hybridization study in the adult rat spinal cord we demonstrated that only neurons express mRNAs for acetylcholinesterase (AChE; EC 3.1.1.7.) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE; EC 3.1.1.8.) in this CNS region; no staining was detected for these two messages in the glia cells. Here we used immunocytochemical staining for choline acetyltransferase (ChAT; EC 2.3.1.6.) to answer the, as yet only briefly approached, question whether the cells expressing the messages for both cholinesterases are cholinergic. All neurons expressing mRNAs for AChE and BuChE were found to be ChAT positive. This finding supports the previous proposal that BuChE modulates cholinergic transmission in AChE knockout mice.