Turk J Med Sci
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Immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD), is an immune-mediated fibroinflammatory condition, which may involve multiple organs and mostly presents with high serum IgG4 levels and specific histopathological characteristics. As IgG4-RD is a relatively new entity the etiology, prevalence and epidemiologic knowledge is quite limited. Although involvement of almost all anatomical regions has been reported, the most commonly affected regions are pancreas, lacrimal glands, salivary glands, retroperitoneum, orbita, lymph nodes, kidney and lungs. Diagnosis is made with combined evaluation of clinical, radiological and histopathological findings. Typical histopathological features include storiform fibrosis, dense lymphoplasmacytic infiltrates and obliterative phlebitis. Its course is typically marked by remission and relapsing attacks and it may lead to fibrosis, destructive lesions in tissues and organ failure unless promptly treated. In the treatment of IgG4-RD, many approaches including surgical resection of tissues, systemic glucocorticoids, steroid-sparing immunosuppressive drugs, and biological agents are employed. Although association is not clear, malignancies are frequently reported in IgG4-RD patients. Therefore, it is prudent to monitor patients for the symptoms of malignant diseases. ⋯ In this review, recent advances in clinico-pathological characteristics, diagnosis, and treatment of IgG4–RD are discussed.
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Behçet’s disease (BD) is a systemic and inflammatory disorder that is mainly present along the ancient Silk Road, from the Mediterranean Sea to East Asia. A wide range of prevalence figures (0.1–420/100,000) have been reported for BD, also among Turkish populations of similar genetic background living in different countries. ⋯ It was hypothesized that a decline in infectious diseases, especially dental/periodontal infections, associated with the improvement in oral health, could be a part of these changes in the disease expression. Further epidemiological studies in other populations might demonstrate whether there is a worldwide similar trend and may provide a better understanding of the triggering factors for the onset and course of BD.
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Liver transplantation (LT) remains the only therapeutic option offering gold standard treatment for end-stage liver disease (ESLD) and acute liver failure (ALF), as well as for certain early-stage liver tumors. Currently, the greatest challenge facing LT is the simple fact that there are not enough adequate livers for all the potential patients that could benefit from LT. Despite efforts to expand the donor pool to include living and deceased donors, organ shortage is still a major problem in many countries. ⋯ However, the majority of patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis who fail medical therapy will not live long enough to meet this requirement. Besides, the initial results of early liver transplantation (ELT) without waiting for 6 months of abstinence period are satisfactory in severe alcoholic hepatitis (SAH). It will be important to take care of these patients from a newer perspective.
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Dynamic thiol-disulfide homeostasis (TDH) is a new area has begun to attract more scrutiny. Dynamic TDH is reversal of thiol oxidation in proteins and represents the status of thiols (-SH) and disulfides (-S-S-). Organic compounds containing the sulfhydryl group is called thiol, composed of sulfur and hydrogen atoms. ⋯ These results may elucidate some pathogenic mechanism or may be a predictor indicating diagnostic clue, prognostic marker or therapeutic sign. In conclusion, protection of the thiol-disulfide homeostasis is of great importance for the human being. Evidence achieved so far has proposed that thiol-disulfide homeostasis is an important issue needs to elucidate wholly.
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The success of treatment of bone fracture and defects are based on a proper contact and compression between the bone fracture fragments. Intraoperative manipulations such as bone compression or distractions are generally done in order to achieve this. However, none of the bone plates currently in routine use allow these manipulations after fixation to the bone, requiring refixation and repeated drilling, and screwing operations. Based on this shortcoming, we designed a novel adjustable bone plate (ABP) system which allows bone shortening and lengthening even after fixation to the bone surface. The aim of the paper is to clarify the unique properties of the novel bone plate. ⋯ The potential of the new generation ABP plate for use in bone compression, distraction, and the segmental bone transfer is a promising invention for clinical applications in the future.