Turk J Med Sci
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Review
Evidence-based information about intermittent fasting in diabetes patients: useful or harmful?
One of the most important components of treatment for diabetic patients is diet and healthy nutrition therapy. Calorie restriction is effective and without cost increases its appeal for both patients and physicians. Unfortunately, continuous calorie restriction is a difficult method. For this reason, alternative calorie restriction methods, such as intermittent fasting (IF), have been investigated by some researchers. ⋯ It is necessary to show which IF regimen is safe and effective, how often and for how long, for diabetic patients. This seems possible with well-designed randomized controlled trials focusing on long-term clinical outcomes and eliminating confounding factors. This will make the answer clearer.
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Could lysosomal acid lipase enzyme activity be used for clinical follow-up in cryptogenic cirrhosis?
Cholesterol ester storage disease (CESD) is one of the rare causes that should be kept in mind in the etiology of cirrhosis. Recent studies detected that significantly reduced lysosomal acid lipase deficiency enzyme (LAL) in patients with cryptogenic cirrhosis (CC). Moreover, studies have evaluated that LAL activity is as effective as scoring systems in assessing the severity of cirrhosis. In this study, we aimed to investigate the CESD with LAL level and mutation analysis of LIPA gene in patients diagnosed with CC and to compare LAL activities between patients with CC and healthy volunteers. ⋯ In our study, LAL activity was significantly lower in CC patients than in the normal population. LAL activity level appears to be a parameter that can be used to assess the severity of cirrhosis.
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has a wide clinical spectrum from asymptomatic to mild, moderate, and severe cases. There are still many unknowns about the role of immunoregulatory mechanisms in COVID-19. We aimed to study regulatory T cells (Tregs) and B cell subsets and evaluate their correlations with severity of COVID-19. ⋯ The changes in T and B cell subsets may show the dysregulation in the immunity of patients with COVID-19. In this context, the association between CD8+ Tregs and COVID-19 severity may help clinicians to predict severe and fatal COVID-19 in hospitalized patients.
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There are not many studies conducted to detect and recognize the symptoms during the prediabetes period. In our study, we aimed to determine the symptoms that can be seen in prediabetes and diabetes and their prevalence and to determine the similarities and differences between the two groups. ⋯ Especially; during the follow-up of patients with prediabetes who have a low education level and diabetic family history and concomitant hyperlipidemia, there may be an increase in neurological and hyperglycemic symptoms at the point of development of type 2 diabetes. In this respect, we recommend that these factors, which we found to be predictive of diabetes compared to prediabetes, should be questioned more carefully during patient visits.
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Lymphovascular invasion (LVI) is considered a high-risk factor for recurrence in early-stage breast cancer, hence examination of LVI in pathological samples is an absolute recommendation. We aim to investigate predictive factors of LVI in preneoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) patients with estrogen receptor positive (ER+) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative (HER2-) molecular subtypes of breast cancer. ⋯ Independent predictors of LVI are advanced age and lymph node positivity at the time of diagnosis. Our study is the first study that evaluates pre-NAC predictive factors of LVI in ER+/HER2- breast cancer patients treated with NAC.