Aim: To investigate the prevalence of uveitis in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients and its relationship with HLA B27. Methods: The data of 95 patients with AS who admitted to Tokat Gaziosmanpasa University Internal Medicine and Rehabilitation Outpatient Clinics between 2010 and 2019 were analyzed retrospectively. Demographic characteristics, HLA B27 positivity and detailed eye consultation notes of the patients were recorded. Results: Of the 95 patients, 65 (68%) were male and 30 (32%) were female. The mean age of the patients was 38.3 ± 11.6 years. The HLA B27 results of 10 patients could not be reached. 22% of the patients had at least one episode of uveitis attack. While 82% (70/85) of patients had HLA B27 positivity, this rate was 86% in (18/21) patients with uveitis. Conclusion: Uveitis is a disease that can cause permanent loss of vision. In our study, no significant difference was found between the presence of uveitis and the presence of HLA B27 in patients with AS and this finding needs to be supported by randomized studies

Aim: To determine the resistance profile of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains to first-line antituberculous drugs.

Aim: There has been a rapid incline in the number of patients diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), recently. The present study aims to analyze the content and readability of online Turkish texts, on Turkish websites related to autism spectrum disorder. Methods: In order to collect the necessary data of the present study, Google (http://www.google.com.tr), a commonly used internet search engine in our country, was used. Hence 300 websites from the first ten generated pages after writing the keywords autism, atypical autism, and autism spectrum disorder on the search engine were analyzed. Out of these 300 sites, sites containing only advertisement, videos, images and sites containing less than ten sentences, chat and forum sites, commercial sales sites and news sites that do not contain information about ASD were excluded. The mean number of syllables, the average number of words with four syllables and above, the average number of words and readability values were calculated according to Atesman and Bezirci-Yilmaz. Results: The mean number of words in the analyzed texts was 14.42 ± 0.48, of words with four syllables and above was 4.52 ± 0.17, of syllables was 2.92 ± 0.01 and the readability value of the texts analyzed is according to Bezirci-Yilmaz was 14.68 ± 0, 52 and according to Atesman it was 43.72 ± 1.45. The mean number of words among the study groups is (p = 0.538), the mean number of words with four and more syllables is (p = 0.548) and the mean number of syllables is (p = 0.652), Bezirci-Yilmaz readability value is (p = 0.772), Atesman readability value is (p = 0.626) displaying no statistically significant difference. Conclusion: As a result of this study, it was found that the data presented on the internet about ASD was far beyond the health literacy level of our people

Aim: To investigate the protective effect of thymoquinone on smoking-induced vascular damage in rats. Method: A total of 28 rats were allocated in this experimental study. Rats were equally divided in four groups; as control group (n=7) and study groups including only smoking group (n=7), smoking plus thymoquinone group (n=7) and smoking plus dexamethasone group (n=7). The animals in study groups were subjected to regular cigarette smoke exposure during 2 months, hereby smoking-induced vascular injury model was established in the animals. The thoracic aorta of the animals were surgically resected and then evaluated histopathologically. The prepared aortic tissue samples were analyzed under light microscope in terms of thickness of aortic wall, endothelial continuity and injury as well as degenerative alterations on the endothelium. Results: Mean aortic wall thicknesses were 77.8 and 114.5 µ in only smoking group and smoking plus thymoquinone group respectively, and this difference was statistically significant. In only smoking group partial endothelial damage and complete endothelial damage were observed in 2 and 4 animals respectively whereas in smoking plus thymoquinone group no endothelial damage and partial endothelial damage were observed in 2 and 4 animals respectively. When these groups were compared in terms of endothelial damage, the difference was detected to be statistically significant. Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that thymoquinone has a protective effect on rat endothelium and alleviates the smoking-induced vascular damage in rats.

Aim: To determine the epidemiological and antibiotic susceptibility profile of bacterial uropathogens in outpatients. Methods: This study analyzed data taken from outpatients with urinary tract infection (UTI) collected from January 2013 to January 2018 in the laboratory of Maltepe Medical Center in Istanbul. Species of uropathogens were made using routine laboratory methods. Antibiotic resistance profile of uropathogens was determined using disk diffusion method. Results: There were 7741 urine cultures and 1563 of them were positive for bacterial uropathogens. The identified major organisms were Gram-negative bacteria (1376/1563; 88.0%), while Grampositive bacteria only 5.4% (187/1563) were representing. The patients with positive samples, 84.8% (1326/1563) were female and 15.1% (237/1563) were male. The main isolated uropathogen was E. coli (58.1%), followed by Enterobacter spp (10.1%), P. mirabilis (8.6%), K. pneumoniae (7.8%), Enterococcus (4.7%) and P. aeruginosa (3.1%). E. coli was more prevalent in all age groups. A total of 74.8% of E. coli isolates were resistant to ampicillin and the lowest resistance rate was to imipenem (0.3%). Enterobacter species were found to have higher resistance to ampicillin (87.3%), lower resistance to carbapenem (1.8%) and amikacin (6.9%). Conclusion: Due to the emergence of various antibiotics resistant bacterias, it was concluded that empirical antibiotic treatment should be reviewed periodically according to the regions. Empirical therapy must be based on local epidemiological data, which should be constantly updated. Therefore, the results of our study may help physicians to select an appropriate antimicrobial therapy.

Aim: To evaluate retrospectively the cases of syphilis who applied to different clinics of our hospital in the last 5 years and to emphasize the importance of admission screening tests in the diagnosis of neurosyphilis which is a rare but serious form of syphilis. Methods: Sixty-one patients who admitted to different clinics of our hospital between 2013 and 2017 with different clinical manifestations and positive Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) and Treponema pallidum microhemagglutination assay (TPHA) tests were recorded and analyzed retrospectively. Results: Both VDRL and TPHA tests were positive in 44 males with a mean age of 57.4 ± 18.4 years and 17 females with a mean age of 65.3 ± 19.1 years. It was found that of the 61 patients who were examined for differential diagnosis of syphilis, 36 (%59) of them were referred from neurology clinic, 15 (25%) from infectious diseases clinic, 7 (12%) from dermatology clinic and 3 (4%) from gynecology clinic. The clinical presentation was venereal chancre in 15 cases, asymptomatic ischemic brain lesions in 17 cases, acute ischemic stroke in 13 cases, movement disorder in three cases, tabes dorsalis in two cases, tendinitis-arthritis in eight cases, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in one case, Deep venous thrombosis (DVT) in one case, and pulmonary nodule in one case. Conclusions: In conclusion, syphilis is often overlooked in the differential diagnosis in patient with neurological findings. Since neurosyphilis is an easily treatable disease, it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with neurological findings.