BACKGROUND: Acute mesenteric ischemia (AMI) is a disease that causes an ischemia in the intestines due to the obstruction of the mesenteric vessels feeding the intestines, with a mortality rate reaching up to 80%. The overall incidence of AMI is 0.63 per 100,000 people. Early diagnosis and treatment are very important for survival. There is no ideal biomarker that can reflect different types and stages of AMI. This study investigated the predictive and prognostic value of L-lactate, D-dimer, leukocyte, C reactive protein (CRP) and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in the preoperative period were investigated in patients operated for AMI. METHODS: A total of 44 patients operated for AMI between 2015 and 2019 were evaluated in this study. Demographic, clinical, radiological, laboratory and surgical findings of the patients included in this study were recorded. The patients were divided into groups according to the etiological type of AMI. L-lactate, D-dimer, CRP, leukocyte, and NLR levels of these patients were determined. Statistical analysis was performed according to AMI groups. RESULTS: The mean age of the 44 patients included in this study was 67.7 years and the female to male ratio was 0.76. According to tomography results, 31.8% (n=14) of the patients had mesenteric artery embolism, 29.5% (n=13) had mesenteric artery thrombus, 25% (n=11) had mesenteric vein thrombus and 13.6% (n=6) had non-occlusive mesenteric ischemia. When AMI types were compared, D-dimer and CRP levels were found to be significantly different from other markers. The total length of stay in the hospital was found to be significantly correlated with the L-lactate (p=0.047) and CRP (p=0.045) levels. In the analyses, CRP was determined to be the common biomarker that could be used in the diagnosis of mesenteric ischemia in all AMI types. CONCLUSION: Particularly, the CRP level can be used effectively in the preoperative period to diagnose AMI and to determine its subtype and clinical course. However, L-lactate, D-dimer, leukocyte and NLR are markers that have no predictive value in the diagnosis of all AMI subtypes.

There have been a number of investigations of the efficacy and safety of etanercept. This study was performed to obtain long‐term drug survival data (ie, time to drug discontinuation) for etanercept, and the reasons for its discontinuation. The study population consisted of patients with psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis followed up by our clinic, registered in the Turkish Psoriasis Registry (PSR‐TR) and treated with etanercept for at least 4 weeks between January 1, 2005, and January 31, 2020. The efficacy of etanercept was evaluated in terms of the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) 75, PASI 90 and PASI 100 response rates at 12, 24, 36, and 48 weeks, and annually thereafter. The behaviors of the patients with respect to the use of etanercept, and the outcomes of those who continued to use it during the COVID‐19 pandemic, were also investigated.

It was first identified as new pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan, Hubei, China; since December 2019, the struggle against coronavirus continues despite the cumulative number of cases ex-ceeding 231 million and the number of deaths exceeding 4.7 million in the world, and the number of cases exceeding 6 million and approximately 60 thousand deaths in our country. [1][2][3][4]

Background: Serum cytokine levels over the course of HIV infection usually increase with immunosuppression and decrease after antiretroviral treatment (ART). Objectives: Compare cytokine levels between HIV-infected patients (HIP) and controls and investigate the relationship between CD4+T cell count, HIV-RNA levels, and cytokine levels. Methods: The study subjects comprised ART-naive HIP (n=30) with no comorbidities and age-and sex-matched healthy controls. We measured levels of IL-6, IL-1β, TNF-α, and IFN-γ in serum samples of HIP at the beginning and at month 6 of ART and in controls. Results: The mean age of the study subjects was 38.7 ±10.3 years, with men making up 86.7% of the study subjects (n=26). IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α levels were significantly higher in both ART-naive (p<0.001, p=0.002, p=0.001) and ARTexperienced HIP (p<0.001) than controls. The IFN-γ level was lower in both ART-naive and ART-experienced HIP compared to controls (p=0.082 and p=0.002). There was a positive correlation between the CD4+T cell count and serum concentration of IFN-γ(r=0.320, p<0.05). While the serum IFN-γ concentration showed a negative correlation with the HIV-RNA level(r=-0.412, p<0.001), the serum IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α concentrations showed a positive correlation with the HIVRNA level (r=0.349, p<0.001; r:0.54, p<0.001; r:0.438, p<0.00). Conclusions: Althugh serum concentrations of IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-a showed significant decrease after ART, they were still significantly higher than the controls. IFN-γ responded differently to ART compared to the other cytokines, indicating that it may play a distinct and important role in the pathogenesis of HIV infection.

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