Background/aim: Off-label drug use (OLDU) is under the control of the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (TMMDA) in Turkey. It was aimed to investigate demographic and medical features of patients with OLDU applications in Turkey. Materials and methods:A total of 4426 electronic OLDU application records of the TMMDA were evaluated retrospectively. Information regarding patients' demographic characteristics, diagnoses, requested drugs, institutions, and specialties of the physicians were evaluated.Results: OLDU applications were mostly made by rheumatologists (21.5%) and 95.2% of them were approved by the TMMDA. The mean age of the patients was 35 years and 54.4% of them were female. Off-label drugs were mostly prescribed for patients aged 18-64 years (62.1%) and were most frequently prescribed by physicians from university medical centers (81.0%). Systemic lupus erythematosus (10.1%) was the most common diagnosis. Mycophenolate (16.1%) and rituximab (10.1%) were the most frequently prescribed off-label drugs. There were differences regarding some characteristics of patients and their physicians among most frequently prescribed off-label drugs (P < 0.05). Conclusion:It is noteworthy that OLDU applications showed demographical and institutional differences. It is expected that this study will provide important contributions to physicians working in the relevant area with respect to treatment alternatives of diseases with treatment challenges.

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BACKGROUND:This study was designed to determine the possible protective effect of captopril treatment against oxidative damage in heart and lung tissues induced by burn injury.

Aim: To evaluate differences between cultivated and wild mushroom poisoning in terms of clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, and complications. We also aimed to determine the differences among patients in regard to presence of complications. Materials and Methods: We evaluated adults who were diagnosed with mushroom poisoning at Konya Training and Research Hospital in a 4-year period between January 2014 and December 2017. The following characteristics of patients were recorded: Age, sex, complaints, time until hospital admittance, time until symptom onset, mushroom source, any interventions until patient arrived to the hospital, laboratory findings, complications like acute renal failure, neurotoxicity, rhabdomyolysis, cardiotoxicity and mortality, length of stay (LoS) at hospital, and patient discharge status. All analyses were performed on SPSS v21. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to determine normality of distribution. Continuous variables were analyzed with the Mann-Whitney U test and described as median (minimummaximum). Categorical variables were analyzed with chi-square test and described as frequency (percentage). The relationships between continuous variables were determined by calculating Spearman correlation coefficients. Results: We included 168 patients (79 males and 89 females) in our study. The mean age was 46.66±18.66 years. The cause of poisoning was cultivated mushrooms for 57 (33.9%) patients and wild mushrooms for 111 (66.1%) patients. It was found that patients in the wild mushroom group were older than the patients in the cultivated mushroom group (p=0.006). Cultivated mushrooms were largely consumed by patients who live in metropolitan areas (p<0.001). Patients who consumed wild mushrooms had higher troponin levels (p=0.017), lower base excess values (0.032) and longer LoS at hospital (p=0.029). Although the sociodemographic studies of mushroom poisoning have been made numerously, this is the first study to draw attention to fact that it may also occur with cultured fungi. Conclusion: Due to the climatic conditions in the area where our study has been conducted, frequent referrals to our institution occur with mushroom poisoning particularly in spring season. However, even in cultivated mushrooms, which are thought to be harmless, poisoning cases may also be observed that are usually seen with the wild fungi. Even in cases of cultured mushroom poisoning, symptoms may develop early and more serious complications may arise.

Background/aim: We aim to determine the effects of low-dose atorvastatin treatment together with crush fluid resuscitation on renal functions and muscle enzyme levels in a rat model of crush syndrome. Materials and methods:The study involved female Wistar Albino rats weighing 250-300 g that were housed with free access to food and water. The crush model was obtained by compression. Rats were randomly divided into four groups: control (C) group, atorvastatin + crush fluid (ACF) group, crush fluid (CF) group, and hypertonic saline (%3) + mannitol + sodium bicarbonate (SM) group. Blood was obtained at 24, 48, and 72 h, and serum creatinine kinase, myoglobin, urea, creatinine, and lactate dehydrogenase levels were studied.Results: All parameters were statistically significantly higher in the control group than in the treatment groups at all hours. However, there was no statistically significant difference among treatment groups regarding any of the parameters. Conclusion:This is the first study determining the role of atorvastatin in the treatment of renal ischemia/reperfusion injury in a crush syndrome and rhabdomyolysis model setting. Larger studies with different atorvastatin doses are required to define the role of this drug in the treatment of renal ischemia/reperfusion injury during crush syndrome.