Background. Red cell distribution width (RDW) is an important marker which reflects inflammatory activity in many chronic diseases. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of RDW on morbidity and mortality before and after pediatric congenital heart surgery. Methods. 107 patients with congenital heart disease, cardiac case group, and 70 patients, control group, without heart disease were retrospectively analyzed. Pre-, and postoperative and at discharge RDW of the cardiac patients were determined. Lengths of hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) stay and exited patients were determined. Results. Mean lengths of ICU and hospital stay were 3.3 ± 2.7 and 7.3 ± 2.9 days. In control group, mean preoperative RDW was 12.6 ± 1.4, while in cardiac case group it was significantly higher (15.1 ± 3.5). In cardiac case group, postoperative RDW were significantly higher than preoperative period, while RDW at discharge were significantly lower than postoperative estimates. A significant and a positive correlation was detected between lengths of ICU and hospital stay and RDW. RDW of the exited patients were significantly higher than the survivors. Conclusions. This study demonstrates that RDW can be used as an important indicator in the prediction of morbidity and mortality during pre-, and postoperative period of the pediatric congenital heart disease surgery.

The etiology of deep vein thrombosis disease is multifactorial, and currently, it is seen as a public health problem. Simple, cheap and useful tests that can be used for diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up is increasingly needed day by day because of the increasing number of patients. For this purpose, the changes of platelet indices in routine hemogram tests during DVT follow-up were examined retrospectively. Method: This study is a retrospective analysis of patients who diagnosed with deep venous thrombosis in Sivas Cumhuriyet University School of Medicine between 01.01.2017-31.12.2018 years. The investigation started after the decision of Sivas Cumhuriyet University Local Ethics Committee No. 2019-02/67. The acute, subacute, and chronic phase parameters of patients with deep venous thrombosis were evaluated. The study included 72 patients who developed DVT. Platelet indexes and other hemogram parameters were analyzed statistically according to the phases of deep vein thrombosis. Results: 55.6% of the patients were female, and 44.4% were male. DVT was found most commonly in the left femoral region (48.6%). PDW and MPV tended to increase rapidly in the acute phase of deep vein thrombosis and managed to fall in the subacute and chronic phases. However, there was no statistically significant change in platelet count and platelet crit. Conclusions: PDW and MPV appear to be useful markers in the follow-up of all stages of deep vein thrombosis. It is evident that with the developing technology, more sensitive and specific parameters of platelet indices will be obtained.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is seen as very common after cardiac surgery. Postoperative AF occurrence increases mortality and morbidity. Deterioration of clinical condition of the patients results prolongation of hospital stay and increases economic burden. Many risk factors that have an impact on the development of postoperative AF are known. Low vitamin D level has been added to these factors in recent years. Blood serum levels of vitamin D is varied seasonally. Therefore, these factors can be expected to have a seasonal effect on development of postoperative AF. The aim of this study is to investigate the presence of annual features of postoperative AF. Method: This study is a retrospective analysis of patients who developed atrial fibrillation after coronary artery bypass graft surgery in the

Background: Ischemia-reperfusion injury is a histopathological event and is an important cause of morbidity and mortality after hepatobiliary surgery. We aimed to investigate the protective effect of uridine on hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats. Methods: he animals were divided into 4 groups (n = 8): group I (control), group II: ischemia-reperfusion (30 minutes ischemia and 120 minutes reperfusion), group III: ischemia-reperfusion + uridine (at the beginning of reperfusion), and group IV: ischemia-reperfusion + uridine (5 minutes before ischemia-reperfusion). Uridine was administered a single dose of 30 mg/kg IV. The 3 elements of the hepatoduodenal ligament (hepatic artery, portal vein, and biliary tract) were obliterated for 30 minutes. Then hepatic reperfusion was achieved for 120 minutes. Results: In the ischemia-reperfusion group, both liver tissues and serum chymase activity and high-temperature requirement A2 levels were higher. Severe central vein dilatation and congestion, widening sinusoidal range, diffuse necrotic hepatocytes and dense erythrocyte accumulation in sinusoids, and strongly inducible nitric oxide synthase expression were seen in the ischemia-reperfusion group. A clear improvement was seen in both uridine co-administration and pretreatment groups. Conclusion: Our results revealed that uridine limits the development of liver damage under conditions of ischemia-reperfusion, thus contributing to an increase in hepatocyte viability.

AimTo compare systemic right ventricular function by isovolumic myocardial acceleration before and 6 months after the percutaneous closure of atrial septal defects (ASD).Material and methodsPatients admitted to our tertiary center for the percutaneous closure of atrial septal defects between January 2010 and August 2012 constituted the study group. Right ventricular function of patients was assessed by tissue Doppler echocardiography before and after surgery. Echocardiographic data in patients were compared to age-matched controls without any cardiac pathology and studied in identical fashion mentioned below.ResultsA total of 44 patients (24 males, 20 females) and 44 age-matched controls (25 males, 19 females) met the eligibility criteria for the study. Right ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic volume, right ventricular end-diastolic diameter measurements on echocardiogram, and pulmonary artery pressures in both pre- and post-ASD groups were significantly higher than in controls. Tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion and isovolumic myocardial acceleration measurements significantly increased after the percutaneous closure of the defect; however, post-ASD measurements were still significantly lower than the controls.ConclusionsAtrial septal defect device closure resulted in a significant increase of isovolumic myocardial acceleration measurements. Tissue Doppler analysis of regional myocardial function offers new insight into myocardial compensatory mechanisms for acute and chronic volume overload of both ventricles.