The cerebellum is involved in motor learning and cognitive function in human. Many studies have been conducted to assess the cerebellar volume. To the best of our knowledge, there is no cerebellar volume study evaluating the efficiency and the accuracy of point-counting and planimetry methods of the Cavalieri principle in the literature. In this study, the volume of cerebellum was estimated in 53 Turkish young volunteers (26 males and 27 females), aged between 20 and 25 who are free of any neurological symptoms and signs, using serial magnetic resonance (MR) images. The cerebellar volumes of subjects were determined on MR images using the point-counting and planimetry methods. The mean results of planimetry method were 116.69 +/- 10.1 and 114.41 +/- 9.3 cm(3 )in males and females, respectively. The mean results of point-counting method were 116.34 +/- 10.6 and 113.48 +/- 8.8 cm(3 )in males and females, respectively. Our results revealed that female subjects had less cerebellar volumes compared with males, although there was no statistical significant difference between genders (P > 0.05). Total cerebellar volumes obtained by two different methods were not statistically different (P = 0.189) and they were correlated well to each other (r = 0.935). We found that the point-counting method takes less time than the planimetric method (mean 8 +/- 3.6 vs. 15 +/- 5.5 min). Thus, while planimetric and stereological approaches yield very similar results, the stereological method has the advantage of greater speed and, therefore, efficiency.

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Background: Viral hepatitis infections are major health problems, which are especially prevalent in developing countries. In particular, health care workers are at high risk for contracting viral hepatitis. Therefore, preventive measures to minimize occupational exposure to blood borne pathogens are needed to protect both health care workers and nursing students. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of Hepatitis B and C infections and risk factors among nursing students. Methods: Venous bloods were obtained from nursing students and were serologically tested using the ELISA method. A questionnaire form was also used to obtain data related to demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the participants. Results: 0.7% of the nursing students were serologically positive for HBsAg, 17.0% for Anti-HBs and 7.5% were positive for Anti-HBc (IgG). No statistical relationship was determined between all independent variables and the results of serologic tests.

17: 151-157 Needlestick and sharps injuries among Turkish nursing students: A cross-sectional studyThis cross-sectional study was performed to investigate the prevalence of and other factors associated with needlestick and sharps injuries (NSIs) among nursing students in Turkey. A total of 60 (19.4%) nursing students reported NSIs during the past 1 year. The most common item causing injury was from a syringe needle (54.0%). Among nursing students, giving intravenous/intramuscular injections (60.0%) was the most common cause of NSIs. In total, 31.7% were not using gloves when injured. A total of 68.3% of NSIs were said to have gone unreported in any official report. A total of 43.5% of the nursing students had not received the hepatitis B vaccine. Finally, no single sociodemographic variables were shown to be significant as a risk factor for needlestick and sharps injury during logistic regression analysis. To decrease NSIs among nursing students, an education programme related to NSIs and standard precautions must be provided and immunized against hepatitis B before beginning clinical practice.