From the Editor

This issue is rich with papers from Turkey and Iran that deals with important topics with interesting findings. Tarikçi Kiliç E,T et al; looked at preoperative fears caused by multiple pediatric burn surgeries. The authors stressed that burn injuries can cause anxiety, sleep affective and learning disorders among children. Hospitalized children are observed to experience nightmares, behavioral regression and post- traumatic stress disorder. This situation increases both the stress hormone levels in their blood and the morbidity and mortality rates. Pain becomes more severe while changing the wound dressings and during practices like hydrotherapy, skin grafting, physiotherapy and debridement. Therefore, a good pain and anxiety control should be achieved especially to avoid pain during treatment, to help children heal more easily, and to reduce their stress

Kooshkiforooshani, M et al ; looked at Troponin I level changes following diagnostic coronary angiography. A total of 280 patients with normal baseline CTnI level and normal coronary angiography or mild stenosis were included. Serum CTnI level was measured by ELISA method at baseline and once more during 6 to 24 hours after coronary angiography. None of the patients experienced chest pain, dyspnea, arrhythmia, malignant hypertension, or ECG changes. The authors concluded that serum cTnI level can elevate after coronary angiography in a small percentage of patients with mild CAD. Male gender, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obesity, and chronic kidney disease were factors associated with this elevated cTnI level.

Mehmet MR et al looked at the association of Malignancies in sickle cell diseases. All patients with the SCDs and age and sex-matched controls were studied. The study included 428 patients with the SCDs (220 males) and 518 controls (266 males). Although various malignancies were diagnosed in 11.5% of the control cases (23 females and 37 males), this ratio was only 0.4% (one female and one male) in the SCDs (p<0.001). The authors concluded that SCDs are chronic and severe inflammatory processes on vascular endothelium initiated at birth, and terminate with end-organ insufficiencies in early years of life. Such permanent inflammatory processes may increase clearance of malignant cells by immune system that may be the cause of significantly lower prevalence of malignancies in the SCDs.

Mehmet Rami Helvaci, MR et al looked at Varicocele and endothelial inflammation. Consecutive patients with a surgical repair history of varicocele were collected into the first and age-matched control cases were collected into the second groups. The study included 31 patients with varicocele and 80 control cases. The authors concluded that although the metabolic syndrome is a chronic low-grade inflammatory process on vascular endothelium, terminating with an accelerated atherosclerosis, end-organ failures, early aging, and premature death, varicocele may not have a chronic low-grade inflammatory background on vascular endothelium in general. On the other hand, thalassemias and other causes of splenomegaly may cause torsion of the left renal vein and prevent its drainage. So drainage problems at the level of left renal vein due to the stronger arterial walls that cannot be obstructed easily may explain the higher prevalence of varicocele and renal atrophy on the left side in the literature since the left testicular vein drains into the left renal vein.

Naseri P et al; attempted to localize self-regulation areas in response to palatable food using a Bayesian Generalized Linear Model (GLM) approach. A new proposed Bayesian approach was applied for assessing functional response to palatable food stimuli in a block design fMRI data with 370 scans of one healthy women. Regions of Interest (ROIs) including the dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortex, the inferior frontal gyrus and the mid-ventrolateral frontal cortex were investigated. The results of the present revealed that palatable food as compared to non-food images elicit stronger activation in brain self-regulation areas including the dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortex, the inferior frontal gyrus and the mid-ventrolateral frontal cortex. The authors concluded that self-regulation areas of people who are concerned about their weight, will be activated in confrontation with palatable foods.

Chief Editor:
A. Abyad
MD, MPH, AGSF, AFCHSE
Email: aabyad@cyberia.net.lb

.........................................................................................................................