In patients undergoing immunotherapy, the quality of the immune response is reduced, which may negatively affect the efficacy of vaccination. This study was conducted in order to evaluate the efficacy of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine in patients using immunomodulators. Seronegative patients for HBV who were using biological agents, were included in the study. The vaccination was administered on the standard schedule in 3 doses of 20 or 40 µg/ml. Eighty-two patients (52%) were males and the mean age of all patients was 44,8 ± 10,3 years. Among these 109 patients, 83 had psoriasis, 12 had Crohn's disease, six had rheumatoid arthritis, three had ulcerative colitis, three had hydradenitis supurativa, one had Behcet's disease and one had ankylosing spondylitis. The biological agents that were being used by these patients were adalimumab (62), ustekinumab (25), infliximab (12), etanercept (9) and golimumab (1). Seventy-three of the patients were vaccinated with a dose of 20 µg/ml and 36 with 40 µg/ml. The anti-HBs titers of fifty-eight (53.2%) patients were above 10 mIU/ml. The antibody response rate was lowest in infliximab-users (16.7%) (p = 0.007), which was followed by adalimumab (48.4%), and higher protection rates were achieved in patients using ustekinumab and etanercept (72% and 88.9%, respectively; p < 0.05). The HBV vaccine response rate in patients using immunomodulators was significantly lower than that in immunocompetent patients. Furthermore, high dose vaccination did not increase the response rate. Clinicians should take into account administering HBV vaccination before treatment with biological agent in patients who have negative HBV serology.

This study reviewed the clinical, laboratory, therapeutic and prognostic data on genitourinary involvement of brucellosis in this largest case series reported. This multicentre study pooled adult patients with genitourinary brucellar involvement from 34 centres treated between 2000 and 2013. Diagnosis of the disease was established by conventional methods. Overall 390 patients with genitourinary brucellosis (352 male, 90.2%) were pooled. In male patients, the most frequent involved site was the scrotal area (n=327, 83.8%), as epididymo-orchitis (n=204, 58%), orchitis (n=112, 31.8%) and epididymitis (n=11, 3.1%). In female patients, pyelonephritis (n=33/38, 86.8%) was significantly higher than in male patients (n=11/352, 3.1%; p<0.0001). The mean blood leukocyte count was 7530±3115/mm3. Routine laboratory analysis revealed mild to moderate increases for erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP). The mean treatment duration and length of hospital stay were significantly higher when there were additional brucellar foci (p<0.05). Surgical operations including orchiectomy and abscess drainage were performed in nine (2.3%) patients. Therapeutic failure was detected in six (1.5%), relapse occurred in four (1%), and persistent infertility related to brucellosis occurred in one patient. A localized scrotal infection in men or pyelonephritis in women in the absence of leucocytosis and with mild to moderate increases in inflammatory markers should signal the possibility of brucellar genitourinary disease.

Drugs that block TNF-α and ustekunimab cause an increase in viral replication. In literature, the HBV reactivation rate was approximately 1% in HBsAg-negative, anti-HBC IgG-positive cases, whereas it was found to be as high as 17.2% in our study. Patients receiving the immunomodulator therapy should be evaluated for HBV serology before treatment and carefully monitored for HBV reactivation during and after treatment.

Introduction:The human population is aging at an astonishing rate. The aim of this study is to capture a situation snapshot revealing the proportion of individuals aged 65 years and over among inpatients in healthcare institutions in Turkey and the prevalence and type of infections in this patient group in order to draw a road map. Materials and Methods: Hospitalized patients over 65 years at any of the 62 hospitals in 29 cities across Turkey on February 9, 2017 were included in the study. Web-based SurveyMonkey was used for data recording and evaluation system. Results: Of 17,351 patients 5871 (33.8%) were !65 years old. The mean age was 75.1 AE7.2 years; 3075 (52.4%) patients were male. Infection was reason for admission for 1556 (26.5%) patients. Pneumonia was the most common infection. The median length of hospital stay was 5 days (IQR: 2-11 days). The Antibiotic therapy was initiated for 2917 (49.7%) patients at the time of admission, and 23% of the antibiotics prescribed were inappropriate. Healthcare-associated infections developed in 1059 (18%) patients. Urinary catheters were placed in 2388 (40.7%) patients with 7.5% invalid indication. Conclusion:This study used real data to reveal the proportion of elderly patients in hospital admissions. The interventions done, infections developed during hospitalization, length of hospital stay, and excessive drug load emphasize the significant impact on health costs and illustrate the importance of preventive medicine in this group of patients.