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Introduction: Aim of this study was identify the prevalence of frailty in patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD), to describe the relationship between severity of the disease and frailty, and to evaluate if timed up and go (TUG) is an eligible test for determination of frailty in idiopathic PD patients. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study which included 66 patients, aged 60 and over in a tertiary hospital. Frailty was assessed by the Fried Frailty Index (FFI). Severity of the idiopathic PD was detected by the Hoehn and Yahr (H&Y) scale. Mobility was measured by the TUG test. Demographic characteristics and comprehensive geriatric assessments were evaluated. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used in analyses. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to identify the discriminative effect of TUG test on frailty. Results: The numbers of frail, prefrail, and robust subjects were 34 (51.5%), 24 (36.4%), and 8 (12.1%), respectively. Dependency in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) was significantly associated with frailty (Odds ratio (OR): 36.00, Confidence interval (CI): 8.43–153.80). Multivariate logistic regression analysis results yielded, depression (OR: 10.37, CI: 2.82–38.12) and higher levodopa doses (OR: 6.28, CI: 1.77–22.24) were independently associated with frailty. TUG test performance was strongly associated with frailty with high sensitivity (0.806) and specificity (0.826) (Area under the curve (AUC): 0.831). Conclusions: Frailty is highly prevalent in idiopathic PD and is strongly associated with disabilities as well as specific risk factors of the disease. The TUG may be a reliable test for prediction of frailty in patients with idiopathic PD.

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The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of hyperprolactinemia and high levels of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) on bone resorption and their relation with receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL) and osteoprotegerin (OPG) in patients with prolactinoma and acromegaly. Thirty-one patients with acromegaly, 28 patients with prolactinoma, and 33 healthy individuals were included in the study. Serum concentrations of RANKL, OPG, bone alkaline phosphatase (bone ALP), osteocalcin (OC), C-terminal telopeptide of type 1 collagen (CTX), procollagen type 1 N-terminal propeptide (P1NP) and urine deoxypyridinoline (DPD) levels were detected and bone mineral density (BMD) was measured. Groups were not statistically different from each other with regard to serum levels of RANKL and OPG. The RANKL/OPG ratio was higher in the prolactinoma group than in the control group (p=0.046). A positive correlation between OPG and increasing age was detected in both the prolactinoma and control groups (r=0.524, p=0.004 and r=0.380, p=0.029, respectively). An inverse correlation was observed between IGF-I and OPG after excluding age in the prolactinoma group (r=-0.412, p=0.046). OC and bone ALP were negatively associated with RANKL in the acromegaly group (r=-0.384, p=0.036 and r=-0.528, p=0.003, respectively). There was an inverse correlation between OPG and BMD at the femoral neck in the acromegaly group (r=-0.422, p=0.02). The effect of IGF-I on bone remodeling may be partly mediated by RANKL and OPG. The RANKL/OPG ratio plays an important role in prolactinoma. A positive correlation of OPG with age and an inverse correlation with IGF-I favor the compensatory response of OPG against bone loss in the aging skeleton.

Background: Late-life depression is a geriatric syndrome which should be taken seriously. Many clinical scales have been developed for the screening of geriatric depression. Most of these have been validated at different times and in diverse populations. A five-question version of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-5) was developed in 1997. This test has been validated and used in different populations. In the present study, we plan to validate the GDS-5 for the Turkish elderly population. Methods: Patients aged 60 years and older who applied to the Geriatrics Clinic of our hospital between November 2018 and November 2019 were included in the study. We compared the effectiveness of Yesavage Geriatric Depression Scale-30 (YGDS-30) and GDS-5 in screening depression, based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-5) depression criteria. Results: Four hundred participants were included in the study. A significant positive correlation was found between the DSM-5 scale and the GDS-5 scale (rho = 0.726, P <0.001). According to DSM-5, YGDS-30 and GDS-5, 112 participants (28%), 154 patients (%38.5) and 199 patients (%49.8) were diagnosed with depression respectively. When the cut-off value was taken as ≥2, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive and negative predictive values for the GDS-5 scale were determined as 96%, 68%, 54%, and 98%, respectively. We obtained these diagnostic measures with 95% confidence intervals. Conclusion:This study demonstrated the validity and reliability of the GDS-5 for Turkish elderly populations. This five-question scale will be significant in daily use to screen for depression in elderly individuals with multiple problems.

Background/aim: Defective vascularization may be important in thyroid nodular disease. In this study, we aimed to investigate serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels in dyslipidemic patients with thyroid nodules, as well as the effects of statin therapy. Materials and methods:The study included 37 dyslipidemic patients with thyroid nodules and 32 dyslipidemic patients without thyroid nodules. Anthropometry, serum VEGF levels, biochemical parameters, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free triiodothyronine (fT3) and free thyroxine (fT4) levels, and thyroid sonography were determined before and after 6 months of statin therapy.Results: Patients with and without thyroid nodules had similar metabolic parameters. Serum VEGF levels did not differ between the groups. In patients with nodules, VEGF levels remained unchanged (P = 0.931) after statin therapy. However, serum VEGF levels were lowered by statin treatment in patients without nodules (P = 0.030). Statin therapy resulted in a decrease in the dominant thyroid nodule volume. The changes in thyroid volume and dominant thyroid nodule volume were not correlated with changes in VEGF, body mass index, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). Conclusion:Although statin treatment decreases serum VEGF levels in dyslipidemic patients without thyroid nodules, it has no lowering effect on serum VEGF levels in patients with thyroid nodules. The decrease in thyroid nodule volume with statin treatment was associated with neither metabolic parameters nor serum VEGF levels.

Objective: Depression is highly prevalent in frail older adults and both clinical situations share similar clinical and prognostic factors. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between frailty and depression by considering each component of frailty, in both genders. Methods: Six hundred and forty-one patients aged 60 years and older, admitted to a Geriatrics outpatient clinic in a tertiary hospital, were included in this cross-sectional study. FRIED criteria were used for defining frailty. Depression was assessed by the Geriatric depression scale (GDS). Evaluations related to disability, nutrition, and cognition were performed by the Katz/Lawton scales, mini nutritional assessment (MNA), and the mini mental state examination (MMSE), respectively. Results: Prevalence of frailty and depression was 48.7% and 36.7%, respectively. Co-occurrence of frailty and depression was observed as 24.0%. Both in men (OR: 3.977, CI: 1.423–11.114, p=0.008) and in women (OR: 2.704, CI: 1.695–4.315, p<0.001), depression was independently associated with frailty, after adjusting with confounders regarding frailty. All FRIED criteria were significantly correlated with the higher GDS scores in women. Two FRIED criteria regarding physical activity and strength measures were not related to depressive symptoms in men. Lawon (p<0.001), MMSE (p=0.004), and MNA scores (p<0.001) were lower in patients with co-occurring frailty and depression, than both as separate conditions. Conclusion: Depression may play a key role in the development of frailty in both genders. Albeit, depressed men seem to be at a higher risk than women for development of frailty are, physical activity and strength measures in the FRIED criteria had a high impact in women for depressive symptoms. Patients with co-occurring frailty and depression are more prone to develop geriatric syndrome related disabilities.