IntroductionOver the years, operability criterias for cardiac surgery has been enhanced. Therefore, averege age of operated patients and co-morbidities have increased. 1) Cerebral injury is one of the most important complications of cardiac surgery which may cause mortality, morbidity, increased hospital costs and impaired quality of life. Perioperative cerebral injury includes stroke that occurs in 1.5% to 5.2% of patients, encephalopathy affecting 8.4% to 32% of patients. 2) Cognitive dysfunction has been reported in approximately 50% of patients at discharge, 36% at 6 weeks, 26%-33% at one year, and 42% at five years. 3,4) Pre-exisiting atherosclerotic plaque, thrombogenesis from the foreign surfaces of cardiopulmonary bypass, air from the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit, and pericardial fat globules are tought to be primary predictors of cognitive decline by creating microemboli during Purpose: The purpose of this study was to research the use of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) on the neurocognitive functions in the patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) with asymptomatic carotid artery disease. Methods: The study design was carried out with the participation of 79 patients in a prospective, randomized and double blind control method. The patients were separated into two groups as NIRS (n = 43) and no NIRS (n = 36). A neurocognitive test was applied preoperatively and postoperatively to all patients before discharge. Cognitive functions were evaluated by applying the Montreal Cognitive Assessment test (MoCA). Results: The decrease in the postoperative score of mean MoCA in no NIRS group was statistically significant when compared to preoperatively (p <0.001). Postoperative mean MoCA score was found to be significantly higher in NIRS group (NIRS: 26.8 ± 1.9 vs. no NIRS: 23.6 ± 2.5, p <0.001). It has been determined that there was a moderately positive significant correlation between the increase in the NIRS used patients (%) and increase in the MoCA score of the patients (r = 0.59, p <0.001). Conclusion: Intraoperative NIRS usage in the patients undergoing CABG with carotid artery disease might be useful due to its postoperative positive effects on the cognitive functions.

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Purpose: Short term results of on-pump and off-pump techniques in patients undergoing reoperative coronary artery bypass grafting (redo CABG) were investigated in this study. Methods: A total of 14.430 patients have undergone isolated coronary artery bypass grafting in our clinic from 1998 to 2010. Of these patients, 105 patients who have undergone redo CABG, 53 (50.5%) were operated with cardiopulmonary bypass (on-pump) and 52 (49.5%) without cardiopulmonary bypass (off-pump). Early results for which on or off-pump techniques were independent risk factors were determined with logistic regression analysis. Results: Overall mortality in patients undergoing redo CABG was 12.3% with a 11.5% mortality in the off-pump group and 13.2% mortality in the on-pump group and the dif- Conclusion: Despite the lower morbidity and mortality in the off-pump group, the rate of target vessel bypass grafting was lower. Off-pump technique may be considered as a safer option for cardiopulmonary bypass in the high risk population.

PURPOSE:To evaluate the effects of Ecballium elaterium (EE), Elaterium officinarum, in postoperative intraperitoneal adhesions in rats. METHODS:Thirty rats were divided into three groups and underwent midline laparotomy under 35 mg/kg ketamine and 5 mg/kg xylazine anaesthesia. In group 1 (n=10), the sham operation group, the abdominal walls were closed without any process. In group 2 (n=10), the control group, the antimesenteric border of the ceacum and the corresponding parietal peritoneum were abraded with dry sterile gauze. In group 3 (n=10), the EE group, 2.5 mg/kg dose of EE was administered as intraperitoneally to the rats after abrasion. All rats were sacrificed on postoperative day 15. Samples were obtained RESULTS:The adhesion score was significantly decreased in the EE group (p=0.001) in comparison with the control group.Microscopically, the EE and sham groups were significantly lower than that of the control group (p<0.001 and p=0.000, respectively).Furthermore, the measurement of tissue levels of hydroxyproline was significantly lower in the sham and EE groups compared to the control group (sham group: 47.6 ± 10.6, EE group: 62.9 ± 9.7, Control group: 84.2 ± 22.1 mg /L/g-tissue). CONCLUSION:The grade and severity of abdominal adhesion could be significantly reduced through administered Ecballium elaterium and therefore be a suitable anti-inflammatory agent for the prevention of postoperative peritoneal adhesion in the future.

Purpose: The aim of the present study is to evaluate the health-related quality of life of the patients who underwent mitral valve repair (MvRp) and mitral valve replacement (MVR). Methods: Within the scope of this prospective study design, 56 patients who had mitral valve operation between the years of 2011-2012 were enrolled in the study. 24 (42.8%) of these patients had MVR while 32 (57.1%) of them had MvRp. The health-related quality of life was evaluated according to the Turkey norms of Short Form 36 Quality-Of-Life Measures (SF-36), which were filled in by the patients before and 6 months after the operation. Moreover, preoperative risk factors affecting the quality of life (age, gender, functional capacity, rhythm, hypertension, diabetes, applied surgical method and echocardiographic results) were investigated for all the patients (n = 56) by using independent sample t test analysis. Results: When the pre and postoperative changes were compared between the two groups, it was found out that there were no significant difference between the groups in terms of restraints on physical role functioning (PR), and the social role functioning values (SF) (respectively; p = 0.097, p = 0.105). However, in the comparison of pre-/postoperative changes between the groups, the changes in physical functioning (PF), bodily pain (BP), general health (GH), vitality (VT) and restraints on emotional role functioning (RE) and mental health (MH) values were found out to be significantly superior in the MvRp group than in the MVR group (respectively; p <0.01, p <0.05, p <0.01, p <0.01, p <0.05 and p <0.01). It was also confirmed that female gender, atrial fibrillation (AFR), and MVR method negatively affected the physical and mental components (respectively; p = 0.033, p = 0.003, p = 0.015). Conclusion: Results of the SF-36 quality of life measures show that quality of life may be better in patients that have had MvRp. It should be considered that the planned surgical treatment method can affect the patient's quality of life, and this effect can indicate the success of the surgical treatment.

Solunum Dergisi'ne www.solunum.org.tr adresinden ulaşabilirsiniz. GİRİŞ Venöz tromboemboli (VTE), genellikle ciddi bir medikal hastalık veya majör cerrahi nedeniyle hospitalize edilen olgu-larda ortaya çıkan, birbiriyle ilişkili derin ven trombozu (DVT) ve pulmoner tromboemboliden (PTE) oluşur. Semptomatik PTE olgularının %10'u semptomların ortaya çıkışından sonraki ilk bir saat içinde, %15'i ise

Multi-parent Advanced Generation Inter-crosses (MAGIC) lines have mosaic genomes that are generated shuffling the genetic material of the founder parents following pre-defined crossing schemes. In cereal crops, these experimental populations have been extensively used to investigate the genetic bases of several traits and dissect the genetic bases of epistasis. In plants, genomic prediction models are usually fitted using either diverse panels of mostly unrelated accessions or individuals of biparental families and several empirical analyses have been conducted to evaluate the predictive ability of models fitted to these populations using different traits. In this paper, we constructed, genotyped and evaluated a barley MAGIC population of 352 individuals developed with a diverse set of eight founder parents showing contrasting phenotypes for grain yield. We combined phenotypic and genotypic information of this MAGIC population to fit several genomic prediction models which were cross-validated to conduct empirical analyses aimed at examining the predictive ability of these models varying the sizes of training populations. Moreover, several methods to optimize the composition of the training population were also applied to this MAGIC population and cross-validated to estimate the resulting predictive ability. Finally, extensive phenotypic data generated in field trials organized across an ample range of water regimes and climatic conditions in the Mediterranean were used to fit and cross-validate multi-environment genomic prediction models including G×E interaction, using both genomic best linear unbiased prediction and reproducing kernel Hilbert space along with a non-linear Gaussian Kernel. Overall, our empirical analyses showed that genomic prediction models trained with a limited number of MAGIC lines can be used to predict grain yield with values of predictive ability that vary from 0.25 to 0.60 and that beyond QTL mapping and analysis of epistatic effects, MAGIC population might be used to successfully fit genomic prediction models. We concluded that for grain yield, the single-environment genomic prediction models examined in this study are equivalent in terms of predictive ability while, in general, multi-environment models that explicitly split marker effects in main and environmental-specific effects outperform simpler multi-environment models.

AIM: Increased intracranial pressure following trauma and subsequent possible development of brain death are important factors for morbidity and mortality due to ischemic changes. We aimed to establish the role of ischemic modifi ed albumin (IMA) in the early diagnosis of the process, starting with increased intracranial pressure and ending with brain death. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighteen Wistar-Albino rats were divided into three groups; control (CG, n = 6), increased intracranial pressure (ICPG, n = 6), and brain death (BDG, n = 6). Intracranial pressure elevation and brain death were constituted with the infl ation of a balloon of a Fogarty catheter in the epidural space. In all three groups, blood samples were drawn before the procedure, and at minutes 150 and 240 for IMA and malondialdehyde (MDA) analysis. RESULTS: Serum IMA levels at 150 and 240 minutes were higher in ICPG than in CG (p < 0.05). IMA levels were similar in ICPG and BDG. Serum MDA levels at 150 and 240 minutes increased in ICPG and BDG groups compared to CG (p < 0.05). MDA levels were similar in ICP and BD groups. CONCLUSION: IMA should be considered as a biochemical parameter in the process starting from increased intracranial pressure elevation and ending at brain death (Tab. 3, Fig. 5, Ref. 31). Text in PDF www.elis.sk. KEY WORDS: ischemic modifi ed albumin, increased intracranial pressure, brain death.