Around the town of Qermik in south-east Turkey there are many deposits of asbestiform minerals, some of which are used to make whitewash or stucco. A sample of 7000 of the population revealed 461 (65 5%) with pleural thickening and calcification, of whom 103 (147 % of the total) had evidence of interstitial pulmonary fibrosis. Forty-one patients with respiratory cancer were admitted to the Diyarbakir Chest Hospital from around Qermik and from a comparable area of equal population (but without asbestos deposits) in 1977-8. Of these 23 were mesotheliomas, 22 coming from around Qermik. In addition, 11 of the 18 primary bronchial cancers came from around Qermik. A similar excess of mesothelioma and bronchial cancer had been admitted from the §ermik area in previous years. The whitewash or stucco material has been shown to contain fibrous tremolite and non-fibrous antigorite/lizardite, chlorite, and talc. A lung biopsy of a patient from Qermik contained large numbers of tremolite fibres, both free and forming asbestos bodies.There were only occasional chrysotile fibres.

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Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common entrapment neuropathy. Many factors such as diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism, hormonal replacement therapy, corticosteroid use, rheumatoid arthritis and wrist fractures may cause CTS. Metabolic syndrome includes abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia, and hypertension that may cause CTS. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the relation between CTS and metabolic syndrome. We studied 107 (96 female and 11 male) right-handed patients who had a clinical and electrophysiologically confirmed diagnosis of CTS. We then divided the patients into two groups (patients with and without metabolic syndrome) according to the criteria of ATP III definition. Eighty (75%) of the patients with CTS had metabolic syndrome. Among the 80 patients with metabolic syndrome, CTS was found in 150 hands (43 mild, 58 moderate and 49 severe cases). Among the 27 patients without metabolic syndrome, CTS was found in 43 hands (27 mild, 14 moderate and 2 severe cases). The electrophysiological parameters (median nerve distal motor latency, median nerve motor amplitude, median nerve motor conduction velocity, median nerve sensory onset latency, median nerve sensory amplitude and median nerve sensory conduction velocity) were worse in patients with metabolic syndrome (P < 0.05). In conclusion, metabolic syndrome was found to be three times more common in patients with CTS and CTS was more severe in patients with metabolic syndrome when compared with those without metabolic syndrome.

Thiodan (33.7% endosulfan), a polychlorinated cyclodiene insecticide, was evaluated for its histopathological effects on mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis, by light microscopy. Fish were exposed to doses of 0.00 (control), 1.00, 2.50, and 5.00 microg/L on days 7, 14, 21, and 30. No histopathological effects were apparent at control group. The histopathological alterations were characterized as oedema, degeneration, accumulation of lymphocytes in the lamina propria, disintegration of villuses, pycnotic state of nuclei, and necrosis in gut; degeneration, hypertrophy, sinusoids enlargement, hemorrhage, pycnosis position of nuclei, vacuolization of cell cytoplasm, infiltration of mononuclear lymphocyte, and congestion in liver. These alterations were time- and dose-dependent.

BackgroundAccording to some reports, left hemidiaphragmatic paralysis due to phrenic nerve injury may occur following cardiac surgery. The purpose of this study was to document the effects on phrenic nerve injury of whole body hypothermia, use of ice-slush around the heart and mammary artery harvesting.MethodsElectrophysiology of phrenic nerves was studied bilaterally in 78 subjects before and three weeks after cardiac or peripheral vascular surgery. In 49 patients, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and heart valve replacement with moderate hypothermic (mean 28°C) cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) were performed. In the other 29, CABG with beating heart was performed, or, in several cases, peripheral vascular surgery with normothermia.ResultsIn all patients, measurements of bilateral phrenic nerve function were within normal limits before surgery. Three weeks after surgery, left phrenic nerve function was absent in five patients in the CPB and hypothermia group (3 in CABG and 2 in valve replacement). No phrenic nerve dysfunction was observed after surgery in the CABG with beating heart (no CPB) or the peripheral vascular groups. Except in the five patients with left phrenic nerve paralysis, mean phrenic nerve conduction latency time (ms) and amplitude (mV) did not differ statistically before and after surgery in either group (p > 0.05).ConclusionsOur results indicate that CPB with hypothermia and local ice-slush application around the heart play a role in phrenic nerve injury following cardiac surgery. Furthermore, phrenic nerve injury during cardiac surgery occurred in 10.2 % of our patients (CABG with CPB plus valve surgery).