The platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio could represent pro-thrombotic inflammatory state in acute ischemic stroke patients because having a high-PLR values increased the poor prognosis, the rate of insufficient recanalization, and the size of infarcted area.

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The study results revealed the neuroprotective effects of ischemic preconditioning, supported with the upregulated pro-survival miRNAs in MCA infarcts.

High PLR might be a factor to induce inflammatory process on SBIs even with low CHA2DS2-VASc scores.

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The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). 25(OH)D levels were checked in 108 consecutive patients with CTS symptoms and 52 healthy controls. All patients underwent nerve conduction studies and completed Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BQ) symptom severity and functional status scales to quantify symptom severity, pain status and functional status. There were 57 patients with electrophysiological confirmed CTS (EP+ group) and 51 electrophysiological negative symptomatic patients (EP- group). 25(OH) D deficiency (25(OH)D < 20 ng/ml) was found in 96.1 % of EP- group, in 94.7 % of EP+ group and in 73.8 % of control group. 25(0H) D level was found significantly lower both in EP+ and EP- groups compared to control group (p = 0.006, p < 0.001, respectively). Although mean vitamin D level in EP- group was lower than EP+ group, statistically difference was not significant between EP+ and EP- groups (p = 0.182). BQ symptom severity and functional status scores and BQ pain sum score were not significantly different between EP+ and EP- groups. We found no correlation with 25(OH) D level for BQ symptom severity, functional status and pain sum scores. 25(OH) D deficiency is a common problem in patients with CTS symptoms. As evidenced by the present study, assessment of serum 25(OH)D is recommended in CTS patients even with electrophysiological negative results.

AIm: Current stroke therapies include lipid-lowering drugs, which reduce inflammation and serve to stabilize the atherosclerotic plaque to demonstrate better outcome and neuroprotection. Peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPAR) α regulates lipid homeostasis and is a target of fibrates, which have a neuroprotective function by various mechanisms. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the role of the PPARα agonist, fenofibrate, in the modulation of cleaved caspase-3 immunoreactivity and at the final infarct volume in an experimental ischemia/reperfusion rat model by induced transient proximal middle cerebral artery occlusion. mATERIAl and mEThODS: A total of 65 male Sprague Dawley rats were allocated into 4 groups; sham (n =5), experiment 1 (n=20), experiment 2 (n=20), experiment 3 (n=20). All experiment groups were divided to 3 subgroups in order to evaluate the final infarct volume at 24 th hour (n=5) and the immunoreactivity of cleaved caspase -3 at different time periods [at first hour (n=5), at 6 th hour (n=5), at 24 th hour (n=5)] after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo). At the study, the experiment groups (Experiment 1 and Experiment 2) were received the fenofibrate-diet during 14 days before ischemia procedure. All animals were sacrificed at 24 th hours after MCAo. Infarction volumes were calculated from 2,3,5,triphenyltetrozolium chloride (TTC)-stained brain sections. RESUlTS:We found that fenofibrate-therapy reduced significantly more body weight than the other experiment groups (p<0.05). At the time intervals, a decrease of immunoreactivity of cleaved caspase-3 was significantly observed with fenofibrate therapy after MCAo (p<0.05). Chronic fenofibrate treatment before cerebral ischemia significantly reduced the infarction size after MCAo compared with the other groups (respectively; p = 0.011 and p< 0.000). CONClUSION:Fenofibrate treatment has neuroprotective effects on middle cerebral artery infarcts.

BackgroundRemote ischemic preconditioning (IPreC) could provide tissue-protective effect at a remote site by anti-inflammatory, neuronal, and humoral signaling pathways.ObjectivesThe aim of the study was to investigate the possible protective effects of remote IPreC on myocardium after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo) in streptozotocin- induced diabetic (STZ) and non-diabetic rats.Methods48 male Spraque Dawley rats were divided into eight groups: Sham, STZ, IPreC, MCAo, IPreC+MCAo, STZ+IPreC, STZ+MCAo and STZ+IPreC+MCAo groups. We induced transient MCAo seven days after STZ-induced diabetes, and performed IPreC 72 hours before transient MCAo. Remote myocardial injury was investigated histopathologically. Bax, Bcl2 and caspase-3 protein levels were measured by Western blot analysis. Total antioxidant status (TAS), total oxidant status (TOS) of myocardial tissue were measured by colorimetric assay. Oxidative stress index(OSI) was calculated as TOS-to-TAS ratio. For all statistical analysis, p values < 0.05 were considered significant.ResultsWe observed serious damage including necrosis, congestion and mononuclear cell infiltration in myocardial tissue of the diabetic and ischemic groups. In these groups TOS and OSI levels were significantly higher; TAS levels were lower than those of IPreC related groups (p < 0.05). IPreC had markedly improved histopathological alterations and increased TAS levels in IPreC+MCAo and STZ+IPreC+MCAo compared to MCAo and STZ+MCAo groups (p < 0.05). In non-diabetic rats, MCAo activated apoptotic cell death via increasing Bax/Bcl2 ratio and caspase-3 levels. IPreC reduced apoptotic cell death by suppressing pro-apoptotic proteins. Diabetes markedly increased apoptotic protein levels and the effect did not reversed by IPreC.ConclusionsWe could suggest that IPreC attenuates myocardial injury via ameliorating histological findings, activating antioxidant mechanisms, and inducing antiapoptotic activity in diabetic rats.