TNF-alpha, IL-6 and hs-CRP levels were positively, adiponectin negatively correlated with adipocyte size. Therefore, adiposity may be an inflammatory condition.

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The reported prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in patients with lichen planus (LP) shows variations from different regions. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of HCV infection in patients with LP, in Diyarbakir region of Turkey. A total of 128 patients with LP and 128 healthy controls were detected for HCV infection, using a third generation enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Eight of 128 patients (6.25%) with LP were found to have anti-HCV antibodies, whereas only one patient (0.78%) in control group was found to have anti-HCV antibodies. A statistically significant difference was found between LP and control group (p < 0.001). In conclusion, the coexistence of HCV infection and lichen planus is more than coincidental, and it is appropriate to screen all patients with lichen planus for HCV infection.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of low-dose, low-molecular-weight heparin (enoxaparin) in the treatment of lichen planus (LP). Twenty-four patients clinically and histopathologically diagnosed as LP with intense pruritus were treated with 3 mg of enoxaparin (Clexane), subcutaneously once a week for 4-14 weeks. Complete remission was observed in 20 of 24 patients (83%) who had widespread cutaneous involvement, but no or minimal effect was observed in four of 24 patients, three of whom had chronic hypertrophic LP. Low-dose enoxaparin was observed to be effective in the treatment of LP without any side-effects. Enoxaparin may be an effective and simple alternative therapy for LP.

Staphylococcus species are one of the major causes of bacterial bloodstream infections. Multi-resistant staphylococci infections are major therapeutic problems. This study was aimed to detect methicillin, linezolid and vancomycin susceptibilities of Staphylococcus isolates. A total of 870 Staphylococcus strains isolated from blood cultures of hospitalized patients with BSI. Antimicrobial susceptibilities of methicillin, linezolid and vancomycin were detected according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). A total of 771 (88.6%) isolates were coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS). 700 (80.5%) isolates were methicillin-resistant (MR) and 170 (19.5%) were methicillin-susceptible (MS). All the MS isolates were also susceptible to linezolid. However 15 (1.7%) of MR strains were resistant to linezolid. The minimum inhibitory concentration range for the linezolid-resistant isolates by Etest was 6–32 μg/mL. The difference between linezolid susceptibilities for MS and MR staphylococci was not quite statistically significant (p = 0.052). There was no statistically significant difference between S. aureus and CoNS isolates for linezolid susceptibility. All of the isolates were susceptible to vancomycin. In conclusion, linezolid is currently an efficient option for the treatment of methicillin-resistant staphylococci infections.

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A study was carried out on 430 samples of different foodstuffs (soft cheese, raw chicken, minced beef, sausage, fish) and 400 carcase samples (sheep, young and adult cattle) for screening of Listeria monocytogenes. It was found that only one of the samples contained L. monocytogenes at > 10(3) cfu/ml in the initial examination, but another 42 samples contained L. monocytogenes following an enrichment process. L. monocytogenes was isolated most frequently from raw chicken samples (18%), but was not isolated from sausage samples. Forty-three isolates were defined as serotypes by using Bacto-Listeria-O-antisera Type 1 (Difco 2300-50-2) and Type 4 (Difco 2301-50-1) except that Type poly was not used. For these reasons, all isolates were classified as type 1 or type 4 and the other was termed untypeable. Twenty-one samples were type 1, 17 were untypeable, and 5 were both serotype 4 and untypeable.