We investigated the effectiveness of pelvic floor muscle (PFM) exercises or biofeedback for the treatment of urinary stress incontinence (USI). Fifty patients with USI were included in this randomized, controlled, prospective study. Twenty patients were taught PFM exercises via digital palpation and instructed to perform regularly as home program. The second group of 20 patients had PFM exercises via biofeedback three times a week for 2 months. The third group of 10 patients did not have any exercises. The patients were evaluated via pad test, perineometry, digital palpation based PFM strength, incontinence frequency, and visual analog scale based social activity index prior to and 8 weeks after the treatment. The first two groups had significant improvement in USI with respect to the control group (p < 0.001). The rise in PFM strength with perineometry of the biofeedback group was higher than in the digital palpation group after treatment (p < 0.001). PFM exercises are effective for the treatment of USI; the biofeedback method revealed better PFM strength results with respect to digital palpation.

Premature born AGA and SGA children do not have insulin resistance when compared to term children if they have made a catch-up growth appropriate for their target height and have normal BMI. The similar insulin levels in preterm SGA and preterm AGA children together with increased insulin levels in term SGA children points to the fact that it is the intrauterine restriction in the third trimester that has an adverse effect on future adverse metabolic outcome.

SGA children with CUG and with no obesity have higher insulin levels compared to AGA children. Both SGA birth and recent size seem to have an effect on serum adiponectin levels in childhood.

LGA children have higher insulin and lower adiponectin levels than AGA children in spite of similar BMI. Adiponectin is a better indicator of insulin resistance in LGA children at prepubertal ages and is affected by birth weight.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the sensory, motor and functional improvement in patients with a Spinal Cord Lesion (SCL) by recording at admission, discharge and at 12 months after discharge. Fifty-®ve patients (29 with paraplegia and 26 with tetraplegia) admitted to our departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation between December 1992 ± 1995. Three patients were excluded as they did not give their consent. Each patient was evaluated at admission, before discharge and at 12 months after discharge. Motor status was evaluated by the motor score (MS), sensory status by the light touch score (LTS), and functional status by the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) score. Each patient was asked to complete a patient questionnaire which was developed according to the standards of the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) scale. Twelve patients (10 with paraplegia and two with tetraplegia) were evaluated at 12 months after discharge. Paired samples t-test was used for statistical analysis. The mean age of the patients group was 36.42+17.70 years, the mean duration of inpatient rehabilitation was 93.87+44.95 days. The SCL was due to trauma in 45 patients, 86.50% of the cases and was complete in nine patients (17.30%) and incomplete in 19 (36.53%) with paraplegia. Six tetraplegic patients (11.53%) had complete and 18 had (34.61%) incomplete lesions. The evaluation of MS, LTS and FIM scores at admission and discharge showed signi®cant improvement in the MS and LTS in all of the patients with incomplete lesions (P50.001). FIM scores showed signi®cant improvement only in those with complete or incomplete paraplegia (P50.05). At 12 months follow-up there was no signi®cant change in the MS and the LTS whereas a signi®cant change was noted in the FIM scores (P50.05) in 10 paraplegic patients. In summary, the results of this study indicate that rehabilitation was e ective in our SCL series although the signi®cant gain may also be attributed to the fact that 71.1% of the study group had incomplete neurological lesions.

In conclusion, our results suggest that both sympathetic and parasympathetic functions in post-stroke survivors were partially inhibited, and this finding may be useful in the prediction of possible complications during rehabilitation.

The objective of this study was to compare the MRI findings of wrists in patients diagnosed with CTS with those of the healthy controls, and to evaluate the correlation between the MRI differences and the electrophysiological findings in the patient group. This study involved 55 wrists, 30 of which were clinically and electrophysiologically diagnosed with CTS and 25 healthy controls. These 55 wrists were evaluated electrophysiologically, and in terms of median nerve diameter, ratio of median nerve diameter at psiform bone level to distal radio-ulnar joint level, the flexor retinaculum bulging ratio and the median nerve intensity by MRI. When the patient group, which were clinically and electrophysiologically diagnosed with CTS, and the healthy control group were compared, a significant difference (p < 0.001) was observed between the two in terms of median nerve diameters (at psiform bone level: 8.47 +/- 1.41mm and 2.91 +/- 1.01 mm, distal radio-ulnar joint level: 4.04 +/- 1.06 mm and 2.42 +/- 0.95 mm), ratio of median nerve diameter at psiform bone level to distal radio-ulnar joint level (2.17 +/- 0.54 and 1.25 +/- 0.12), their flexor retinaculum bulging ratios (26.21 +/- 5.98% and 7.27 +/- 4.53%) and their median nerve intensities. In the patient group, no significant correlation between MRI and the electrophysiological findings was found (p > 0.05). According to the data obtained from the study, we believe that the MRI examination of structural changes that occur in the carpal tunnel, neighboring structures and the median nerve would be useful in the diagnosis of CTS, especially in cases with suspected clinical and electrophysiological diagnosis.

The aim of our study was to evaluate the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract side effect profile in 759 female patients that had taken alendronate (10 mg/day), for at least 6 months, for the treatment of osteoporosis, in relation to the safety of alendronate and the compliance of patients to its absorption rules. This study was a multicentered retrospective, clinical, non- placebo controlled, study of 759 female subjects carried out at 26 centres in 6 different regions of Turkey. The mean age of our patients was 62.6 +/- 8.6, with 51.2%in the age range 60 to 69 years. 158 patients (20.8%) were considered to have upper GI tract complaints with nausea as the most often encountered symptom. Of the subjects with upper GI tract complaints, 20% reported discontinued drug use, and 30% reported the requirement of an additional drug in order to abolish their complaints. Approximately 537 (71%) of the patients stated they had been given written information about the administration of the drug, and at least 93 patients (12%) and 73 patients (18.4%) acknowledged non compliance with the safety and absorption rules, respectively. In our study, no significant difference was found between the adherence to the safety measures and upper GI tract complaints (p > 0.05), but that upper GI tract complaints were higher in patients taking additional medication to alendronate (p < 0.05).