An unusual presentation of acute brucellosis with fever, jaundice and maculopapular rash.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Mehmet Parlak.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
OBJECTIVES: This study described the clinical features, factors affecting the outcome of this disease, risk factors, and efficacy of ribavirin therapy for CCHF patients in Eastern Turkey. METHODS: Between 2002 and 2004, 60 cases admitted to our hospital were included in this study. The diagnosis was confirmed through detection of IgM by ELISA and/or genomic segment of virus by RT-PCR. RESULTS: In multivariate analysis, farming (OR, 11.4), living in a rural area (OR, 10.05) and being bitten by tick (OR, 6.75) were determined as risk factors for CCHF. The rates of fever during hospitalization, confusion, neck stiffness, bleeding from multiple sites, and presence of petechia/ecchymosis were higher in the patients who died than in surviving ones. Additionally, the mean values of ALT, AST, LHD, CK, PTT, INR and urea were also higher, and the mean PLT count was lower in the patients who died. Mean recovery time was shorter in the cases treated with ribavirin than those of control. But, the need for blood and blood product, mean hospitalization duration, fatality rates, and hospital expenditure values were not significantly different between the group of patients treated with ribavirin and control groups. CONCLUSIONS: In Eastern Turkey, clinical features, factors influencing outcome of the disease, and risk factors were similar to other outbreaks of CCHF. Further studies are needed for the evaluation of ribavirin therapy in CCHF.
We investigated animal and human anthrax cases during a 13-year period in eastern Turkey. From 1992 to 2004, a total of 464 animal and 503 human anthrax cases were detected. Most cases occurred in summer. Anthrax remains a health problem in eastern Turkey, and preventive measures should be taken.
To determine time related changes of microbial colonization of burn wounds and body flora of burned patients, a prospective study was carried out. Fifty-one patients who were hospitalized at least 3 weeks were enrolled in the study. Periodic swabs were taken from burn wound, nasal, axillary, inguinal, and umbilical regions of the patients on admission and 7th, 14th, and 21st days of hospitalization. The mean body surface area burned was 22.9%. A total of 1098 microbial isolates were detected during the study period. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS, 63.0%) and Staphylococcus aureus (19.7%) were the most prevalent isolates in admission cultures. There was a gradual decrease in the number of isolates of CNS and a marked increase in the numbers of S. aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa from admission to 21st day. At the 21st day, the most frequent organisms were S. aureus (37.6%), CNS (34.7%), and P. aeruginosa (16.2%). Methicillin resistance of staphylococci strains were increased constantly in study period. While 35.3% of burn wounds were sterile on admission, microbial colonization reached 86.3% within the first week. Nasal carriage of methicillin resistant S. aureus increased from 3.9% to 62.7% at 21st day. The nature of microbial wound colonization and flora changes should be taken into consideration in empirical antimicrobial therapy of burned patients.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Linezolid is a synthetic antimicrobial agent which was introduced into clinical therapy in the early 2001. It has an inhibitory effect against most of the Gram positive bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin resistant enterococci. In this study, in-vitro activities of linezolid, teicoplanin, vancomycin, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, erythromycin, clindamycin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and rifampicin, were tested against 164 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus spp. (96 S. aureus and 68 coagulase negative staphylococci) isolated from clinical specimens, by using disk diffusion method. None of the strains were found to be resistant to linezolid, vancomycin and teicoplanin. The resistance rates to other drugs were as follows; 80.5% to ciprofloxacin, 78.0% to gentamicin, 76.8% to erythromycin, 65.5% to clindamycin, 57.3% to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and 41.5% to rifampicin. It was concluded that linezolid can be used as an alternative drug in severe infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus spp., especially if the isolate was found to be resistant to teicoplanin or a side effect of vancomycin was observed.