The prevalence of carpal tunnel syndrome in patients with epilepsy.

Objective: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common type of entrapment neuropathy caused by compression of the median nerve in the carpal tunnel. Epilepsy is characterised by recurrent seizures caused by abnormal neuronal discharges in the brain.This study aimed to investigate whether there is a link between epilepsy and carpal tunnel and, if so, the underlying factors. Materials and methods: Two hundred patients with epilepsy were included in this study. The patients' history of epilepsy, seizure type, and seizure frequency were assessed. The Tinel, Phalen, and Flick physical examination tests were performed on patients with complaints that matched those of median nerve neuropathy. Patients with epilepsy and clinically diagnosed carpal tunnel syndrome completed the Boston Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Questionnaire, and nerve conduction studies were performed. The relationship between seizure type and frequency in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome was compared. Results: Compared to focal-aware motor-onset seizures, the risk of detecting carpal tunnel syndrome was 88.7 times higher in focal-onset bilateral tonic-clonic seizures. Patients with a seizure frequency of one per month or more had a 0.704 times lower risk of CTS than those with a frequency of one per week or more (p = 0.026). Discussion: Patients with epilepsy, especially those experiencing frequent seizures or specific seizure types, may be more susceptible to repetitive wrist flexion-extension postures. Therefore, during clinical follow-up, it is important to inquire about the presence of carpal tunnel syndrome in patients with epilepsy.

The investigation of association between IL-1Ra and ACE I/D polymorphisms in carpal tunnel syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a common neurologic impairment caused by injury on the median nerve in the wrist, characterized by pain and loss of sensory. CTS usually occurs through three factors, such as a mechanical pressure on median nerve, immunologic changes, and oxidative stress. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) I/D polymorphisms on the susceptibility of patients to the CTS. METHODS: One hundred fifty-eight patients with CTS and 151 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Each patient was analyzed according to diseases symptoms, such as gender, a positive Tinel's sign, a positive Phalen maneuver, disease sides, EMG findings, and clinical stage. We applied the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to determine the polymorphisms of IL-1Ra and ACE I/D. RESULTS: The statistically significant relation was not found between IL-1Ra, ACE I/D polymorphisms and CTS (respectively, P>.05; P>.05, OR: 1.51, CI: 0.82-1.61). Additionally, in the result of the statistical analysis compared with gene polymorphisms and clinical characteristics, we did not find any correlation (P>.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings showed that there are no associations of IL-1Ra and ACE I/D polymorphisms with susceptibility of a person for the development of CTS. So, it means that these polymorphisms do not create a risk for the development of CTS. Further studies with larger populations will be required to confirm these findings in different study populations.

Clinical, demographic and prognostic features of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in Northern Turkey.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease for which progression cannot be prevented. In this study, we evaluated 37 patients diagnosed with sporadic definitive-probable ALS who were monitored in our neurology clinic between 2002 and 2012 in terms of age, gender, profession, onset, and clinical course within the disease process. The hospital ethics committee approved the study. Nineteen female and 18 male patients diagnosed with sporadic definitive or probable ALS were evaluated for age, gender, level of education, residence, onset of disease, the time between the first symptom and diagnosis, and average lifetime after diagnosis. Twenty-eight of the patients had graduated from primary-secondary school, six were illiterate, and three of them were college graduates. Eighteen patients were living in city center, 19 were living in the country. Fourteen patients were farmers, 11 were housewives, and the remaining was working in various different occupations. The age of onset was 62.13. The men and women were diagnosed 10.27 months and 17.91 months after the first symptom, respectively (p = 0.001). The average survival time after diagnosis was 36.70 months for males and 49.80 months for females (p < 0.05). This difference was particularly evident among patients from rural areas. In addition, our female patients required interventions such as ventilation at a later period than did males. In conclusion, female gender seems to be one of the good prognostic factors for our ALS patients. This may be due to the protection by hormonal mechanisms in women or differences in their responses to exogenous toxins.

The evaluation of sexual dysfunction in male patients with migraine and tension type headache.

BACKGROUND: Erectile dysfunction (ED), defined as the inability to achieve or maintain an erection sufficient for satisfactory sexual performance, is a common condition. The psychological, hormonal, neurogenic and arterial pathologies, medications, chronic diseases have been reported in the etiology of the ED. This paper aims to study sexual dysfunction in the male patients with migraine and Tension type headache (TTH). METHODS: 30 migraine cases (Group M), 31 TTH cases (Group T) and 30 control cases (Group C) were included in the study. Patients were evaluated with medical history, physical examination, body mass index (BMI), Beck Depression Inventory, biochemical analysis and hormone profiles. ED was evaluated via International Index of Erectile Function Scale (IIEF). In statistical analysis, variant analysis, post-hoc tukey test, Pearson correlation test, t-test, and fisher's exact chi-square test were used. RESULTS: The patients' mean age was 34.96+/-1.30, 35.54+/-1.52 and 32.26+/-1.38 for group M,T and C, respectively. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of testosterone levels. Mean IIEF scores was 19.83+/-2.2, 20.39+/-1.35 and 27.83+/-0.34 in groups M,T,C. When M and T groups were compared with group C, there were significant differences, and there was no statistical difference when T and M groups were compared to each other. Beck Depression Scores were not significantly different in groups M, T and C. CONCLUSION: In this study, it was shown that, migraine and TTH affects the sexual functions negatively in male patients. Chronic diseases may cause sexual disorders in patients because of despair, guilt, and fear of death or pain. Our results suggest that, along with the effect of chronic disease and pain, there must be other complicated factors exist causing the development of SD in patients with migraine and TTH.

Association of missense mutations of Mediterranean fever (MEFV) gene with multiple sclerosis in Turkish population.

Genetic risk factors are known to contribute to the etiology of multiple sclerosis (MS). Patients with familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) have susceptibility to develop MS. Mediterranean fever (MEFV) gene has already been identified as being responsible for FMF. The aim of this study was to explore the frequency of missense mutations of MEFV gene in a cohort of Turkish patients with MS. The study included 100 patients with MS and 160 healthy controls. Genomic DNA was isolated and genotyped using polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses for the five MEFV gene mutations (M694V, M680I, V726A, E148Q, and P369S). There were statistically significant differences of the MEFV gene mutation carrier rates and allele frequencies between MS patients and healthy controls (p = 0.0008, odds ratio (OR) 2.6, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.47-4.77 and p = 0.0002, OR 2.6, 95 % CI 1.55-4.48, respectively). The results of this study suggest that MEFV gene mutations are positively associated with predisposition to develop MS.