Prevalence of depressive symptoms in elderly cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and influencing factors.

BACKGROUND: Depression is one of the most prevalent causes of distress in the geriatric population. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of depressive symptoms in elderly cancer patients and to determine the possible associated factors. METHODS: Cancer patients 65 years or older and on active chemotherapy completed the Yesavage Geriatric Depression Scale. We examined the relationship of depressive symptoms with age, gender, marital status, educational background, type of cancer, stage of disease, comorbidities, types of treatment for cancer, the duration after diagnosis of cancer, social support, and pain status. RESULTS: The study included 170 patients with a mean age of 71 years, and 47.1% were women. The prevalence of a high depressive symptom score was 19.4%. Of the patients who had a high depressive symptom score based on the Yesavage Geriatric Depression Scale, 18.2% had already been diagnosed with depression and used antidepressants. The mean pain score was significantly higher in patients who had a high depressive symptom score compared to others (P = 0.012). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of depressive symptoms in elderly cancer patients receiving chemotherapy was similar to that in the geriatric population without cancer. It was also consistent with previous studies on elderly cancer population. Pain was found to be a factor related to depressive symptoms. The prevalence of depression may be reduced by pain control. The treatment of depression may both improve the patient's quality of life and enhance their compliance with treatment.

The role of shear wave elastography in predicting endometrial cancer in patients presenting with abnormal uterine bleeding.

OBJECTIVE: Shear Wave Elastography (SWE) is an objective quantitative ultrasound elastography technique that can demonstrate the stiffness of anatomical structures to aid in their detection and characterization. We aimed to evaluate the role of shear wave elastography in differentiating endometrial carcinoma from benign uterine pathologies in women with abnormal uterine bleeding. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This prospective study was conducted at our institution from January 2020 to April 2020. A hundred patients with endometrial sampling planned and SWE due to abnormal uterine bleeding were included in the study. According to the histopathological results of the patients, those with normal and atrophic endometrium results were defined as group I (control group), those with benign results such as polyps and endometrial hyperplasia were defined as group II, and those with endometrial cancers were defined as group III. RESULTS: After adjustment for age, a statistically significant difference was found in Emean (mean and adjusted mean) value between the study groups (F2.96=86.37, p<.001, η2=0.64). The post-hoc analysis was performed with a Bonferroni adjustment. The mean Emean value was found to be statistically significantly higher in group III (17.14±0.40) compared to group I (10.39±0.26) and group II (11.49±0.32) (p<0.001). In addition, a statistically significant difference was found between the benign and normal groups. CONCLUSIONS: As a new diagnostic technique in gynecology, elastography appears to be a valuable tool in differentiating malign endometrial pathologies from normal or benign endometrial pathologies in females with abnormal uterine bleeding.

Surgical and neurological complications in temporal lobe epilepsy surgery in modern era.

BACKGROUND: Temporal lobe epilepsy is the most common form of focal epilepsy, and surgical treatment has been proven to be an effective and safe management. Despite its safety, it is important to know that some complications and/or even death can be seen after surgery. Neurosurgeons should be able to precisely inform epilepsy surgery candidates about the possible unwanted/unexpected conditions after surgery. METHODS: Fifty-three patients who underwent anterior temporal lobe resection due to temporal lobe epilepsy by a single surgeon were investigated retrospectively regarding postoperative surgical and neurological complications. RESULTS: Overall complication rate was found to be 19%, surgical complications comprised 13.2% whereas neurological complications were 5.8%. Three patients underwent a second surgery whereas the rest had medical treatment or recovered spontaneously. Fortunately persistent complication rate was found to be 0%, and there was no mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Anterior temporal lobe resection is a safe and very effective surgical modality for the treatment of temporal lobe epilepsy. However, unexpected complications may be possible in this modern era and a surgeon should trust in him/herself not in modern equipments.

Frontal and occipital perfusion changes in dissociative identity disorder.

The aim of the study was to investigate if there were any characteristics of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in dissociative identity disorder. Twenty-one drug-free patients with dissociative identity disorder and nine healthy volunteers participated in the study. In addition to a clinical evaluation, dissociative psychopathology was assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders, the Dissociative Experiences Scale and the Clinician-Administered Dissociative States Scale. A semi-structured interview for borderline personality disorder, the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire were also administered to all patients. Normal controls had to be without a history of childhood trauma and without any depressive or dissociative disorder. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was studied with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) with Tc99m-hexamethylpropylenamine (HMPAO) as a tracer. Compared with findings in the control group, the rCBF ratio was decreased among patients with dissociative identity disorder in the orbitofrontal region bilaterally. It was increased in median and superior frontal regions and occipital regions bilaterally. There was no significant correlation between rCBF ratios of the regions of interest and any of the psychopathology scale scores. An explanation for the neurophysiology of dissociative psychopathology has to invoke a comprehensive model of interaction between anterior and posterior brain regions.

The genotoxic effects in lymphocyte cultures of children treated with radiosynovectomy by using yttrium-90 citrate colloid.

UNLABELLED: The aim of this study was to investigate the genotoxic effect on the peripheral blood lymphocytes potentially induced by yttrium-90 citrate colloid (Y-90) in children who were undergoing radiosynovectomy for hemophilic synovitis, using chromosomal aberration analysis (CA) and the micronuclei (MN) assay for detecting chromosomal aberrations, as well as the sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) technique for assessed DNA damage. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cytogenetic analyses were undertaken in 18 boys (mean age, 14.5 +/- 2.1 years) with hemophilic synovitis who underwent radiosynovectomy with Y-90. CA, MN, and SCE were evaluated just prior to, then at 2 and 90 days following radiosynovectomy from the peripheral lymphocytes of the children. An activity of 185 MBq of Y-90 was injected into the 18 knee joints under aseptic conditions. To check the possibility of leakage from the joint and its migration within the body, the patients underwent scanning under a dual-headed gamma camera at the hours 2 and 48 following the procedure. RESULTS: The procedure was well tolerated in all the children, and there was no extra-articular activity owing to extra-articular leakage of radioactive material in whole-body imaging. The mean frequency of CA in lymphocytes determined prior to the onset of therapy (0.31 +/- 0.48/900 cells) was not significantly increased, in comparison to the control values obtained 2 (0.30 +/- 0.48/900 cells) and 90 days (0.15 +/- 0.37/900 cells) after radiosynovectomy (p = 1.0 and 0.625, respectively). We observed that MN frequency was mildly increased in lymphocytes 2 days after therapy (8.30 +/- 1.89 MN/1000 binucleated cells vs. 9.23 +/- 1.79 MN/1000 binucleated cells; p = 0.013). But there was no significant difference between the baseline and the day 90 control levels of MN (p = 0.196). In the analysis of SCE frequency, there were no significant differences between the baseline (8.11 +/- 0.77) and the control analysis performed 2 and 90 days following radiosynovectomy (8.18 +/- 0.77 and 8.07 +/- 0.74; p = 0.710 and 0.662, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study indicated that high radiation doses are not obtained by peripheral lymphocytes of children who undergo Y-90 radiosynovectomy and, therefore, they contradict a high cancer risk.

Bone marrow necrosis secondary to imatinib usage, mimicking spinal metastasis on magnetic resonance imaging and FDG-PET/CT.

Imatinib mesylate has become the treatment of choice for gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) and has made a revolutionary impact on survival rates. Bone marrow necrosis is a very rare adverse event in malignant GIST. Bone metastases are also rarely encountered in the setting of this disease. The authors report on a patient with malignant GIST who developed a bone lesion, mimicking spinal metastasis on both MR imaging and FDG-PET/CT. Corpectomy and anterior fusion was performed, but the pathology report was consistent with bone marrow necrosis. Radiological and clinical similarities made the distinction between metastasis and bone marrow necrosis challenging for the treating physicians. Instead of radical surgical excision, more conservative methods such as percutaneous or endoscopic bone biopsies may be more useful for pathological confirmation, even though investigations such as MR imaging and FDG-PET/CT indicate metastatic disease.