Evaluation of the Quality of Life and Psychiatric Symptoms of Patients with Primary Coxarthrosis after Total Hip Arthroplasty.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY In this study, it was aimed to examine the preoperative and postoperative quality of life and psychiatric symptoms of the patients with primary coxarthrosis after total hip arthroplasty. MATERIAL AND METHODS 150 patients undergone total hip arthroplasty were involved in this study. The socio-demographical data form prepared by the researchers was utilized before and after the operation in order to demonstrate disease-related socio-demographical characteristics of the patient. The Quality of Life Scale Short Form (SF-36), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Harris Hip Score (HHS) and Visual Analog Scale (VSA) were implemented in the preoperative period and at 6th and 12th week after the operation. RESULTS Of the patients involved in study, 28.7% were male and 71.3% were female. Their mean age was 58.34±11.92 year. While statistically significant differences were found between the preoperative and postoperative periods in terms of physical function, physical role limitation, emotional role limitation, energy, social function, pain, and general health subscales of SF-36, no significant differences were found relating mental health subscale. In BAI, BDI, VAS, and HHS comparison, statistically significant differences were found between the preoperative and postoperative periods, except for BAI. CONCLUSIONS In this study, it was determined that primary coxarthrosis affects significantly the quality of the patients' lives in a negative way and can be accompanied by mental symptoms. After total hip arthroplasty, significant improvement was observed in quality of life, depression and pain scores. Key words: total hip prosthesis, quality of life, mental symptoms.

The impact of physical and psychological comorbid conditions on the quality of life of patients with acute myocardial infarction: a multi-center, cross-sectional observational study from Turkey.

OBJECTIVE: Acute myocardial infarction (MI) has significant and detrimental effects on the lifestyles of the patients. It has been shown that quality of life (QoL) in patients with MI is impaired in every aspect. This study aims to evaluate the impact of depression and physical comorbidity on QoL in Turkish patients with acute first MI. METHOD: This multi-center cross-sectional study was carried out in 15 centers with 998 patients hospitalized for acute first MI. For detection of depression, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used. For evaluation of QoL, World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL) was applied. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 57.5 +/- 10.1 years and 79.2 % (n = 792) of the patients were men. Patients with comorbid depression (BDI > or = 10) and comorbid medical conditions, and female patients had significantly lower scores in every domain of WHOQOL. In the regression analysis model, female gender, low education, comorbid medical conditions, especially comorbid hypertension, and BDI score were found to have a significant effect on the domains of WHOQOL. CONCLUSIONS: Female patients are more prone to impairment in quality of life after myocardial infarction. Both comorbid medical conditions and depression have a significant impact on the impairment of QoL in Turkish patients with acute MI. In order to improve the subjective wellbeing of post MI patients, both psychiatric and physical comorbidities must be detected and managed even in the short-term.

Double suicide attempt.

A suicide pact is an agreement between two or more people to kill themselves. They represent 0.6-4.0 percent of all suicides, with the vast majority being double suicides. Double suicides are quite rare and are generally seen in old, married couples. We present a double suicide pact involving two young brothers aged 20 and 22 years. Using these two detailed cases and other cases reported in the literature, some general observations on the psychodynamics of suicide pacts are discussed. This is the first study in the literature on a suicide pact made by two brothers.

Multimodal function optimization using minimal representation size clustering and its application to planning multipaths.

A novel genetic algorithm (GA) using minimal representation size cluster (MRSC) analysis is designed and implemented for solving multimodal function optimization problems. The problem of multimodal function optimization is framed within a hypothesize-and-test paradigm using minimal representation size (minimal complexity) for species formation and a GA. A multiple-population GA is developed to identify different species. The number of populations, thus the number of different species, is determined by the minimal representation size criterion. Therefore, the proposed algorithm reveals the unknown structure of the multimodal function when a priori knowledge about the function is unknown. The effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated on a number of multimodal test functions. The proposed scheme results in a highly parallel algorithm for finding multiple local minima. In this paper, a path-planning algorithm is also developed based on the MRSC_GA algorithm. The algorithm utilizes MRSC_GA for planning paths for mobile robots, piano-mover problems, and N-link manipulators. The MRSC_GA is used for generating multipaths to provide alternative solutions to the path-planning problem. The generation of alternative solutions is especially important for planning paths in dynamic environments. A novel iterative multiresolution path representation is used as a basis for the GA coding. The effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated on a number of two-dimensional path-planning problems.