The evaluation of the association between the prevalence and patterns of computed tomography findings of cryptogenic organizing pneumonia, and neutrophil/lymphocyte and platelet/lymphocyte ratios.

Background: Although rarely seen, organizing pneumonia (OP) is a quite characteristic clinicopathological picture among lung diseases. Purpose: Here, we aimed to investigate the relationship between neutrophil-to-lymphocyte (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratios (PLR), among the parameters of complete blood count, and the patterns and severity of involvements of cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP) in thorax computed tomography (CT). Materials and methods: A total of 38 patients diagnosed as COP in our hospital between April 2011-February 2020 were included in the study. The patients' data were obtained and evaluated retrospectively from the hospital automation system. On CT images, the lobes involved, lesions, locations, focal or multifocal involvements, and patterns of the lungs were evaluated. Whether there was a correlation between CT scores, and NLR and PLR findings was also evaluated. Results: NLR was found significantly higher in those with Grade-2 severity scale than that in those with Grade-1 involvement in the Kruskal-Wallis test (p = 0.004). NLR and C-reactive protein (CRP) values were significantly higher among patients with grade-3 involvement of severity scale than those having grade-1 involvement (p = 0.005, p = 0.007). Conclusions: In our study, NLR was evaluated as an appropriate parameter in correlation with the severity and prevalence of CT involvement in determining the disease severity in COP patients, and no significant association was found between the disease severity and PLR. Further studies including larger populations and more clinical evaluation parameters are needed to elucidate the entity.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging May Be a Valuable Radiation-Free Technique for Lung Pathologies in Patients with Primary Immunodeficiency.

PURPOSE: In some primary immunodeficiency (PID) patients, especially in the subgroup with common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), radiosensitivity is a concern and avoidance of repeated radiation exposure has been recommended. To investigate the use of lung Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) instead of Computed Tomography (CT) for the diagnosis and follow-up of various lesions in the lung parenchyma and airways, especially in PID patients in whom x-ray exposure should be limited. METHODS: The study enrolled 23 patients with PID who underwent thorax CT within the last 3 months and/or who will undergo initial radiological assessment. Lung MRI was performed in all patients to compare the pulmonary findings with CT images. RESULTS: MRI performance was weaker at detecting bronchiectasis extension, and a low concordance was found between MRI and CT in the assessment of the number of bronchial generations. CT better identified peripheral airway abnormalities, while CT and MRI gave similar results for detecting the presence and extension of consolidation, bullae, mucus plugging, bronchial wall thickening, bronchiectasis severity and nodules. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the low spatial resolution, higher cost, and low availability, we suggest MRI as a possible radiation-free alternative to CT in selected patients with PID.

Caroli disease with bilateral severe bullous emphysema. An unknown component.

We suspected that the multi-bullous parenchymal disease of our patient could be related to Caroli disease (CD) because he had no pulmonary pathology before the diagnosis of CD. The CD associated with bilateral multiple bullous emphysema may be an unknown component.

Erdosteine modulates radiocontrast-induced hepatotoxicity in rat.

It has been suggested that reactive oxygen species (ROS) plays an important role in radio contrast media (RCM)-induced ischemia reperfusion tissue injury although antioxidants may have protective effects on the injury. We investigated the effects of erdosteine as an antioxidant agent on RCM-induced liver toxicity in rats by evaluation of lipid peroxidation (as TBARS), catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), reduced glutathione (GSH) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) values and histological evaluation. Twenty-one rats were equally divided into three groups as follows: control, RCM, and RCM plus erdosteine. RCM was intraperitoneally administered for 1 day. Erdosteine was administered orally for 2 days after RCM administration. Liver samples were taken from the rats and they homogenized in a motor-driven tissue homogenizer. TBARS levels were significantly (p < 0.005) higher in RCM group than in control although SOD activities significantly (p < 0.05) decreased in RCM group. TBARS levels were lower in RCM plus erdosteine group than in control although SOD activity and GSH level increased (p < 0.05) in liver as compared to RCM alone. Erdosteine showed also histopathological protection (p < 0.0001) against RCM induced hepatotoxicity. GSH-Px and CAT activities were not statistically changed by the erdosteine. According to our results, it can be concluded that radiocontrast media can induce oxidative stress in liver as suggested by previous studies. Erdosteine seems to be protective agent on the radiocontrast media-induced liver toxicity by inhibiting the production of ROS via the enzymatic antioxidant system.