It is important to identify cases of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) who are at risk for tuberculosis (TB) reactivation. We aimed to evaluate the performance of interferon (IFN)-gamma-inducible protein 10 (IP-10) as a marker to detect LTBI in patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases (IRD). This study comprised 76 consecutive subjects with IRD. Patients with a history of TB or having active TB were excluded. In all patients, IP-10 level was measured and tuberculin skin test (TST) and QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube test (QFT-GIT) were performed. Seventy patients with complete test results were analyzed. Twenty-one (30%) QFT-GIT-positive patients were defined as having LTBI. IP-10 yielded 2197 pg/mL cut-off point. At this cut-off point, IP-10 showed 89% specificity with a sensitivity of 91% (AUC: 0.950, 95% CI 0.906–0.994). TST, QFT-GIT, and IP-10 were positive in 77.1%, 30%, and 44.3% of the patients, respectively. Concordance among the results of TST, QFT-GIT, and IP-10 tests was evaluated. Agreement was poor between IP-10 and TST (58.6%, κ = 0.19), whereas it was good between QFT-GIT and IP-10 (84.3%, κ = 0.65). The results of the present study demonstrated that sensitivity and specificity of released IP-10 were as high as those of QFT-GIT in indicating LTBI in IRD patient group.

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) independently heightens the risk of lung cancer (LC), often necessitating chemoradiotherapy (CRT) due to advanced disease stages. However, CRT may compromise survival through complications such as ILD exacerbation or radiation pneumonitis. The aim of this study was to determine the optimal surgical or nonsurgical treatment approaches for patients with concurrent ILD and LC. Over a 10-year period, a retrospective evaluation was conducted on 647 patients with confirmed diagnoses of LC and ILD from a total of 4541 patients examined in the polyclinic. This assessment included a comprehensive review of demographic, treatment, and survival records. Study groups included those treated for both ILD and LC with surgical treatment (ST), chemotherapy (CT), radiotherapy (RT), or CRT. A control group comprised ILD-only cases. In the whole sample of 647 patients with complete data, the length of stay in hospital and respiratory intensive care unit was significantly shorter in the ST group and longer in the CT group. Significant differences in discharge status (P < .001) were observed, with higher recovery rates in the ST and RT groups. The CT group showed an increased rate of transfer to other centers, in-hospital mortality was determined to be higher in the CRT group, and the control group exhibited no change in discharge. No statistically significant difference was determined between the groups with respect to the 24- and 48-month survival rates (P = .100). Although no disparity was found in 2- and 4-year survival rates, there were seen to be advantages in survival and quality of life with the addition of radiotherapy to regions aligning with surgical margins for LC patients with ILD, evaluated as radiological N0, undergoing wedge resection. This underscores the need for personalized treatment strategies to balance effective cancer control and to minimize ILD-related complications.

Endobronchial solitary papillomas are extremely rare lung neoplasms origi-nating from the bronchial surface epithelium. They often present with cough or recurrent hemoptysis. These tumors are benign, but they should be fol-lowed closely because they may even have a low probability of malignant transformation features. It should be kept in mind that malignancy may devel-op especially if the patient is a smoker. Although the etiology is not known for certain, it is thought to be caused by human papillomavirus in some cases. A 43-year-old male patient was admitted with a complaint of chronic cough. Rigid bronchoscopy was performed for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes after imaging techniques revealed a lesion obstructing the lumen of the right main bronchus. The pathology result was reported as mixed bronchial papil-loma. We aimed to present our case because of its rarity and to indicate that chronic cough must be further evaluated.

Introduction: The use of new oral anticoagulants (NOACs) for the treatment of thromboembolic diseases is becoming more widespread. The present study brings together the opinions and daily routine clinical practices of physicians regarding the use of NOACs in the geriatric age group for the treatment of venous thromboembolic diseases. Materials and Methods: The study accessed 274 physicians (197 attending, 70 resident and seven primary care physicians) with various specialties and academic positions through face-to-face interviews or e-mails, and asked them to complete a questionnaire form prepared for NOAC use on a voluntary basis between 1 May and 31 December 2019. Results: It was found that physicians preferred NOACs mostly for patients contraindicated for the regular use of low-molecular-weight heparins and warfarin (n: 264, 96%), and with an unbalanced INR level (n: 230, 87%). The use of NOACs was found to be higher in the geriatric age group than other anticoagulants due to the easy dose adjustment, the extended monitoring intervals and the low risk of bleeding. Among the physicians, neither the specialty nor a higher number of occupational working years affected the preference for NOACs or other anticoagulants. Conclusion: Our study has demonstrated that physicians consider NOACs to be a good treatment option in terms of efficacy and reliability for the treatment of thromboembolic diseases in the geriatric age group, who may have treatment compliance difficulties. It was found also that they plan treatment considering the benefit-to-harm ratio and the bleeding-ischemic event balance.

Background: Outpatient appointment disruptions—particularly no-shows, late arrivals, and walk-ins—undermine clinic efficiency and equity in access to care. Despite decades of research, predictors of attendance behavior remain poorly understood, especially in respiratory care settings. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 520 patients attending a pulmonology outpatient clinic in Turkey over 12 weekdays. Patients were classified as on-time attendees, late attendees, no-shows, or walk-in visitors. Data on sociodemographic, clinical, logistical, and behavioral factors were collected via structured surveys administered in person or, for no-shows, by phone; some variables (e.g. employment and insurance) had substantial missingness. Logistic regression identified predictors of non-attendance. An unsupervised clustering analysis (Partitioning Around Medoids using Gower distance) was used to identify patient subgroups with distinct attendance patterns. Results: Among 520 patients, 386 (74.2%) arrived on time, 64 (12.3%) were late, 48 (9.2%) missed appointments, and 22 (4.2%) were walk-ins. On-time attendees were older and more likely to have received appointment reminders. No-shows were younger, more educated, and less likely to receive reminders. The leading causes of lateness were transportation issues (45.9%) and difficulty locating the clinic (31.1%). In multivariable analysis, younger age (odds ratio [OR] = 0.964; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.938–0.992; P = .010) and absence of reminders (OR = 4.275; 95% CI = 2.013–9.081; P < .001) were independently associated with non-attendance. Clustering analysis identified three phenotypes: “Older Dependent” (older, comorbid, low socioeconomic status), “Young Autonomous” (younger, high socioeconomic status, high no-show rate), and “Access-Challenged” (employed, low insurance coverage, high lateness). Conclusion: Appointment reminders and age are strong, actionable predictors of attendance. Behavioral segmentation revealed latent patient profiles with distinct needs. Personalized scheduling strategies—especially targeted reminders and flexible systems—may improve outpatient efficiency and reduce inequities. These findings support the integration of behavioral clustering into appointment optimization frameworks. Keywords: outpatient appointments; no-show behavior; appointment reminders