Objectives: Fournier’s gangrene is an aggressive, rapidly progressing, and life-threatening necrotizing fasciitis of the perineal and genital regions. Various scoring systems have been developed for predicting survival and prognosis in Fournier’s gangrene. This retrospective study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the newly developed Fournier’s gangrene mortality index (FGMI) in predicting mortality associated with Fournier’s gangrene. Methods: The study included patients over the age of 18 years who were followed-up with a diagnosis of Fournier’s gangrene in the general surgery clinics of three different hospitals in Şanlıurfa province between 2014 and 2024. The patients included in this study were divided into two groups: deceased (n = 20) and surviving (n = 149). In FGMI, the parameters used were age, creatinine level, albumin level, lymphocyte percentage, and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio. Based on the total score and risk assessment, <5 points were categorized as low-to-moderate mortality risk and ≥5 points as high mortality risk. Results: A total of 169 patients with a diagnosis of Fournier’s gangrene were included in the study; 87 were men (51.48%). The median age of all patients was 53 (40–63) years; 20 patients (11.8%) died. The Laboratory Risk Indicator for Necrotizing Fasciitis (LRINEC) score did not show a statistically significant difference between the deceased and surviving groups (p = 0.5). Compared to the survivors, the deceased had higher neutrophil counts, neutrophil percentages, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratios, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratios, and C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratios, whereas lymphocyte counts, lymphocyte percentages, eosinophil counts, eosinophil percentages, monocyte counts, and monocyte percentages were lower, and these differences were statistically significant. According to receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, the ROC-area under the curve for predicting mortality based on an FGMI score of ≥5 was 0.88 (95% CI: 0.80–0.95) with a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 70% (p < 0.001). Univariate risk analysis was performed, and the odds ratio revealed that mortality risk in patients followed-up for Fournier’s gangrene with a FGMI score of ≥5 was 20 times higher (4.48–90.91) (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The results reveal that the FGMI score is a scoring system that can predict mortality at the initial clinical presentation of patients with Fournier’s gangrene. Another important finding of the present study is that the LRINEC score was not sufficiently effective in predicting mortality.

Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of hematologic findings and the relationship between hemogram parameters and brucellosis stages in patients. Methods: This multi-center study included patients older than 16 years of age who were followed up with a diagnosis of brucellosis. Patients’ results, including white blood cell, hemoglobin, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, mean platelet volume, platelet and eosinophil counts were analyzed at the initial diagnosis. Results: In this study 51.3% of the patients diagnosed with brucellosis were male. The age median was 45 years for female and 41 years for male. A total of 55.1% of the patients had acute brucellosis, 28.2% had subacute, 7.4% had chronic and 9% had relapse. The most common hematologic findings in brucellosis patients were anemia (25.9%), monocytosis (15.9%), eosinopenia (10.3%), and leukocytosis (7.1%). Pancytopenia occurred in 0.8% of patients and was more prominent in the acute phase. The acute brucellosis group had lower white blood cell, hemoglobin, neutrophil, eosinophil, and platelet counts and mean platelet volume, and higher monocyte counts compared to subacute and chronic subgroups. Conclusion: It was noteworthy that in addition to anemia and monocytosis, eosinopenia was third most prominent laboratory findings in the study. Pancytopenia and thrombocytopenia rates were low.

Background: Brucellosis is one of the most common zoonotic infections. Although culture is the gold standard diagnostic method, bacterial growth in blood cultures may not always occur due to various factors. We aimed to investigate demographic, clinical, and laboratory findings that may have predictive significance for bacteremia in brucellosis. Methods: Patients older than 18 years of age followed up with a diagnosis of brucellosis between 2012 and 2022 were included in this retrospective multicenter study. They were divided into two main subgroups according to their Brucella species reproductive status as bacteremic and non-bacteremic. Results: A total of 743 patients, 370 (49.80%) bacteremic and 373 (50.20%) non-bacteremic brucellosis patients, were enrolled. The mean age of the bacteremic group (36.74 years) was lower than the non-bacteremic group (43.18 yr). High fever, chills/cold, sweating, nausea, vomiting, and weight loss were more common in the bacteremic group. In the bacteremic group, white blood cell count, platelet count, hemoglobin level, mean platelet volume, eosinophil, and neutrophil counts were lower, and lymphocyte, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, and ferritin levels were higher. According to the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, when the cut-off value of ferritin was considered 67, it was the parameter with the strongest predictive significance in Brucella bacteremia. Conclusion: High ferritin level, low eosinophil count, and increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate were determined as the most critical laboratory findings in predicting bacteremia in brucellosis.

Amaç: Hepatit A, hepatit B, hepatit C ve HIV kan ve vücut sıvılarının bulaşı açısından önde gelen hastalıklardır. Bu çalışmada, sağlık çalışanlarında HAV, HBV, HCV ve HIV seropozitifliğinin araştırılması amaçlanmıştır.Materyal ve Metot: Sağlık çalışanlarının serum örneklerinde HBsAg, anti-HBs, anti-HCV, anti-HAV IgG, anti-HBc IgG ve anti-HIV testleri kemilüminesans esasına dayanan ELISA yöntemi ile çalışıldı.Bulgular: Çalışmaya dahil edilen 647 sağlık çalışanından 391’i erkek (%60,43) ve 256’sı kadındı (%39,57). Çalışanların 201’i (%31,1) hemşire, 92’si (%14,2) doktor, 94’ü (%14,5) temizlik görevlisi ve 260’ı (%40,2) diğer sağlık personeli idi. HBsAg pozitifliği 12 kişide (%1,8) saptandı. Anti-HBs pozitifliği 561 kişide (%86,7) tespit edildi. Anti-HCV ve anti-HIV pozitifliği herhangi bir sağlık çalışanında saptanmadı. Anti-HAV IgG bakılan 552 kişiden 499 kişide test sonucu pozitif (%90,3), 53 kişide ise negatif (%9,7) olarak sonuçlandı.Sonuç: Sağlık çalışanları HAV, HBV, HCV ve HIV açısından yüksek risk grubunda bulundukları için dönemsel olarak bu virüsler açısından tarama yapılması ve HAV ile HBV’ye karşı bağışık olmayanların aşılanmaları gerekmektedir.

Aims: In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the psychological status of healthcare professionals regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, and to examine their perspectives and knowledge levels regarding the mpox epidemic. Methods: Having a cross-sectional design, the present study was carried out by using questions addressing sociodemographic characteristics of healthcare professionals, their experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic, and their knowledge and anxiety levels regarding mpox. Results: 202 healthcare professionals were involved in the present study. Of the participants, 55% were female and the mean age was 35.0±7.7 years. The majority (63.4%) of the participants were midwives/nurses/medical assistants. Of the participants, 68.8% were infected by COVID-19 during the pandemic. Considering the questions addressing their level of knowledge about mpox, 44.1% of participants stated that they had never heard of this disease before. Participants were found to have mainly moderate levels of depression and anxiety and low level of stress, whereas the ratios of very severe depression and anxiety were 5.0% and 7.4%, respectively. Conclusion: It was determined that almost half of the participants had no full knowledge of the disease before the increase in mpox cases. It was found that the participants varying levels of depression, anxiety, and stress about a new pandemic. We think that it is important to provide healthcare professionals with psychosocial support, make effort in order to determine and eliminate the sources of psychological negativities.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of adult patients followed up for hydatid cysts disease. Method: Patients over the age of 18 years who were diagnosed with hydatid disease, between January 2015 and September 2021 were included in the study. The clinical, laboratory and radiologic characteristics of the patients were evaluated retrospectively. Results: The study included 66 patients. 59.1% of the patients were female and the mean age was 40.9±15.60 years. The most common presenting symptom was abdominal pain (42.4%). The most common sites of involvement were the liver (78.8%) and lung (18.2%). The majority of patients had solitary cysts (84.8%). The most common finding in laboratory tests was elevated total IgE (74.1%). The indirect hemagglutination (IHA) test was positive in 77.4% of the patients tested. Conclusion: In our study, it was concluded that hydatid cysts are most commonly seen in the liver, often with single organ involvement, and that elevated total IgE in laboratory diagnosis may be helpful in the diagnosis of hydatid cyst disease, although it does not make a definitive diagnosis.