BACKGROUND: The most important and difficult task when it comes to reducing tobacco-related morbidity and mortality is to convince smokers to quit and to maintain their abstinence. This study aimed to determine the smoking relapse rate and factors related to relapse in subjects who participated in a smoking cessation program and completed a 1-y follow-up in our center. METHODS: The study included 550 subjects who applied to a smoking cessation clinic from June 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011 and completed the 1-y follow-up. RESULTS: After 1 y, 282 (51.4%) subjects had relapsed, 132 (24%) had quit smoking, and 135 (24.6%) could not be contacted. The mean age ± SD was 41.5 ± 10.8 y, and 52.5% were male. There was no difference between non-relapsed and relapsed subjects with regard to age, sex, average smoking duration and daily number of cigarettes, reason to quit, education level, presence of symptoms and concomitant diseases, Fagerström nicotine dependence score, Beck depression score, and frequency of pharmacotherapy administration. In the relapsed group, the age began smoking was younger ( P = .05), and the longest prior duration of abstinence was shorter ( P = .04). The average number of support contacts was found to be significantly higher in the non-relapsed subjects ( P < .001). Logistic regression analysis revealed alcohol intake to be a factor influencing relapse (odds ratio: 2.11, 95% CI: 1.13–3.93, P = .02), as was the number of support contacts (odds ratio: 2.06, 95% CI: 1.59–2.65, P < .001). The presence of drug adverse effects was close to being significant (odds ratio: 1.96, 95% CI: 0.93–4.10, P = .07). CONCLUSION: The relapse rate in a 1-y period was 51.4%. Similar to previous studies, alcohol intake presented a relapse risk. In subjects receiving drug treatment, planning support meetings more frequently and paying attention to adverse effects may increase the success of smoking cessation.

BACKGROUND:Serum uric acid (sUA) levels were previously found to be correlated with hypoxic states. We aimed to determine the levels of sUA and sUA/creatinine ratios in stable COPD patients and to evaluate whether sUA level and sUA/creatinine ratio c...

Background: Domiciliary noninvasive ventilation (NIV) use in stable hypercarbic COPD is becoming increasingly widespread. However, treatment compliance criteria and factors related to compliance remain to be defined. Methods: This research was designed as a prospective, cross-sectional, multicenter real-life study. Chronic hypercapnic COPD patients who were using domiciliary NIV for at least 1 year and being followed up in 19 centers across Turkey were included in the study. The patients who used NIV regularly, night or daytime and ≥5 hours/d, were classified as “high-compliance group,” and patients who used NIV irregularly and <5 hours/d as “low-compliance group." Results: Two hundred and sixty-six patients with a mean age of 64.5±10.3 years were enrolled, of whom 75.2% were males. They were using domiciliary NIV for 2.8±2 years. Spontaneous time mode (p<0.001) and night use (p<0.001) were more frequent in the high-compliance group (n=163). Also, mean inspiratory positive airway pressure values of the high-compliance group were significantly higher than the low-compliance group (n=103; p<0.001). Cardiac failure (p=0.049) and obesity (p=0.01) were significantly more frequent in the high-compliance group. There were no difference between 2 groups regarding hospitalization, emergency department and intensive care unit admissions within the last year, as well as modified Medical Research Council dyspnea and COPD Assessment Test scores. With regard to NIV-related side effects, only conjunctivitis was observed more frequently in the high-compliance group (p=0.002). Conclusion: Determination of the patients who have better compliance to domiciliary NIV in COPD may increase the success and effectiveness of treatment. This highly comprehensive study on this topic possesses importance as it suggests that patient and ventilator characteristics may be related to treatment compliance.

Turkthoracj, Turkish Thoracic Journal

Objective: While the incidence of sarcoidosis peaks between 20 and 39 years, it is comparatively low in elderly subjects. We sought to determine whether there are age-dependent differences in the demographic and laboratory characteristics of patients with sarcoidosis. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively collected information from our database using the International Classification of Disease (ICD) diagnostic code D86 between 2008 and 2014. Patients were divided into three groups: 20–39 years old (Group 1), 40–59 years old (Group 2), and 60–80 years old (Group 3). Results: A total of 3988 patients with code of D86 were included in the study. After the exclusion of non-eligible patients, the number of cases in Groups 1, 2, and 3 were 276, 641, and 352, respectively. The groups were compared according to demographic characteristics, ICD diagnostic codes, and laboratory parameters. The ratio of female patients was significantly higher in Group 3 than in Groups 1 and 2 (p=0.000). There was no difference in diagnostic codes of the ICD subgroups between groups (p=0.19). While the level of blood-urea nitrogen was significantly higher in Group 3 patients than in other groups (p=0.000), serum angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) values were found to be significantly low in Group 3 (p=0.010). The mean ACE values did not differ between females and males (50.8±39.3 and 59.1±45.5 mg/dL, respectively) (p=0.18). Conclusion: The majority of patients with sarcoidosis were female in all age groups and pulmonary sarcoidosis was the most common presentation of the disease. Elderly patients (≥60 years) with sarcoidosis had lower serum ACE levels than younger patients. Cite this article as: Durmus Kocak N, Gungor S, Aka Akturk U, et al. Analysis of Age Distribution and Disease Presentation of 1269 Patients with Sarcoidosis. Eurasian J Med 2017; 49: 161-6.

Introduction: The search for biomarkers that could help in predicting disease prognosis in the Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak is still high on the agenda.Objective: To find out the efficacy of D-dimer and mean platelet volume (MPV) combination as a prognostic marker in hospitalized COVID-19 patients with bilateral infiltration.Materials and Methods: Study design: Retrospective observational cohort. Patients who were presented to our hospital between March 16, 2020 and June 07, 2020 were reviewed retrospectively. The primary outcome of the study was specified as the need for intensive care, while the secondary outcomes were duration of treatment and hospitalization. Receiver operator curve (ROC) analyzes were carried out to assess the efficacy of D-dimer and MPV parameters as prognostic markers.Results: Between the mentioned dates, 575 of 1,564 patients were found to be compatible with COVID-19, and the number of patients who were included in the study was 306. The number of patients who developed the need for intensive care was 40 (13.1%). For serum D-dimer levels in assessing the need for intensive care, the area under the curve (AUC) was found to be 0.707 (95% CI: 0.620–0.794). The AUC for MPV was 0.694 (95% CI: 0.585–0.803), when D-dimer was ≥1.0 mg/L. When patients with a D-dimer level of ≥1.0 mg/L were divided into two groups considering the MPV cut-off value as 8.1, the rate of intensive care transport was found to be significantly higher in patients with an MPV of ≥8.1 fL compared to those with an MPV of <8.1 fL (32.6 vs. 16.0%, p = 0.043). For the prognostic efficacy of the combination of D-dimer ≥ 1.0 mg/L and MPV ≥ 8.1 fL in determining the need for intensive care, following values were determined: sensitivity: 57.7%, specificity: 70.8%, positive predictive value (PPV): 32.0%, negative predictive value (NPV): 84.0%, and accuracy: 63.0%. When D-dimer was ≥1.0, the median duration of treatment in MPV <8.1 and ≥8.1 groups was 5.0 [interquartile range (IQR): 5.0–10.0] days for both groups (p = 0.64). The median length of hospital stay (LOS) was 7.0 (IQR: 5.0–10.5) days in the MPV <8.1 group, while it was 8.5 (IQR: 5.0–16.3) days in the MPV ≥ 8.1 group (p = 0.17).Conclusion: In COVID-19 patients with a serum D-dimer level of at least 1.0 mg/L and radiological bilateral infiltration at hospitalization, if the MPV value is ≥8.1, we could predict the need for intensive care with moderate efficacy and a relatively high negative predictive value. However, no correlation could be found between this combined marker and the duration of treatment and the LOS.