National data on asthma characteristics and the factors associated with uncontrolled asthma seem to be necessary for every country. For this purpose, we developed the Turkish Adult Asthma Registry ...

This was a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study.Thyroidectomy is a frequently performed surgical procedure and head and neck extension during this operation facilitates surgery. Patients may experience postoperative neck pain and cervical range of motion (ROM) limitation due to the surgical position following thyroidectomy. It was aimed herein to investigate the short-term effects of kinesiotaping(KT) applied to the cervical spine on neck pain, ROM, and disability in patients following thyroidectomy. A total of 74 patients were randomly assigned to be treated with either KT (Group 1, n = 37) or sham taping (Group 2, n = 37) using a computer-generated random number list. Neck pain, cervical ROM, and neck disability were evaluated with a visual analog scale (VAS), inclinometer, and the Neck Disability Index (NDI) questionnaire, respectively. There were no significant differences with respect to age, sex, educational background, or body mass index between the groups.While there were no significant differences with respect to improvement of the VAS and change of the ROM and NDI values between the groups, patients in Group 1 needed less paracetamol than patients in Group 2 (P = 0.011). This study showed that cervical KT application following thyroidectomy does not have a positive effect on neck pain, ROM, or disability, but nonetheless, it reduces analgesic consumption.

The quality of the performances of standardized patients plays a significant role in the effectiveness of clinical skills education. Therefore, providing standardized patients with constant feedbac...

Aims: Diagnosis of coeliac disease (CD) with mild mucosal changes is difficult for all parties involved. We aimed to determine the power of T cell receptor (TCR)γδ⁺ intra‐epithelial lymphocytes (IELs) in discriminating CD from other causes of intra‐epithelial lymphocytosis using a new monoclonal antibody.Methods: A total of 167 cases categorised as coeliac (117 untreated CD, classified according to Marsh, updated by Ensari, including 29 type 1, 29 type 2, 39 type 3 and 20 treated CD), and non‐coeliac groups (24 controls and 26 non‐coeliac IELosis) based on clinical, serological and histological data were studied for IEL counts enumerated per 100 enterocytes using haematoxylin and eosin, CD3, TCR δ‐stains.Results: TCRγδ⁺ IELs were significantly higher in CD (24.83 ± 16.13) compared to non‐CD (6.72 ± 6.32) and were correlated with the degree of mucosal damage. Both γδ⁺ IEL count and ratio showed higher performance in differentiating untreated coeliacs from controls, with a sensitivity of 83.76; 85.57 and specificity of 95.83; 79.17, respectively. TCRγδ⁺ IEL counts distinguished type 1 CD (20.41 ± 13.57) from non‐coeliac IELosis (9.42 ± 7.28) (p = 0.025). Discriminant analysis revealed that villus/crypt ratio, γδ⁺ and CD3⁺ IEL counts, γδ⁺/CD3⁺IEL ratio, IEL distribution pattern were potent discriminants and correctly classified 82.3% of cases while the algorithm accurately diagnosed 93.4% of cases.Conclusions: The new antibody detecting γδ⁺ IELs in FFPE sections revealed thresholds of 10.5 for γδ⁺ IELs and 14% for γδ⁺/CD3⁺IEL ratio which distinguished coeliacs from non‐coeliacs with high sensitivity and specificity, particularly in cases with normal villus/crypt axis including type 1 CD, non‐CD IELosis and controls. A ‘coeliac algorithm’ based on γδ⁺ IELs is proposed with the hope that it will be used in the histopathological diagnostic approach by the pathology community.