Corum Province Research Articles

Evaluation of the radiological, biochemical and serological parameters of patients prediagnosed as cystic echinococcosis in Çorum, Turkey

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a zoonosis caused by Echinococcus granulosus. It is difficult to diagnose CE by clinical symptoms alone, therefore, radiological and serological examinations should be conducted as well. The aims of this retrospective study were to evaluate the biochemical, hemogram, serological and radiological findings of patients prediagnosed as CE, and to survey epidemiological data to detect the status of the disease in our region. A total of 253 patients (148 female, 105 male) who were admitted to Hitit University Training and Research Hospital in Corum province (located in the central Black Sea Region of Turkey), between October 2009 to July 2013, were included in the study. Serum samples collected from the patients were analyzed by indirect hemagglutination (IHA) test, in the Microbiology Reference Laboratories of the Turkish Public Health Institute, and 1/160 and higher titers were considered positive. Twenty-three (15.5%) of female patients and nine (8.6%) of male patients, with a total of 32 (12.7%) were found to be seropositive. The difference between the gender was not statistically significant (X2= 2.72). The age range of the 32 seropositive patients was between 16-90 years (mean: 51), and of them 24 (75%) being over 40 years old was found as statistically significant (X2= 22.45). All of the seropositive patients presented radiological findings diagnosed with ultrasonography and computed tomography. Additionally, it was noticed that two patients (one male, one female) who were seronegative by IHA test, have passed a CE operation and the diagnosis was confirmed with pathological findings. Of the patients 43.8% were admitted to general surgery, followed by infectious diseases (21.9%), gastroenterology (21.9%) and other (12.5%) clinics. Radiological diagnosis showed that 31 (96.9%) of seropositive patients had CE in the liver, of them two (6.3%) also had lung involvement, while one patient (3.1%) had intraperitoneal involvement alone, without liver infection. Although 50% (16/32) of patients resided in Çorum urban area, most of them were dealing with agriculture and animal breeding. Among the biochemical parameters, GGT were detected with highest level (28%), followed by ALT (16%), AST (16%) and ALP (13%), while the other parameters were normal. Elevated RDW level was the most frequently observed result (29%) among hemogram parameters, while decreased levels of hematocrit, hemoglobin and MCV were detected in 23%, 19% and 19% of the patients, respectively. Eosinophilia was detected in 19% of the patients. In conclusion, for the diagnosis of CE, which is still an important public health problem in our region, a comprehensive evaluation of clinical, radiological, serological and biochemical findings is needed, to avoid a confusion of other diseases with similar clinical symptoms.

Examination of Aggression Levels and Empathic Tendency Levels of Secondary School Students who Involve or not Involve in Sports

This study was conducted to examine the aggression levels and empathic tendency levels of secondary students who involve or not involve in sports. “Aggression Inventory” developed by Kiper (1984) and “Empathic Tendency Scale” developed by Dokmen (1998) were applied to a total of 514 secondary school students (consists of 266 males, 248 females) who had been studying in a secondary school in the city center of Corum province and had been randomly selected in the academic year of 2010-2011. “Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA)” and “One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)” were used for the analysis of data and as a result of these variance analyses; “The Scheffe's Test” was used in order to determine the source of the difference. According to the findings obtained, it has been observed that the students whose family members involve in sports found to have higher destructive, assertive and overall aggression scores when compared to the students whose family members do not involve in sports. It was found that assertive aggression scores of the students who involve in sports are higher than the students who do not involve in sports. It was found that empathic tendency scores of the students who are also national athletes are higher than the scores of students who are club athletes. As a result, the empathy level of people decreases with the increasing level of aggression. It can be argued that the passive aggression decreases with the increasing empathic tendency and assertiveness increases with the increasing empathic tendency.

Assessment and characterization of genetic relationships of walnut (Juglans regia L.) genotypes by three types of molecular markers

Turkey has a rich walnut germplasm that has arisen from populations of naturally grown seedlings over many years. Despite this enormous genetic potential, only a few studies on molecular characterization studies have been carried out so far. In this study, the genetic relationships among 59 walnut genotypes and cultivars of international and Turkish interest were analyzed by 25 RAPD primers, 25 ISSR primers, and 16 SSR primer pairs. Among the molecular assays tested, SSR provided a very high polymorphism rate of 99.1%, while ISSR and RAPD results showed similar to each other but lower polymorphism (71.1% and 69.1%, respectively). The dendrogram constructed divided the genotypes into three main groups: ‘Group A’ included mainly genotypes originating from the Kahramanmaras and Yalova provinces, while ‘Group B’ contained genotypes originating from the Kırsehir, Tokat and Corum provinces of Turkey. ‘Group C’ contained only cultivars originating from the USA and France. According to the clustering in the dendrogram genotypes grouped largely in accordance with their geographical origin, although certain exceptions were present. The pairs of ‘Akca-2’ with ‘Karabodur’ and ‘Yalova-1’ with ‘Yalova-3’ were the most closely related walnut genotypes in this study. In conclusion, our study indicated that molecular markers are useful tools for use in to determining genetic relationships among walnut genotypes. The results will provide valuable information to walnut cultivar breeding programs for use in parental selection.

Tularemia: a re-emerging condition in Turkey which may be related with contaminated spring water in rural areas

We would like to thank Yusuf Kemaloglu for his interest in our article: Kizil et al. [2]. Dr. Kemaloglu [1] deeply investigated and kindly informed us about historical roots of tularemia in Turkey. We appreciate the contribution of Dr. Kemaloglu from a historical perspective. Since the first biological warfare as Dr. Kemaloglu stated, tularemia agent Francisella tularensis is still regarded as a potential biological weapon [1]. However, in war times, tularemia outbreaks are encountered due to poor hygiene and increased exposure to reservoirs and vectors. As a result, instead of biological attacks, war itself may be the primary cause of outbreaks. Although our aim was not to define an outbreak or a regional feature of the disease, his prediction was right about homelands of the patients. Most of the patients (10 patients) were from the same village of Corum province (Central Anatolia) and one patient had a travel history to that village. In addition, the patients also stated that the disease was present in many other inhabitants of the village which reflects an outbreak. The cause of the outbreak was probably contamination of drinking water source of the village by rats. As we have reported in our paper, the glandular form is the most common one in our series, and only 36.8 % presented with either oropharyngeal or ocular lesions [2]. Therefore, as Dr. Kemaloglu stated, this form could be a new burden of the disease without any entrypoint lesions. Some recent studies reporting high glandular form incidence rates also support this hypothesis [3, 4]. Hence, we think that the source of infection still could be spring water in rural areas, although only 31.6 % had oropharyngeal forms. Our primary treatment choice was medical treatment and surgical drainage of suppurated adenopathies, but surgically or spontaneously drained lymph nodes heal with extensive scar formation. In certain cases with long-lasting and large neck mass with overlying skin involvement, we thought that a comprehensive surgical resection of the involved skin along with the diseased lymph nodes may be a more effective solution. Therefore, a group of patients with a mean symptom duration of approximately 3 months were treated with superselective neck dissection and the results were quite satisfactory. This management pattern is comparable to the surgical treatment of atypical mycobacterial neck infections which are also resistant to medical therapy. We concluded that in patients with extensive neck involvement, immediate and effective results could be achieved with excision of involved skin and superselective neck dissection.

The Evaluation of Traffic Accident Deaths in Corum Province

Injuries and deaths related to traffic accidents play an important role in daily works of forensic medicine. For this reason, forensic experts need to have enough knowledge about the deaths caused by traffic accidents. Autopsy and dead examinations were retrospectively evaluated in patients who died due to traffic accidents in a 5 years period between 01.01.2005 and 31.12.2009 in the province of Corum. Cases were evaluated according to their age, sex, cause of death, and death place. It was emphasized to detect the socio-demographic characteristics of the patients who died as a result of traffic accidents and compared with similar studies in the literature. There were 141 cases traffic accident deaths, 98(%69.5) were male and 43 (30.5%) were female, age ranged between 7 months and 81 years and the average age was found to be 34.4. Male / female ratio was calculated to be 2.3. The largest group was pedestrians deaths 59 (41.8%), 32 deaths were between the ages of 21-30, 29 cases were between the ages of 0-10, 96 (68.1%) of the cases died in the hospital.Prevention from traffic accidents which is a major public health problem as well as in the world and in our country. We should educate the pedestrians and drivers, and ensure the compliance of the roads and vehicles for traffic and get full implementation of safety measures.

ÇORUM-RESULOĞLU ESKİ TUNÇ ÇAĞI MEZARLIĞI’NDA KUMAŞ KULLANIMINA İLİŞKİN YENİ BULGULAR

Çorum İli Uğurludağ İlçesi Resuloğlu Köyü’nün kuzeybatısında bulunan Resuloğlu Eski Tunç Çağı (M.Ö. 3. Binin son çeyreği) Ekstramural Mezarlık Alanında, 2004 ve 2005 kazı mevsiminde açığa çıkarılan küp ve taş sandık mezarlara ait, çeşitli tipte madeni mezar hediyeleri üzerinde kumaş parçaları tespit edilmiştir. Anadolu’da kumaş kullanımına ilişkin bilinen en eski örnekler Çayönü, Çatalhöyük, Kuruçay ve Alişar kazılarından açığa çıkarılmıştır. Eski Tunç Çağı’na tarihlenen örnekler ise İkiztepe, Tekeköy, Alaca Höyük ve Oymaağaç’tan bilinmekteydi. Resuloğlu mezarlığında tespit edilen örnekler, bu döneme ait kumaş kullanımı konusunda yeni katkılar sağlamaktadır. Daha sonraki dönemin dokuma sanatına ait en önemli arkeolojik verilerin Asur Ticaret Kolonileri Çağı’nda Acemhöyük ve Hitit Dönemi’nde Ortaköy kazılarında belgelendiği bilinmektedir. Çeşitli dönemlere ve yerleşimlere ait bu kumaş parçaları, yangın geçirmiş alanlarda, kemik aletlerle iskeletler üzerinde ve özellikle mezarlara ölü hediyesi olarak konulan madeni eserler üzerinde, cüruflaşmış ya da “yalancı oluşum” şeklinde, kaynaşmış durumda saptanmıştır. Resuloğlu’nda, madeni mezar hediyeleri üzerindeki kumaş kalıntıları ve izleri, Eski Tunç Çağı’nın son çeyreğindeki dokuma tekniğinin ve dokunan kumaşın kullanım alanlarının ortaya konması açısından katkı sağlamaktadır. Kopmuş küçük bir parça üzerinde yeni teknikler kullanılarak analiz yapılmıştır. Kumaşın keten ipleriyle dokunduğu, ayrıca boyandığı tespit edilmiştir. Parçanın ait olduğu kumaşın dokuma tekniği, ağırşaklı iğlerde eğrilen iplerin, ağırlıklı-dikey dokuma tezgâhlarında düz-dokuma “bez” yapıldığını göstermektedir. Gündelik işlerde kullanılan bu tip dokumaların, mezarlara ölü hediyesi olarak konulan madeni silahları sarmakta da kullanıldığı belirlenmiştir

Serological and entomological survey in a zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis focus of North Central Anatolia, Turkey: Corum province

In the present study, we aimed to carry out an epidemiological and entomological survey on a visceral leishmaniasis (VL) focus located on the northern central part of Anatolia, Turkey. Five villages of Corum province, where five confirmed cases of human visceral leishmaniasis (HVL) (one patient/village) were reported between June 1998 and August 2001 were included in the study. A total of 625 children and 131 dogs were sampled and the physical examination was carried out by authorized physicians and veterinarians. An indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT) was performed by standard procedures for human and dog sera, while the direct agglutination test (DAT) was only performed for dog sera. Sand fly collection was performed in three villages by CDC miniature light traps. Hepatosplenomegaly and hepatomegaly were detected in two and eight children, respectively. The seropositivity rate among children was found to be 0.16% (1/625) in the region. The seroprevalence of canine infection in these five villages ranged between 0.0% and 28.26%. In two villages, named Ahlatcik and Asagifindikli, no seropositive dogs were found. A total of 1218 sand flies were collected throughout the study. Six species of Phlebotomus were identified: P. transcaucasicus, P. neglectus, P. halepensis, P. tobbi, P. papatasi, and P. jacusieli. P. transcaucasicus was found to be the predominant species in Cevizli (47.44%; 343/723) and Ucoluk (79.95%; 351/439) villages, while P. tobbi was abundant in Kucukerikli (42.85%; 24/56).