BACKGROUND:Emergency services manage trauma patients frequently and falls from height comprise the main cause of emergency service admissions. In this study, we aimed to analyse the demographic characteristics of fal s from height and their relationship to the mortality. METHODS:A total of 460 patients, who admitted to the Emergency Department of Inonu University between November 2011 and November 2014 with a history of fall from height, were examined retrospectively. Demographic parameters, fall characteristics and their effect to mortality were evaluated statistically. RESULTS:The study comprised of 292 (63.5％) men and 168 (36.5％) women patients. The mean age of all patients was 27±24.99 years. Twenty-six (5.6％) patients died and the majority of them were in ≥62 years old group. The highest percentage of falls was at 0–5 years age group (28.3％). People fell mainly from 1.1–4 metres(m) level (46.1％). The causes of falls were ordered as unintentional (92.2％), workplace (8.1％) and suicidal (1.7％). Skin and soft tissue injuries (37.4％) were the main traumatic lesions. CONCLUSION:Age, fall height, fall place, linear skull fracture, subarachnoidal hemorrhage, cervical fracture, thoracic vertebra fracture and trauma scores had statistically significant effect on mortality. The casualties died because of subarachnoid hemorrhage mostly.

The aim of this study was to investigate the difference in the serum malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione (GSH), and nitric oxide (NO) levels between normal and T. gondii-infected patients. To this end, MDA, GSH, and NO levels in the sera of 37 seropositive patients and 40 participants in the control group were evaluated. In Toxoplasma ELISA, IgG results of the patient group were 1,013.0 +/- 543.8 in optical density (mean +/- SD). A statistically significant difference was found between patients and the control group in terms of MDA, GSH, and NO levels. A decrease in GSH activity was detected, while MDA and NO levels increased significantly. Consequently, it is suggested that the use of antioxidant vitamins in addition to a parasite treatment shall prove useful. The high infection vs control ratio of MDA and NO levels probably suggests the occurrence as a mechanism of tissue damage in cases of chronic toxoplasmosis. Moreover, it is recommended that the patient levels of MDA, GSH, and NO should be evaluated in toxoplasmosis.
Animals ; Glutathione/*blood ; Humans ; Immunity, Cellular ; Lipid Peroxidation ; Malondialdehyde/*blood ; Nitric Oxide/*blood ; Oxidative Stress ; Toxoplasma ; Toxoplasmosis/*blood/immunology