No abstract available.
Adult ; Anti-Neutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibody-Associated Vasculitis/*complications/diagnosis/drug therapy/immunology ; Antibodies, Antineutrophil Cytoplasmic/*blood ; Biomarkers/blood ; Biopsy ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique ; Glomerulonephritis, IGA/*complications/diagnosis/drug therapy/immunology ; Humans ; Immunosuppressive Agents/therapeutic use ; Male ; Myeloblastin/*immunology ; Treatment Outcome

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by attacks of fever and diffuse abdominal pain. The primary concern with this presentation is to distinguish it from acute appendicitis promptly. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the role of neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) to leverage the differential diagnosis of acute FMF attack with histologically proven appendicitis. METHODS: Twenty-three patients with histologically confirmed acute appendicitis and 88 patients with acute attack of FMF were included in the study. NLR, C-reactive protein and other hematologic parameters were compared between the groups. RESULTS: Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio was significantly higher in patients with acute appendicitis compared to the FMF attack group (8.24 +/- 6.31 vs. 4.16 +/- 2.44, p = 0.007). The performance of NLR in diagnosing acute appendicitis with receiver operating characteristic analysis with a cut-off value of 4.03 were; 78% sensitivity, 62% specificity, and area under the curve 0.760 (95% confidence interval, 0.655 to 0.8655; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that NLR, the simple and readily available inflammatory marker may have a useful role in distinguishing acute FMF attack from acute appendicitis.
Adult ; Appendicitis/blood/*diagnosis ; Area Under Curve ; Biomarkers/blood ; Blood Sedimentation ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Familial Mediterranean Fever/blood/*diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Inflammation Mediators/blood ; Lymphocyte Count ; *Lymphocytes ; Male ; *Neutrophils ; Platelet Count ; Predictive Value of Tests ; ROC Curve ; Reproducibility of Results ; Retrospective Studies ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: To evaluate the incidence, clinicopathological characteristics, treatment outcomes, prognostic factors, and survival of gastric cancer patients with bone metastases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Of 4,617 gastric cancer patients who were treated between 2001 and 2013, 176 patients with bone metastases were analyzed. RESULTS: The incidence of bone metastasis was 3.8%. The most common histopathological subtype was adenocarcinoma (79%) with poor differentiation (60.8%). The median interval from the diagnosis to bone metastasis was 11 months. The median survival time after bone metastasis was 5.4 months. Factors that were associated with longer median survival times included the following: isolated bone metastasis (P=0.004), well-differentiated tumors (P=0.002), palliative chemotherapy (P=0.003), zoledronic acid treatment (P<0.001), no smoking history (P=0.007), and no metastatic gastric cancer at the time of diagnosis (P=0.01). On the other hand, high levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.86; P=0.015), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) (HR: 2.04; P=0.002), and carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 (HR: 2.94; P<0.001) were associated with shorter survival times. In multivariate analysis, receiving zoledronic acid (P<0.001) and performance status (P=0.013) were independent prognostic factors. CONCLUSIONS: Smoking history, poor performance status, poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, and high levels of LDH, CEA, and CA 19-9 were shown to be poor prognostic factors, while receiving chemotherapy and zoledronic acid were associated with prolonged survival in gastric cancer patients with bone metastases.
Adenocarcinoma ; Carcinoembryonic Antigen ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Hand ; Humans ; Incidence* ; L-Lactate Dehydrogenase ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neoplasm Metastasis* ; Prognosis ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Stomach Neoplasms*