Abdullah Yesilova

Pediatric Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in an Endemic Region in Turkey: A Retrospective Analysis of 8786 Cases during 1998-2014.

Background Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a major public health concern in Turkey and Sanliurfa represents the most endemic city in Turkey. Although children are most commonly affected by CL, detailed studies of pediatric CL in Turkey are lacking. Methodology/Principal Findings In this report we retrospectively evaluated clinical and epidemiological data of 8786 pediatric CL cases, and how children respond to antimonial therapy. CL was observed most frequently in children between 6–10 years old. Interestingly this group showed shorter duration of disease and smaller lesions compared to 0–5 year and 11–15 year old groups. Females were more affected in all groups. Lesion localization and types varied among groups, with 0–5 year old presenting head/neck and mucosal lesions, and more often suffered from recidivans type, this could be associated to the longest duration of the disease in this group. Eleven-15 year old group showed fewer lesions in the head/neck but more generalized lesions. Evaluation of treatment response revealed that intra-lesional treatment was preferred over intramuscular treatment. However, 0–5 year old received intramuscular treatment more often than the other groups. Furthermore, the majority of 0–5 year old group which received intra-lesional treatment did not received subsequent intra-lesional cycles, as did children in the range of 6–15 years old. Conclusions/Significance We report an increase in pediatric CL patients within the last four years. Analysis of pediatric CL patients by age revealed significant differences in CL progression. The data suggest that children between 0–5 years old responded better than other groups to intralesional treatment, since they received more often a single cycle of IL treatment, although follow up observation is required since they were more prone to develop recidivans. Eleven-15 year old patients comprise the largest percentage of patients receiving two or three cycles of intralesional treatment, suggesting that this group did not respond efficiently to intralesional treatment and highlighting the need for more effective therapeutic strategies against CL.

Meglumine antimoniate is more effective than sodium stibogluconate in the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis

Abstract Sodium stibogluconate (SSG, Pentostam) and meglumine antimoniate (MA, Glucantime) are two antimonials that are widely used to treat cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), but the relative efficacies of these treatments are not clear. The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy of intralesional SSG with intralesional MA therapy in the treatment of CL. One month after completion of the therapy, 1431 of 1728 patients (82%) who received intralesional MA showed complete clinical cure compared to 1157 of 1728 patients (67%) in the SSG group. Patients who did not respond to the first round of therapy were re-administered the same treatment but with twice weekly injections. Following completion of the second course of therapy, 237 of 297 patients (80%) in the MA group and 407 of 561 patients (72%) in the SSG group healed their lesions by 1-month post-treatment. At both times, the differences in cure rates between MA and SSG groups were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Cure rates in the MA group were always significantly higher than SSG groups irrespective of other parameters including age, gender, lesion site and type of lesion. Intralesional MA is more effective than intralesional SSG in the treatment of CL.

Lip leishmaniasis: Clinical characteristics of 621 patients.

© 2015 International Journal of Critical Illness and Injury Science | Published by Wolters Kluwer Medknow Dear Editor, Old world leishmaniasis is seen in a wide geographical area including Turkey, as well. The causative agent is generally Leishmaniasis tropica, and the agent is rarely identified to be leishmaniasis major in such patients.[1] Depending on the leishmaniasis type and the person’s immune system, it may be in one of the cutaneous, mucocutaneous leishmaniasis (ML), or visceral leishmaniasis (VL) forms.[2] Mucosal involvement is rarely seen with old world leishmaniasis.[3] ML disease is an important endemic disease and public health problem in undeveloped countries, since it has a significant rate of morbidity and mortality.[4]

A Comparison of Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of Syrian and Turkish Patients with Cutaneous Leishmaniasis

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a significant public health problem with increasing incidence, especially in extreme circumstances. In this study, we compared the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of 685 Syrian CL patients afflicted by the Syrian conflict and 685 Turkish CL patients in 2012. Patient age, gender, duration of disease, lesion size, type, and localization were evaluated. The duration of CL disease in Syrian CL patients (4.5 ± 4.3 weeks) was shorter than that of Turkish CL patients (11.9 ± 9.7 weeks). The number of lesions was greater in Syrian patients (2.46 ± 2.43) than in Turkish patients (1.93 ± 1.47). Lesion sizes were comparable between both groups (Syrian, 11.2 ± 8.7 mm; Turkish, 10.7 ± 7.7 mm). In Syrian CL patients, nodular type lesions were the most common (325 patients, 49.1%), whereas, in Turkish CL patients, ulcer type lesions were the most common (352 patients, 51.5%). Our results indicate variations in the clinicoepidemiological features of CL between Turkish and Syrian patients within Sanliurfa province. This highlights the impact of social unrest and environmental conditions on the epidemiology of CL within this region. Approaches to prevention, control, and treatment of CL in these areas should take into consideration the emerging changes in clinicoepidemiological parameters of the disease.

Zero-Inflated Regression Methods for Insecticides

The numerical abundance of many species sharing the same ecosystem very different levels of the organism and are in constant change, depending on many factors. Due to the heterogeneous strucspeciese of the life cycles of organisms and abiotic resources in the environment based on census population densities derived from overdispersion (variance is higher than means in Poisson distribution) (Cox, 1983; Cameron and Trivedi, 1998) and a large number of zero values (zero-inflated data) is observed (Yesilova et al, 2011). In such a case, zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) regression model is a appropriate approach for analyzing a dependent variable having excess zero observations (Lambert, 1992; Bohning, 1998; Bohning et al, 1999; Yau and Lee, 2001; Lee et al, 2001; Khoshgoftaar et al, 2005; Yesilova et al, 2010). Zero-inflation is also likely in data sets, excess zero observations. In such cases, a zeroinflated negative binominal (ZINB) regression model is an alternative method (Ridout et al, 2001; Yau, 2001; Cheung, 2002; Jansakul, 2005; Long and Frese, 2006; Hilbe, 2007; Yesilova et al, 2009; Yesilova et al, 2010). Morever, The Poisson hurdle model and negative binomial hurdle model (Rose and Martin, 2006; Long and Frese, 2006; Hilbe, 2007; Yesilova et al, 2009; Yesilova et al, 2010), and zero-inflated generalized Poisson (ZIGP) model (Consul, 1989, Consul and Famoye, 1992; Czado et al., 2007) are widely used in the analysis of zero-inflated data. In this part, the analysis of data with many zeros for Notonecta viridis Delcourt (Heteroptera: Notonectidae) and Chironomidae species (Diptera) were carried out by means of using the models of Poisson Regression (PR), negative binomial (NB) regression, zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) regression, zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) regression and negative binomial hurdle (NBH) model.