Aynur Otağ

Effect of increasing maximal aerobic exercise on serum gonadal hormones and alpha-fetoprotein in the luteal phase of professional female soccer players.

[Purpose] The performance of female athletes during their menstrual period has attracted the attention of researchers for many years. It is known that the menstrual period changes with exercise. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is an oncofetal protein. In this study, the effect of maximal aerobic exercise in the luteal phase on some hormones and AFP in female athletes was researched. [Subjects and Methods] Twelve volunteers and healthy female footballers with normal menstrual cycles volunteered for this study as subjects. All the participants performed a shuttle run test. Blood samples were taken before, after, and one hour after exercise. Serum AFP, estrogen, progesterone, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and luteinizing hormone (LH) values were measured using an auto analyzer and original kits. Heart rate measurements were performed before and after the exercise. [Results] AFP activity had significantly decreased after 1 h of recovery from the exercise in the female soccer players, and estrogen and LH activity had significantly increased immediately after the exercise. Progesterone activity had significantly decreased immediately after the exercise. FSH values had significantly increased immediately after the exercise. [Conclusion] The results of the present study show there were significant decreases in the values of AFP, which is a cancer parameter, 1 hour after the exercise. This result may be valuable in future physiotherapy studies on the relationship between exercise and cancer.

Effect of Increasing Maximal Aerobic Exercise on Serum Muscles Enzymes in Professional Field Hockey Players

Background and Objectives: Exercise results in oxidative enzyme increase and micro-injuries in skeletal muscles. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of maximal aerobic exercise on serum muscle enzymes in professional field hockey players. This study aims to determine the effect of increasing maximal aerobic exercise on creatine kinase (CK), creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) serum levels. Material and Methods: 31 young professional field hockey players (13 female and 18 male players) volunteered for this study. All participants underwent the shuttle run test. Blood samples were taken from each participant before the shuttle run test. Post test blood samples were taken immediately after exercise and one hour after respectively. Pre and post test CK, CK-MB, AST and ALT values were measured by means of auto analyzer using original kits. Results: The acute post test measure of the CK level increased in male (p=0.002) and female (p=0.00) sportsmen. CK-MB values obtained one hour after the exercise was lower than those before the exercise in males (p=0.02). In females (p=0.017) and males (p=0.05) AST activity significantly increased immediately after exercise and decreased to resting activity 1 h recovery. ALT significantly increased immediately after exercise in female (p=0.03) and male (p=0.00) athletes and after 1 h recovery ALT activities decreased below resting values. Conclusion: The timing and severity of exercise used in our study increased CK values, decreased CK-MB values and AST, ALT values increased in female and male field hockey players.

Estimation of the femur length from its proximal measurements in Anatolian Caucasians by artificial neural networks

Femora are a well preserved section of the skeleton after death. Therefore, they are commonly used in the field of forensic sciences, physical anthropology and anatomy. In addition, femur morphometry is helpful in finding sex or side (left or right) differences. The femur also shows characteristics of certain populations. Femur length is important for calculation of individual stature. In this study, the artificial neural network method was used to estimate femur length. In total, 230 femora exemplar were used. The three input parameters of the method were the distance between trochanter major top point and trochanter minor bottom point, the diameter of caput femoris and the diameter of collum femoris. By using these parameters, the artificial neural network estimation on femur length was performed. The results show that the method is capable of performing this estimation. In addition, sex discrimination was performed and achieved with 82% accuracy. As well as the identification of sex or side differences, morphometry of the proximal femur is necessary and important for surgical procedures.

Responses of Trace Elements to Aerobic Maximal Exercise in Elite Sportsmen

Trace elements are chemical elements needed in minute quantities for the proper growth, development, and physiology of the organism. In biochemistry, a trace element is also referred to as a micronutrient. Trace elements, such as nickel, cadmium, aluminum, silver, chromium, molybdenum, germanium, tin, titanium, tungsten, scandium, are found naturally in the environment and human exposure derives from a variety of sources, including air, drinking water and food. The Purpose of this study was investigated the effect of aerobic maximal intensity endurance exercise on serum trace elements as well-trained individuals of 28 wrestlers (age (year) 19.64±1.13, weight (Kg) 70.07 ± 15.69, height (cm) 176.97 ± 6.69) during and after a 2000 meter Ergometer test protocol was used to perform aerobic (75 %) maximal endurance exercise. Trace element serum levels were analyzed from blood samples taken before, immediately after and one hour after the exercise. While an increase was detected in Chromium (Cr), Nickel (Ni), Molybdenum (Mo) and Titanium (Ti) serum levels immediately after the exercise, a decrease was detected in Aluminum (Al), Scandium (Sc) and Tungsten (W) serum levels. Except for aluminum, the trace elements we worked on showed statistically meaningful responses (P<0.05 and P<0.001). According to the responses of trace elements to the exercise showed us the selection and application of the convenient sport is important not only in terms of sportsman performance but also in terms of future healthy life plans and clinically.

Frontal lobe morphometry with MRI in a normal age group of 6-17 year-olds.

Background Morphometric data of the frontal lobe are important for surgical planning of lesions in the frontal lobe and its surroundings. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques provide suitable data for this purpose. Objectives In our study, the morphometric data of mid-sagittal MRI of the frontal lobe in certain age and gender groups of children have been presented. Patients and Methods In a normal age group of 6-17-year-old participants, the length of the line passing through predetermined different points, including the frontal pole (FP), commissura anterior (AC), commissura posterior (PC), the outermost point of corpus callosum genu (AGCC), the innermost point of corpus callosum genu (IGCC), tuberculum sella (TS), AGCC and IGCC points parallel to AC-PC line and the point such line crosses at the frontal lobe surface (FCS) were measured in three age groups (6-9, 10-13 and 14-17 years) for each gender. Results The frontal lobe morphometric data were higher in males than females. Frontal lobe measurements peak at the age group of 10-13 in the male and at the age group of 6-13 in the female. In boys, the length of FP-AC increases 4.1% in the 10-13 age group compared with the 6-9-year-old group, while this increase is 2.3% in girls. Conclusion Differences in age and gender groups were determined. While the length of AGCC-IGCC increases 10.4% in adults, in children aged 6-17, the length of AC-PC is 11.5% greater than adults. These data will contribute to the preliminary assessment for developing a surgical plan in fine interventions in the frontal lobe and its surroundings in children.