Turhan Uslu

Risk factors for pelvic surgery

Abstract One hundred and eighty four women who had corrective surgery for stress incontinence, genital prolapse or both were compared with two hundred and ninety women who had no surgery for these conditions. Patients and controls did not differ in terms of age, height, weight or body mass index. Younger age at first delivery (20.1±4.1 vs 22.8±4.9, p<0.000) and a smoking history (33.2% vs 23%, p<0.015) were found as risk factors for the study group. Women who underwent surgery had greater gravidity (4.85±2.9 vs 3.87±2.5, p<0.001), greater parity (3.03±1.9 vs 2.19±1.3, p<0.000), were less often nulliparous (2.2% vs 7.9%, p<0.008), less likely to have had a cesarean delivery (1.1% vs 9%, p<0.001) and more likely to have had a vaginal delivery (97.3% vs 85.9%, p<0.000) than the control group. The study group have had larger neonates on average (3800±416 vs 3373±637 gm’s, p<0.000) and had greater use of forceps or vacuum extractor for at least one delivery (17.9% vs 7.6%, p<0.001). Highly significant relationship was found between the risk of having corrective surgery and the number of children born vaginally. Women who had 4 or more vaginal deliveries had 11.7 times more risk of urinary incontinence or genital prolapse.

Influence of high‐dose methotrexate therapy on the primordial follicles of the mouse ovary

Objective:  High‐dose methotrexate (MTX) is one of the most prescribed agents in many malignant diseases affecting girls and young women of reproductive ages. This animal study directly measures the primordial follicle loss following exposure to high‐dose MTX.

Relation between bone mineral content and clinical, hormonal and biochemical parameters in postmenopausal women

Abstract. We studied factors related to bone mass after a natural or surgical menopause in 73 healthy women attending the menopause clinic of a university hospital. In the natural menopause group we found inverse correlations between bone mineral density (BMD) vs. menopausal duration; BMD vs. body mass index (BMI) and BMI vs. inorganic phosphate (Pi), borderline correlations between weight vs. thyroxin (T4) and weight vs. luteinising hormone (LH) and a positive correlation between androstenedione (D4A) vs. urinary calcium (Uca). In the surgical menopause group we found some negative correlations (BMD vs. menopausal duration, BMI vs. Pi; BMI vs. dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DS), weight vs. DS and cortisol vs. Uca) and some positive correlations (BMD vs. free testosterone (fT), BMD vs. calcium (Ca), and BMD vs. Uca). We concluded that the serum hormone levels we measured were not useful markers of current bone mineral status.

Apoptotic and Mitotic Index in Squamous Cell Carcinomas and Premalignant Lesions of the Uterine Cervix

The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of apoptotic and mitotic cells in different grades of premalignant lesions and in different stages of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the uterine cervix. The apoptotic and mitotic indices (A! and MI) of 55 H&E-stained sections of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and 30 SCCs were evaluated in light microscopy by a morphometric method. Twenty, 16, and 19 of 55 CIN cases were classified in CIN I, CIN II, and CIN III group, respectively. No apoptosis was observed in the normal epithelium next to the dysplastic mucosa. There was no statistically significant difference between CIN I and CIN II as well as CIN II and CIN III groups in terms of apoptotic and mitotic cell counts. Mitotic cell counts were found significantly higher in CIN III group when compared with CIN I and CIN II groups together. There was no statistically significant difference in the apoptotic and mitotic cell counts between nonkeratinizing and keratinizing types of SCC. In the SCC group, apoptotic cell counts did not show significant difference between tumor stages. But mitotic counts were significantly higher in advanced stage tumors. The SCC group showed significantly higher mitotic and apoptotic cell counts when compared with preneoplastic lesions. This study suggests that apoptotic function is not altered during progressive stages of dysplastic change in cervical epithelium, while proliferation is triggered only in late stages of dysplasia. Both apoptosis and mitosis are markedly increased in progression to malignancy in cervix epithelium. Mitotic cell counts may be helpful in predicting the extent of the disease in SCC. Resistance of cell death by apoptosis after invasion may accelerate the net growth of the tumor resulting in advanced disease.