Fatma Fidan

Objectives: This study aims to investigate dynamic thiol/disulphide homeostasis in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS). Patients and methods: Fifty female patients with FMS (mean age 40.5±7.2 years; range 21 to 55 years) and 40 healthy female controls (mean age 39±9.4 years, range 22 to 55 years) were included in the study. Pain visual analog scale, tender points, Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, and Beck Depression Inventory were evaluated. Age, body mass index (BMI), and symptom durations were also recorded. Native thiol, disulphide and total thiol levels were measured with a novel automated method. Results: Serum disulphide levels were 14.7±3.4 μmol/L and 22.2±3.6 μmol/L in the FMS and control groups, respectively (p

Objectives The aims of this study were to assess the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with hemodialysis using the Kidney Disease Quality of Life (KDQOL™) and to determine its relationships with conventional clinical measures, musculoskeletal problems, hand disability and depression. Materials and methods This study was conducted in our tertiary hospital's dialysis unit. Fifty patients under hemodialysis treatment were included in the study. HRQOL, disability, pain and depression were assessed using KDQOL-36, Duruoz hand index (DHI), visual analog scale (VAS) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Results It was seen that all of the patients included had one or more musculoskeletal problems, the most common of which were muscle cramps, myalgias and arthralgias. Depression was the second most common accompanying disease. It was also seen that older patients had much poorer physical functioning scores, DHI scores and BDI scores than younger patients. DHI score was found to be significantly lower in men than in women. Educational level, presence of arthrosis, myalgia, bone pain, arthralgia, CTS, VAS-hand and VAS-upper extremities scales, DHI and BDI scores significantly affected both physical and mental areas of KDQOL-36, whereas age, shoulder periarthritis, mobilization scores and presence of hypertension only had effects on physical areas. Conclusion Physical functioning depends mainly on the age, severity of comorbid conditions, depression, locomotor findings and hand disability of hemodialysis patients. The KDQOL-36 is related to the clinical status and functional ability of hemodialysis patients and it can be used as a sensitive health status measure for clinical evaluation.