Emrah Atay

Introduction: Laser hair removal (LHR) has become one of the most common procedures among non‐invasive cosmetic treatments. The structured training on cosmetic dermatological procedures may be limited during medical education. The aim of this study is to evaluate medical students' knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding LHR. Materials and Methods: This cross‐sectional study was conducted with 973 medical students at a medical school. They were asked to complete a questionnaire related to the history of LHR, sources of information about LHR and 12 statements in a 3‐point Likert scale format to assess students' knowledge levels named “LHR‐K‐Scale”. As the data were not normally distributed, non‐parametric tests (Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis) were used for group comparisons. Univariate and multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were performed to identify factors associated with sufficient knowledge. Results: Of the students, 484 (49.7%) were female and 489 (50.3%) were male; their ages ranged from 17 to 31, with a mean ± SD of 20.9 ± 2.2 years. The total LHR‐K Scale score ranged from 0 to 24, with a mean score of 13.5 ± 6.5. Overall, 527 students (54.2%) were classified as having a sufficient level of knowledge (≥ 15 points). In the logistic regression analysis, correctly knowing the definition of LHR increased the likelihood of having a sufficient level of knowledge on the LHR‐K Scale by 2.50 times (OR = 2.50; 95% CI: 1.90–3.30). Participants who had undergone LHR were 1.98 times more likely to have a sufficient level of knowledge than those with no history of LHR and no intention to undergo the procedure (OR = 1.98; 95% CI: 1.37–2.87). In addition, participants who used social media as a source of information were 1.54 times more likely to have a sufficient level of knowledge than those who did not (OR = 1.54; 95% CI: 1.15–2.05). Conclusions: The study revealed that while medical students' knowledge levels regarding LHR are heterogeneous, they are generally limited; significant knowledge gaps exist in areas such as mechanism of action, radiation, pregnancy, breastfeeding, cancer, and infertility. The topic should be addressed not only as a matter of individual aesthetic preference but also from the perspectives of health literacy. It is recommended that the medical curriculum include up‐to‐date and evidence‐based content regarding cosmetic dermatology practices, particularly LHR.

Aim: This study aimed to determine the breast cancer knowledge levels of women aged 18–64 years living in Eskişehir and to evaluate the relationship between risk levels and sociodemographic characteristics, health history, and screening behaviors. Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted among women who attended family health centers between September and October 2018. The sample size was calculated as 993 using a 95% confidence level, a 1% margin of error, and a design effect of 1.5, and a cluster sampling method was applied. Breast cancer risk was assessed using the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Form developed by the American Cancer Society, while knowledge level was evaluated with a 30-item scale developed by the researchers. Statistical analyses included the Mann–Whitney U test, Kruskal–Wallis test, Spearman correlation analysis, and hierarchical linear regression analysis (p ≤ 0.05). Results: The mean age of the participants was 42.7 ± 12.9 years, and the mean breast cancer knowledge score was 19 ± 5.7. Knowledge levels were significantly higher among women with higher educational attainment, better family income, and those who were employed. In addition, women with a history of benign breast disease, those who had previously received information about breast cancer, those performing breast self-examination, those who were aware of mammography, and those undergoing regular mammography screening had significantly higher knowledge scores. Conclusion: Breast cancer knowledge level is closely associated with education, socioeconomic status, and screening behaviors. Structured and practice-oriented educational programs targeting women—particularly those in disadvantaged groups—may contribute to improving breast cancer awareness.

Background/Objectives: Suicide is a critical public health issue that leads to premature mortality among young people and requires substantial public health interventions. Demonstrating the importance of developing effective suicide prevention programs through health indicators can be valuable. This study aims to examine the change in suicide rates and Years of Life Lost (YLL) in Türkiye over the 2013–2023 period—a country that displays characteristics of both developed and developing nations—and to reveal the productivity losses using the human capital approach. Methods: The data for this descriptive study were obtained from the Turkish Statistical Institute between 2012 and 2023. YLL was computed by determining the difference between the age at which an individual died by suicide and their expected age of death for both males and females. Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) was estimated using the same method as YLL for individuals aged 15–64 (working age). The time trend of suicide and YLL rates was calculated using Annual Percentage Change and the Average Annual Percent Change values, based on a Poisson-based Generalized Linear Model and the Joinpoint regression method. Using the human capital approach, the economic cost of the labor force lost due to suicide was estimated. Results: The YLL per death was 33.57 years for males, 47.73 years for females, and 37.06 years overall. The age group with the highest YLL percentage is 20–24 among males (23.55%) and 15–19 among females (33.06%). An increase of 7.8% was observed among males from 2018 to 2021. The mean changes in the overall time trend were found to be significant in male suicides. Among females, there was a 5.3% decrease until 2017, followed by a 4.5% increase from 2017 onwards. Combined, male and female suicide rates have significantly increased since 2017. The financial loss associated with suicide over a 12-year period totaled USD 10,775,943,197 with an annual loss of USD 897,995,266. The premature mortality cost per death was estimated at USD 278,400.84 for men and USD 186,625.16 for women, while the premature mortality cost per YLL was USD 8292.23 for men and USD 3910.36 for women. Conclusions: Changes in the temporal trend of suicide may be associated with societal events. The study reveals that premature deaths due to suicide in Türkiye are a multidimensional public health problem that significantly affects not only individuals but also the overall productivity and economic structure of society.

The aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of selected health indicators on life expectancy at birth (LEAB) and years of potential life lost (YPLL) in Turkey and European Union (EU) countries with data of 2000-2017 period. The study is an ecological research with panel data analysis (PDA) conducted between July 2019 and June 2020. Four panels are modeled as health care use, health equipment, health resources and health risks. LEAB and YPLL which are in health status category were accepted as dependent variables. In health care use category, it was found that an increase in the child vaccination rates had an increasing effect on LEAB, while an increase in the child vaccination rate, length of hospital stay and hospital discharge rates had a decreasing effect on YPLL. In the health equipment panel, it was found that the increase in the number of Magnetic Resonance Imaging devices (MRI) had an increasing effect on LEAB, while the increase in the number of Computed Tomography (CT) devices and the number of MRIs had a decreasing effect on YPLL. In the health recources panel, it was found that the increase in health spending, number of doctors and number of nurses had an increasing effect on LEAB, while the increase in health spending and number of doctors had a decreasing effect on YPLL. In the panel on health risks, it was found that an increase in smoking prevalence rate, alcohol consumption amount and obesity prevalence rate had a decreasing effect on LEAB, while an increase in smoking prevalence rate and obesity prevalence rate had an increasing effect on YPLL. Analyzing the data of health indicators with modern statistical approaches such as Panel Data Analysis (PDA) can help to guide for determining interventions, projections and strategies in health services.

Citation: Ayvaz HH, Öztürk KH, Seyirci MA, et al. The role of EREG, PTPN1, and SERPINB7 genes in the pathogenesis of psoriasis: May SERPINB7 be protective and a marker of severity for psoriasis?. Dermatol Pract Concept. 2023;13(2):e2023085. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5826/dpc.1302a85 Accepted: September 26, 2022; Published: April 2023 Copyright: ©2023 Ayvaz et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (BY-NC-4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited. Funding: None. Competing interests: None. Authorship: All authors have contributed significantly to this publication. Corresponding author: Havva Hilal Ayvaz, Çünür Mah SDÜ Dermatology Department, 32260, Isparta/TURKEY. E-mail: drhhilalayvaz@gmail.com , Phone number: +905309505907 Introduction: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory dermatological disease with complex pathogenesis in which many immune system cells, including keratinocytes, play a role. Many genes regulate the proliferation of keratinocytes and other immune cells that have essential roles in the pathogenesis of psoriasis.The expressions of EREG, PTPN1, and SERPINB7 genes were shown as upregulated in psoriatic skins in a few studies previously. Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the expressions of these genes in psoriatic lesional skin and com-pared them with non-lesional adjacent skin of the same patients and normal skin of healthy controls. Results: Our results revealed that the expressions of EREG and PTPN1 genes were upregulated,whereas the SERPINB7 gene expression was down regulated in the psoriatic skin of the patients than normal skin of controls. Moreover, the expression level of the SERPINB7 gene was also negatively correlated with the severity of the disease among patients. Conclusions: According to our results, overexpression of EREG and PTPN1 genes, and decreased expression of SERPINB7 gene may lead to the development of psoriasis. Keywords : psoriasis, epiregulin, tyrosine-protein phosphatase non-receptor type 1, serine proteinase inhibitors This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Objective Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease with unexplained points in its pathogenesis. Altered expressions of microRNAs (miRNA, miR) in plasma can serve as markers that distinguish diseased individuals from healthy controls AD. In the present study, plasma expression levels of miR-1910-3p, miR- 4649-3p, miR-4296 and miR-210 were investigated in AD. Material and Method Forty patients with AD and forty healthy control subjects were included in the present study. Quantitative realtime PCR was used to measure miRNAs. Results The mean plasma miR-4296 level was higher in the patient group (p < 0.001). There was a significant negative correlation between SCORAD scores and miR-210 levels (r:-0.340, p=0.032). miR-210 levels decreased with increasing disease severity. In logistic regression analyses, an increase in plasma miR-4296 levels was found to be statistically significant (OR =5.464, p

Objectives/Aims: Rosacea is not only a skin condition but a systemic inflammatory disease that includes chronic inflammation, vascular alterations, and autoimmunity in pathogenesis. We aimed to evaluate the presence of a sensorineural hearing loss in the patients with rosacea in comparison with the healthy control group and, also to compare the audiometric results according to the severity of disease among the patient group. Methods: Fifty‐three patients with erythematelangiectatic or papulopustular type of rosacea and 105 age‐ and sex‐matched healthy controls were included. Each participant had audiometric measurements after a complete ear–nose–throat examination by the same otorhinolaryngologist. Results: The results of air and bone conduction thresholds showed statistically significant differences in particularly high frequencies between the groups in both the right and left ear (for all p < 0.05), but there was no correlation between audiometric measurements and the severity or the type of rosacea ( p > 0.05). Conclusions: Regardless of disease severity or type, rosacea patients are likely to have sensorineural hearing loss, and it is important to refer these patients in the early period.

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of cyber victimization among high school students, to examine some possibly related variables and to evaluate the relation with level of self-esteem in Sivrihisar district of Eskişehir. Method: This is a cross-sectional study conducted between May-June 2018. The study group consisted of 712 students. The questionnaire used in the study includes The Revised Cyber Bullying Inventory-II and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Chi-square test, Mann Whitney U test and Logistic Regression Analysis were performed to analyze the data. It was considered significant if p≤0.05. Results: The 60.1% of the students were female, and the mean value of ages was 16.3±1.2 in years (ranged 13-20). The prevalence of cyber victimization was 51.3% (n=365). When compared to other groups in same subtitle, the risk of being cyber victim was 1.66 times higher in the 9th and 10th grades (CI: 1.20-2.30), 4.56 times higher in individuals with poor family income (CI: 1.18-17.64), 1.53 times in the middle ones (CI: 1.10-2.16), 3.15 times in individuals with social media accounts (CI: 1.00-9.85), and 2.80 times higher in individuals having problems with anyone on the internet (CI: 1.96-4.02). Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale scores were higher in cyber victims (p=0.027). Conclusion: It was concluded that cyber victimization is an important problem among high school students in Sivrihisar, and cyber victimization is observed higher in the group with low self-esteem.

Amaç Sistemik oral isotretinoin, orta-şiddetli akne vulgaris ve tedaviye dirençli hafif akne vulgaris tedavisinde yıllardır kullanılan etkin bir tedavidir. İsotretinoin tedavisinin birçok yan etkisi bildirilmiş olup, gün geçtikçe yeni yan etkileri de ortaya çıkmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, isotretinoin tedavisinin birçok hastalıkla ilişkili değerlendirilebilen belirteçler olan serum ürik asit ve MPV düzeylerinde değişime neden olup olmadığının araştırılması amaçlandı. Gereç ve Yöntem Hastanemiz Dermatoloji Polikliniğine başvuran, en az üç ay önce isotretinoin tedavisi başlanmış olan ve kontrollerini aksatmayan, hafif-orta veya şiddetli akne vulgaris tanısı almış 78 hasta çalışmaya alındı. Standart olarak yaklaşık 0,5 mg/kg/gün dozda isotretinoin tedavisi başlanan hastaların tedavi öncesi ve tedavinin 3. ayındaki hemogram parametreleri, lipit düzeyleri, monosit/HDL oranı ve MPV ile ürik asit düzeyleri incelendi. Bulgular Hastaların tedavi öncesi ve tedavinin 3. ayında bakılan hemogram parametreleri, MPV ve ürik asit düzeyleri arasında herhangi bir anlamlı değişiklik saptanmamışken (p>0,05); lipit düzeyleri arasında (trigliserit, total kolesterol, LDL) anlamlı farklılıklar mevcuttu (p