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Objective: We aimed to determine the levels of sUA and sUA /creatinine ratios in stable COPD patients and to evaluate whether they can be used as a predictor of exacerbation risk and the disease severity. Methods: The levels of sUA and sUA/creatinine ratio evaluated and their correlations with the parameters studied were investigated.ROC analyses of sUA and sUA/creatinine ratio for exacerbation risk and the diseases severity were done. Results: The mean sUA levels and sUA/creatinine ratio were significantly higher in the patient group (n=110) compared to healthy controls (n=52).In the cases with comorbidity, sUA levels were significantly high.While there was no association between sUA levels and all the parameters studied, a positive correlation was detected between sUA/creatinine ratio and smoking pack/years (r=0.21, p=0.038), body mass index (r=0.35, p=0.004) and with CAT scores (r=0.31, p=0.007), and a negative correlation was detected with FVC (r= -0.25, p=0.017).The ROC analyses indicated that sUA/creatinine ratio was more specific than sUA levels alone with a similar sensitivity in increased values and more sensitive with similar specificity in the lower values for both exacerbation and severity of disease. Conclusion: Serum UA levels and sUA/creatinine ratio were higher in patients with COPD compared to healthy controls.Their levels increase in the presence of certain comorbidities. However, serum UA/creatinine ratio appears to be more useful in predicting risky patients for exacerbation and disease severity with high sensitivity but low specificity.

AIM: One of the common complication of advanced malignancy is malign pleural effusion(MPE).MPE causes progressive dyspnea,chronic cough,chest pain and reduced physical activity resulting lower quality of life(QoL)in patients.To prevent the reaccumulation of MPE and to improve QoL,pleurodesis has been performed.In this study it was hypothesized that patients with small bore catheter have shorter length of hospital stay(LOS)post-catheterization than patients with large bore catheter. METHODS: Adult patients who have been performed pleurodesis for malignant pleural effusions between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2014 were enrolled into the study.Patients were classified into two groups according to catheter type;small-bore and large-bore catheter. RESULTS: Of the eligible 221 patients,67 ot them in small bore group and 118 of them in large bore catheter group were remained.While LOS post-catheterization was significantly shorter in small bore catheter group than large bore group(p The overlap range of propensity scores was found to be acceptable between groups to compare them.Length of stay post-catheterization was 1.8 days shorter with small bore catheter than large bore catheter by linear regression analysis adjusted to propensity scores(95%CI:-0.9 to -2.8,p CONCLUSIONS: In this study it was found that LOS post-catheterization was significantly shorter with small bore catheter than large bore ones. Pleurodesis with small bore catheter is helpful to decrease post-procedure hospital stay which may be important for reducing costs and QoL in patients with advanced malignancy.

Objective: To analyse the demographic, clinical, radiologic and pathologic features of the patients who underwent bronchoscopy for various diagnostic indications and detected anthracosis and/or anthracofibrosis. Material and Methods: A total of 1322 patients underwent bronchoscopy during a period of 15 month. Of these,only 107 patients with anthracosis and/or anthracofibrosis were included in the study. Results: The mean age of the patients was 66.12 ±12.57 years.57% of patients were male and 43% were female. 26.5% were current smokers, 22.5% were exsmokers and 51% were non-smokers. The most frequent occupation was found as beinghousewife (41.1 %).There was no occupational exposure at 10.7%of the patients. Biomass exposure was found in 88,5% of the patients because of the fuel used for heating or in the kitchen. Regarding geographical location,we found that 42.3% of patients were from Black Sea region,27% from East Anatolian Region.88.3% of the patients had complaints. Cough and dyspnea were the main complaints.Radiographic findings of the chest xray at presentation were variable as,follows: consolidation, atelectasia, pleural effusion and mass. Anthracofibrosis and deformation was seen at 21.6 % of the patients.Twelve patients were diagnosed as tuberculosis and 10 patients were diagnosed as lung cancer. Of these, 2 had smallcell cancer, 3 had squamouscell cancer, 4 had adenocarcinom and 1 had nontyped nonsmallcell ca. Conclusion: Indoor and occupational biomass exposure is frequently seen in our country. Anthracosis and/or anthracofibrosis detected cases should be evaluated and followed up closely especially in terms of tuberculosis and malignancy.