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A clinical data warehouse (CDW) can be an important tool for the purposes of analysis and critical decision making in the medical field. Such a data repository integrates heterogeneous health data, including clinical, treatment and diagnostic data and laboratory test results from a variety of sources. Accurate data need to be stored and processed in a CDW with adequate computation capabilities and thus, time plays a crucial factor. A slowly changing dimension (SCD) is a dimension that changes slowly over time, either gradually or intermittently. This article introduces a new SCD type, Type BTA, where both valid time and transaction time are supported for providing a complete history of the dimensional data. With Type BTA, the history of an object can be captured through the changes as reflected in the CDW. Consequently, for the first time, the full history of retroactive and post-active changes can be preserved in a CDW. Specifically, Type BTA is implemented for a Clinical Data Warehouse using real cancer data, for which the advantages of this methodology are demonstrated and advocated.

Platelet transfusion is used to prevent bleeding in patients with thrombocytopenia or platelet dysfunction. Purpose of investigating demographic characteristics of eligible volunteers as platelet donors and of demonstrating the association of platelet counts with blood groups as well as other factors. We used data of individuals who referred to a blood center in our hospital. Age, body weight, body mass index (BMI), and gender were determined, and than hemogram values such as leukocyte, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and platelet and ABO blood types of those individuals were identified. A statistically significant difference determined for height, body weight, and BMI in both genders. Although BMI was lower in the group of platelet count ≤ 250, it was higher in a group of platelet count > 250. Furthermore, platelet count was more moderate in blood group O Rh-positive but, no significant difference was group O Rh-negative. Platelet count was higher in other Rh-positive blood groups than Rh negatives. BMI is vital in apheresis donors, and individuals with higher BMI values may prefer in case of double dose or more apheresis need. The determination of platelet counts in Rh positives is more elevated than Rh negatives.

Background: Blood transfusion is a life-saving method in emergencies. However, it also carries the risk of pathogen transmission, which is called transfusion transmitted infections (TTIs). All donated blood samples were screened for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), anti-hepatitis C virus antibody (anti-HCV), anti-human immunodeficiency virus antigens (anti-HIV½) and syphilis using Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) test. This study was designed and carried out to determine the seroprevalences of TTIs among blood donors with different ABO and Rh blood groups. Identification of a relation between different blood groups and TTIs was anticipated. Methods: All blood donors data obtained from the Blood Center of Marmara University Pendik Training and Research Hospital between January 2013 and October 2018 are analyzed retrospectively. Serum samples were examined for HBsAg, anti-HCV, anti-HIV½, and VDRL. Results: HBsAg and anti-HIV½ positivity positivity rates were not statistically different according to ABO blood groups (p>0.05). Anti-HCV positivity rates are partially statistically significant (p0.05). VDRL positivity rates did not differ significantly (p>0.05). Seropositive cases, as reported by Rh type blood group; HBsAg, anti-HCV, anti-HIV½, and VDRL positivity rates were not statistically significant (p>0.05). Conclusions: No significant relationship was found among TTIs and ABO and Rh type blood groups. For blood transfusion safety, screening tests should always and carefully be performed.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has resulted in a vast number of infections and deaths that deeply affect the world. When the virus encounters the host cell, it binds to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, then the S protein of the virus is broken down by the transmembrane protease serine 2 with the help of furin, allowing the virus to enter the cell. The elevated inflammatory cytokines suggest that a cytokine storm, also known as cytokine release syndrome, may play a major role in the pathology of COVID-19. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between circulating furin levels, disease severity, and inflammation in patients with SARS-CoV-2. A total of 52 SARS-CoV-2 patients and 36 healthy control participants were included in this study. SARS- CoV-2 patients were scored by the disease activity score. Serum furin, presepsin, and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels were assessed using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The mean furin, presepsin, and IL-6 levels were significantly higher in the peripheral blood of SARS-CoV-2 compared to the controls ( p

Aim: Blood group antigens are the first genetic markers discovered. ABO blood groups which are expressed on red blood cell membranes are reported to be associated with malignancy risk. The present study aimed to investigate whether there is an association between blood groups and patients with lung cancer.Material and Methods: In our study, ıt was reviewed 587 patients with lung cancer whose ABO/Rh blood types were serologically confirmed. Patients were classified according to blood groups (O, A, B, AB), Rh factor (+, −) and histological types of lung cancer as Non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) and Small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC). The adenocarcinoma (AC) and squamous carcinoma (SC) as subtypes of NSCLC were recorded. The relationship of ABO/Rh blood groups with clinical features, such as age, sex and histological subtype were evaluated.Results: There was no significant association between pathological results and blood groups O, A, B and AB. SCLC patients had significantly higher frequency of blood type B Rh (-) when compared to NSCLC patients.Conclusion: We observed an association between risk of lung cancer and ABO blood groups. Although the Rh factor is not effective by itself, patients with the B Rh (-) blood group may have a higher risk than SCLC. Examining the relationship of blood group subtypes with lung cancer cells at the molecular level would be useful to clarify the relationship between lung cancer and blood groups., Amaç: Kan grubu antijenleri, keşfedilen ilk genetik belirteçlerdir. Kırmızı kan hücre zarlarından eksprese edilen ABO kan gruplarının çeşitli çalışmalarda malignite riski ile ilişkili olduğu gösterilmiştir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, kan grupları ile akciğer kanseri arasında bir ilişki olup olmadığını araştırmaktır.Gereç Yöntemler: Çalışmamızda ABO ve Rh kan grubu serolojik olarak doğrulanmış 587 akciğer kanserli hasta gözden geçirildi. Hastalar kan gruplarına (O, A, B, AB), Rh faktörü (+, -) ve histolojik akciğer kanseri tiplerine göre [Küçük Hücreli Dışı Akciğer kanseri (KHDAK) ve Küçük Hücreli Akciğer Kanseri (KHAK)] sınıflandırıldı. KHDAK’nin adenokarsinom (AK) ve skuamöz karsinom (SK) alt tipleri kaydedildi. ABO / Rh kan gruplarının yaş, cinsiyet ve histolojik alt tip gibi klinik özelliklerle ilişkisi değerlendirildi.Bulgular: Patolojik analiz sonucu ile O, A, B ve AB kan grupları arasında anlamlı bir ilişki bulunmadı. Çalışmada KHAK'li olgularda B Rh (-) kan grubuna sahip olan hastaların oranı, KHDAK'li olanlardan daha yüksek bulundu.Sonuç: Akciğer kanseri riski ile ABO kan grupları arasında bir ilişki olduğu görüldü. Rh faktörü tek başına etkili olmamakla beraber B Rh (-) kan grubuna sahip olan hastalar KHAK açısından daha fazla riske sahip olabilir. Kan grubu alt tiplerinin akciğer kanseri hücreleriyle moleküler düzeyde ilişkisinin incelenmesi, akciğer kanseri ve kan grupları arasındaki ilişkiyi açıklığa kavuşturmak için yararlı olacaktır.

As the COVID-19 pandemic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to spread around the globe, effective vaccination protocols are under deployment. Alternatively, the use of convalescent plasma (CP) therapy relies on the transfer of the immunoglobulin repertoire of a donor that has recovered from the disease as a means of passive vaccination. While the lack of an effective antiviral treatment inadvertently increases the interest in CP products, initial clinical evaluation on COVID-19 patients revealed that critical factors determining the outcome of CP therapy need to be defined clearly if clinical efficacy is to be expected. Measurement of neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2 using wildtype virus presents a reliable functional assay but the availability of suitable BSL3 facilities for virus culture restricts its applicability. Instead, the use of pseudovirus particles containing elements from the SARS-CoV-2 virus is widely applied to determine the activity of CP or other neutralizing agents such as monoclonal antibodies.In this study, we present our approach to optimize GFP-encoding lentiviral particles pseudotyped with the SARS-CoV-2 Spike and Membrane proteins for use in neutralization assays. Our results show the feasibility of pseudovirus production using a C-terminal truncated Spike protein which is greatly enhanced by the incorporation of the D614G mutation. Moreover, we report that the use of Sodium Butyrate during lentiviral vector production dramatically increases pseudovirus titers. Analysis of CP neutralizing activity against particles pseudotyped with wildtype or D614G mutant Spike protein in the presence or absence the M protein revealed differential activity in CP samples that did not necessarily correlate with the amount of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.Our results indicate that the extent of neutralizing activity in CP samples depends on the quality rather than the quantity of the humoral immune responses and varies greatly between donors. Functional screening of neutralizing activity using pseudovirus-based neutralization assays must be accepted as a critical tool for choosing CP donors if clinical efficacy is to be maximized.

To determine the association of various obesity markers with systemic immune-inflammatory index.The cross-sectional study was conducted at Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey, from January 2018 to October 2018 and comprised children aged 6-16 years admitted to the outpatient clinic due to obesity. The patients were evaluated for height, weight, body mass index (BMI), fat percentage (F%), fat mass (FM) and fat-free mass (FFM). Waist circumference was measured and neutrophil, platelet and lymphocyte counts and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) were calculated on the basis of haemogram. Data was analysed using Number Cruncher Statistical System 2007.Of the 335 subjects, 203(60.6%) were girls and 132(39.4%) were boys. Univariate analysis of girls showed the effects of BMI, F%, FM, FFM and WC on NLR. FM remained a significant and independent risk factor for NLR (p0.01). The effects of BMI, F%, FFM and WC were not significant in multivariate model (p0.05). Univariate analysis of girls also showed the effects of BMI, F%, FM, FFM and WC measurements on SII. F% remained a significant and independent risk factor on SII (p0.01). The effects of BMI, fat mass, FFM and WC were not significant in multivariate model (p0.05).In this study, the increase of SII, NLR and thrombocyte in terms of weight, BMI, fat percentage and fat mass supports the increase of inflammation due to the increase of fat in obesity. In terms of comorbidities in obesity, SII and NLR suggest that there may be inflammatory biomarkers which can be used in follow-up.

Overweight or obesity is a global and severe healthcare problem associated with many diseases. The rapid increase in the incidence of obesity all over the world devoted the researchers to analyze the parameters associated with obesity and overweight. The aim of the present study was to detect whether any connection exists between the ABO and Rh blood groups and obesity through statistical methods. Body length and body weight measurements of 306 female participants who referred to Sports Physiology and Blood Bank departments of Pendik Training and Research Hospital within Marmara University were obtained. Blood samples were also collected from each participant, and body mass index [BMI], ABO blood group and Rh blood groups were detected. The association of obesity with blood group and Rh blood group types was analyzed by statistical methods. Age, body weight, BMI, fat percentage, fat weight and muscle weight parameters of the participants were found statistically significant. In the logistic regression analysis conducted to detect the effect of ABO and Rh blood groups on obesity, a statistically significant association was found between ABO blood groups and obesity whereas a considerable association was also detected between Rh blood group and obesity. The authors found that the highest rate of the obese individuals was in A and Rh positive blood groups.

Theestimation of agricultural yield is a challenging and essential task for every farmer. Since the very old times,agriculture has always been the most important means of livelihood both inTurkey and all around the world. There are many factors that directly affectthe efficiency in agriculture such as climatic features, use of waterresources, proper and timely use of pesticides and fertilizers. Computer-basedsystems are needed to transform agriculture data into tangible information. Data mining involves certain methods of obtaining orinferring meaningful and otherwise-unknown information from the data. With theincreasing significance of precision agricultural practices, farmers havebecome inclined to be engaged in a more conscious strategy of agriculture. Inthis study, barley crop data received from İzmir Menemen ProvincialDirectorate of Agriculture was carefullyorganized and evaluated with the classification algorithms in the SPSSClementine software. CHAID and CR&T algorithms were employed and majorfactors that affect crop yield was defined. Based on these, a decision supportsystem has been developed for farmers to forecast both harvest season and cropyield., Tarımsalverimin tahmini, her çiftçi için zorlu ve önemli bir görevdir. Tarım geçmiştengünümüze kadar hem Türkiye hem de bütün dünyada birçok insan için en önemligeçim kaynağı olmuştur. İklimsel özellikler, su kaynaklarının kullanımı,tarımsal ilaçlar ve gübrelerin doğru ve zamanında kullanılması gibi tarımınetkinliğini doğrudan etkileyen birçok faktör vardır. Tarımsal verileri anlamlıbilgiye dönüştürme sürecinde bilgisayar destekli sistemlere ihtiyaç vardır. Verimadenciliği, verilerden anlamlı ve başka türlü bilinmeyen bilgiler elde etmekveya çıkarmak için belirli yöntemler içerir. Hassas tarım uygulamalarının artanönemi ile çiftçiler daha bilinçli bir tarım stratejisi ile meşgul olmaya eğimlihale geldi. Bu çalışmada, İzmir Menemen Tarım il müdürlüğünden alınan Arpaürünün ekim verileri dikkatle düzenlenmiş ve SPSS Clementine yazılımındakisınıflandırma algoritmaları ile değerlendirilmiştir. CHAIDve CR & T algoritmaları kullanılmış ve ürün verimini etkileyen anafaktörler tanımlanmıştır. Buna dayanarak, çiftçilerin hem hasat mevsimini hemde ürün verimini tahmin etmeleri için bir karar destek sistemigeliştirilmiştir.

The aim of this research was to analyze pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the concept ‘scientific thinking’ through metaphors. Phenomenology, one of qualitative research designs, was used in the...

The usage of data warehouse and data mining together has brought a new breath to the healthcare field. The health sector has a massive amount of data waiting to be utilized and turned into information. In this study, we have created a data warehouse for lung cancer data that received from American National Cancer Institute [1]. The lung cancer data have brought into certain formats, cleaned from mistakes and repetitions. The star schema model was used as a modeling approach; hence the data warehouse is designed to respond to even the most complex queries. We plan to develop a prototype system to assist physicians by using data mining techniques in decision-making stages. When considering the size and complexity of cancer data, a decision-support system built with both data warehouse and data mining can shed light on the treatment of doctors, Veri ambarı ve veri madenciliğinin birlikte kullanımı sağlık alanına yeni bir soluk getirmiştir. Sağlık sektörü bilgiye dönüşmeyi ve değerlendirilmeyi bekleyen çok fazla miktarda veri barındırmaktadır. Bu çalışmada Amerikan Ulusal Kanser Enstitüsü'nden (NCI)[1] alınan akciğer kanseri verileri hatalardan ve tekrarlardan arındırılarak veri ambarı modelinde tutulmuştur. Modelleme yaklaşımı olarak yıldız şema modeli kullanılmış, böylece veri ambarı en karmaşık sorgulara bile yanıt verebilecek şekilde tasarlanmıştır. Çalışmanın sonraki aşamasında kurulan bu veri ambarı kullanılarak veri madenciliği teknikleri ile doktorlara karar verme aşamalarında destek sağlayacak bir örnek sistem geliştirilecektir. Kanser verilerinin büyüklüğü ve karmaşıklığı düşünüldüğünde veri ambarı ve veri madenciliğinin birlikte kullanılmasıyla kurulan bir karar destek sistemi, doktorların tedavilerini şekillendirmesinde onlara ışık tutabilecektir

TEM Journal; Vol 6, No 2, 2017. ISSN 2217-8309, The estimation of agricultural yield is a challenging and essential task for every farmer. In most countries worldwide, above 70% of the population practice and depend upon agriculture for their lives and livehoods. In attempts to increase agricultural productivity, farmers often apply pesticides excessively. This practice has led to problems with spray drift, along with many others, a process by which liquid sprays are transported and cause harm to adjacent crops and other non-target areas. Although investigation has also been directed toward pesticide drift caused by agents such as wind, boom height, and driving speed, this effort has thus been insufficient. Therefore, our research focuses on modelling to account for these factors to create buffer zones around crops to spray drift during pesticide application. We employed a GIS model to capture spray area points. Spray drift distances calculated with values representing the aforementioned agents are appended to these geographic points of the farm to establish a buffer zone area.

Data warehouses and relational databases are two different areas for data storage. A special structured data warehouse is prepared in this study that is bitemporal and its structure is formed as nested. Same data is stored in data warehouse and the relational database. These two data storage area is competed with each other. Same resulting queries are queried by using relational database objects and data warehouse components. The results are compared and evaluated in terms of query sets, processing time and disk space usage., Veri ambarları ve ilişkisel veri tabanları büyük veriyi saklamak ve işlemek için kullanılan iki farklı depolama alanıdır. Bu çalışmada; yapısal olarak özelleştirilmiş iki zamanlı ve iç içe yapıda bir veri ambarı hazırlanmıştır. Aynı veriler veri ambarında ve ilişkisel veri tabanında saklanarak bu iki depolama alanı arasında karşılaştırma yapılmıştır. Aynı sonucu verecek sorgular hem veri tabanı tabloları kullanılarak hem de veri ambarı bileşenleri kullanılarak sorgulanmıştır. Sonuçlar sorgu setleri, yürütme zamanları ve disk alanı kullanımı açısından değerlendirilmiştir ve karşılaştırılmıştır.

Much of the research on bitemporal databases has focused on the modeling of time-related data with either attribute or tuple timestamping. While the attribute-timestamping approach attaches bitemporal data to attributes, the tuple-timestamping approach splits the object's history into several tuples. Although there have been numerous studies on bitemporal data models, there is no work contrasting these two common approaches in terms of system performance and ease of use. In this paper, we compared interval-based attribute- and tuple-timestamped bitemporal data models by running sample queries to measure processing time, and then we evaluated their usability by using the same data. Our tests indicate that the attribute-timestamping model with one-level nested approach required less time and used less disk space; therefore, it is more appropriate for modeling bitemporal data.

Data mining involves certain methods of obtaining or inferring meaningful and otherwise-unknown information from the data. With the increasing significance of precision agricultural practices, farmers have become inclined to be engaged in a more conscious strategy of agriculture. Farmers use pesticides to destroy a disease or other hazard on their plants. Nevertheless, it has been learned over time that pesticides have harmful effects on human health and the environment. Although many farmers are aware of the risks of excessive use of agricultural pesticides, they still use them to get a faster yield and to maximize financial gain or minimize financial loss. Data received from Aydin Nazilli District Directorate of Agriculture was carefully organized and evaluated with the classification algorithms in the SPSS Clementine software. C5.0 and CR&T algorithms were employed in this study. It was thereby observed that, contrary to the conventional wisdom of most farmers, the excessive use of pesticides actually leads to a decrease in the yield obtained from the product, proportional to the measured dose.

Background: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) has been reported to be high among end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the role of arteriovenous fistula (AVF) flow in the pathogenesis of PH and the prevalence of PH in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) and to suggest other possible etiologic factors. Methods: The prevalence of PH was prospectively estimated by Doppler echocardiography in 116 ESRD patients on regular hemodialysis (HD). Laboratory and clinical variables were compared between patients with and without PH (groups 1 and 2, respectively). PH was defined as systolic pulmonary artery pressure (SPAP) over 30 mm Hg. Patients with PH underwent further evaluation by 2 pulmonologists. AVF flow was measured by Doppler ultrasonography. Blood tests including arterial blood gases, hemoglobin, serum calcium, phosphorus and parathyroid hormone were determined. Results: PH was found in 25 (21.6%) patients (group 1) with an SPAP of 37.9 ± 2.8 mm Hg. Mean AVF flow was increased (1,554 ± 207.60 ml/min) in group 1. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was significantly different between the 2 groups (55.3 ± 11.5 and 64.4 ± 40, respectively; p < 0.05). Neither significant primary lung disease nor parenchymal lesions were detected in group 1. PH showed a significant difference for cigarette smoking (p < 0.05). In group 1 the prevalence of cigarette smoking was higher. The main etiology of CRF was diabetes mellitus with a ratio of 44% in group 1. Conclusion: Our study demonstrated a surprisingly high prevalence of PH among patients receiving long-term HD. PH was related to high AVF flow, low LVEF and cigarette smoking. AVF flow and cigarette smoking are important correctable causes of PH. Early detection is important in order to avoid the serious consequences.

DergiPark: 289296 tujes Data warehouses and relational databases are two different areas for data storage. A special structured data warehouse is prepared in this study that is bitemporal and its structure is formed as nested. Same data is stored in data warehouse and the relational database. These two data storage area is competed with each other. Same resulting queries are queried by using relational database objects and data warehouse components. The results are compared and evaluated in terms of query sets, processing time and disk space usage. Veri ambarları ve ilişkisel veri tabanları büyük veriyi saklamak ve işlemek için kullanılan iki farklı depolama alanıdır. Bu çalışmada; yapısal olarak özelleştirilmiş iki zamanlı ve iç içe yapıda bir veri ambarı hazırlanmıştır. Aynı veriler veri ambarında ve ilişkisel veri tabanında saklanarak bu iki depolama alanı arasında karşılaştırma yapılmıştır. Aynı sonucu verecek sorgular hem veri tabanı tabloları kullanılarak hem de veri ambarı bileşenleri kullanılarak sorgulanmıştır. Sonuçlar sorgu setleri, yürütme zamanları ve disk alanı kullanımı açısından değerlendirilmiştir ve karşılaştırılmıştır.

Aim: Miliary tuberculosis (MTB) is a serious and rare form of tuberculosis. Studies comparatively reviewed children and adults with MTB are lacking. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 56 pediatric and 26 adult MTB patients at a university hospital, between 1990 and 2003 Results: The median age at presentation was 3.5 years for children and 38 years for adults. Thirtyeight of all patients of whom 86.8% were children had family history of tuberculosis Presenting symptoms and signs of adult and pediatric patients were loss of weight (51.8% vs. 61.5%), anorexia (76.9% vs. 57.8%), dyspnea (12.5% vs. 57.8%), diarrhea/vomiting (35.0% vs. 27.0%), fever (53.8% vs. 17.9%), hepatomegaly (30.8% vs. 51.8%), pulmonary crepitations (42.3% vs. 42.9) and cough (46.2% vs. 35.7%), respectively. The presenting symptoms/signs and laboratory abnormalities were generally more frequent in adults. Detected laboratory abnormalities were leukocytosis (73.2%), increased sedimentation rate (73.2%), anemia (52.4%), hypoalbuminemia (47.6%), elevated liver transaminases (36.6%), elevated lactate dehydrogenase (50.0%) and hyponatremia (25.6%) in whole study group. The diagnosis was proven microbiologically in 15 (18.3%) patients. Among 56 pediatric cases, there were 8 (14.3%) children with positive BCG scar and only 16 (28.6%) children with positive reaction to 5TU tuberculin test. Radiological findings of all patients, either on chest X-ray or high resolution computerized tomography, were characteristic for MTB. One fourth of patients had accompanying tuberculous meningitis. Predisposing factors for TB were found in 13 patients (15.9%). No patients had HIV infection. Overall 6 (7.3%) patients had died. Conclusion: High rate of history of family contact and low rate of BCG vaccination in our patients with MTB were significant public health problems. Identifying different features in children and adults may contribute to early diagnosis of MTB, which is highly relevant to its outcome

BACKGROUND AND AIM In patients with pulmonary embolism (PE), a pulmonary radiograph may reveal oligemic fields (the Westermark sign) associated with sites of occlusion of the pulmonary arteries, interruption or loss of the artery line (the knuckle sign), and even unilateral hyperlucency attributable to reduced overall lung vascularity. In Swyer-James-Macleod syndrome (SJMS), which develops as a result of bronchiolitis obliterans, unilateral hyperlucency is evident because of emphysema and hypoplasia of the pulmonary artery and its branches. Therefore, SJMS cases with clinical and laboratory data compatible with PE may in fact be confused with PE. The cases of six adult patients who were initially presumed to have PE but on further investigation were diagnosed with SJMS are presented in this report, which thus can serve as a guide for diagnosis of similar cases in future. METHODS We studied six adult patients who presented with dyspnea. Their pulmonary radiographs revealed lobar/unilateral hyperlucency and PE was initially suspected. The pulmonary artery and branches thereof exhibited parenchymal emphysema and hypoplasia, and we thus diagnosed SJMS. RESULTS We studied 4 males and 2 females with a mean age of 51 years (range, 20-73 years). Left lung involvement was evident in five cases. CONCLUSION Unilateral hyperlucency may be a feature of both PE and SJMS. Although these conditions are very different, both present similarly in radiographic terms and may be easily confused when the clinical data and the anamnesis raise a suspicion of PE, causing unnecessary testing and treatment.

Nowadays, with the increase in drug use and drug diversity, the necessity of making people aware of drug use has occurred. At this point, the concept of 'Rational Drug Use' has emerged. 'Rational Drug Use' requires getting drugs pursuant to treatment, at the required dose, and the lowest cost. Although drugs on the market are numerous, many of them have the same functions. These drugs are called equivalent drugs and they have the same pharmacological effect as the original drugs and provide the patient with the same treatment. In this study, especially the equivalent drug use at the lowest cost of rational drug use was examined. The aim of this study is to reveal the cost difference between original drug and equivalent drug that can make the same treatment. As a sample, 4417 prescription data was collected based on their diagnosis codes; 183 individuals from Alsancak Izmir, 1748 individuals from Guzelyali Izmir, 925 individuals from Konak Izmir, 155 individuals from Acipayam Denizli, and 1406 individuals from Esenyurt Istanbul. According to the analysis of the sample data, the most common five diagnosis codes were selected. The percentage rates of diagnosis codes were investigated per region. Also differences between the price of drugs in prescriptions and that of their lowest cost equivalents were investigated. The diagnosis code analysis results show, if lower cost equivalent drugs are used for treatment, not only the same result will appear but also a lower cost will be paid by patients and institutions. The amount of serious figures reached in this sample data show that, if generalized, health cost will decrease throughout the country.