An earthquake measuring 7.7 magnitude on the Richter scale occurred at 04:17am on February 6, 2023 in the Pazarcık district of Kahramanmaraş province Turkey. In the hours following the 7.7 magnitude event in Kahramanmaraş, a second 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the region and a third 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Gaziantep, causing extensive damage and death. A total of ten provinces directly experienced the earthquake, including Kahramanmaraş, Hatay, Gaziantep, Osmaniye, Malatya, Adana, Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa, Adıyaman, and Kilis. The official figures indicate 31,643 people were killed, 80,278 were injured, and 6,444 buildings were destroyed within seven days of the earthquakes (as of 12:00pm/noon on Monday, February 13th). The area affected by the earthquake has been officially declared to be 500km in diameter. This report primarily relies on observations made by pioneer Emergency Physicians (EPs) who went to the disaster areas shortly after the first earthquake (in the early stages of the disaster). According to their observations: (1) Due to winter conditions, there were transportation problems and a shortage of personnel reaching disaster areas on the first day after the disaster; (2) On the second day of the disaster, health equipment was in short supply; (3) As of the third day, health workers were unprepared in terms of knowledge and experience for the disaster; and (4) The subsequent deployment of health personnel to the disaster area was uncoordinated and unplanned on the following days, which resulted in the health personnel working there not being able to meet even their basic needs (such as food, heating, and shelter). During the first week, coordination was most frequently reported as the most significant problem.

Pulmonary artery pseudoaneurysms are uncommon. They may occur secondary to trauma, infectious diseases, vasculitis syndromes, neoplasms, congenital diseases, and pulmonary hypertension. Due to increasing number of cardiac interventions, iatrogenic complications are among the major causes of pulmonary artery pseudoaneurysms.

In this report, we present a 6-month-old patient with pulmonary pseudoaneurysm that occurred following pulmonary balloon angioplasty for the relief of a pulmonary band.

Congenital rupture of tricuspid chordae tendinea leading to severe tricuspid insufficiency is an extremely rare pathology associated with signs and symptoms of congestive heart failure presenting at birth. If the diagnosis and treatment of this pathology are not made early in life fetal demise may become inevitable.

We herein present a neonate with central cyanosis and congestive heart failure due to rupture of an anterior leaflet chordae resulting in severe insufficiency of the tricuspid valve who was treated with appropriate surgery.

Twin pregnancies are becoming common as a result of increased assisted reproduction. Studies have shown that the smaller twin of a pair is at greater risk of morbidity and mortality. Our aim was to determine if there is a relation between birth-weight discordancy and neonatal morbidity and mortality and to test the occurrence of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) in discordant twins. For 5 years all twins admitted to our intensive care unit were included in the study. Discordance was calculated as the difference between twins' weights divided by the heavier weight. Diagnosis of RDS was made by typical clinical and radiographic methods. Multiple logistic regression was performed with gender, weight order and birth order as the independent variables and RDS as the dependent variable. Two hundred and sixty-six twin pairs with a mean gestation of 33 weeks and a mean birthweight of 1890 g were evaluated. Multiple logistic regression revealed that being the heavier twin was a more important risk factor for RDS (odds ratio 4.5; 95% confidence interval 2.2–9.2) than being the male or second-born twin. Based on neonatal outcomes a birthweight discordance equal or greater than 20% in twin pairs was accepted as the discordance criterion. Discordant and concordant groups were statistically different in neonatal mortality, necrotizing enterocolitis, polycytemia and hypoglycemia. Our data demonstrated that being the heavier twin is a risk factor for RDS and a birth-weight difference of 20% or more in twin pairs should be accepted as discordance.

This study aims to determine whether fetal growth is related to insulin-like growth factor-1 in dichorionic and monochorionic twins and also aims to investigate the correlation of insulin-like growth factor-1 to birthweight discordance in twins. We studied 100 women with twin pregnancies. The correlation tests of 36 discordant twins (15 monochorionic, 21 dichorionic) showed correlation between insulin-like growth factor-1 difference and birthweight discordance (insulin-like growth factor-1 vs. birthweight of first twin, r = +0.915, at 0.01 level, IGF-1 vs birthweight of second twin r = +0.790, at 0.01 level). In 49 monochorionic twins, independent of discordance, there was a correlation between birthweight discordance and insulin-like growth factor-1 difference (r = .538, at the 0.01 level). This correlation was not significant in dichorionic twins, r = .144, p = .01. These data suggest that growth discordances of twins exposed to the same maternal environment may be due to variations in IGF-1, depending upon the genetic similarity.

Objectives: To assess the attitude of elderly lay people towards the concept and symptoms of dementia.

Methods: A population-based, cross-sectional study of 859 residents without dementia, aged 70 years or older, living in an urban area in Istanbul. Nine questions with yes/no responses were designed to investigate the attitudes of the responders to the concept of dementia and symptoms related to particular aspects of dementia. The χ2-test was used to test for differences between proportions of respondents in different age, sex and education groups.

Results: Dementia was considered as normal by the majority of respondents and age and education did not influence this attitude. Women were significantly less inclined to consider dementia and its associated problems as normal.

Conclusion: The concept of dementia is generally not considered as a medical problem by the elderly Turkish population, independent of age and education. These results are important in guiding policy makers and shaping awareness raising campaigns of local Alzheimer's Associations.

Objective: Depression, one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders, causes disability and reduces quality of life. Rates of clinical depression in community samples of older adults range between 1–16%. Most studies of old age depression have been conducted in developed countries. The present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of depressive disorders among Turkish elderly in an urban community.

Method: This study was carried out in the Kadiköy district of Istanbul. The sample for the cross-sectional part of the study was 1067 individuals age 70 or older, randomly selected from population registries. Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE) scores and demographic data were obtained by face-to-face home interviews. The data were analyzed using regression analysis for each variable.

Results: The study group consisted of 623 (61%) females and 395 (39%) males. The mean age was 74.8 years, with 63% of subjects aged 70–74, 29% between 75–84 years old and 8% aged 85 and above. Sixteen percent (n=163) of the total group scored 14 or higher on the GDS. Only 9% of the depressed group were on antidepressant medication. Logistic regression analysis indicated that significant predictors for higher scores GDS scores were: illiteracy, aged 75–79 yrs, female sex and having 4 or more children.

Conclusion: Depression is a common but unrecognized and thus untreated problem among the elderly population in Turkey. While gender and age are unmodifiable, education level and multiparity can be altered. Education of caregivers and medical staff about old age depression may increase its rate of detection and facilitate improved treatment.