Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disorder of neuromuscular transmission. Autonomic dysfunction is not a commonly known association with MG. We conducted this study to evaluate autonomic functions in MG & subgroups and to investigate the effects of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. This study comprised 30 autoimmune MG patients and 30 healthy volunteers. Autonomic tests including sympathetic skin response (SSR) and R-R interval variation analysis (RRIV) was carried out. The tests were performed two times for patients who were under acetylcholinesterase inhibitors during the current assessment. The RRIV rise during hyperventilation was better (p=0.006) and Valsalva ratio (p=0.039) was lower in control group. The SSR amplitudes were lower thereafter drug intake (p=0.030). As much as time went by after drug administration prolonged SSR latencies were obtained (p=0.043).Valsalva ratio was lower in the AchR antibody negative group (p=0.033). The findings showed that both ocular/generalized MG patients have a subclinical parasympathetic abnormality prominent in the AchR antibody negative group and pyridostigmine has a peripheral sympathetic cholinergic noncumulative effect.

[What has Go to do with making clinical decisions? One of the greatest intellectual challenges of bedside medicine is making decisions under uncertainty. Besides the psychological traps of traditionally intuitive and heuristic medical decision making, lack of information, scarce resources and characteristics of doctor-patient relationship contribute equally to this uncertainty. Formal, mathematical model based analysis of decisions used widely in developing clinical guidelines and in health technology assessment provides a good tool in theoretical terms to avoid pitfalls of intuitive decision making. Nevertheless it can be hardly used in individual situations and most physicians dislike it as well. This method, however, has its own limitations, especially while tailoring individual decisions, under inclusion of potential lack of input data used for calculations, or its large imprecision, and the low capability of the current mathematical models to represent the full complexity and variability of processes in complex systems. Nevertheless, clinical decision support systems can be helpful in the individual decision making of physicians if they are well integrated in the health information systems, and do not break down the physicians’ autonomy of making decisions. Classical decision support systems are knowledge based and rely on system of rules and problem specific algorithms. They are utilized widely from health administration to image processing. The current information revolution created the so-called artificial intelligence by machine learning methods, i.e. machines can learn indeed. This new generation of artificial intelligence is not based on particular system of rules but on neuronal networks teaching themselves by huge databases and general learning algorithms. This type of artificial intelligence outperforms humans already in certain fields like chess, Go, or aerial combat. Its development is full of challenges and threats, while it presents a technological breakthrough, which cannot be stopped and will transform our world. Its development and application has already started also in the healthcare. Health professionals must participate in this development to steer it into the right direction. Lee Sedol, 18-times Go world champion retired three years after his historical defeat from AlphaGo artificial intelligence, be­cause “Even if I become the No. 1, there is an entity that cannot be defeated”. It is our great luck that we do not need to compete or defeat it, we must ensure instead that it would be safe and trustworthy, and in collaboration with humans this entity would make healthcare more effective and efficient. ]

Over the past year, many cases with newly onset or significantly exacerbated tic disorders were observed worldwide, where some aspects of the clinical presentation or the symptomatology were atypical for established tic diagnoses. Our purpose was to describe the atypical cases and raise relevant diagnostic issues. Consecutive cases with atypical tic presentations were documented. Five atypical tic cases are described. These cases shared some common characteristics, most notably the fact that all of them had been exposed to online presentation of ticking behaviour on social media platforms prior to the de novo development or exacerbation of their tics. Even though the order of events suggests causality and therefore the diagnosis of a functional tic disorder, unambiguous criteria for classifying atypical tics as functional symptoms are lacking. Differentiating neurodevelopmental and functional tics in childhood is currently problematic. Based on the currently unresolved issues in differential diagnosis, the importance of watchful waiting and behavioural interventions is highlighted to avoid unwarranted pharmacotherapy.

[In pregnancy complicated with diabetes, treatment of hyperglycaemia is of fundamental importance during delivery in order to improve the outcome parameters of both the mother and the neonate. This is particularly important in the case of mothers with type 1 diabetes and of all mothers who require insulin treatment during their pregnancy. The use of antenatal steroids for women at risk of pre-term birth further complicates the treatment of hyperglycaemia in the period immediately before delivery and requires the appropriate change of insulin therapy. The requirement of nil per os in the delivery period necessitates proper fluid, glucose and insulin treatment in the pre-delivery hours. After surgical delivery the patients may also need infusion treatment until the first meal. As there is no unified guideline for the peripartum management of diabetes, the author re­views the international literature on the internal medicine issues concerning the peripartum treatment of pregnant women with diabetes. This study reviews the characteristics of insulin treatment of women with various types of diabetes before, du­ring and di­rect­ly after delivery. It presents a dosing schedule for women who needed an antenatal steroid treatment in the period before delivery due to premature birth for the purpose of lung maturation. The study also addresses the application and programming of pe­ripartum blood glucose tests, continuous interstitial glucose monitoring (CGM) and insulin pump treatment (CSII).]

The current study aimed to examine the effect of sniffing Turkish coffee on the sense of smell in COVID-19 patients. This study utilized the experiment-control method. Data were collected using a patient and disease information form and the Connecticut Chemosensory Clinical Research Center (CCCRC) Test. An experimental group of patients sniffed Turkish coffee, and the coffee’s effect on the patients’ sense of smell was examined. All data were analyzed using SPSS version 25 (IBM). Of the patients in the experimental group, 25% had moderate hyposmia, 58.3% had severe hyposmia, and 16.7% had anosmia prior to sniffing Turkish coffee. After sniffing the Turkish coffee, 13.3% of these patients regained their ability to smell normally, while 18.3% had mild hyposmia, 45% had moderate hyposmia, 6.7% had severe hyposmia, and 16.7% had anosmia. There was no difference in the control group between first and second measurement. COVID-19 patients who sniffed Turkish coffee intermittently regained some of their sense of smell for one hour. Turkish coffee is cheap, fragrant, widely available, and easy to access. Therefore, results of this study suggest that it may be recommended for treating olfactory disorder in COVID-19 patients.