Attitudes Toward Organ Donation Among Relatives of the Patients Who Are Being Followed Up in Intensive Care and Dialysis Units

INTRODUCTION

This study sought to investigate attitudes toward organ donation (OD) among the relatives of patients who are being followed up in intensive care units (ICU) and dialysis units.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted with relatives of the patients who were being followed up in hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) units and Neurosurgery, Neurology, Anesthesia, and Reanimation ICUs of Adana Numune Research and Training Hospital. A questionnaire investigating sociodemographic data and knowledge level about OD and an attitude scale about OD was applied with face-to-face interviews.

RESULTS

A total of 111 subjects (50 from ICU, 61 from HD and PD units) participated in the study. Mean age was 42.7 ± 13.4 years, 63 (56.8%) were female, 84 (75.7%) were married; education level was low for 49 (44.1%), moderate for 41 (36.9%), and high for 21 (18.9%) subjects; 53 (47.7%) patients were waiting for OD. It was found that sufficient knowledge was low, OD was not unfavorable according to religious beliefs, they knew little about the fact that OD is legally available, and promotions about OD are insufficient in our country. Mean score of Attitudes Toward Organ Donation Scale was 58.6 ± 11.2, and was lower among females (55.7 ± 11.7) compared to males (t = 3.177, P = .002).

CONCLUSIONS

Education and promotion activities would decrease the refusal rate, which is the main obstacle against OD from cadavers, a procedure that has quite low rate in our country. Organ transplantations may increase with providing sufficient knowledge about the laws concerned and general considerations.

Rapid synthesis and lipase inhibition activity of some new benzimidazole and perimidine derivatives

This study presents a synthesis of new series of some benzimidazole, bisbenzimidazole and perimidine derivatives via microwave technique, which, leads to the good product yields and short reaction times. The structure of newly synthesized compounds was confirmed by 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR spectra. These compounds were screened for their lipase inhibition activity. Then, all compounds were evaluated with regard to pancreatic lipase activity, and some of the 2-substituted perimidines, bisperimidine and bisbenzimidazole derivatives showed lipase inhibition at various concentrations.

A study on some 4,5-dihydro-1H-1,2,4-triazol-5-one derivatives

Fourteen new potentially biologically active 4,5-dihydro-1H-1,2,4-triazol-5-one derivatives were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, 1H NMR, IR and UV spectra. Three of these compounds were screened for their antitumor activities.

A study on ester thiosemicarbazones

The cyclization of ester thiosemicarbazones to two different heterocycles was studied for some new thiosemicarbazones, and only the formation of 1,2,4-triazol-5-thiols was attributed to the regioselectivity of the ring closure reaction, due to a steric hindrance of bulky groups. Next, some of the new compounds were tested for their in vitro antimicrobial and antitumor activities.