Journal of Medical Biochemistry最新文献

Background: COVID-19 may affect many endocrine tissues as well as thyroid gland and hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis. It has been shown that COV D-19 infection suppresses thyroid hormones in some studies and causes subacute thyroiditis in the others so that its effects are still not fully known. The aim of our study is to retrospectively evaluate thyroid functions, clinical findings, biochemical and inflammatory markers in PCR positive patients infected with COVID-19; and to evaluate the relationship between abnormal thyroid function tests (TFT) and clinical and laboratory findings and whether it has potential prognostic significance.

Methods: The data of patients aged 18 years and older, 201 patients who applied to Mersin City Training and Research Hospital due to COVID-19 infection between 1st of March and 1st of April in 2021 and received inpatient treatment were evaluated retrospectively.

Results: Large TFT (TSH, T3, T4, anti-TPO) and laboratory data of 201 patients with mild, moderate or severe pneumonia on CT were scanned retrospectively. 121 (60.2%) of the patients were male, mean age was 51.9 ± 14.6 years, and the most common comorbid disease was hypertension in 65 (32.3%) patients.

Conclusions: It has been determined that the deterioration in TFTs is associated with LDH and D-dimer which are indicators of cell and endothelial damage, duration of hospitalization, clinical severity, and having mutant strains and it has been concluded that low TSH can be used as a prognostic indicator in COVID-19 patients. Further studies with healthy control groups, quantitative RT-PCR tests, histological and pathological correlations, and long-term follow-up are needed.

Background: Increased formation of reactive oxygen species may be caused by the ion release of the metal alloys used in prosthetic dental restorations due to the corrosion process. As products of lipid peroxidation, isoprostanes can be used as a marker for oxidative stress in the body. There are two significant advantages of using isoprostanes as an oxidative stress marker - presence in all fluids in the body and low reactivity. Saliva provides noninvasive, painless, and cost-effective sample collection and can be used as an alternative testing medium of blood and urine.

Methods: This study presents the development and validation of a sample LC-MS/MS method to quantify 8-isoprostaglandin F2-a in human saliva using salt-out assisted liquid-liquid extraction (SALLE).

Results: The selected sample preparation procedure optimized chromatographic separation and mass detection provided high recovery and sensitivity of the analysis. The calibration curve was obtained in the predefined range 25-329 ng/L with R2 larger than 0.995. Normalized matrix varied between 89.7 % and 113.5%. The method showed sufficient accuracy and precision - accuracy in the range 89.7 %-113.9 %, and precision between 2.3% and 5.4%.

Conclusions: The proposed method is validated according to current EMA/FDA industrial guidance for bioanalysis and offers an appropriate level of sensitivity and sufficient accuracy and precision.

Background: This study was designed to investigate the abnormal expression of plasma miR-592 and miR-217-3p in retinoblastoma (Rb) and explore the clinical diagnostic value of their expression levels for Rb.

Methods: The 100 Rb patients who came to Nanchang Hongdu Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine from January 2018 to January 2019 were selected as the Rb group, and 100 healthy patients who came to the physical examination centre during the same period were selected as the control group. Real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression levels of plasma miR-592 and miR-217-3p in all subjects; analyse the relationship between plasma miR-592 and miR-217-3p levels and the clinicopathological characteristics of Rb. Pearson correlation analysis evaluated the relationship between plasma miR-592 and miR-217-3p levels and overall survival.

Results: Plasma levels of miR-592 and miR-217-3p in the Rb group were significantly higher than those in the control group (p<0.0001), and the expression of miR-592 was significantly correlated with family genetic history (p 0.0001), tumour bias (p=0.0081), lymph node metastasis (p=0.0048) and pathological grade (p=0.0025), and the expression of miR-217-3p was significantly related to family genetic history (p 0.0001), optic nerve infiltration (p 0.0001), lymph node metastasis (p=0.0090), and pathological grade (p 0.0001). The high expression of miR-592 and miR-217-3p presents a more serious pathological manifestation of Rb, and the overall survival of patients is significantly shortened with the increase of miR-592 (r=-0.2276, p=0.0052) and miR-217-3p levels (r=-0.6461, p 0.0001).

Conclusions: and miR-217-3p are highly expressed in the plasma of Rb patients, and their elevated levels present severe pathological manifestations of Rb and shortened overall survival, which is expected to become biomarkers for clinical diagnosis of Rb.

Background: Rapid SARS-CoV-2 antigen tests are potentially useful tools for screening carriers with high viral load. This study was aimed to assess the potential association between viral load and positivization time of a manual SARS-CoV-2 commercial antigen test in routine nasopharyngeal specimens.

Methods: In a sample of subjects undergoing routine diagnostic testing, SARS-CoV-2 positivity of nasopharyngeal samples was assayed with both molecular (Altona Diagnostics RealStar SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR Kit) and antigenic (Roche SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Test) tests. Positivization time of rapid antigen test was correlated and compared with viral load expressed as mean of SARS-CoV2 E/S genes cycle threshold (Ct) values.

Results: The study sample consisted of 106 patients (median age 48 years, 55 women) with positive results of rapid SARS-CoV-2 antigen testing. A highly significant Spearman's correlation was found between mean SARSCoV-2 E/S genes Ct values and positivization time of manual antigen test (r= 0.70; p<0.001). The positivization time of rapid SARS-CoV-2 antigen test displayed an area under the curve of 0.82 (95%CI, 0.74-0.89) for predicting nasopharyngeal samples with high viral load (i.e., mean Ct <20). A positivization time cut-off of 32 SEC had 94.9% sensitivity and 58.2% specificity for detecting specimens with high viral load. The overall agreement between mean Ct value <20 and positivization time <32 SEC was 70.8%.

Conclusions: Positivization time of rapid SARS-CoV-2 antigen tests may provide easy and rapid information on viral load, thus making this type of manual assay potentially suitable for quick and reliable detection and isolation of supercarriers.

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and preeclampsia (PE) are common complications during pregnancy. Studies indicated that abnormal bile acid metabolism is related to its pathogenesis. Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is the most common pregnancy-specific liver disease, which classic symptoms include generalized pruritus that commonly and biochemical evidence of elevated bile acids. Our study aimed to explore the correlation between the ICP presence and risk of GDM, PE incident in pregnant women.

Methods: A meta-analysis, which included 10 eligible studies including 17,688 ICP cases and 1,386,771 controls, was performed to assess the correlation of ICP with preeclampsia (PE) and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). There were 7 studies investigating the relationship between ICP and PE, and 9 studies that evaluated the relationship between ICP and GDM. All eligible studies were screened from Pubmed, Web of Science and EBSCO databases.

Results: The results of this meta-analysis indicate that ICP significantly increase the risk for both PE (pooled odds ratio OR: 2.56 95%CI: 2.27 2.88, I2 heterogeneity = 35%, p heterogeneity = 0.16) and GDM (pooled OR: 2.28 95%CI: 1.69 3.07, I2 heterogeneity = 81%, p heterogeneity < 0.001). In the sensitivity analysis of GDM, excluding the largest heterogeneity study cannot change the result (pooled OR: 2.86 95%CI: 2.59 3.16, I2 heterogeneity = 0%, p heterogeneity = 0.56).

Conclusions: This meta-analysis shows that ICP is closely associated with ICP increased risk of PE and GDM) during pregnancy.

Background: To investigate the effects of ultrasound-guided lumbar-sciatic nerve block and epidural anesthesia on the levels of inflammatory factors such as Interleukin-6 (IL6), Interleukin-8 (IL-8), Tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-α) and coagulation factors in peripheral blood of elderly patients after hip arthroplasty to provides reference value for the choice of intraoperative anesthesia.

Methods: 96 elderly patients underwent hip arthroplasty in our hospital from March 2018 to December 2019 were selected and divided into ultrasound-guided lumbar-sciatic nerve block group (group A) and epidural anesthesia group (group B) randomly , there were 48 cases in each group. The onset time of intraoperative anesthesia, postoperative hemodynamic indexes, pain score, inflammatory factors and blood coagulation factor levels were compared between group A and group B.

Results: It was proved that: (1) The onset time of sensory block and motor block in group B were shorter compared with group A, and the maintenance time of anesthesia was prolonged (P<0.05); (2) Compared with group A, visual analogue scale (VAS) score of group B patients after operation was lower (P<0.05); (3) The systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) of group B were higher than group A (P<0.05) ) at T1 and T2, while the comparison of SBP and DBP between groups was not statistical difference at T3 and T4 (P>0.05); (3) Compared with group A, the levels of TNF, IL-8and IL-6 in peripheral blood of group B decreased after T2, T3 and T4 (P<0.05); (4) Statistical difference in plasma factor V activity (FV:C), coagulation factor VIII activity (FVIII:C) and fibrinogen (FIB) levels were showed between groups A and B at T2, T3 and T4 (P<0.05) with significantly lower values in group B compared to group A(P<0.05). (5) The half-year mortality rates of patients in two group were 5.56% and 8.33% respectively. There was no significant difference between group A and group B (P>0.05).

Conclusions: Compared with epidural anesthesia, lumbarsciatic nerve block is showed significantly lower values in concentration of peripheral blood coagulation factors and inflammatory factors after surgery, thereby alleviating postoperative hypercoagulability and inflammation.

Background: Recent epidemiological data suggest that Co - ro navirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has a gender predisposition, with men being more seriously affected than women. Furthermore, older men accounting for most deaths. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the serum testosterone, inhibin B, intrleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a) levels in different age groups of Jordanian males with SARS-CoV2 infection and to evaluate the correlation of these markers in male patients with COVID-19.

Methods: This study was performed on 157 selected individuals divided into two groups; COVID-19 patients and healthy controls. The participants of each group were further divided into two subgroups based on the age (20-50 years and 51-80 years age groups). The biochemical tests that were performed in this research are testosterone, inhibin-B, TNF-a, and IL-6.

Results: The levels of IL-6 were significantly higher in COVID-19 patients than healthy individuals (7.63 ± 6.30 vs. 5.54 ± 2.10, P=0.006). Similarly, the difference between the levels of TNF-a in the study groups were statistically significant (P=0.001). The mean testosterone levels in COVID-19 patients and healthy controls were 1.53 ± 1.24 and 3.87 ± 1.44, respectively (P<0.001), whereas the mean inhibin B levels in COVID-19 patients (54.29 ± 7.33) were lower than in healthy controls (64.14 ± 37.66) with P = 0.011. TNF-a was significantly and positively correlated with age (r = 0.263, P=0.018) and IL-6 (r = 0.245, P=0.027). Inhibin B had a significant, but negative correlation with TNF-a (r = -0.326, P = 0.003).

Conclusions: It can be concluded that most men seeking medical attention with symptomatic COVID-19 had low testosterone and inhibin B levels with increased both IL-6 and TNF-a, which are independent of age conforming the deleterious effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on testicular function and immune response induction.

Background: The study of laboratory biomarkers that reflect the development of adverse cardiovascular events in the postinfarction period is of current relevance. The aim of the present study was evaluation of oncostatin M (OSM) concentration changes in the early and late stages of myocardial infarction and evaluation of the possibility of its use in prediction of adverse left ventricular (LV) remodeling in patients with myocardial infarction with ST-elevated segment (STEMI).

Methods: The study involved 31 patients with STEMI admitted in the first 24 hours after the onset of MI and 30 patients with chronic coronary artery disease as a control group. Echocardiographic study was performed on day 3 and in 6 months after STEMI. The serum levels of biomarkers were evaluated on the day of hospital admission and 6 months after MI using multiplex immunoassay.

Results: OSM level increased during the first 24 h after the onset of the disease, with the following decrease in 6 months. OSM concentration at admission had correlated with echocardiography parameters and Nt-proBNP, troponin I, CK-MB levels. Our study has demonstrated association of the increased levels of OSM at the early stages of STEMI with development of the adverse LV remodeling in 6 months after the event.

Conclusions: Elevation of OSM levels in the first 24 h after STEMI is associated with the development of the adverse LV remodeling in the long-term post-infarction period.