ABSTRACT
Background: The role of oxygen free radicals in the initiation, promotion and progression of carcinogenesis and the protective role of anti-oxidant defenses have been the subject of much speculation in the recent past with confl icting reports in the literature. Objectives: The aim of this study was to measure the concentration/levels of serum total proteins, albumin and advanced oxidation protein products as markers of oxidative stress in sera of patients with an oral pre-cancerous lesion and frank oral cancer. Materials and methods: The study consisted of sera analysis of 30 new patients of histologically proven well-differentiated, oral squamous cell carcinoma and 10 patients, clinically diagnosed with a potentially malignant epithelial lesion, speckled leukoplakia, aged between 40 to 60 years, in addition to 25 healthy controls. One way analyses of variance were used to test the difference between groups. The normality of data was checked before the statistical analysis was performed. Results: The study revealed variations in sera levels of albumin and advanced oxidation protein products to be statistically signifi cant (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The results obtained emphasize the need for more studies with larger sample sizes to be conducted before a conclusive role could be drawn in favour of sera levels of total protein, albumin and advanced oxidation protein products as markers of diagnostic signifi cance and of the transition from the various oral pre-cancerous lesions and conditions into frank oral cancers.
ABSTRACT
Background & Objectives: Low serum folate level is often reported as an adverse drug sequela of long term phenytoin usage seen with prolonged duration of phenytoin therapy. There is no previous study to prospectively track the serum folate level with usage of phenytoin, which is the objective of this study. Methods: Twenty-fi ve patients between the ages of 18-50 years diagnosed to have epilepsy and planning to start phenytoin were recruited in this study. Assessment of serum folic acid was done by chemiluminiscent method prior to the start of phenytoin and after 6 months of treatment. The serum folate level of 10 age and sex matched healthy control was also taken. Results: The average serum folate level was 7.48 + 2.04 ng/mL prior to the start of phenytoin therapy, which fell to 3.9 + 1.95 ng/mL after 6-month of phenytoin therapy (p-value <0.001). The average serum folate level for the age and sex matched 10 control samples was 14.46 + 2.81 ng/mL. Conclusion: A signifi cant fall of serum folic acid levels is seen in epilepsy patients after 6 months treatment with phenytoin.
ABSTRACT
The role of oxygen free radicals in the initiation, promotion and progression of carcinogenesis and the protective role of anti-oxidant defenses has been the subject of much speculation in the recent past with conflicting reports in the literature. In recent years, increasing experimental and clinical data have provided compelling evidence for the involvement of oxidative stress in a large number of pathological states including cancers. The aim of this study was to measure the concentration of serum total proteins and albumin as potent anti-oxidants in the sera of patients diagnosed with speckled leukoplakia, one of the oral pre-cancerous lesions reported to have significantly high malignant transformation rates and welldifferentiated oral squamous cell carcinoma. The study consisted of sera analysis of total protein and albumin levels in patients with speckled leukoplakia and histologically proven, well-differentiated oral squamous cell carcinoma. One way analyses of variance [ANOVA] was used to test the difference between groups. To find out which of the two groups' means were significantly different; post-hoc test of Scheffe was used. The study revealed variations in sera levels of albumin to be statistically significant. The results obtained emphasize the need for more studies with larger sample sizes to be conducted before a conclusive role for sera levels of total protein and albumin could be drawn as markers of transition from the various oral pre-cancerous lesions and conditions to frank oral squamous cell carcinoma.