ABSTRACT
Childhood nephrotic syndrome (NS) is characterized by massive proteinuria, hypoalbuminemia, hyperlipidemiaassociated with peripheral edema. Children with NS lose 25-OH vitamin D binding protein in urine, and canhave low blood levels of this metabolite. The present hospital-based study was carried out on a total of 50children with nephrotic syndrome who are in remission, in the age group of 1-15 years of either gender,attending to our pediatric nephrology clinic. 46% had clear deficiency of vitamin D, while insufficiency waspresent in 28% and normal levels in only 26% of patients. There was significant difference (p<0.05) in 25-OHvitamin D levels between frequent relapsers (FR) as compared to infrequent relapsers (IR) and first episode ofnephrotic syndrome. Hypocalcemia was present in 86% of patients, hypophosphatemia in 10% of patients,hyperphosphatemia in 50% and raised alkaline phosphatase in 36% of patients. Strong positive correlation isobserved between serum calcium and vitamin D levels (r=0.720; p<0.001) and moderate negative correlationbetween phosphorous and vitamin D levels (r= -0.577; p<0.001, but insignificant relation between vitamin Dand alkaline phosphate levels (r= -0.248; p<0.082). It is concluded that vitamin D deficiency is commonamong children with nephrotic syndrome even after remission of proteinuria. There exists a strong positivecorrelation between serum calcium and vitamin D levels.
ABSTRACT
Background: Thyroid hormones can cause significant changes in renal function such as decrease in sodium re-absorption in the proximal tubules, impairment in the concentrating and diluting capacities of the distal tubules, a decrease in the urinary urate excretion and a decrease in the renal blood flow and glomerular filtration rate (GFR). This study was therefore planned to analyse the changes in biochemical markers of renal function in patients with subclinical and overt hypothyroidism and to correlate these values with the thyroid profile of the patients with an aim to determine whether thyroid dysfunction has deleterious effects on renal function.Methods: Study was conducted on 200 patients, in the age group of 20-70 years, in the Department of Medicine, in collaboration with Department of Biochemistry, GMC Jammu over a period of 6 months. After centrifugation, the serum was divided into 2 aliquots: one for renal function tests and the other for thyroid function tests.Results: Age wise, mean was found to be 33.2±9.3 years for euthyroid group and 42.8±8.7 years for hypothyroid group. Patients with both subclinical hypothyroidism and overt hypothyroidism showed statistically significant rise in TSH levels as compared to controls.Conclusions: It was seen that primary hypothyroidism is associated with a reversible elevation of serum creatinine in adults as well as children. It is believed that renal impairment with hypothyroidism is due to reduced cardiac output and increased systemic and renal vasoconstriction leading to reduced renal blood and plasma flow and decreased GFR.
ABSTRACT
Background: Diabetes mellitus is now affecting many in the workforce; it has major and deleterious impact on both individual and national productivity. Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) can be used as diagnostic test for diabetes subject to stringent quality assurance tests, while assays are standardized to a criteria aligned to the international reference values. HbA1C has now been recommended by American Diabetic Association (ADA) as a tool to diagnose diabetes. The main objective of the present research is to establish the reference range for glycated hemoglobin in healthy non-diabetic subjects in our hospital laboratory and compare it with the values reported by standard laboratories. Methods: The study was conducted in the Department of Biochemistry, Super Specialty Hospital, Government Medical College, Jammu. Total number of subjects was 50 (25 males, 25 females), aged between 30-70 years. 2ml of venous blood was collected from antecubital vein under aseptic conditions from each individual and put in EDTA vials and the samples were estimated in fully auto-analyzer. Results: This study has delivered different results for males and females. In males, the normal levels were 6.12± 0.76% while in females; the levels were 6.30 ± 0.62%. The overall range in males was 4.3- 7.18% while in females it was 4.7 - 7.30%. Conclusions: The values were comparable (p>0.05) with those reported by standard laboratories, e.g. Dr. Lal Path Labs (<6%) and SRL Lab (≤5.7%). Hence, our values are suitable to be used as cut-off while interpreting the results of patients with diabetes mellitus.
ABSTRACT
The global burden of diabetes mellitus is expected to increase by 42% (from 51 million in year 1995 to 72 million by 2025) and by 172% (from 84 to 288 million) in the developed countries. The disease leads to many complications and one of them is electrolyte imbalance which has been an ignored subject. Amongst the electrolytes, magnesium merits special attention. The aim of the present study was to assess serum magnesium levels in Type 2 diabetics. A hospital based cross- sectional study was performed on 50 diabetic patients attending the OPD of medicine department from January 2011 to July 2011, M.M. Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Mullana (Ambala). Thirty age-matched healthy controls were also selected for the sake of comparison. Blood was withdrawn and serum magnesium levels were estimated by colorimetric method using Xylidyl blue dye. The results were analyzed using Student's unpaired 't'test. Serum magnesium levels among normal healthy controls (n=30) ranged between 1.8-3.0 mg /dl (mean ±SD = 2.33±0.37 mg/dl), while the levels of serum magnesium in diabetic patients (n=50) ranged between 0.2-2.25 mg/dl (mean ±SD = 1.62±0.47). The difference was statistically significant (p<0.001). Levels of serum magnesium were significantly lower in diabetic patients as compared to normal healthy controls. Therefore, hypomagnesaemia is a key issue in diabetes which, if corrected, is expected to result in a better management of the disease.