Study of Relation between Serum Iron and Copper Levels in Pregnant Females of Uttarakhand, India.

Introduction: Copper is an indispensable trace element required for health and also plays a very important role in successful pregnancy completion. There is insufficiency of data on serum levels of copper and its relation with serum Iron levels in pregnant women, especially in India. This loco regional pilot study was done, keeping in mind the limited information about inter relation of these two important minerals and to provide further insight about interaction of these. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study comprising of pregnant women, selected by random cluster sampling was conducted in the Rishikesh (Hill regions of Uttarakhand, India). The duration of the study was from 1st Dec, to 31st March 2012. Sixty pregnant women of 18 -35 years age group were included. Serum values of twenty non-anaemic, non-pregnant women volunteers in the age group of 18-35 years with no other accompanying illness were considered as controls. The blood investigations for haemoglobin and serum values of Iron and Copper were done in all these. A Krusskal I-Wallis H test was performed for analysis, followed by a Dunn’s test for multiple comparisons and a p- value of <0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Results: The percentage of anemia among pregnant women of present study was 46.62%. In present study 58.3% of the pregnant women were found to have hypercupremia and 71.42 % of the anemic pregnant women had hypercupremia The relatively increased serum copper in iron deficient anaemic mothers could be a compensatory mechanism to counter-act anemia. Conclusions: A thorough biochemical analysis of haemoglobin, iron and Copper during pregnancy would therefore help us access the specific nutrient role and corrective measures thereof to deal with iron deficiency anaemia and successful pregnancy completion.

Chronic Smoking, a Cause for Development of Peripheral Neuropathy in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Background: Cigarette smoking is the most commonly encountered risk factor for COPD, and causes COPD by its noxious particles and or gases. Cigarette smoke contains some neurotoxin substances that might be important in the pathogenesis of peripheral neuropathy. Objective: To determine whether the effect of the duration of smoking leads to development of peripheral neuropathy in different groups of the COPD patients as measured by nerve conduction studies of upper extremities Material and Methods: The nerve conduction test, of the median and ulnar nerves of the upper extremities, was performed on the subjects (study and control group), who were assessed for their anthropometric measurements, history regarding pack years, the pulmonary function tests, SpO2 levels. Results: Significant difference was found between smoking history in pack years and in the values of Nerve Conduction Velocity of the nerves of upper extremities in different groups of COPD patients, which was found to be statistically significant at p<0.001. Conclusion: A decrease in nerve conduction velocity was observed in the nerves of upper extremities as duration of smoking in pack years increased in the different groups of COPD patients.