Evaluation of some trace elements in patients with acute myocardial infarction

To evaluate the role of sonic trace elements in acute myocardial infarction [AMI] we studied 60 patients with AMI within the first 24 hours and 20 well matched healthy volunteers. AU were subjected to though history taking, clinical examination, plain chest x-ray, resting ECG, Echo-Doppler and laboratoy analysis .The laboratoy tests included the serum 'level of iron, copper, zinc, selenium, magnesium, eythrocytic glutathion peroxidase[EGP], cholesterol, LDL-C, HDL-C, triglycerides and risk ratio. The patients were followed up during their hospital course for development of complications. The study pointed out a statistically significant increases in serum levels of Iron and copper while statistically significant decreases in serum levels of zinc, magnesium, selenium and EGP in AMI-patients when compared to the control group. The AMI-patients showed a significant positive correlation between the level of serum copper and that of cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL-C and risk ratio, while there was a significant negative correlation to HDL-C. Also, a significant positive correlation between the serum level of zinc and that of cholesterol, LDL-C and risk ratio. However, there was no significant difference between the serum levels of the trace elements and the development of in-hospital complications. the increased serum levels of iron and copper while the decreased that of selenium and zinc play a role in the occurrence of IHD, but has no role in the development of in-hospital complications

Changes in plasma lipid concentrations and some coagulation factor activities in insulin dependent diabetics with and without microalbuminuria

This work was carried out to determine the concentration of lipoproteins, apolipoproteins A and B, the clotting factors VII and VIII and antithrombin III in diabetic patients and to investigate the significance of the presence of microalbuminuria in this respect. Forty five insulin dependent diabetic patients of whom 21 were with and 24 were without microalbuminuria and 20 healthy controls, were included in the study. The serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, phospholipids, low density lipoproteins and apoprotein B were significantly higher while the serum HDL/ LDL and apoprotein A/ apoprotein B ratios were significantly lower in diabetic groups. The coagulation factors VII and VIII and antithrombin III were significantly higher in diabetic patients than in controls. The abnormalities in the lipid profile and the coagulation parameters were more marked in microalbuminuric than in normoalbuminuric patients. The work shows that insulin dependent diabetic patients suffer from hyperlipidaemic and hypercoagulability states which are more marked when microalbuminuria is present. These changes might be responsible for macro and microvascular disease with subsequent thromboembolic complications in diabetes. The presence of microalbuminuria should be considered an important warning sign and necessary medical care should start