Serum lactate dehydrogenase enzyme concentration in women with pre-eclampsia

Lactate dehydrogenase enzyme [LDH] is a glycolytic enzyme involved in the reversible conversion of pyruvate to lactate when absolute or relative anoxemia is present. Several authors have found that LDH concentration was increased in pre-eclampsia, but the reason for this elevation was not yet clear. In this study we measured serum LDH enzyme concentration in normal pregnancy and in pregnancy induced hypertension and its relation to fetal weight. Blood was collected from 60 women Presenting with pre-eclampsia from 60 healthy pregnant controls and from 20 non pregnant women of child bearing age. Serum LDH, liver function tests, kidney function tests and blood film for evidence of haemolysis were performed for each women. Serum LDH was measured using kinetic determination of LDH as recommended by the German Clinical Chemistry Society [DSKC]. LDH concentration was significantly higher in women with pre-eclampsia compared with healthy pregnant controls. Furthermore, LDH concentration was significantly higher in women with severe pre-eclampsia compared with women with mild pre-eclampsia. A positive significant correlation was also found between diastolic blood pressure and LDH concentration in women with pre-eclampsia. An increase in LDH level was associated with some liver cell damage, as elevated aspartate amino transferase [AST] and alanine amino transferase [ALT] concentrations were observed in pre-eclamptic women with LDH activity. There was a significant negative correlation LDH and fetal weight in women with pre-eclampsia. Elevated LDH concentration in women with pre-eclampsia may act as a predictor for small for gestational age infants. The underlying mechanism for elevated LDH in pre-eclampsia might be some abnormality in liver function

Expression of fas antigen in acute myeloid leukemia and its clinical imorttance

Flow cytometric immunofluorescent analysis was used to assess Fas antigen [CD95] expression in blasts obtained from bone marrow of 24 patients with acute myeloid leukemia. The percentage of positive cells in each sample was highly variable. Fas antigen expression did nor correlate with age Hb% concentration, while blood cell count, platelet count, blast% in peripheral blood, blast% in bone marrow, CD34 expression or BC12 protein. Low expression of Fas was associated with a low complete remission rate after induction chemotherapy [69.2% in cases with <20% positive cells versus 90.9% in cases with >/20% positive cells, P <0.01]. The main cause for not achieving remission was resistant diseases. The result of this study suggested that the quantitation of Fas expression can be predictive of treatment outcome in acute myeloid leukemia

Role of interleukin-1B and granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor in chemotherapy induced feppile neutropenia in children with hematologic malignancies

Cytokines might have a role in the etiopathogenesis of hematologic malignancies. Serum levels of interleukin-1B [IL-1B] and granulocyte- macrophage colony stimulating factor [GM-CSF] were evaluated in 48 febrile neutropenic children undergoing cytoreductive chemotherapy for treatment of some hematologic malignancies [20 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia [ALL], 16 patients with acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia [ANLL], and 12 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma [NHL]. They had significantly high mean serum value of IL-1B as compared with 20 healthy, sex and age matched children as controls [p <0.001]. In addition, they had significantly low mean serum value of GM-CSF in comparison with the control group [p <0.001]. Although, higher mean serum values of IL-1B were found in patients' groups with high grade fever, that with positive blood culture and that with mild to moderate neutropenia, yet, they were not significant when compared with patients' groups with low grade fever, that with negative blood culture and that with severe neutropenia, respectively. Thus, from this study, it is clear that febrile neutrophic children with hematologic malignancies under chemotherapy had high serum levels of IL-1B and low levels of GM-CSF