Fasting total plasma homocysteine level and cerebrovascular accidents

This study was conducted on 100 stroke patients [15 females and 85 males, aged 45-65 years] in the acute phase within the first 48 hours after admission to ICU as well as 50 age and sex matched apparently healthy individuals as a control group. Every individual was subjected to clinical evaluation including history taking and clinical examination with special stress on presence of risk factors. All the subjects [cases and controls] were not risky i.e. non - smokers, not diabetics, not hypertensive, with negative family history of vascular disease and not taking lipid lowering drugs, multivitamins and antiepileptics known to affect homocysteine blood level. Fasting total plasma homocysteine level [Hcy] was measured using high performance liquid chromatography separation and flourescence detection and plasma folic acid was measured by RIA. Fasting serum glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL - c, LDL-c and creatinine were also determined in all subjects. Stroke patients showed a statistically significant increase in total plasma Hcy level [p10.3 micro mol/L, the upper normal level] was present in 81% of patients and 4% of controls. Patients with cerebral infarction [n=:88] did not d sign from patients with intracerebral hemorrhage [n 12] in mean Hcy concentrations [16.2 +/- 7.19 micro mol/L versus15.3 +/- 3.4 micro mol /L]. Plasma folic acid level was non significantly higher in controls than in patients [6.25 +/- 1.1 ng/ml versus 4.43 +/- 0.46 ng/ml]. The patient and control groups did not d significantly in the mean values of fasting serum glucose, creatinine, total cholesterol, HDL-c and LDL-c. However, stroke patients showed a statistically significant increase in serum triglycerides [p< 0.05] when compared with the controls [119.4 +/- 23.84 mg/dl versus 79.13 +/- 15.96 mg/dl]. Total plasma homocysteine level showed a non-significant negative correlation with folic acid and non-significant positive correlation with the other studied parameters. In conclusion, our results support the hypothesis that elevated plasma homocystein level is an independent risk factor for incident stroke

study of homocysteine level in patients with coronary artery disease

Thirty five patients were selected for this study. Twenty of them were suffering from occlusion of less than two coronary arteries as proven by coronary angiography. The remaining fifteen patients were having two or more affected coronary arteries. Fifteen control healthy persons were included in the study. All the subjects were not risky, i.e. non smoker, not diabetic, not hypertensive and with negative family history of coronry artery disease [CAD]. All subjects were investigated for plasma homocysteine and folic acid levels, also serum blood glucose, creatinine, triglycerides, total cholesterol, HDL-C and LDL-C were done. The results showed that total plasma homocysteine [Hcy] was statistically significantly higher in the patients group than in control. A non significant lower level of plasma folate in patients than control was found with negative correlation between the level of Hcy and folate. Also no significant correlation was found between the level of Hcy and the levels of F.B.S., Triglycerides, total cholesterol, HDL-c, LDL-c or serum creatinine. Results in patients group having less than 2 affected coronary arteries [group A] and patients group having 2 or more affected vessels [group B] showed that; total plasma Hcy level was non-significantly higher in group [B] than in group [A], and plasma folic acid level was non significantly lower in group B than in group A

Evaluation of cytokeratin fragment 19 [cyfra 21-1] as a tumour marker in lung cancer diagnosis

In this study, CYFRA 21-1 was measured in 60 patients with lung cancer and 30 patients presenting with nonmalignant diseases and compared it with tissue polypeptide antigen [TPA] and carcinoembryonic antigen [CEA]. Sensitivities of CYFRA 21-1, TPA and CEA in bronchogenic carcinoma were 73.3%, 66.6% and 53.3'70, respectively. The sensitivity of CYFRA 21-1 was significantly higher in the detection of NSCLC than that of TPA and CEA, while the sensitivities of TPA and CEA were higher than that of CYFRA 21-1 in the detection of SCLC. Sensitivity of CYFRA 21-1 and TPA was significantly higher than that of CEA in the detection of small tumors