ABSTRACT
One of the most important changes that occur in burn patients is anemia, which represents a big clinical problem for both the burn the healthcare along the course of management. There is evidence of both local and systemic oxidant changes manifested by increased oxygen, free radical activity and lipid peroxidation in animal burn models and also in human burn patients. The aim of this work is to study the incidence of anemia and the incidence of oxidative stress as a contributing factor in the development of anemia in burn patients. This study was carried out on 118 burn patients with different ages of both sexes and varying burn percentage [group A] compared with group B which is 24 normal healthy subjects utilized for comparison. For each group, hemoglobin, hematocrite, serum level of malondialdehyde, and serum level of glutathione were measured according to standard methods. Results of this study showed that burn patients developed anemia at day 7 post burn as indicated by a significant decrease in hemoglobin level. They also showed the occurrence of oxidative stress that may be related in parallel way with the development of anemia in burn patients. Monitoring of oxidative stress parameters, namely malondialdehyde and the natural antioxidant glutathione, are of great importance during the resuscitation and care of severely burned patients, since oxidative stress represents one of the contributing factors in the development of anemia in burn this rationalizes the clinical importance of using antioxidants in the management of burn patients
ABSTRACT
This project was designed to evaluate the effects of melatonin and zinc on the glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus [T2DM] patients with inadequate response to the oral hypoglycemic agent metformin. A placebo controlled, double-blind clinical trial was performed at the Specialized Center for Endocrinology and Diabetes, Al-Rusafa Directorate of Health, Baghdad, Iraq during the period from February to July 2005, in which 46 type 2 diabetic patients were selected and allocated into 3 groups, these groups were treated with single daily oral doses of both 10 mg melatonin and 50 mg zinc acetate alone; 10 mg melatonin and 50 mg zinc acetate in addition to the regularly used metformin or placebo, given at bed time for 90 days. We measured the fasting plasma glucose [FPG], glycated hemoglobin [HbA1C] and serum C-peptide before starting the treatment [zero time] and after 30 and 90 days of treatment. We also performed post-prandial glucose excursion test [PPGE] for selected patients from the second and third groups before starting the treatment and after 90 days. Daily administration of melatonin and zinc improved the impaired fasting and post-prandial glycemic control and decreased the level of glycated hemoglobin; addition of this treatment regimen in combination with metformin improved the tissue responses to this oral hypoglycemic agent. The combination of melatonin and zinc acetate, when used alone or in combination with metformin improves fasting and post-prandial glycemic control in T2DM patients