ABSTRACT
Background: Serum uric acid (sUA) levels were previously found to be correlated with hypoxic states. We aimed to determine the levels of sUA in COPD patients and to evaluate whether sUA level can be used as predictors of exacerbation risk and disease severity.Methods: This cross-sectional study included COPD patients and healthy controls. The sUA levels in each group were evaluated and their correlations with the study parameters were investigated. ROC analyses for exacerbation risk were reported.Results: The study included 106 COPD patients and 110 healthy controls. The mean sUA levels were significantly higher in patients with COPD compared to healthy controls (p<0.05). Mean sUA levels were compared with different stages of COPD according to GOLD criteria. Stage 4 COPD subjects had highest sUA levels compared to other stages. Statistically significant trend was observed for GOLD staging of disease (p<0.05). Surprisingly non-smokers were having higher uric acid level than smokers (p<0.05). The ROC analyses indicated that sUA levels can be useful in predicting exacerbation risk (AUC, 0.412) especially at higher cut-off values, but with low specificity.Conclusions: Study suggested that sUA levels increased in patients with COPD compared to healthy controls. At higher cut-off values sUA levels might be useful in predicting COPD exacerbation risk and disease severity. However, more prospective cohort studies with large number of participants are needed to further analyse the possible different prognostic roles of hyperuricemia.
ABSTRACT
Background: Pancytopenia is common clinical condition which we encounter in our daily clinical practice. Pancytopenia is characterized by decrease in all the three major components of blood like Red Blood Corpuscles, White blood Corpuscle, and platelets. This study was carried out to look for causes of pancytopenia and clinical presentations at tertiary care hospital in north India.Methods: The study was conducted at MLN Medical College, Allahabad in the Department of Medicine between June 2018 to July 2019. Total 125 patients who attended department of medicine were screened for study. After exclusion 94 patients were studied prospectively.Results: Out of 94 patients 59 were males, and 35 females in the study group. Male to female ratio was 1.6:1. Maximum patients were between 20 years to 35years of age group. Pallor and weakness were most common clinical feature in this study group. Out of various etiological causes vitamin B12 deficiency was the commonest in our study. 48(51%) patients had megaloblastic anemia due to vitamin B12 deficiency. Second most common etiological factor was hypo plastic/aplastic anemia. Other etiological abnormalities were hypersplenism, dengue, malaria, sepsis, myelodysplastic syndrome and multiple myeloma.Conclusions: Bone marrow examinations, aspiration cytology or biopsy are important tool for diagnosis of pancytopenia. Underlying cause and severity of disease determine the outcome of pancytopenia. The present study concluded that most of patients with pancytopenia have treatable cause so early diagnosis will be helpful for management of patients.