Clinical significance of urinary neopterin in chronic liver disease

Increased neopterin concentration in serum, urine and other biological fluids have been reported in conditions causing stimulation of cellular immunity with increased macrophage activity. Assessment of neopterin production in these conditions conveys useful information on disease activity and prognosis. In our study, urinary neopterin was measured in 40 patients with liver cirrhosis of different etiologies other than hepatitis B infection and 30 controls. The results showed high significant statistical difference between group I [HCV with viremia], group II [HCV without virenlia], group III [HCV+viremia+Bilharziasis] [P<0.001] and significant statistical difference for group IV [Bilhraziasis without HCV] [P<0.05] compared with the control group. The highest mean value of urinary neopterin was in group 1 [299.98 +/- 94.785] which was significantly higher than group II [216.18 +/- 37.55] and group IV [201.29 +/- 52.46] [P<0.05] no statistical difference with group III [226.56 +/- 80.18] [P> 0.05]. In conclusion, urinary neopterin has proved to be a simple and reliable method which helps in the diagnosis of activity in chronic HCV infection in patients with chronic liver disease

Serum nitric oxide level in different stages of liver cirrhosis

Patients with liver cirrhosis are suffering from hemodynamic disturbances and its subsequent complications. In this study nitric oxide [NO] [serum nitrite and nitrate] is measured in three groups of patients [25 patients each] with liver cirrhosis versus a control group. Group [I] included patients with compensated liver cirrhosis, group [II] patients had decompensated liver cirrhosis and group [III] patients suffered from hepato-renal syndrome. It was found that NO was high in group [I] compared with the control, Higher in group [II] compared with the control and group [I] and highest in group [III]. With the increase of serum NO there was increase in serum interlekin-1 [one of time trigger factors for NO release]. However, no statistical positive correlation was found, with time increase of NO there was decrease in the GFR in group [III] but this negative correlation was not statistically significant. There might be a possible role of NO and IL-1 in the pathogenesis of hemodynamic disturbances found in patients with liver cell failure and those developing hepatorenal syndrome

study of the coagulopathy of nephrotic syndrome and its relation to quantitative estimation of protein C

Ten children were having nephrotic syndrome during relapse, ten were during remission and the other twenty were normal children, age and sex matched as control. After good history taking and thorough clinical examination, complete urine examination was done, serum albumin, serum cholesterol, ESR, partial thrombo plastin time [PTT], and protein C antigen level in plasma. None of the children had any evidence of thrombo-embolic manifestations on clinical grounds. There was a significant rise of PC% in nephrotic children during relapse than in the remission group and the control. No significant difference was present between the nephrotic group in remission and the control group. A negative correlation was shown between serum albumin and protein C level, while there was a positive correlation between serum cholesterol and protein C level.As regards PTT there was a significant decrease in group A as compared to both group B and C although group A cases were showing no thromboembolic manifestation, yet still they have got the tendency to thrombosis