Correlation of Serum Cystatin C with Atherogenic indices in obese individuals.

Introduction: Human obesity is strongly associated with cardiovascular disease. Cystatin C is a naturally occurring protease inhibitor and marker of cardiovascular disease. The atherogenic indices are used as an index for cardiac risk stratification. Objectives: To estimate the serum levels of Cystatin C in individuals with normal BMI, and obese, aged between 20-39 Yrs and to compare the levels of Cystatin C among these individuals and to correlate the levels of serum Cystatin C with atherogenic index of plasma and other indices. Methodology: The study population was taken from healthy volunteers of Mysore city, aged between 20-39 years of either sex. The study population was divided into 2 groups based on BMI. Each group contains sample size of 60. Fasting serum sample was analyzed for Total Cholesterol, TG, LDL-Cholesterol & HDL cholesterol by enzymatic method and serum Cystatin-C by immune-turbidimetric method using auto-analyser. Statistical Analysis: Analysis of Variance [ANOVA] was used to compare the serum levels of Cystatin C in the two groups. To correlate the serum Cystatin C with atherogenic indices for predicting the cardiovascular risk factors, Pearson’s correlation co-efficient was worked out. Results: The mean serum cystatin C levels in normal BMI group are 0.7±0.03 mg/L, and in Obese group 1.15±0.09 mg/(p value<0.001).In the study serum Cystatin C showed a positive correlation with serum triglycerides (r=0.7), Atherogenic index of plasma(AIP ) (r=0.80), TCHOL: HDL (Castelli’s Risk Index I) (r=0.71), HDL: LDL(Castelli’s Risk Index II) (r=0.70) respectively and Atherogenic coefficient (AC) {(NonHDLc)/HDLc}( r=0.60) and negative correlation with serum HDL(r=-0.52) Conclusion: Several indices had been derived from lipid profiles to establish an index for predicting the risk of having coronary event. The atherogenic index of plasma was strongly correlated with the Cystatin C, hence AIP can be used as better index for predicting the preclinical cardiovascular disease because of cost effectiveness in estimation of Cystatin C

In vitro studies on peroxidative changes leading to hemolysis of erythrocytes infested with malarial parasite Plasmodium vivax.

Blood erythrocytes of 25 confirrhed malarial patients infested with P. vivax were analyzed for peroxidation and hemolysis and results compared with 10 uninfected normal control samples. Results indicated significant increase in peroxide formation measured as malondialdehyde, both in presence and absence of H2O2, in parasite infested erythrocytes. These changes induced hemolysis of infected erythrocytes which was increased manifold in presence of H2O2 and could probably be the reason for extensive anemia reported in malaria.