Procalcitonin in community acquired pneumonia

This study aimed to find out a specific and sensitive method for diagnosing bacterial origin of pneumonia. The study included four groups of patients: The first group included 20 children suffering from pneumonia, while the second group included 20 normal children of the same ages as controls; the third group included 27 adults admitted to the hospital with pneumonia and the fourth group included 20 normal adults as controls. Procalcitonin was measured in all groups. There was a significant difference between the patients and the control groups in both children and adults

impact of sex on iron status in first year of life

Iron deficiency anemia is prevalent allover the world especially in poor countries. Normal iron status is essential for normal behavioral and mental health. Supplementation of iron in the early stages will protect the infant from the permanent psychomotor changes resulting from its deficiency. ZPP/ H ratio is found to be effective in detecting the pre-anemic state. In this study we examined the differences of iron status in female and male infants at the ages of 4, 6 and 12 months. We found that ZPP/H ratio is significantly higher in boys than in girls in the three groups studied denoting their vulnerability to have iron deficiency anemia

C - Peptide inThalassemic Patients

Thalassemia is one of the commonest hemolytic diseases, especially in the Middle East region. In spite of the use of the iron chelation therapy, serious complications due to iron overload still occur in the thalassemic patients. Endocrinal complications are among the serious complications of hemosiderosis. In this study, the C-peptide level in thalassemic patients was measured. The C-peptide level was found to be high in three cases representing 10% of the cases but it was statistically nonsignificant