ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Hypovitaminosis D appears to parallel several cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. However, previous findings cannot be considered conclusive, since the association may have been confounded by different anthropometric variables that were not accounted for. The present cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the association between important explanatory variables and circulation levels of vitamin D. METHODS: A total of 553 individuals attending the metabolic and medical lifestyle management clinic of the Burdwan district of India were selected from 1289 people by simple random sampling, and information regarding relevant variables and their blood was obtained. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin (OH) D level and forced expiratory volume in 1 second were measured. Associations between different explanatory variables and circulatory 25(OH) D were analysed in linear regression models. RESULTS: Of the population studied, 53% had insufficient vitamin D levels, while approximately 9% were vitamin D deficient. Variables that significantly associated with lower 25(OH)D levels were obesity, current smoking, forced expiratory volume 1 and depression. CONCLUSION: Lower serum levels of vitamin D were associated with different variables that should be explored in several diseases before a conclusion of hypovitaminosis D is drawn.
ABSTRACT
Acute myocardial Infarction is one of the major causes of morbidity & mortality in world and atherosclerosis is the major cause of ischemic heart disease. In order to determine the better clinical marker of atherosclerosis, we estimated serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C) and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP). Hundred patients of myocardial infarction and 100 controls irrespective of age and sex were studied for these parameters over a period of 2 years. The statistical analysis showed that the serum hsCRP was significantly raised in myocardial infarction cases than controls (P < 0.01) but LDL-C was not (P > 0.05). We conclude that the serum hsCRP has better predictive value for risk of atherosclerosis.
ABSTRACT
CONTEXT: Oxidative stress induced lipid peroxidation has been a significant contributing factor for schizophrenia. Older antipsychotics, like haloperidol , were found to increase lipid peroxidation, whereas, the newer atypical antipsychotics, like olanzapine, did not generate free radicals as metabolic end products. AIMS: The interrelationship of the antioxidant vitamins and antioxidant enzymes, and their overall effect on regulation of oxidative stress induced by haloperidol as compared to olanzapine were analyzed in present study. SETTING AND DESIGN: It was an open randomized cross sectional study that consisted of two groups of fifty schizophrenic patients treated by haloperidol and olanzapine, respectively for at least six months. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Serum thiobarbituric acid reacting substances (TBARS) was selected as marker of lipid peroxidation, whereas, serum tocopherols, plasma ascorbate and plasma superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, were selected to assess the antioxidant vitamin and antioxidant enzyme status, respectively. All measurements were done by standard photometric methods. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Statistical analysis was performed to find out the significance for the differences of means between two groups. Bivariate and partial correlation coefficients for assessing the interrelationship between different parameters were done by using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software. RESULTS: Results showed significantly higher serum TBARS and lower antioxidant values in the haloperidol treated patients. Significant positive correlations among the individual antioxidant parameters and significant negative correlation between all of the antioxidant parameters and serum TBARS were found only in haloperidol treated patients. Plasma SOD activity correlated to plasma ascorbate in both groups. Partial correlation results revealed that the serum tocopherol decreased linearly with an increase in serum TBARS significantly in olanzapine treated patients when effect of plasma ascorbate was controlled. CONCLUSIONS: Haloperidol caused more oxidative stress along with a significant reduction of important antioxidant parameters. Plasma ascorbate was found to be the chief antioxidant on which the activity of both plasma SOD and alpha tocopherol were dependent under oxidative stressful conditions.
