Plasma thrombomodulin levels in lung cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: Thrombomodulin (TM) is a glycoprotein and besides its anticoagulant property it is accepted as an onco developmental antigen. Considering these properties we hypothesised that active TMB might have a role in cancer cell behaviour. METHODS: We measured serum TMB levels by the enzyme immunoassay method in 40 patients with lung cancer and 20 healthy subjects. RESULTS: TMB levels were found as 54.6 +/- 11.5 in controls and 60.9 +/- 31.2 ng/ml in lung cancer patients TM levels were 59.4 +/- 24.2 ng/ml in 24 epidermoid carcinoma patients, 65 +/- 50.2 ng/ml in 10 small cell carcinoma patients and 60 +/- 18.4 ng/ml in 6 adenocarcinoma patients. Patients with stage 4 and distant metastasis had a value of 65 +/- 33.9 ng/ml. No significant differences were found between healthy subjects and cancer patients. Also the differences between 3 groups of patients were insignificant. CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that serum TMB levels could not be accepted as a tumour marker in lung cancer patients.

Determination of the etiological organism during acute exacerbations of COPD and efficacy of azithromycin, ampicillin-sulbactam, ciprofloxacin and cefaclor. Turkish Thoracic Society COPD Working Group.

Acute exacerbations, most of which are due to lower respiratory tract infections, cause great morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and most of these are due to lower respiratory tract infections. The aim of this study was to determine the causative organism and the effects of azithromycin, ampicillin sulbactam (sultamicillin), ciprofloxacin and cefaclor monohydrate therapy in COPD. One hundred and six patients with COPD in acute exacerbation were randomized into four groups for empiric antibiotic treatment following lung function tests and sputum examination. The most common strains isolated from sputum were Haemophilus influenzae (30.8%), Streptoccocus pneumoniae (12%) and Moraxella catarrhalis (7.7%). Azithromycin, sultamicillin, ciprofloxacin and cefaclor monohydrate were found to be effective in treating COPD exacerbations.