Relationship of metabolic syndrome and its components with thyroid dysfunction in Algerian patients.

AIMS: The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome and its compounds in subjects with different thyroid status. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in the internal medicine department at El Okbi Hospital of Guelma (East of Algeria) from January 2014 to September 2015. Eighty six patients attending the specialist consultation for suspected thyroid disorders were included in the study. Gender; blood pressure; body mass index; and serum levels of fasting glucose, total cholesterol (TC), high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglyceride were compared between subjects with hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism and euthyroidism. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Thyroid dysfunction was found in 59.3% (n=42) patients, hypothyroidism (45.3%) was the major thyroid dysfunction followed by hyperthyroidism (14.0%). Overall, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 48.8% (n=42). Subjects with hypothyroidism had significantly higher level of BMI, WC, TC, LDL-C, and higher prevalence of abdominal obesity (84.6%, p<0.01) and hypertension (51.2%, p<0.05). The hyperthyroid group had significantly lower level of TC, LDL-C and HDL-C but a higher level of SBP and UA. Furthermore, abdominal obesity, hypertension and low HDL-C level were the most common metabolic syndrome compounds found in the hyperthyroid group compared to the euthyroid group. We found a positive association between TSH level and the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome.

Electrochemical boron-doped diamond film microcells micromachined with femtosecond laser: application to the determination of water framework directive metals.

Planar electrochemical microcells were micromachined in a microcrystalline boron-doped diamond (BDD) thin layer using a femtosecond laser. The electrochemical performances of the new laser-machined BDD microcell were assessed by differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DPASV) determinations, at the nanomolar level, of the four heavy metal ions of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD): Cd(II), Ni(II), Pb(II), Hg(II). The results are compared with those of previously published BDD electrodes. The calculated detection limits are 0.4, 6.8, 5.5, and 2.3 nM, and the linearities go up to 35, 97, 48, and 5 nM for, respectively, Cd(II), Ni(II) Pb(II), and Hg(II). The detection limits meet with the environmental quality standard of the WFD for three of the four metals. It was shown that the four heavy metals could be detected simultaneously in the concentration ratio usually measured in sewage or runoff waters.

Impedance spectroscopy and conductometric biosensing for probing catalase reaction with cyanide as ligand and inhibitor.

In this work, a new biosensor was prepared through immobilization of bovine liver catalase in a photoreticulated poly (vinyl alcohol) membrane at the surface of a conductometric transducer. This biosensor was used to study the kinetics of catalase-H(2)0(2) reaction and its inhibition by cyanide. Immobilized catalase exhibited a Michaelis-Menten behaviour at low H(2)0(2) concentrations (<100mM) with apparent constant K(M)(app)=84±3mM and maximal initial velocity V(M)(app)=13.4µS min(-1). Inhibition by cyanide was found to be non-competitive and inhibition binding constant K(i) was 13.9±0.3µM. The decrease of the biosensor response by increasing cyanide concentration was linear up to 50µM, with a cyanide detection limit of 6µM. In parallel, electrochemical characteristics of the catalase/PVA biomembrane and its interaction with cyanide were studied by cyclic voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy. Addition of the biomembrane onto the gold electrodes induced a significant increase of the interfacial polarization resistance R(P). On the contrary, cyanide binding resulted in a decrease of Rp proportional to KCN concentration in the 4 to 50µM range. Inhibition coefficient I(50) calculated by this powerful label-free and substrate-free technique (24.3µM) was in good agreement with that determined from the substrate-dependent conductometric biosensor (24.9µM).