Relationship of immature granulocytes with disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis.

AIM: To determine whether the IG count (#) and IG percentage (%) are associated with disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: This retrospective study included 65 RA patients and 65 healthy controls. Clinical and demographic characteristics of controls and RA patients (at active period and when the patients achieved remission) were obtained from medical records. Disease activity was defined by disease activity score 28 (DAS28). Furthermore, the clinical disease activity index (CDAI), and simple disease activity index (SDAI) were calculated. For the differential diagnosis of RA patients from healthy controls, the cut-off value was estimated by making receiver-operator curves (ROC). RESULTS: In active RA patients, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), IG#, and IG% levels were significantly higher compared to the healthy controls (p < .001, for all). When the patients achieved remission, DAS28, CDAI, SDAI, ESR, CRP, IG#, and IG% values were significantly decreased (p < .001, for all). IG# and IG% were significantly positively correlated with DAS28, CDAI, SDAI, ESR, and CRP (p = .024, p = .008, p = .003, p < .001, p < .001, respectively). According to ROC curve analysis, IG% and IG# were the biomarkers to have a significant diagnostic value for RA with the area under the curve of 0.853 and 0.865 (p < .001, for all). CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrated that two novel inflammatory markers, IG# and IG%, can be useful for monitoring RA patients' disease activity. Furthermore, IG# and IG% can also be used as fast, inexpensive, and easily available complementary diagnostic markers to diagnose RA patients.

Frequency of fibrosis in patients with incidentally detected hepatosteatosis.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aimed to elucidate fibrosis in patients who visited our outpatient clinic with complaints such as abdominal pain and dyspepsia and who had fatty liver by ultrasound imaging. METHODS: A total of 119 patients who were admitted to the gastroenterology outpatient clinic of our institution with incidentally detected hepatosteatosis on ultrasound imaging were included in the study. Patients with hepatosteatosis were examined for fibrosis with the FibroScan-502-touch (Echosens, Paris, France) elastic tissue ultrasonography device. The effects of these parameters on hepatosteatosis and possible fibrosis degree were investigated. RESULTS: No fibrosis was detected in 75 (63.02%) patients with hepatosteatosis on ultrasound imaging, 20 (10.05%) F1, 22 (18.48%) F2, 1 (0.8%) F3, and 0.1 (0.8%) F4. Accordingly, as the degree of steatosis increases in patients with incidentally detected hepatosteatosis, the degree and frequency of fibrosis increase with statistical significance (p<0.05). A statistically significant difference was found between the alanine transaminase increase and the hepatosteatosis degree (p=0.028). The median value of gamma-glutamyltransferase was 15 U/L in S0, 18.5 U/L in S1, 22 U/L in S2, and 26 U/L in S3 (p<0.047). CONCLUSION: To date, no research exists on fibrosis in patients with incidental hepatosteatosis. The outcomes of this study elaborated that patients with hepatosteatosis in the community could be detected at least at an early stage by following up and diagnosing them with serum markers before they progress to end-stage fibrosis.

Serum NT-proBNP levels are associated with cognitive functions in hemodialysis patients.

It has been demonstrated that NT-proBNP and macrophage inhibitor cytokine-1 (MIC-1/GDF-15) are associated with cognitive functions in patients without renal disease. In the present study, we examined the association of these two molecules with cognitive functions in hemodialysis patients for the first time in the literature. A total of 94 patients were enrolled. The Mini-Mental Test and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test (MoCA) were applied for the purpose of measuring the cognitive functions. The NT-proBNP and MIC-1/GDF-15 levels were examined with the ELISA. The mean age of the patients was 48 ± 12; 58 (61.7%) of them were male and 21.3% were diabetic. We found that in 77% of patients have impaired cognitive functions (MoCA total score <24). The NT-proBNP level had a significant and negative correlation with the MoCA Test Delayed Recall and Total Score. When the patients were divided into two groups according to NT-proBNP levels (above 10.500 and below), it was observed that the Mini-Mental Test Record Memory, MoCA Test Delayed Recall, and MoCA test total scores were significantly different from each other. In the present study, we show, for the first time in the literature, that NT-proBNP levels are associated with cognitive functions in dialysis patients.

Does neutrophyl to lymphocyte ratio really predict chronic kidney disease progression?

PURPOSE: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an inflammatory process. In addition to increased morbidity and mortality, inflammation also contributes to the progression of CKD. Neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a marker of inflammation. Some recent data suggest that NLR may predict the progression of CKD. METHODS: In this study, 5-year data of 740 patients with stage 2-4 CKD were reviewed retrospectively. Demographic data, NLR, CRP, albumin, the amount of proteinuria were recorded. At the beginning and the end of follow-up the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and the annual GFR decline rate were calculated. Patients were divided to high and low NLR group according to median value of their baseline NLR. Reaching stage 5 CKD or initiation of renal replacement therapy was determined as end-point for follow-up. RESULTS: The mean age was 62.8 ± 0.57 years, eGFR 40 ml/min/1.73 m2, median NLR was 2.76. NLR increased as the CKD-stage increased. Mean follow-up time was 51.2 ± 30 months and 21.4% of patients reached the end-point. NLR was significantly increased at follow-up (from 3.22 to 5.68, p < 0.001). Annual GFR loss and baseline CRP were higher but baseline albumin and GFR were lower of patients with high NLR. The percent of patients reaching the end-point was not different between the groups with high and low baseline NLR. Kaplan Meier analysis showed that patients with high NLR had significantly lower mean renal survival (86.5 months) than patients with low NLR (105 months) (p < 0.001). In the Cox-regression analysis NLR was not an independent predictor in reaching the end-point but presence of diabetes mellitus, younger age and low baseline eGFR were found effective. CONCLUSIONS: NLR is an indicator of inflammation in chronic kidney disease. It may not be an independent predictor of CKD progression except that the CKD is in a more advanced stage and reflects the associated inflammation. Classical risk factors such as DM and lower GFR are more powerful predictors of progression.