Abstract Elevated serum free light chains (FLC) have been associated with unfavorable prognostic in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The aim of this study was to determine the clinical relevance of a quantitative assessment of intact circulating immunoglobulin (Ig), using serum Ig heavy chain/light chain pair (HLC) measurements in DLBCL ...

Asymptomatic multiple myeloma (AMM) is characterized by a constant risk of progression to symptomatic myeloma. To evaluate previously recognized risk factors and to identify high-risk features we analyzed 96 patients with AMM and at least 18 months of follow-up. The progression rate at 1,2, and 3 years was 8%, 15% ...

PURPOSE: There is increasing evidence on the relationship between endogenously produced immunoglobulins and the clinical outcome in septic shock (SS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Levels of immunoglobulin G (IgG) subclasses, immunoglobulin A (IgA), immunoglobulin M (IgM), and immunoglobulin E were measured in plasma from 42 patients with SS and in 36 ...

OBJECTIVES: Preliminary results of the IgA Hevylite™ assay including the establishment of the 95% reference interval and assessment of the specificity and sensitivity in different populations, are reported. DESIGN AND METHODS: The concentrations of IgA heavy and light chains (HLC) enabling to determine an IgAκ /IgAλ ratio were quantified in ...

Background/Aims: Adiponectin can initiate a broad range of metabolic and immunological effects. Little is known about the role of adiponectin in hepatitis Brelated liver disease and metabolic syndrome (MS). Methodology: We studied 138 patients with untreated chronic hepatitis B (CHB), who were from Beijing Ditan hospital in 2005 to 2009. ...

PURPOSE: Bioavailability of clopidogrel in the form of crushed tablets administered via nasogastric tube (NGT) has not been established in patients after cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Therefore, we performed a study comparing pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic response to high loading dose of clopidogrel in critically ill patients after cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with patients ...

Barasertib (AZD1152) is a pro-drug that rapidly undergoes phosphatase-mediated cleavage in serum to release barasertib-hQPA, a selective Aurora B kinase inhibitor that has shown preliminary activity in clinical studies of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The pharmacokinetic (PK), metabolic and excretion profiles of barasertib and barasertib-hQPA were characterized in ...

Summary.  Liver kidney microsomal type 1 (LKM-1) antibodies have been shown to decrease the CYP2D6 activity in vitro and are present in a minority of patients with chronic hepatitis C infection. We investigated whether LKM-1 antibodies might reduce the CYP2D6 activity in vivo. All patients enrolled in the Swiss Hepatitis ...

IntroductionHypospadias is associated with anomalies of the urinary tract, but the exact prevalence and significance of these anomalies are still controversial.ObjectivesTo assess the percentage of patients with hypospadias and associated urological anomalies, either requiring or not requiring medical or surgical attention.Material and methodsWe searched several databases using the following Mesh ...

Background: The utility of amplitude-integrated electroencephalography (aEEG) monitoring has been established for patients with neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Objective: To evaluate the role of aEEG in the diagnostic process and treatment of patients with encephalopathy due to inborn errors of metabolism. Methods: Cases collected through an international registry were divided into ...

The aim of the present study was to analyze the influence of smoking on the salivary immunoglobulin response in smokers and to evaluate the salivary immunoglobulin A in patients with recurrent aphthous ulcers. The study included total of 80 subjects, of whom 40 were having history of chronic smoking habit, ...

Introduction: The use of ketamine as a recreational drug is on the increase among young adults attending clubs and parties. Recreational ketamine users have anecdotally reported increased lower urinary tract symptoms while using the substance. Methods: We describe the severe lower urinary tract symptoms experienced in 6 patients with chronic ...

Background: Case reports have documented carcinoid-like features in head and neck paragangliomas (HNPGLs), which, in addition to catecholamine storing granules, may also contain granules with serotonin. Serotonin is metabolized to 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA). ?Aim: To assess the urinary excretion rates of 5-HIAA and catecholamines in HNPGL patients.?Methods: In 114 consecutive ...

PURPOSE: To compare renal function and metabolic abnormalities of cystine stone patients and calcium oxalate stone patients in China. METHODS: Between 2008 and 2011, thirty cystine stone patients were involved in our study, and an equal number of age- and gender pair-matched patients with calcium oxalate stones. Non-stone forming individuals ...

PURPOSE: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a dynamic process that evolves from an early reversible condition to an established disease. Value of urine indices in the event of AKI is uncertain in critically ill patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of fractional excretion of urea ...

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Azathioprine (AZA) is used to maintain remission in autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) but up to 18% of patients are unresponsive. AZA is a pro-drug and formation of active thioguanine nucleotide (TGN) metabolites varies widely. We aimed to assess the relationship between AZA metabolite concentrations (TGNs and methylmercaptopurine nucleotides, ...

Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of major metabolites of thiopurine drugs is a widely used tool for assessing treatment efficacy and toxicity in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We report the laboratory and clinical validation of a simple and reliable high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the measurement of ...

Risk indicators of indolent systemic mastocytosis (ISM) in adults with clinical suspicion of ISM without accompanying skin lesions [urticaria pigmentosa (UP)] are lacking. This study aimed at creating a decision tree using clinical characteristics, serum tryptase, and the urinary histamine metabolites methylimidazole acetic acid (MIMA) and methylhistamine (MH) to select ...

Background and objectives: Blockade of the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) in CKD reduces left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and proteinuria. The MR can be activated by aldosterone, cortisol and deoxycorticosterone. We aimed to explore the influence of mineralocorticoids on LVMI and proteinuria in patients with CKD. Design, setting, participants and measures: ...

PURPOSE: Hypothermia is a promising neuroprotective therapy. We studied the feasibility and safety of very prolonged moderate hypothermia for severe acute ischemic stroke. METHODS: Moderate hypothermia was induced within 24h after a severe ischemic stroke involving the middle cerebral artery. Hypothermia, with cooling blankets, reduced body-core temperature to 32-33°C, and ...

Background/Aims: 1H-NMR is a powerful approach of metabolomics. This study aimed to apply it to the profiling of serum metabolites in patients with pancreatitis, and to analyze the characteristic metabolites of pancreatitis. Methodology: Serum samples were taken from 17 pancreatitis patients and 23 healthy subjects and subjected to 1H-NMR and ...

The current Canadian Urological Association (CUA) guideline recommends two 24-hour urine collections in the metabolic evaluation for patients with urolithiasis. The aim of the present study was to compare two consecutive 24-hour urine collections in patients with a history of urolithiasis presenting to a tertiary stone clinic. We retrospectively reviewed ...

BACKGROUND: Prolonged peritoneal dialysis (PD) therapy can result in the development of encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis (EPS), characterized by extensive sclerosis of the peritoneum with bowel adhesions often causing obstruction.METHODS: As a proof-of-principle study, holistic profiling of endogenous metabolites has been applied in a prospective collection of PD effluent collected in ...

BACKGROUND: We conducted a survey regarding irregular bowel movement in gastrectomized patients. Their defecation frequency, intestinal microflora, and intestinal environment were studied and compared with those of healthy controls. METHODS: As a first step, a questionnaire survey on bowel movement, involving 769 patients and 312 healthy controls (total: 1,081 subjects), ...

BACKGROUND: We found previously that increases in plasma levels of protein-conjugated acrolein and polyamine oxidases, enzymes that produce acrolein, are good biomarkers for stroke. The aim of this study was to test whether 3-hydroxypropyl mercapturic acid (3-HPMA), an acrolein-glutathione metabolite, was increased in the urine of stroke patients. METHODS: The ...

Cerebrospinal fluid is routinely collected for the diagnosis and monitoring of patients with neurological malignancies. However, little is known as to how its constituents may change in a patient when presented with a malignant glioma. Here, we used a targeted mass-spectrometry based metabolomics platform using selected reaction monitoring with positive/negative ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Therapeutic drug monitoring of active metabolites of thiopurines, azathioprine and 6-mercaptopurine, is relatively new. The proposed therapeutic threshold level of the active 6-thioguanine nucleotides (6-TGN) is ≥235pmol/8×10(8) erythrocytes. The aim of this prospective cross-sectional study was to compare 6-TGN levels in adult thiopurine tolerant IBD patients with ...

Aims: In order to evaluate the metabolite changes of both anterior and posterior cingulate gyri during the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, a 3-tesla MR spectroscopy study was performed. Methods: Thirty-six patients with AD, 19 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), and 23 cognitively normal (CN) subjects were ...

Syncope is common in clinical practice, but the cause is often difficult to diagnose. We report a 75-year-old man who was referred to the emergency department because of syncope after an urgent sensation of urinating during jogging. He was finally diagnosed as having a giant bladder diverticulum due to prostatic ...

Aim: The article aims to study the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) and subthreshold MS in antipsychotic naïve patients with schizophrenia. Materials and methods: Forty-six antipsychotic naïve patients diagnosed with schizophrenia were evaluated for the presence of metabolic abnormalities using International Diabetes Federation and modified National Cholesterol Education Program - ...

ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE or lupus) is a chronic autoimmune disease, and kidney involvement with SLE, a.k.a. lupus nephritis (LN), is a frequent and severe complication of SLE that increases patient morbidity and mortality. About 50% of patients with SLE encounter renal abnormalities which, if left untreated, can ...

The early differentiation between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontal variant of frontotemporal dementia (fvFTD) is frequently difficult, albeit critical for the adequate management of patients and their caregivers. In order to assess the accuracy of CSF levels of beta-amyloid 1-42 (Aβ), tau (τ) and Thr 181-phosphorilated tau (Pτ) in the ...

BackgroundMetabolomics could provide new insights into the pathophysiology of cystic fibrosis (CF) by identifying profiles of endogenous metabolites.ObjectivesTo investigate whether metabolomics of exhaled breath condensate could discriminate between patients with unstable CF, stable CF and healthy subjects, and whether selected metabolites were responsible for between-group differences.MethodsTwenty-nine patients with stable CF, ...

The aim of this study is to find the potential biomarkers from the rat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) disease model by using a non-target metabolomics method, and test their usefulness in early human HCC diagnosis. The serum metabolic profiling of the diethylnitrosamine-induced rat HCC model, which presents a stepwise histopathological progression ...

Blepharospasm is rarely due to an identifiable etiology. In the majority of cases, imaging fails to reveal any structural lesion. Here we describe an otherwise healthy patient with blepharospasm who was found to have pontine capillary telangiectasia. We propose a potential association between blepharospasm and pontine capillary telangiectasia.

Urinary tract obstruction (UTO) is a common problem that can lead to permanent loss of kidney function. Unilateral UTO may be difficult to diagnose. Urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated Lipocalin (uNGAL) may identify unilateral and bilateral UTO. Retrospective case-control study of patients undergoing hospital admission at three sites. UTO was determined by ...

Medullary sponge kidney (MSK) is a disorder characterized by tubular dilation of renal collecting ducts and cystic dilation of medullary pyramids that has been associated with stone disease. The significance of nephrolithiasis and the mechanisms by which it occurs are incompletely understood. We describe clinical and metabolic features of nephrolithiasis ...

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the changes of the metabolites in the white matter of frontal lobes and hippocampus in schizophrenia by using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1) H-MRS). Methods: Sixty-three first-episode treatment-naïve schizophrenia (FES) patients and 63 age-, gender- and education level-matched healthy controls were recruited. The relative ...

Background  Clinical response to thiopurine medication is related to the concentration of its metabolites. Proxy measures are traditionally used to assess dose adequacy. We present our experience of using tioguanine (previously known/formerly referred to as thioguanine) metabolite measurements in paediatric patients and evaluate their effect on clinical practice. Aims  To ...

Calculi from patients with musculoskeletal (MS) anomalies who are largely immobile and prone to urinary infections have been traditionally composed primarily of struvite and carbonate apatite. Because of substantial improvements in the care of these patients in recent decades, stone etiology may have shifted from infectious to metabolic. We assessed ...

Myopathic complaints are common in the general population and are more frequent with increasing age. When myopathic symptoms arise in a patient treated with a HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor (statin), it is always a question of whether the symptoms are due to statin-induced myopathy (SIM) or not (non-SIM). Diagnosis of SIM ...

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study is to investigate brain metabolic changes in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) using multivoxel proton MR spectroscopy ((1)H-MVS). METHODS: Fourteen aMCI patients and fifteen healthy control subjects participated in this experiment. All MR measurements were acquired using a 1.5-T GE scanner. (1)H-MVS ...

We analyzed a group of nine neonates diagnosed with adrenal gland hemorrhage in the years 2007-2011, to evaluate diagnostic methods. We assessed risk factors and factors predisposing to hemorrhage. Severe and moderate perinatal hypoxia was found in 5 cases, while sepsis in 4 cases. Three patients had bilateral adrenal hemorrhage. ...

Podocytes are highly specialized epithelial cells that form part of the filtration barrier in the kidney, and their loss reflects a malfunction in glomerular filtration, which is usually associated with the progression of the disease. Glomerulonephritis is a serious complication that develops in about 50% of the lupus patients and ...

Abstract Background. The purpose of the present study was to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of clinical and metabolic factors in order to determine the characteristics of urolithiasis in a Korean population, compared with other ethnic groups. In addition, clinical and metabolic factors associated with calcium oxalate (CaOx) and uric acid ...

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of incomplete distal renal tubular acidosis (idRTA) in men with recurrent calcium nephrolithiasis and its potential impact on bone mineral density. We conducted a retrospective analysis of 150 consecutive, male idiopathic recurrent calcium stone formers (RCSFs), which had originally been ...

BACKGROUND: Sepsis is the most common trigger for acute kidney injury (AKI) in critically ill patients. We sought to determine whether there are unique patterns to urine sediment in septic compared with non-septic AKI. METHODS: Prospective two center cohort study of adult critically ill patients with septic and non-septic AKI, ...

The purpose of this investigation was to assess the prevalence of upper urinary tract involvement in patients with candiduria by means of (111)indium-oxine-labeled leukocyte scintigraphy. An observational cohort study of patients with confirmed candiduria was conducted in an acute-care teaching hospital in Spain from March 2006 through February 2009. An ...

Objective To evaluate the metabolite pattern and the severity in patients with spinocerebellar ataxia type 3/ Machado-Joseph disease (SCA3/MJD) by (1)H magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS) on different cerebellar regions, including cerebellar vermis, cerebellar peduncles, cerebellar cortex, and dentatum. Methods Thirty-six SCA3/MJD patients, and 27 sex, age-matched healthy controls were scanned ...

INTRODUCTION: Amitriptyline and its metabolite, nortriptyline, are metabolized, in part, by CYP2D6, a polymorphic enzyme. About 8% of Caucasians are deficient in CYP2D6 activity. CASE REPORT: We present the case of a comatose woman who intentionally overdosed on amitriptyline and displayed rising serum total tricyclic antidepressant concentrations for at least ...