scholarly journals Assessment of Concentrations of Heavy Metals in Postmyocardial Infarction Patients and Patients Free from Cardiovascular Event

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Józef Nowicki ◽  
Barbara Ślusarska ◽  
Andrzej Prystupa ◽  
Eliza Blicharska ◽  
Agnieszka Adamczuk ◽  
...  

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) constitute the first cause of death among the population of developing and developed countries. Atherosclerosis, which is a disorder with multifactorial etiopathogenesis, underlies most CVDs. The available literature includes ample research studies on the influence of classic cardiovascular (CV) risk factors. However, environmental exposure to heavy metals, among other substances, is still an unappreciated risk factor of CVDs. This study aimed to assess the concentration of some heavy metals (copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), and iron (Fe)) in the blood serum of postmyocardial infarction (post-MI) patients and patients free from myocardial infarction (MI) as well as estimate the relationship between the occurrence of MI and increased concentration of heavy metals. The concentration of heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Mn, Co, and Fe) was assessed using the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry technique in a group of 146 respondents divided into two groups: post-MI group (study group (SG), n = 74) and group without cardiovascular event (CVE) having a low CV risk (control group (CG), n = 72). The concentration of the analyzed heavy metals was higher in SG. All the heavy metals showed a significant diagnostic value p < 0.001 . The highest value of area under the curve (AUC) was observed for manganese (Mn) (0.955; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.922–0.988), while the lowest value was found for zinc (Zn) (0.691; 95% CI = 0.599–0.782). In one-dimensional models, high concentrations of each of the analyzed heavy metals significantly increased the chances of having MI from 7-fold (Cu) to 128-fold (Mn). All the models containing a particular metal showed a significant and high discrimination value for MI occurrence (AUC 0.72–0.92). Higher concentrations of Cu, Zn, Mn, Co, and Fe were found to considerably increase the chances of having MI. Considering the increasingly higher environmental exposure to heavy metals in recent times, their concentrations can be distinguished as a potential risk factor of CVDs.

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 153303382199528
Author(s):  
Yumei Zhang ◽  
Sujuan Qiu ◽  
Yueli Guo ◽  
Jiaqin Zhang ◽  
Xiaoqing Wu ◽  
...  

Objective: We aimed to investigate the diagnostic value of the vaginal microecology, serum miR-18a, and programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) for human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive cervical cancer. Methods: Eighty-four patients with HPV-positive cervical cancer were assigned to the observation group, 107 HPV-positive patients without cervical cancer were assigned to the positive group, and 191 healthy women were assigned to the control group. Vaginal microecology and serum levels of miR-18a and PD-L1 on the surface of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were compared among the 3 groups. The observation group was further divided into subgroups according to patients’ characteristics for comparison. The diagnostic value of miR-18a and PD-L1 for HPV-positive cervical cancer was investigated. Results: Women in the control group had better vaginal microecology and lower levels of miR-18a and PD-L1 than those in the observation and the positive groups (all P < 0.05). Compared with the positive group, the observation group had similar vaginal microecology (all P > 0.05) but higher levels of miR-18a and PD-L1 (all P < 0.05). Moreover, the patients at stage III had higher levels of miR-18a and PD-L1 than those at stage I and II (all P < 0.05). The values of area under the curve for miR-18a and PD-L1 in the diagnosis of HPV-positive cervical cancer were over 0.8 (all P < 0.001). Conclusion: Patients with HPV-positive cervical cancer have vaginal microbial dysbiosis and high serum levels of miR-18a and PD-L1. miR-18a and PD-L1 have diagnostic value for identifying HPV-positive cervical cancer.


2021 ◽  
pp. jim-2021-001785
Author(s):  
Rasha A Elkholy ◽  
Reham L Younis ◽  
Alzahraa A Allam ◽  
Rasha Youssef Hagag ◽  
Muhammad Tarek Abdel Ghafar

This study aimed to assess the diagnostic value of serum and urinary netrin-1 in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) at different stages of diabetic nephropathy (DN) and to compare its efficacy of estimation in serum with that in the urine. This study was carried out on 135 patients with T2DM and 45 healthy subjects. The patients with diabetes were divided according to urinary albumin creatinine ratio (UACR) into: T2DM with normoalbuminuria, incipient DN with microalbuminuria, and overt DN with macroalbuminuria groups. Serum and urinary levels of netrin-1 were measured by ELISA. The mean levels of serum and urinary netrin-1 were significantly higher in the microalbuminuric and macroalbuminuric patients with DN than those in the normoalbuminuric patients with T2DM, with the highest values detected in macroalbuminuric patients with DN. Urinary netrin-1 level was significantly higher in the normoalbuminuric T2DM group than control group, whereas no significant difference existed regarding serum netrin-1 level. In T2DM groups, the urinary and serum netrin-1 correlated with each other and were independently related to fasting blood glucose, UACR, and estimated glomerular filtration rate. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the area under the curve of urinary netrin-1 was 0.916 which is significantly higher than that of serum netrin-1 (0.812) for the detection of incipient DN and reached 0.938 on coestimation of both urinary and serum netrin-1. In conclusion, netrin-1 is a potential diagnostic marker for early detection of DN with its estimation in urine has higher accuracy than that of serum.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zubo Wu ◽  
Suyuan Wu ◽  
Tao Liang ◽  
Lin Wang

ObjectiveTo explore the association between lipoprotein-related phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) and the risk of Parkinson’s disease (PD).MethodsA case-control study involving 58 hospitalized PD patients and 60 healthy controls was carried out. Serum Lp-PLA2 level was detected. According to the disease course and severity, PD patients were subdivided to analyze the clinical value of Lp-PLA2. Relationship between Lp-PLA2 and PD risk was analyzed by logistic regression. Diagnostic value of Lp-PLA2 in PD patients was investigated using receiver’s operator characteristic curves.ResultsLp-PLA2 level was significantly higher in the PD patients compared with the controls, and was significantly and positively correlated with the Hoehn-Yahr (H&amp;Y) stage. The serum Lp-PLA2 level and H&amp;Y stage of PD patients with a longer disease course were significantly higher than those with a shorter disease course. PD patients with milder conditions had significantly lower serum Lp-PLA2 levels than patients with severe conditions. Multivariable logistic regression analysis indicated higher Lp-PLA2 level was an independent risk factor of PD patients. Moreover, the area under the curve for Lp-PLA2 was 0.703, which was between those of homocysteine and serum amylase A.ConclusionTo our knowledge, this is the first study to show that increased level of Lp-PLA2 is associated with the risk of PD. Lp-PLA2 may be used for early detection of PD, and provides an effective intervention target for clinical treatment of PD.


Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1080
Author(s):  
Radu-Stefan Miftode ◽  
Daniela Constantinescu ◽  
Corina Maria Cianga ◽  
Antoniu Octavian Petris ◽  
Amalia-Stefana Timpau ◽  
...  

Background: Acute heart failure (HF) represents an increasingly common and challenging presentation in the emergency room, also inducing a great socio-economic burden. Extensive research was conducted toward finding an ideal biomarker of acute HF, both in terms of sensitivity and specificity, but today practicians’ interest has shifted towards a more realistic multimarker approach. Natriuretic peptides (NPs) currently represent the gold standard for diagnosing HF in routine clinical practice, but novel molecules, such as sST2, emerge as potentially useful biomarkers, providing additional diagnostic and prognostic value. Methods: We conducted a prospective, single-center study that included 120 patients with acute HF and 53 controls with chronic HF. Of these, 13 patients (eight with acute HF, five from the control group) associated the coronavirus-19 disease (COVID-19). The diagnosis of HF was confirmed by a complete clinical, biological and echocardiographic approach. Results: The serum levels of all studied biomarkers (sST2, NT-proBNP, cardiac troponin) were significantly higher in the group with acute HF. By area under the curve (AUC) analysis, we noticed that NT-proBNP (AUC: 0.976) still had the best diagnostic performance, closely followed by sST2 (AUC: 0.889). However, sST2 was a significantly better predictor of fatal events, showing positive correlations for both in-hospital and at 1-month mortality rates. Moreover, sST2 was also associated with other markers of poor prognosis, such as the use of inotropes or high lactate levels, but not with left ventricle ejection fraction, age, body mass index or mean arterial pressure. sST2 levels were higher in patients with a positive history of COVID-19 as compared with non-COVID-19 patients, but the differences were statistically significant only within the control group. Bivariate regression showed a positive and linear relationship between NT-proBNP and sST2 (r(120) = 0.20, p < 0.002). Conclusions: we consider that sST2 has certain qualities worth integrating in a future multimarker test kit alongside traditional biomarkers, as it provides similar diagnostic value as NT-proBNP, but is emerging as a more valuable prognostic factor, with a better predictive value of fatal events in patients with acute HF.


2017 ◽  
Vol 07 (01) ◽  
pp. e146-e150
Author(s):  
Abdurrahman Ozdemir ◽  
Yusuf Elgormus

AbstractThe diagnosis of neonatal sepsis is usually difficult because the sign and symptoms are nonspecific. Although C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT) are the most commonly used auxiliary tests, they are not reliable enough markers to be used for diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of resistin in diagnosing early onset neonatal sepsis and to compare its effectiveness to CRP and PCT. This prospective study was performed in the neonatal intensive care unit of Medicine Hospital between June and September 2016. Twenty-nine infants in the sepsis group and 33 infants in the control group were recruited. The Töllner scoring system was used for clinical signs. The hematologic parameters were evaluated using the Manroe and Rodwell scoring systems. The blood samples for CRP, PCT, and resistin were collected at admission (T0), and at 72 hours (T3). Mean plasma resistin level at T0 was 54.20 ± 39.3 ng/mL in the sepsis group and 34.92 ± 6.9 ng/mL in the control group. The sensitivity at T0 for resistin was 76%, and the specificity was 67%. The values of area under the curve (AUC) for CRP, PCT, and resistin were 0.84, 0.66, and 0.72, respectively. We found the diagnostic value of resistin to be lower than CRP, although its plasma levels were elevated. Therefore, we propose that resistin has limited value in diagnosis and follow-up of early-onset neonatal sepsis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Akihiro Tsukahara ◽  
Takafumi Hosokawa ◽  
Daisuke Nishioka ◽  
Takuya Kotani ◽  
Shimon Ishida ◽  
...  

AbstractThe current study aimed to evaluate whether cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neuron-specific enolase (NSE) levels are elevated in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and are effective in distinguishing ALS from cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). We retrospectively evaluated 45 patients with ALS, 23 with CSM, 28 controls, and 10 with Parkinson’s disease (PD) who underwent analysis of CSF NSE levels. The control group comprised patients aged above 45 years who underwent lumbar puncture because of suspected neurological disorders that were ruled out after extensive investigations. CSF NSE levels were evaluated using the electro-chemiluminescent immunoassay. The ALS group had significantly higher CSF NSE levels than the CSM and control groups (P < 0.001 for both comparisons). The CSM, control, and PD groups did not significantly differ in terms of CSF NSE levels. A receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to assess the diagnostic value of CSF NSE levels in distinguishing ALS from CSM. The area under the curve for CSF NSE levels was 0.86. The optimal cutoff value was 17.7 ng/mL, with a specificity of 87% and a sensitivity of 80%. Hence, CSF NSE levels are elevated in ALS and are effective in distinguishing ALS from CSM.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement 2) ◽  
pp. 13s-13s ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Pavlovska ◽  
B. Taushanova ◽  
B. Zafirova

Background: Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. It is on the second place as a death cause in developed countries and among the three leading death causes in adults in developing countries. Every year, worldwide, approximately 10 million persons have been diagnosed with malignant tumors (in every locations), and more than 6 million of these people die. According to many studies, several risk factors are brought in connection with laryngeal cancer (LarC). The most significant and generally accepted is alcohol consumption and the habit of cigarette smoking. Cigarette smoking habit caused about 30% of all cancers, due to which it represents the most significant risk factor for occurrence of these disorders in humans. Aim: Aim of the study was to determine the existence of the eventual causal associations among the cigarette smoking and development and distribution of the laryngeal cancer. Methods: This study is an analytical type of case-control study. It elaborated 185 patients, suffering from laryngeal cancer and the same number of persons without malignant disease (control group-CG). Risk analyses were done using unconditional logistic regression, which provides results in the form of adjusted odds ratio. The odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) were computed. Results: Among patients were 79% of current smokers (CS), 18.3% of former smokers (FS) and only 2.7% of never smokers (NS), compared with 40.5% of CS, 28.7% of FS and 30.8% of NS among controls. More than a half of the CS has been smoking 21-40 cigarettes per day (c/day) (54.8%), while in CG members this percent was 29.3%. Group of so called “heavy” smokers (> 40c/day), includes 13.7% of patients, and only 4% from CG. Majority of CS with LarC had smoking length, ranging from 31-45 years (56.2%). CS had 16.03 (95% CI, 6.25-41.12), times significantly higher risk to become ill from LarC, compared with NS. CS who were smoking < 20 c/day had 10.49 (95% CI, 3.87-28.45), while those who were smoking > 20 c/day, had 45.6 (95% CI, 16.55-125.67), times significantly higher risk to become ill, compared with NS. Univariate analysis in CS showed significantly higher risk for the persons to become ill, who were smoking > 40 years, compared with those who were smoking < 40 years (OR=3.73; 95% CI 2.03-6.84). The risk of occurring LarC has been four times (95% CI, 2.35-7.88), significantly higher in the CS who are smoking > 20 years, > 20 c/day, compared with those, who in the same time period, smoke < 20 c/day. Conclusion: Cigarette smoking is by far the most important risk factor for laryngeal cancer. Concerted control of smoking appears to be an urgent priority in LarC prevention, including efforts to prevent adolescents from starting to smoke.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (21) ◽  
pp. 5005
Author(s):  
Sang-Mi Kim ◽  
Hyun-Seung Lee ◽  
Min-Ji Kim ◽  
Hyung-Doo Park ◽  
Soo-Youn Lee

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a major contributor to in-hospital morbidity and mortality. Vancomycin, one of the most commonly used antibiotics in a clinical setting, is associated with AKI, with its incidence ranging up to 43%. Despite the high demand, few studies have investigated serum biomarkers to detect vancomycin-induced kidney injury (VIKI). Here, we evaluated the diagnostic value of nine candidate serum biomarkers for VIKI. A total of 23,182 cases referred for vancomycin concentration measurement from January 2018 to December 2019 were screened and 28 subjects with confirmed VIKI were enrolled (VIKI group). Age- and sex- matched control group consisted of 21 subjects who underwent vancomycin therapy without developing VIKI (non-VIKI group), and 23 healthy controls (HC group). The serum concentrations of clusterin, retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4), interleukin-18 (IL-18), tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNF-R1), C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 10 (CXCL10), neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), osteopontin, trefoil factor-3 (TFF3), and cystatin C were compared among the three groups, and their correlations with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and diagnostic values for VIKI were assessed. All of the biomarkers except clusterin and RBP4 exhibited significant elevation in the VIKI group. Serum TFF3, cystatin C, TNF-R1, and osteopontin demonstrated an excellent diagnostic value for VIKI (TFF3, area under the curve (AUC) 0.932; cystatin C, AUC 0.917; TNF-R1, AUC 0.866; osteopontin, AUC 0.787); and except osteopontin, a strong negative correlation with eGFR (TFF3, r = −0.71; cystatin C, r = −0.70; TNF-R1, r = −0.60). IL-18, CXCL10, and NGAL showed weak correlation with eGFR and moderate diagnostic value for VIKI. This study tested multiple serum biomarkers for VIKI and showed that serum TFF3, cystatin C, TNF-R1, and osteopontin could efficiently discriminate VIKI patients. Further studies are warranted to clarify the diagnostic value of these biomarkers in VIKI.


2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (11) ◽  
pp. 1668-1679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia-Ning Zhu ◽  
Liu-Yan Nie ◽  
Xiao-Yong Lu ◽  
Hua-Xiang Wu

Abstract Background Previous reviews of the diagnosis for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have not compared anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin (MCV) with anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) and rheumatoid factor (RF) in respect of sensitivity, specificity and the area under the curve (AUC) against disease controls for differential diagnosis. This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the value of anti-MCV in the diagnosis for RA, the combined sensitivity of anti-MCV and anti-CCP, and certain clinical characteristics related to the performance of anti-MCV. Methods Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science were searched for articles published up to 25 August 2018. A total of 33 studies including 6044 RA patients and 5094 healthy or disease controls achieved inclusive criteria. QUADAS-2 was applied to evaluate the quality of the included studies. The bivariate random effects model was employed in primary data synthesis to evaluate the diagnostic performance. Results The sensitivity of anti-MCV, anti-CCP and RF in RA diagnosis against a disease control group was 0.71, 0.71, 0.77, with the specificity of 0.89, 0.95, 0.73, and the AUC of the SROC of 0.89, 0.95, 0.82, respectively. The predesign of the primary study and diagnostic criteria were statistically significant as sources of heterogeneity. Anti-MCV and anti-CCP tests demonstrated a sensitivity of 0.77 when performed in parallel, with a sensitivity of 0.60 when performed in series; whereas, the combination of anti-MCV and RF presented a sensitivity of 0.64 when used in series. Conclusions Anti-MCV demonstrates comparable diagnostic value to anti-CCP and RF, thus it can be an effective diagnostic marker for RA and may be written into the next authoritative criteria.


Rheumatology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengqian Qiu ◽  
Xiaoxuan Sun ◽  
Xiaoqing Qi ◽  
Xianfang Liu ◽  
Yue Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Cardiac involvement is a serious complication of idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM). GDF-15 can predict the risk and the prognosis of cardiovascular disease, but its value is unclear in IIM. Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of GDF-15 for myocardial involvement in IIM. Methods A total of 77 IIM patients from May 2018 to August 2020 were included in this retrospective study. Of these, 43 patients underwent cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) examination. There were 33 SLE patients and 16 healthy people were used as the control group. The concentration of GDF-15 of these groups was measured by ELISA. Results There were significant differences in GDF-15 levels in patients with IIM, SLE and healthy controls (H = 45.291, P&lt;0.001). GDF-15 levels were statistically significant different between IIM patients with the myocardial injury [1484.88(809.07 2835.50) pg/ml] and without myocardial injury [593.26(418.61 784.59) pg/ml, P =0.001]. After adjusted for age, renal function, the risk of myocardial injury in IIM patients increased an average of 0.3% by per increased unit of GDF-15 (odds ratio=1.003, 95% CI: 1.000, 1.007). The level of GDF-15 was positively correlated with extra-cellular volume (ECV) (rs = 0.348, P =0.028). GDF-15 ≥ 929.505 pg/ml (area under the curve=0.856, 95% CI: 0.744, 0.968) predicted myocardial injury in IIM with a sensitivity of 0.75 and specificity of 0.90. Conclusion GDF-15 could serve as a potential biomarker to predict myocardial injury in IIM patients.


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