The need for reliable biomarkers for monitoring disease activity in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) is increasing. This study aimed at characterizing the correlation between serum sTREM-1 levels and diseases activity in Chinese patients with UC. Consecutive 76 patients with UC and 20 healthy subjects were prospectively enrolled. The disease activity of UC was assessed according to Mayo Sc...

OBJECTIVE To determine the markers of systemic inflammation in soft tissue rheumatic disorders (STRDs). STUDY DESIGN Case series. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Rheumatology Clinic, Yazd, Iran, from November 2010 to December 2011. METHODOLOGY Patients aged 20 years or above with known diagnosis of STRD according to clinical criteria and/ or paraclinical investigations for at least 3 weeks du...

Background: The tumor marker CA 125 is commonly used in the screening and diagnosis of ovarian malignancy. However, recent studies have proven a limited role for CA 125 as a diagnostic marker for ovarian cancer. Moreover, it is often elevated in non-cancerous and inflammatory conditions as well. Aims: To evaluate the utility of CA 125 in the workup of intestinal tuberculosis/ tuberculous perito...

OBJECTIVE To describe detailed clinical and radiological features of the pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza viral infection among healthy young males in a semi-closed institutionalized setting. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 18 patients confirmed with the pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza virus infection from July 18 to July 30, 2009 were enrolled in this study. Each patient underwent an evaluation to...

The Diesse Mini-Ves (DMV) erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) analyzer was designed to improve efficiency in determining the ESR. We compared the Westergren ESR method with the 4-sample DMV ESR analyzer for performance and clinical correlation. This prospective observational study, conducted at a 450-bed tertiary medical center, evaluated 291 paired samples from subjects with various systemic ...

introduction: erythrocyte sedimentation rate (esr) remains as one of the most reliable tests in clinical practices. yet its use is time consuming and requires a large blood sample. the aim of this study was assessing a faster and reliable method of esr estimation. methods: an esr estimation method was described and performed on 108 patients using capillary tube (micro esr) and capillary periphe...

Accepted 23 April 1998 A 69-year-old woman was referred to our out-patient clinic because of long-term hypertension and stable chronic renal failure (creatinine 132 ,umol/l), which had been attributed to nephroangiosclerosis. She presented with a one-year history of anorexia, asthenia and loss of 6 kg ofweight. In addition, she complained of intermittent claudication of the left arm and both le...

Upon exposure to DNA damaging agents, Saccharomyces cerevisiae respond by activating a massive transcriptional program that reflects the fact that "DNA damaging" agents also damage other cellular macromolecules. To identify the transcriptional response that is specific to DNA damage, we have modulated the first two enzymes in the base excision repair (BER) pathway generating yeast strains with ...

OBJECTIVE To define potential factors that could predict concomitant neoplastic diseases in patients diagnosed with PM/DM, which could inform screening decisions. METHODS Two researchers independently reviewed articles from Pubmed (MEDLINE), EMBASE, Cochrane Plus Library and ISI Web of Knowledge with no restrictions on study design or language. Given that some of the studies combined PM and D...

Anaemia of chronic disease (ACD) is a frequent complication of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A diagnostic difficulty in RA is the distinction between iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) and ACD. The aim of our study was to evaluate the usefulness of serum soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) and sTfR/log ferritin (TfR-F) index to diagnose iron deficiency in RA patients with anaemia. Routine laboratory in...