Our results indicate that TNFα gene -238G/A polymorphism increases the risk of developing psoriasis vulgaris among Indians. Also, the data show that severity and not the type affects the strength of association in this population.

Microalbuminuria and C-reactive protein reflect closely related components of the same disease process. The present study attempts to evaluate whether any association exists between C-reactive protein and microalbuminuria in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus patients with poor and adequate glycemic control. It was observed that in diabetics with poor glycemic control, microalbuminuria showed a significant positive correlation with C-reactive protein and the prevalence of microalbuminuria was significantly more at elevated C-reactive protein levels. These parameters were not significant in subjects with adequately controlled disease. Further, there was a significant increase in levels of microalbuminuria in patients with poor glycemic control when compared to well-controlled diabetics at comparative levels of C-reactive protein. This study supports the hypothesis that endothelial dysfunction and inflammatory activity are involved in the pathogenesis of microalbuminuria and underscores the importance of glycemic control in the progression of inflammation in diabetes.

Dengue fever (DF) is characterized by systemic inflammatory response including neutrophil activation leading to uncontrolled elastase activity. This study was aimed to measure the activity of plasma neutrophil elastase (NE), its endogenous inhibitors α-antitrypsin (α-AT) and α-macroglobulin (α-MG) and elastase in complex with α-AT (NE-α-AT complex) in DF. 50 dengue patients [39 DF and 11 dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF)] and 52 healthy subjects were included in the study. NE was measured using -succinyl-tri-alanine--nitroanilide as substrate. α-AT, α-MG and NE-α-AT complex were estimated by ELISA. The result analysis indicated that the dengue patients had significantly higher elastase activity with significantly reduced inhibitor levels compared to controls. Between DF and DHF patients, DHF group had significantly higher elastase activity. In conclusion, significantly elevated NE and reduced inhibitors level in dengue fever indicate these parameters could be of significance in DF particularly for the assessment of progression of inflammatory processes.

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