No abstract

BALP showed promising results and can be employed as a potential biomarker for the estimation of growth status.

BackgroundWith change in concepts of growth determination methods, there is a surge in the measurement of biomarkers for appraisal of growth status. Osteocalcin is a bone-specific protein and was observed to parallel the normal growth curve. Hence, the present study was intended to assess the levels of serum osteocalcin and serum insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and compare them with cervical vertebral maturation index (CVMI) stages.MethodsThe cross-sectional study was performed on 150 subjects (75 males and 75 females) in the age group of 8–20 years and segregated into six CVMI stages. Serum osteocalcin and IGF-1 were estimated by ELISA. Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the mean ranks of serum osteocalcin and serum IGF-1 with different CVMI stages. Spearman correlation was performed to find association between serum osteocalcin and serum IGF-1 across six CVMI stages.ResultsPeak serum IGF-1 levels were obtained at CVMI stages 4 and 3 for males and females, respectively, with insignificant difference between stages 3 and 4 in females. Peak serum osteocalcin levels were found at stage 5 and 3 for males and females with insignificant difference from other stages except stages 5 and 6 in males. A statistically significant correlation was seen between serum IGF-1 and serum osteocalcin across six CVMI stages (P < 0.01).ConclusionsOsteocalcin followed IGF-1 across all CVMI stages but showed insignificant interstage differences.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused huge socio-economic losses and continues to threat humans worldwide. With more than 4.5 million deaths and more than 221 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, the impact on physical, mental, social and economic resources is immeasurable. During any novel disease outbreak, one of the primary requirements for effective mitigation is the knowledge of clinical manifestations of the disease. However, in absence of any unique identifying characteristics, diagnosis/prognosis becomes difficult. It intensifies misperception and leads to delay in containment of disease spread. Numerous clinical research studies, systematic reviews and meta-analyses have generated considerable data on the same. However, identification of some of the distinct clinical signs and symptoms, disease progression biomarkers and the risk factors leading to adverse COVID-19 outcomes warrant in-depth understanding. In view of this, we assessed 20 systematic reviews and meta-analyses with an intent to understand some of the potential independent predictors/biomarkers/risk factors of COVID-19 severity and mortality.

The aim of the current longitudinal study was to assess the levels of serum Bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BALP) and serum Insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in different cervical vertebral maturation index (CVMI) stages and observe their association with the mandibular growth. Blood samples and lateral cephalograms of 63 subjects (age group of 11–17 years) were obtained at two time points, 12 months apart. On the basis of CVMI, all subjects were divided into six groups based on whether the subjects remained in same CVMI stage or transitioned to the next CVMI stage. Annual mandibular length was related with serum BALP and serum IGF-1 levels estimated using ELISA. Serum IGF-1 and BALP attained highest levels at CVMI stage 3 with peak BALP levels observed earlier than IGF-1. Although a positive correlation was determined between IGF-1 and BALP but BALP followed skeletal growth pattern more precisely. Overall IGF-1 and BALP were negatively correlated with mandibular length with notable growth in CVMI groups 3–3 (P < 0.01), 3-4 (P < 0.01), 4-4 (P < 0.001) and 5-5 (P < 0.001). In conclusion, BALP is a potential biomarker for skeletal growth assessment. However, the mandibular growth pattern was independent of changes in IGF-1 and BALP.