CONTEXT: Diabetes is the most rapidly growing chronic metabolic disorder in the world. In diabetes mellitus, the oxidative stress resulting from enhanced free radical formation and a defect in antioxidant defenses has been implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetes and its complications like neuropathy, retinopathy, nephropathy, etc. AIMS: The objective of the study is to know the oxidative stress by estimating serum malondialdehyde (MDA) levels and antioxidant status by measuring serum vitamin levels, and to know the correlation between MDA and other parameters in cases of diabetic retinopathy. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Present study involved 100 participants of which 50 were diagnosed as having diabetic retinopathy and 50 were age and sex matched healthy controls. The degree of lipid peroxidation in terms of serum malondialdehyde (MDA) along with antioxidant defenses, vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin E levels were estimated in cases and controls. Fasting blood sugar (FBS), post prandial blood sugar (PPBS) and HbA1c were also estimated in both cases and controls. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Student t test (two tailed, independent) has been used to find the significance of study parameters on continuous scale between two groups (Inter group analysis) on metric parameters. Pearson correlation between MDA and other parameters was performed to assess the relationship in each group. RESULTS: In diabetic retinopathy patients statistically highly significant increase in levels of FBS, PPBS and HbA1c (P<0.001) was observed when compared to controls. The levels of serum MDA (P<0.001) was increased significantly in diabetic retinopathy cases as compared to controls. The levels of serum vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin E were significantly (P<0.001) reduced in all diabetic retinopathy patients. A positive correlation was observed between MDA and FBS, PPBS, HbA1c. A negative correlation was found between MDA and vitamin A and vitamin C. CONCLUSIONS: The present study concludes that excessive peroxidation damage and antioxidant deficiency occurs in diabetic retinopathy. Further trials regarding the therapeutic measures to control lipid peroxidation and to increase the antioxidant levels are warranted for effective control of diabetic complications.

-CONTEXT: Pleural effusion occurs secondary to various diseases. Common causes of exudative effusion are tuberculosis, bacterial pneumonia, and malignancy. Transudative effusion is due to systemic diseases like cardiac failure, cirrhosis of liver. Conventional methods of diagnosis may not be able to establish the cause of pleural effusion. Early diagnosis and management reduces the morbidity and mortality.AIM: The objective of the study is to estimate pleural fluid Adenosine Deaminase (ADA) and C -reactive protein (CRP) levels and to evaluate their efficacy in differential diagnosis of transudative and exudative, tuberculous and non tuberculous and inflammatory and non inflammatory effusions. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Fifty two patients of pleural effusion were investigated and divided into four groups based on diagnosis. Group I, II, III and IV had 24 cases of tuberculous effusion, 13 cases of transudative effusion, 08 cases of malignant effusion and 07 cases of parapneumonic effusion respectively. Pleural fluid was analyzed for ADA (Guisti and Galanti's method) and CRP (turbidometric immunoassay).STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The statistical analysis was done using unpaired student't' test and p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: In the present study pleural fluid ADA revealed highly significant increase in tuberculous effusion than non tuberculous effusions (p <0.001) and also when compared with non tuberculous subgroups, transudative effusion (p < 0.001), malignant effusion (p<0.001), and PPE (p<0.01). ADA levels at a cutoff value of 40U/L, showed sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of 91.67%, 89.3%, 88% & 92.6% respectively in tuberculous effusion. Pleural fluid CRP levels in parapneumonic effusion were significantly higher compared to other types of effusions (p<0.001). Significantly higher levels of CRP were seen in exudative effusion compared to transudative effusion (p<0.001) and in inflammatory effusion compared to non inflammatory effusion (p<0.001). ORIGINAL ARTICLEJournal of Evolution of Medical and Dental Sciences/ Volume 2/ Issue 22/ June 3, 2013Page 3988 CONCLUSIONS: Pleural fluid ADA is sensitive test in discriminating tuberculous and non tuberculous effusions. Pleural fluid CRP levels distinguish transudative from exudative effusion, inflammatory from non inflammatory effusion. ADA and CRP assays are rapid, minimally invasive and cost effective and measurement of these two parameters increases the efficacy of diagnosing pleural effusion. KEY WORDS: Adenosine deaminase, C -reactive protein, Pleural effusion. INTRODUCTION:Pleural effusion (PE) is a common complication associated with number of diseases. Accumulation of pleural fluid may be due to various causes such as increased pleural membrane permeability, increased capillary pressure, decreased oncotic pressure and lymphatic obstruction. 1 Transudative pleural effusions occur when systemic factors which effect the formation and absorption of pleural fluid are altered. Ex...

BACKGROUND Thyroid hormones play an important role in the regulation and production of red blood cells. Thyroid dysfunction induces different effects on blood cells such as anaemia, erythrocytosis, leucopenia, thrombocytopenia and alteration in red cell indices. In this study, we wanted to compare the changes in haematological parameters of thyroid dysfunction patients with those of euthyroid group. METHODS This was a retrospective study done on 310 individuals by collecting data from the medical records. Later the patients were categorized into hypothyroid (33) thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH > 5.5 μIU/mL), hyperthyroid (19) (TSH < 0.3 μIU/mL) and euthyroid (258) (TSH = 0.3 - 5.5 μIU/ml) groups. The haematological parameters of all these patients were obtained by 5-part automated cell count analyser. Finally, the obtained data was analyzed by statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software. RESULTS The data obtained from the analysis revealed statistically significant (P < 0.05) difference between hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism and euthyroidism in mean red blood cell (RBC) count, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), red cell distribution width (RDW), white blood cell (WBC) count and platelet count but the difference was not significant for mean haemoglobin, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) (P > 0.05). The mean haemoglobin was lower in hypothyroid patients when compared to euthyroid and hyperthyroid patients. The RBC count (P < 0.007), MCH (P = 0.002) and RDW (P < 0.001) showed statistically significant difference between hypothyroidism and euthyroidism, MCV (P = 0.005) showed statistically significant difference between hyperthyroid and euthyroid groups. CONCLUSIONS In case of patients with abnormal haematological parameters, thyroid hormones evaluation is necessary. KEYWORDS Hypothyroidism, Hyperthyroidism, Haemoglobin, Blood Count, Red Cell Indices