Health professionals and users of dietary supplements should be educated better on the use of these products in order to make the supplement use safe, controlled and rational.

Background/Aims: Energy homeostasis is a balance between energy intake and energy expenditure. Leptin and ghrelin are two orexitropic hormones with opposite effect on energy homeostasis. We investigated fasting ghrelin and leptin levels in children with different nutritional conditions. Methods: In 30 obese children of both sexes, aged from 6 to 17.67 years (mean 13.04 ?2.95), fasting ghrelin and leptin levels were measured, along with auxological assessment and pubertal staging. These results were analyzed and compared with the same parameters of 33 lean and 25 undernourished (UN) children. Results: Mean ghrelin/BM (body mass) level was the lowest in obese children, (21,75?12,60 pg/ml/kg) with high significance in comparison with lean and UN subjets. Mean leptin/kg level of 56.12?96.94 in obese, was significantly higher than in lean and UN children (p<0.01 and p<0.001 respectively). Ghrelin and leptin levels showed different profiles in obese, lean and UN children. An inverse relationship was discovered between study groups in ghrelin/leptin and leptin/ghrelin ratios. Conclusion: Obese children, compared to other children, demonstrate significantly higher values of leptin, and UN children demonstrate significantly higher values of ghrelin per kilogram of body weight. The results also illustrate the inverse ratio of ghrelin and leptin, which has been demonstrated as a clinically reliable indicant of the status of obesity or undernutrition in children, with significant implications concerning rather large variations in the concentration of these hormones not only with body mass, but also with age of the children. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 31060]

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Background / Aim: Measles is a contagious disease with good prognosis; however, severe complications may sometimes develop. C-reactive protein (CRP) and blood cells countderived inflammatory indices, granulocyte-lymphocyte ratio (GLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), monocyte to lymphocyte ratio (MLR), mean platelet volume-platelet count ratio (MPR), red blood cell distribution width (RDW) and mean platelet volume (MPV) are the indicators related to the clinical outcome in various inflammatory diseases. Aim: The aims of this study were to analyze the values of CRP, blood cell count and GLR, PLR, MLR, MRP, RDW, MPV in measles-affected children compared to healthy controls and between measles-affected children with severe and without a severely complicated form. A particular aim of the paper was to assess the suitability of inflammatory-derived markers for predicting the severity of the disease. Methods: The examination group included 55 measles-affected children who developed complications. The control group included 30 healthy children. The first peripheral blood count, obtained on the first hospitalization day (before treatment), was used for further analyses. Results: The white blood cells, lymphocytes, monocytes and platelets count were significantly lower, while the values of GLR, PLR, MPR and CRP were significantly higher in measles-affected children (p?0.05). In severely complicated measles, significantly higher values of granulocytes, CRP, GLR, PLR and lower lymphocytes (p<0.05) were documented. A linear regression analysis showed that CRP was the only indicator with predictive significance for the severity of the course of measles. Conclusion: The blood cell count and derived inflammatory indices should not be crucial in assessing the severity of measles in children. CRP was the most valuable predictive factor for the development of the severe course of measles in measles-affected children.