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Cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes are the major causes of mortality in Mexico. Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a cluster of factors that increase the risk to develop such diseases. Previous studies have shown that MS is associated with high tumor necrosis factor (TNF-a) levels. In fact, TNF-a has been proposed to be a useful marker for clinical diagnosis of inflammation at an early stage. Therefore, we analyzed TNF-a concentrations in Mexican individuals with or without MS and related these levels to the associated MS components. Clinical, anthropometric, and biochemical data were analyzed in 41 healthy and 39 MS individuals. Individuals were similarly grouped by age and gender.The serum TNF-a levels measured by a highly sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit were increased significantly in MS subjects compared with healthy individuals (Po0.001). The assay showed 78.1% sensitivity and 61.5% specificity with a cut-point level of 1.36 pg/mL. TNF-a levels higher than the cut-point value were correlated with insulin resistance indices. These findings support the hypothesis that serum TNF-a concentration could be a useful marker for early MS diagnosis. Nevertheless, we suggest the establishment of specific cut-point values in each studied population to evaluate potential clinical applications.

No existen métodos sencillos en la práctica clínica para cuantificar el pH de lágrima. El objetivo fue estandarizar un método para la determinacióndel pH en pequeñas muestras de lágrima de pacientes. Se construyó una escala colorimétrica en un rango de pH de 6 a 8.0 utilizando como indicador azul de bromotimol, con KH2PO4 0.1M (constante) y volúmenes ascendentes de NaOH 0.1M. El método se validó en 20 uL de lágrima de73 sujetos, en quienes permitió distinguir cambios en el pH de 0.2 en 0.2 en un rango de 6.0 a 8.0 con un coeficiente de variación intrasujeto de 0.8 a 4.0%. El método aquí presentado, es preciso, con baja variación interensayo. Esto, aunado a su simpleza, bajo costo y poco volumen de muestra necesario, lo convierten en una alterativa para el monitoreo del pH de la lágrima, ya sea en la cama del paciente o el consultorio.

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