Search results for "alas"
showing 10 items of 929 documents
Hematopoietic peripheral circulating blood stem cells as an independent marker of good transfusion management in patients with β-thalassemia: results…
2015
Beyond hemoglobin (Hb) levels and performance status, further surrogate markers of appropriate transfusion management should improve the quality of thalassemia care. We investigated the levels of peripheral circulating CD34+ stem cells as an independent marker of appropriate hematopoietic balance in patients with thalassemia.Peripheral circulating CD34+ stem cells, colony-forming unitgranulocyte, erythrocyte, macrophage, magakaryocyte (CF-GEMM), colony-forming unitgranulocyte/macrophage (CFU-GM), and erythroidburst-forming units (BFU-E) were assayed, according to standard procedures. Patients with thalassemia major (TM) and thalassemia intermedia (TI) were tested and compared to healthy con…
Cognitive deficits in beta-thalassemia major.
2000
OBJECTIVES: To assess cognitive functioning in patients affected by beta-thalassemia major (beta-th) by using a neuropsychological battery, and to identify clinical correlates. MATERIAL AND METHODS:Forty-six beta-th patients and 46 controls similar for age, sex, and education participated in the study. All subjects performed a comprehensive neuropsychological battery including tests of abstract reasoning, attention, executive functions, language, constructional/visuospatial skills, and memory. RESULTS:Compared to controls beta-th patients, in particular those showing signs of hemosiderosis, were significantly impaired on all neuropsychological tests. There was no relationship between cognit…
Antioxidant Activities and Oxidative Stress Byproducts in Human Hypertension
2003
The objective was to study oxidative status, antioxidant activities, and reactive oxygen species byproducts in whole blood and mononuclear peripherals cells and their relationship with blood pressure. Sixty-six hypertensive patients and 16 normotensive volunteers as a control group were studied. In both, whole blood and peripheral mononuclear cells oxidized/reduced glutathione ratio and malondialdehyde was significantly higher, and the activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase was significantly lower in hypertensive patients when compared with normal subjects. The content of damaged base 8-oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine in nuclear and mitochondrial deoxyribonucleoprotein…
Absence of cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction and vagal pancreatic impairment in idiopathic achalasia of the oesophagus
2007
Abstract Extra-oesophageal autonomic dysfunction in idiopathic achalasia is not well documented, due to contradictory results reported. We aimed to study the cardiovascular and pancreatic autonomic function in patients with idiopathic achalasia. Thirty patients with idiopathic achalasia (16M/14F; 34.5 ± 10.8 years) and 30 healthy volunteers (13M/17F; 34.8 ± 10.7 years) were prospectively studied. Age >60 years and conditions affecting results of autonomic evaluation were excluded. Both groups underwent the sham feeding test and plasmatic levels of pancreatic polypeptide (PP) were determined by radioimmunoassay (basal, at 5, 10, 20 and 30 min). Cardiovascular parasympathetic (deep breathing…
Serial echocardiographic left ventricular ejection fraction measurements: A tool for detecting thalassemia major patients at risk of cardiac death
2013
Cardiac damage remains a major cause of mortality among patients with thalassemia major. The detection of a lower cardiac magnetic resonance T2* (CMR-T2*) signal has been suggested as a powerful predictor of the subsequent development of heart failure. However, the lack of worldwide availability of CMR-T2* facilities prevents its widespread use for follow-up evaluations of cardiac function in thalassemia major patients, warranting the need to assess the utility of other possible procedures. In this setting, the determination of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) offers an accurate and reproducible method for heart function evaluation. These findings suggest a reduction in LVEF≥7%, ov…
Flow cytometric analysis of glyoxalase-1 expression in human leukocytes.
2011
Altered glyoxalase-1 (GLO-1) activity and expression is associated with the development of late diabetic complications, malignancy and oxidative stress- and aging-related diseases. In the present study, we developed a flow cytometry method for GLO-1 detection in human leukocytes isolated from peripheral blood samples to investigate GLO-1 expression in leukocyte subsets from type 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus patients (n = 11) and healthy subjects (n = 8). The flow cytometry analysis of GLO-1 in leukocytes showed that expression index of GLO-1-positive cells was slightly increased in mononuclear leukocytes from diabetic patients. This result correlated with the increase in GLO-1 activity in the …
Inadequate Cytoplasmic Antioxidant Enzymes Response Contributes to the Oxidative Stress in Human Hypertension
2006
Untreated hypertensive patients show increased oxidative stress and decreased antioxidant enzyme activity in mononuclear cells. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine whether or not the low antioxidant enzyme activity observed in mononuclear cells of hypertensive subjects is in part dependent on a defective activity of antioxidant mechanisms. Activity and mRNA level of antioxidant enzymes, CuZn- and Mn-superoxide dismutases, catalase, glutathione peroxidase type 1, and glutathione reductase were simultaneously measured in mononuclear cells of controls (n = 38) and hypertensive subjects (n = 35), in the absence of and during antihypertensive treatment. An increase in oxidati…
Quantitative evaluation of oxidative stress status on peripheral blood in beta-thalassaemic patients by means of electron paramagnetic resonance spec…
2005
Summary High oxidative stress status (OSS) is known to be one of the most important factors determining cell injury and consequent organ damage in thalassaemic patients with secondary iron overload. Using an innovative hydroxylamine ‘radical probe’ capable of efficiently trapping majority of oxygen-radicals including superoxide we measured, by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, OSS in peripheral blood of 38 thalassaemic patients compared with sex-/age-matched healthy controls. Thalassaemic patients showed sixfold higher EPR values of OSS than controls. Significantly higher EPR values of OSS were observed in those with a severe phenotype (thalassaemia major, transfusion-depe…
Serum and fecal pancreatic enzymes in beta-thalassemia major
1997
This study, using indirect tests, demonstrated that exocrine pancreatic function is impaired in a proportion of patients with beta-thalassemia major (TM), though this impairment is generally mild or moderate.Impaired structure and function of the exocrine pancreas has been reported in patients with Beta-thalassemia major.In this study we measured fecal fats and serum and fecal pancreatic enzymes in 30 patients (13 M, 17 F) with TM, mean age 22.1 yr (range 14-39) and compared them with those of a matched group of healthy controls. Results were correlated with age, serum ferritin, blood transfusion, and various nutritional parameters. Enzymes assays included: serum pancreatic amylase (PA), li…
MR imaging technique for the diagnosis of pituitary iron overload in patients with transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia major
1998
To identify the optimal MR imaging technique for diagnosing pituitary iron overload, we compared spin-echo and gradient-echo MR imaging with measurements of pituitary T2 relaxation times in 30 patients with secondary hemochromatosis due to transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia major and in 10 healthy volunteers. We found that the optimal MR imaging technique to evaluate pituitary iron overload is the gradient-echo T2*-weighted technique, as it best demonstrated signal reduction in the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland.