Neuroendocrinol Lett
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Neuroendocrinol Lett · Apr 2002
Myocardial injury in scorpion envenomed children: significance of assessment of serum troponin I and interleukin-8.
(1) To investigate the significance of assessment of serum levels of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) beside other biomarkers of myocardial injury in scorpion envenomed children. (2) To find the correlation between these biochemical indices with clinical status, prognosis and outcome of these cases. ⋯ it may be suggested that cTnI is the most specific marker for diagnosis of myocardial injury in scorpion envenomation, which is almost associated with skeletal muscle injury. Other biochemical markers did not show such specificity. Also, IL-8 may be involved in the pathogenesis of myocardial injury of scorpion envenomation. Both cTnI and IL-8 may be useful to forecast the fatal outcome in scorpion envenomation.
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In elderly insomniacs, melatonin treatment decreased sleep latency and increased sleep efficiency. This is particularly marked in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. ⋯ Urinary levels of 6-sulphatoxymelatonin decrease with age and in chronic diseases like AD or coronary heart disease. The effect of melatonin on sleep is probably the consequence of increasing sleep propensity (by inducing a fall in body temperature) and of a synchronizing effect on the circadian clock (chronobiotic effect).