J Res Med Sci
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Significance of platelet distribution width (PDW) and mean platelet volume (MPV) in assessing disease activity of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) remains unclear. This study was aimed to evaluate PDW and MPV as potential disease activity markers in adult SLE patients. ⋯ This study first associates a higher PDW level with an increased SLE activity, suggesting PDW as a novel indicator to monitor the activity of SLE.
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Considering that ethnicity and gestational age (GA) could affect the value of nuchal fold thickness (NFT) in mid-trimester, we aimed to determine the reference intervals of NFT values for each gestational week from 16 to 24 weeks of pregnancy among a group of Iranian pregnant women. ⋯ The findings of this study revealed that before the 20th week of gestation, the appropriate cutoff value of NFT is 5 mm, and for 21st to 24th weeks, the proper cutoff is 6 mm. However, for providing more conclusive results, further studies with larger sample size and considering the impact of other influencing variables are recommended.
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Chronic hepatitis type-C virus (HCV) infection is one of the most common worldwide viral disorders, which leads to various clinical complications as well as extrahepatic manifestations. Furthermore, Vitamin D3 has also been reported to have relationship with the mentioned complications. The aim is to evaluate the correlation between Vitamin D3 level and extrahepatic manifestation in chronic HCV patients. ⋯ According to our results, the extrahepatic manifestation in the patients with sufficient levels of Vitamin D3 would be less possible. In fact, it could be stated that deficiency in the Vitamin D3 can have a significant relationship with these manifestations.
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The aim of this study was to determine whether insulin resistance, beta-cell function, and their associations with alanine aminotransferase (ALT) are affected by the functional variants of paraoxonase-2 (PON2) as an intracellular antioxidant in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). ⋯ These data implicate a role for the functional variants of PON2 in insulin resistance and beta-cell function as well as underscore the effective role of these variants in the associations between them and ALT. Our data contribute to our understanding of the important physiologic functions of PON2 in glucose metabolism and its related metabolic diseases.
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The objective of this study is to evaluate the value of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) for becoming a good endogenous marker of renal function in asphyxial preterm babies. ⋯ uNGAL has a better distinguishability in asphyxial neonates compared with other indicators. Certainly, a larger sample, prospective study is still needed.