Harsh Sharma

Abstract

Background: The motive of this study was to establish the role of various circulating biomarkers in identification of etiology of exacerbation in COPD and assessment of prognosis of COPD on the basis of these biomarkers i.e PCT, CRP and neopterin. Materials and Methods: In this study 200 patients of COPD were enrolled 36 in the stable state, 116 in the exacerbation phase and 48 with pneumonia. Serum sample was collected in all the groups at the time of inclusion in the study and after one month 20 samples were collected from the exacerbation group. Sputum culture, microbiological findings, biomarkers levels and clinical characteristics were compared in each group. PCT and CRP levels were measured by immunofluorescence assay and neopterin by competitive assay. Results: Significant differences were observed in the three groups with regard to PCT and CRP being increased in pneumonic and exacerbation groups as compared to stable group. (P = 0.0001). For paired samples of 20 patients in the exacerbation group PCT and CRP levels were found to be decreased after a period of one month whereas neopterin was found to be increased. All the three biomarkers were increased in patients who died within a month as compared to patients who died later on. Conclusions: Our results showed that biomarker levels vary with the clinical status of the patients and this helps in identification of the aetiology of exacerbation which therefore helps in better assessment of prognosis and management of COPD patients. Keywords: Creactive protein, COPD, Inflammation, Procalcitonin, Neopterin.

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Abstract

Psoriasis is a chronically relapsing, inflammatory, autoimmune, genetically mediated, skin disorder. Most often association of psoriasis with metabolic syndrome has been seen. Components of metabolic syndrome like diabetes, hypertension and obesity are oftenly linked with psoriasis therefore it is crucial to understand this interlink and prompt diagnosis and treatment therefore plays important role to reduce the morbidity and mortality. It has been seen that psoriasis is associated with metabolic syndrome and its components, such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. These phenotypically diverse conditions are found to share similar pathologic changes owing to similar susceptibility genes and genetic loci. Objectives: 1: Selection of clinically diagnosed cases of psoriasis vulgaris attending the Derma OPD; 2: Evaluation of the psoriasis vulgaris patients on different parameters ; 3: Comparision of the cases with age and sex matched control groups; 4: Study the link of psoriasis vulgaris with metabolic syndrome. Study Design: It is Case Control study (100 cases and 100 controls). Results: Our study shows that in comparision to non-psoriatic patients i.e 12 (12%) metabolic syndrome is present in 37 (37%) of the psoriatic patients attending the OPD during the period of Jan 2017 to Dec 2017 i.e 1 year duration.the result is statistically significant (odds ratio (OR) –3-175, Degree of freedom(df)-1,p value-0.002. c 2 -8.772]. Conclusion: Study shows that psoriasis is highly linked with metabolic syndrome and its components. Keywords: Metabolic Syndrome, TNF alpha, Psoriasis, Hyperlipidemia, Hypertension, BMI, Obesity, Interleukins.

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