Nitric oxide, asymmetric dimethylarginine, symmetric dimethylarginine and L-arginine levels in psychotic exacerbation of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder manic episode.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the changes in nitric oxide (NO), asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA), and L-arginine levels in schizophrenia during acute psychotic exacerbation and in bipolar disorder during mania and to compare those changes to healthy controls. METHODS: Thirty schizophrenia patients with acute psychotic exacerbation and 30 bipolar disorder patients with mania, who attended the Psychiatry Department,  Erenköy Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases, Istanbul, Turkey, in 2010. Thirty healthy controls were included. The diagnosis was made using the Structured Clinical Interview for Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) interviews. Patients' demographic data were recorded, and NO, SDMA, L-arginine, and ADMA levels were studied. RESULTS: Nitric oxide levels in schizophrenia patients were significantly lower than the control group. Nitric oxide levels in the bipolar group were lower than the control group but the difference was not statistically significant. The levels of SDMA, ADMA, and L-arginine were found to be significantly higher in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients than the control group. The disease duration was slightly negatively correlated with NO levels in bipolar patients. In schizophrenia patients, the disease severity was slightly positively correlated with NO levels. CONCLUSION: Significant changes in NO, SDMA, ADMA, and L-arginine levels in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients suggest that NO and inhibitors of NO might be implicated in the neurobiology of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Increased oxidative stress parameters in children with moderate iodine deficiency.

BACKGROUND: Iodine is a part of thyroid hormones and has been reported to act directly as an antioxidant or induce indirectly antioxidant enzymes. This study aimed to assess the urinary iodine concentration and its relationship between the antioxidant and oxidative stress capacity in healthy school-aged children. METHODS: In total, 196 students from five primary schools, randomly selected between 9 and 12 years (mean age: 10.2±1.2 years), were enrolled in the study. Urinary iodine levels were measured by spectrophotometry with the Sandell-Kolthoff reaction. Total antioxidant status (TAS) and total oxidant status (TOS) were analysed from urine samples. The ratio of TOS to TAS was regarded as an oxidative stress index (OSI), an indicator of the degree of oxidative status. RESULTS: Fifty-four percentage (107) of the children had iodine deficiency (ID) and the majority of them (30%) had mild ID. There was no severe-ID child in the population (<20 µg/L). Urine TAS levels were significantly lower in the moderate-ID group than in the mild-ID group (6.5±4.1 vs. 11.3±4.1 mmol, p<0.001) and the iodine-sufficient group (11.0±5.3 µmol, p<0.001). TOS levels and OSI were found higher in the moderate-ID group than in the mild-ID group (4.8±2.1 vs. 3.7±2.1 µmol, p<0.001) and the iodine-sufficient group (4.8±2.1 vs. 3.4±2.5 mmol, p<0.001). In the moderate-ID group, low urine iodine levels exhibited significant negative correlations with OSI (r=-0.660) and TOS (r=-0.248) and a positive correlation with TAS (r=0.475). CONCLUSIONS: We found that children with moderate ID were exposed to more oxidative burden than children with mild ID or iodine sufficiency. Increased systemic oxidative stress induced by moderate ID could cause development of ID-related complications and diseases. Iodine supplementation could have a beneficial role in the prevention of oxidative stress.

Levels of nitric oxide, asymmetric dimethyl arginine, symmetric dimethyl arginine,and L-arginine in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

BACKGROUND/AIM: We aimed to investigate and compare to healthy controls the variations in the levels of nitric oxide (NO), asymmetric dimethyl arginine (ADMA), symmetric dimethyl arginine (SDMA), and L-arginine levels in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We enrolled 30 patients with OCD and 30 healthy controls in the study consecutively. Diagnostic interviews of all participants were conducted with the Structured Clinical Interview for Axis I Disorders (SCID-I), and sociodemographic data of the participants were recorded. Patients scoring 10 points or more on the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale were enrolled in the study. RESULTS: The NO levels of patients with OCD were increased compared to the control group, but the increase was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). However, patients with OCD had significantly lower levels of ADMA, SDMA, and L-arginine compared with the controls (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: We found a significant decrease in ADMA, SDMA, and L-arginine as NO inhibitors between the groups, possibly because of an increase in NO. However, the insignificant increase in NO suggests that ADMA, SDMA, and L-arginine play direct and potentially important roles in OCD biology.

Cystic Eechinococcosis in Childhood: Five-Years of Experience From a Single-Center.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical data and prognosis of cystic echinococcosis during a 5-year period who were followed by the pediatric clinics. METHODS: Demographic, clinical, laboratory, and prognosis data of 34 patients with cystic echinococcosis obtained between 2009 to 2014 were retrospectively evaluated. Of these, 10 patients were excluded because of incomplete data or failure to follow up. RESULTS: A total of 24 (12 males and 12 females) children were included the study. The mean ages of patients were 11.17 ± 3.71 (range, 5-17) years. The most common symptoms were abdominal pain (41.7%), cough (16.7%), and fatigue (12.5%). Localization of the parasite in the patients was determined to be as follows: liver (54.2%), lung (33.3%), and intraabdominal (4.2%). Multiorgan involvement was observed in 8.3% of the cases. Indirect hemagglutination test was positive in 13 (54.2%) patients at admission. All patients received treatment with albendazole. Seven patients were treated with puncture-aspiration-injection-re-aspiration (PAIR) (29.2%). Open surgery was performed in six patients (24.2%). One patient was treated with both PAIR and open surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Cystic echinococcosis is a serious public health problem in developing countries. Hydatid cyst should be considered in the presence of suspicious radiological and clinical findings in endemic areas.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a progressive, degenerative, and fatal disease of the central nervous system. It is caused by abnormal accumulation of prion proteins and is characterized mainly by progressive dementia, myoclonus, and cerebellar, pyramidal, and extrapyramidal findings. Psychiatric symptoms may also accompany CJD and are often the first signs of the disease. The incidence of CJD is approximately 1 in 1 000 000. In certain cases, a diagnosis can be made by demonstrating the accumulation of pathological prion proteins. However, in many cultures brain biopsies or post-mortem evaluations are not welcomed by either the patients or their relatives. In these cases, the importance of additional diagnostic tools increases. Herein, we report on a CJD patient who first consulted a psychiatrist with early psychiatric symptoms. The patient developed neurological symptoms later and was subsequently diagnosed as sporadic CJD based on clinical and laboratory findings rather than brain biopsy. Repeated electroencephalograms (EEG) played a pivotal role in our evaluation of the patient. This case is an interesting presentation of CJD both because of the timing of the symptoms and because of the typical EEG findings that led to the diagnosis.