EXPRESSION PROFILES OF MIR-155-5P AND MIR-518B MICRORNAS IN CIRCULATING LEUKOCYTES OF THE PREGNANT PATIENTS WITH PREECLAMPSIA AND POLYCYSTIC OVARY SYNDROME.

Context: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is associated with increased prevalence of preeclampsia (PE); microRNAs (miRs) could play an important role in the pathogenesis of PE and PCOS. Objective: To investigate the expression levels of miRs 155-5p and 518b in blood leukocytes of patients with PE and PCOS. Design: Using real-time quantitative PCR method, miR-155-5p and miR-518b were examined from PE, PCOS, PE+PCOS, and controls. Subjects and Methods: The relative expression of the target miRs in patient samples was compared to control samples. The results were calculated as relative quantification values. Results: Confounding variables were controlled using analyses for covariance. Significant differences were observed in miR-155-5p (p=0.008) and miRNA-518 (p=0.016) expression levels among the groups. miR-155-5p (p=0.014) and miR-518b (p=0.036) were upregulated in PCOS patients and miR-518b (p=0.028) were increased in cases with PCOS+PE. Near significant difference was found (p=0.06) in miR-518b expression levels in cases with PE, compared to controls. miR-518b was observed to be positively correlated with alanine transaminase in cases with PE (r=0.80; P=0.017) and PE+PCOS (r=0.80, p=0.017). Conclusions: Our preliminary findings suggested that expression profiling of miR-155-5p and miR-518b in blood leukocytes were upregulated in pregnant women with PCOS. Moreover, miR-518b was found to be related to PE in cases with PCOS.

Clinical characteristics, maternal and neonatal outcomes of pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection in Turkey.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate clinical features, laboratory test results, maternal and neonatal outcomes of pregnant patients with the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). BACKGROUND: COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease caused by a severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Healthy pregnant women are more susceptible to developing COVID-19. METHODS: We reviewed clinical data from pregnant patients with a laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2, who were admitted to two tertiary care hospitals in Turkey. Demographic, clinical characteristics, laboratory test results, imaging findings, treatment received, maternal and neonatal outcomes were collected. RESULTS: A total of 24 pregnant women were enrolled in this study. The mean maternal and gestational age was 26.9±5.37 years and 24.15±10.61 weeks, respectively. Cough was observed as the most common symptom (n=15; 62.5 %). The lowest lymphocyte percentage was 20.83±13.05 (%). Nine women have delivered by Caesarean section, while one had a vaginal birth. One woman with critical COVID-19 died 2 days later postpartum. The neonate had been transferred to neonatal intensive care unit and died within 24 hours of birth. CONCLUSION: Our findings showed that except for one patient, the clinical course of COVID-19 during pregnancy was mild. Early hospitalization of pregnant women with confirmed and suspected COVID-19, liberal testing for SARS-CoV-2, active management with a multidisciplinary team seemed to be critical to recovery (Tab. 3, Ref. 31).

Could hematologic parameters be useful biomarkers for the diagnosis of endometriosis?

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte­to­monocyte ratio (LMR), and mean platelet volume (MPV) in patients with endometriosis as compared with healthy controls. BACKGROUND: Currently, no non-invasive diagnostic test of endometriosis has been implemented in clinical practice. METHODS: A total of 121 women with endometriosis and 136 controls participated in this retrospective study. The extent of the disease in the patients with endometriosis was determined using the American Society of Reproductive Medicine revised classification. Sensitivities and specificities of NLR, LMR and MPV were evaluated by receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. RESULTS: Patients with endometriosis had higher neutrophil counts, white blood cell (WBC) levels, NLR, MPV, and lower lymphocyte count and LMR than the control group. The cut-off values were found to be 1.6 for NLR at 87.6 % sensitivity and 44.8 % specificity and 8 for MPV at 75.2 % sensitivity and 68.4 % specficity. For LMR, the cut-off value was 5.6 with 66.1 % sensitivity, 50 % specificity. Patients with stages III or IV had significantly lower MPV (p = 0.039) and LMR levels (p = 0.016) than patients with stages I or II. CONCLUSION: NLR, LMR, and MPV may be used to distinguish patients with endometriosis from controls (Tab. 4, Fig. 4, Ref. 37).

The Huntington's Disease health-related Quality of Life questionnaire (HDQoL): a disease-specific measure of health-related quality of life.

Huntington's disease (HD) is a genetic neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor, cognitive and psychiatric disturbances, and yet there is no disease-specific patient-reported health-related quality of life outcome measure for patients. Our aim was to develop and validate such an instrument, i.e. the Huntington's Disease health-related Quality of Life questionnaire (HDQoL), to capture the true impact of living with this disease. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the full spectrum of people living with HD, to form a pool of items, which were then examined in a larger sample prior to data-driven item reduction. We provide the statistical basis for the extraction of three different sets of scales from the HDQoL, and present validation and psychometric data on these scales using a sample of 152 participants living with HD. These new patient-derived scales provide promising patient-reported outcome measures for HD.

Impact of Huntington's across the entire disease spectrum: the phases and stages of disease from the patient perspective.

Although Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by motor, cognitive and behavioural disturbances, there has been little empirical data examining what patients are most concerned about throughout the different stages of disease, which can span many years. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were individually conducted with 31 people living with different stages of Huntington's, from pre-clinical gene carriers to advanced stage. We examined how often participants raised issues and concerns regarding the impact of Huntington's on everyday life. The Physical/functional theme hardly featured pre-clinically, but was strongly present from Stage 1, rose steadily and peaked at Stage 5. There were no significant changes between stages for the Emotional, Social, and Self themes that all featured across all stages, indicating that these issues were not raised more frequently over the course of the disease. Likewise, the more rarely mentioned Financial and Legal themes also remained similar across stages. However, the Cognitive theme only featured between Stages 1 and 4, and hardly at all pre-clinically and at Stage 5. These findings provide insight into patients' important and unique perspective and have implications for the management and development of interventions across the spectrum of HD stages.