RESUMEN
Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the commonest liver pathologies and is increasing due to increasing obesity. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease-liver fat score is a non-invasive diagnostic tool with a sensitivity and specificity of 95%. Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational study on 50 overweight and obese individuals with a body mass index (BMI) of more than or equal to 25 kg/m2 and fatty liver on ultrasonography (USG). Alcoholics (≥30 g/day for men and ≥20 g/day for women), other etiologies like drugs and patients who had bowel resection surgeries for obesity were excluded from the study. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease-liver fat score of more than -0.64 ruled in NAFLD. Data were entered into Microsoft Excel and analyzed using the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) Software 20. Results: About 33/50 patients had a score of more than -0.64. Metabolic syndrome was present in 29 (58%), dyslipidemia in 38 (76%), and diabetes mellitus (46%) was the commonest comorbidity. There was a statistically significant difference in the mean age, weight, BMI, blood pressure, liver enzymes, fasting lipid profile, serum albumin, glycosylated Hemoglobin A1C (HBA1C), international normalised ratio (INR), and fasting blood sugars between the two groups with scores >-0.64 and ≤-0.64. There was a negative correlation of high-density lipoprotein and a positive correlation of liver enzymes, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein, total cholesterol, fasting blood sugar level, and HBA1c with a score of >-0.64. Conclusion: Higher BMI, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia were significantly associated with a score of >-0.64. This score confirmed the ultrasonographically diagnosed fatty liver.
RESUMEN
Background: Axial spondyloarthropathy is a type of disease which affects the axial skeleton affecting productive years. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, observational study in which 28 consecutive patients more than 16 years of age, fulfilling the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society (ASAS) criteria for axial spondyloarthropathy were included. They were further sub-grouped into radiographic and non-radiographic axial spondyloarthropathy. Clinical features, joint involvement, measurements, HLA-B27 serology, and disease activity were evaluated. Data was entered into Microsoft Excel, and SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) software 2.0 was used for analyzing the data. Results: Mean age was 28.5 ± 6.3 years. 85.7% were males. Inflammatory low back pain was the most common clinical feature at presentation (89.2%). Enthesitis was the most common extra-articular feature seen in 35.7% of patients. 42.8% were non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis. 85.7% of patients were HLA-B27 positive. 50% of patients had bone marrow edema on MRI, and only one patient had ankylosis indicating predominantly early disease. 50%-70% of our patients had high disease activity and 89.3% were responding well to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). There was no significant difference between the radiographic axial spondyloarthritis group and the non-radiographic group except for elevated C-reactive protein (CRP). Conclusion: Ankylosing spondylitis in western India occurs mostly in the age group of 20-30 years, suggesting affection of productive age group. There was a delay of diagnosis for approximately three years from the onset of symptoms. There was a positive association with HLA-B27 in majority of the patients. Most of our patients had early disease based on radiological findings, suggesting that there was room for therapeutic intervention before irreversible ankylosis had set in.
RESUMEN
Room temperature biospecimen storage for prolonged periods is essential to eliminate energy consumption by ultra-low freezing or refrigeration-based storage techniques. State of the art practices that sufficiently minimize the direct or hidden costs associated with cold-chain logistics include ambient temperature storage of biospecimens (i.e., DNA, RNA, proteins, lipids) in the dry state. However, the biospecimens are still well-exposed to the stress associated with drying and reconstitution cycles, which augments the pre-analytical degradation of biospecimens prior to their downstream processing. An aqueous storage solution that can eliminate these stresses which are correlated to several cycles of drying/rehydration or freezing of biospecimens, is yet to be achieved by any current technology. In our study, we have addressed this room temperature biospecimen-protection challenge using aqueous capture and release gels for optimized storage (Bio-CaRGOS) of biospecimens. Herein, we have demonstrated a single-step â¼95% recovery of a metalloprotein hemoglobin at room temperature using a cost-effective standard microwave-based aqueous formulation of Bio-CaRGOS. Although hemoglobin samples are currently stored at sub-zero or under refrigeration (4 °C) conditions to avoid loss of integrity and an unpredictable diagnosis during their downstream assays, our results have displayed an unprecedented room temperature integrity preservation of hemoglobin. Bio-CaRGOS formulations efficiently preserve hemoglobin in its native state, with single-step protein recovery of â¼95% at ambient conditions (1 month) and â¼96% (7 months) under refrigeration conditions. In contrast, two-thirds of the control samples degrade under ambient (1 month) and refrigeration (7 months) settings.
