The serum angiotensin converting enzyme and lysozyme levels in patients with ocular involvement of autoimmune and infectious diseases.

BACKGROUND: Increased serum levels of angiotensin converting enzyme and lysozyme are considered as inflammatory markers for diagnosis of sarcoidosis which is an autoimmune inflammatory disease. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the significance of differences in serum angiotensin converting enzyme and lysozyme levels of patients with ocular involvement of other autoimmune inflammatory and infectious diseases. METHODS: This is a prospective study involving patients with ankylosing spondylitis, behcet's disease, presumed sarcoidosis, presumed latent tuberculosis, presumed latent syphilis, and control group. The serum levels of angiotensin converting enzyme and lysozyme were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Bonnferoni analysis was used to assess pairwise comparisons between the groups. RESULTS: There was a significant increase in serum angiotensin converting enzyme level in patients with presumed sarcoidosis compared to ankylosing spondylitis (p = 0.0001), behcet's disease (p = 0.0001), presumed latent tuberculosis (p = 0.0001), presumed latent syphilis (p = 0.0001), and control group (p = 0.0001). The increase in serum lysozyme level was significant for patients with presumed sarcoidosis with respect to ankylosing spondylitis (p = 0.0001), behcet's disease, (p = 0.0001) presumed latent tuberculosis (p = 0.001), presumed latent syphilis (p = 0.033), and control group (p = 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Elevated serum angiotensin converting enzyme levels are significant for patients with presumed sarcoidosis compared to ocular involvement of other autoimmune diseases such as behcet's disease and ankylosing spondylitis, and ocular involvement of infectious diseases such as presumed latent tuberculosis and presumed latent syphilis. However, elevated serum lysozyme level might be also detected in ocular involvement of infectious diseases such as presumed latent tuberculosis and presumed latent syphilis. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02627209. Date of registration: 12/09/2015.

Biophysical and microbiological study of high hydrostatic pressure inactivation of Bovine Viral Diarrheavirus type 1 on serum.

The effect of high hydrostatic pressure application on fetal bovine serum components and the model microorganism (Bovine Viral Diarrheavirus type 1 NADL strain) was studied at 132 and 220 MPa pressure for 5 min at 25°C. Protein secondary structures were found to be unaffected by an artificial neural network application on the amide I region for both untreated and HHP treated samples. FTIR spectroscopy study of both the HHP-treated and control samples revealed changes in the intensity of some bands in the finger-print region (1500-900 cm(-1)) originating mainly from lipids which are thought to result from changes in the lipoprotein structure. The virus strain lost its infectivity completely after 220 MPa HHP treatments. These results indicate that HHP can be successfully used for inactivation of pestiviruses while leaving structural and functional properties of serum and serum products unaffected.

Meibomian gland dysfunction: endocrine aspects.

Purpose. To compare the hormone levels of patients with seborrheic meibomian gland dysfunction with controls. Procedures. This is a retrospective case-control study involving 50 patients and 50 controls. Blood workup for hormones was studied in both groups by using macroELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). Statistical evaluation was done by using SPSS 15.0 independent samples t-test. Results. There were statistically significant differences of serum testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate levels between patients and controls (P = 0.000). Female gender showed statistically significant differences of serum thyroid-stimulating hormone and prolactin levels between patients and controls (P = 0.014 and P = 0.043), in addition to serum testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate levels (P = 0.000 and P = 0.001). However, male gender showed statistically significant differences of only serum testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate levels between patients and controls. (P = 0.003 and P = 0.003 resp.). Conclusions. Increased serum levels of testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate in both genders should be considered as diagnostic markers for seborrheic meibomian gland dysfunction.

The prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis A among preschool children in an urban setting in Turkey.

The prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis A virus (HAV) was investigated in 114 children (59.7 per cent males) aged 4-6 years, in the campus area of Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. The prevalence of hepatitis A antibody in this age group was 11.4 per cent (13/114). The rate of immunized children against hepatitis A was 3.65 per cent (5/137). In conclusion the prevalence of anti-HAV demonstrates the susceptibility of other preschool children to hepatitis A. This may be a cause for considering hepatitis A vaccination before preschool attendance in Turkey.