Thyroid functions in mild and severe forms of sickle cell anemia.

In the present study, the weight, height, bone age and growth indices of 24 children with homozygote sickle cell anemia were measured and the relationship of these parameters to thyroid function was evaluated and compared with 14 healthy controls in the same age group. The patients consisted of two groups with either mild (n = 12) or severe (n = 12) clinical courses. There was no difference between both patient groups or with the control group with respect to weight (P > 0.05). However, the difference between the mean height percentiles of the homozygote-severe group and the control group was found to be statistically significant (P < 0.05). The bone age remained 41.6% behind normal for age in all homozygote sickle cell anemia patients. The serum T3 and T4 levels of all patients showed no significant differences from those of the control group (P > 0.05). These results show that patients with severe clinical courses may have short stature but their thyroid hormones are within normal limits during the first decade of life.

Serum levels of tumor necrosis factor in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

PURPOSE: Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha is a multifunctional cytokine that influences the clinical outcome in a number of diseases. This study was undertaken to evaluate its role in the differential diagnosis of malignant and benign tumors and in the follow-up of patients. We also studied the correlation of TNF-alpha levels with the stage and differentiation of the diseases. METHODS: In this study, serum levels of TNF-alpha are determined by the immunoradiometric assay method in 26 patients with head and neck cancer, and results are compared with 8 control patients with benign diseases. In both groups, serum samples were taken before and after the therapy. After centrifugation, the sera was stored at -70 degrees C until analyzed. TNF-alpha levels were measured by TNF-alpha immunoradiometric assay (IRMA) kit (Medgenix, Diagnostics SA, Belgium). RESULTS: The pretreatment mean value of TNF-alpha in the study group (814.1 pg/mL) was almost 100 times higher than in the control group (8.6 pg/mL) (P = .001). It was also noted that posttreatment mean value (94 pg/mL) was significantly lower than pretreatment mean value in the study group (P = .001). No statistically significant difference was found between serum TNF-alpha levels and the stage and differentiation of the tumor. CONCLUSION: The serum levels of TNF-alpha may be an efficient tumor marker in the diagnosis of patients with head and neck cancer.