Biomedical subjects

Nezih Hekim

Publications and source records attributed to Nezih Hekim.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Hepcidin is not a marker of chronic inflammation in atherosclerosis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between atherosclerosis, an inflammatory disease and hepcidin, which is reported as an indicator of inflammation. METHODS: A total of 75 subjects between 40 and 70 years of age were included in the study. The patient group consisted of 40 stable patients who had previously experienced an atherosclerotic event (18 women, 22 men; mean age 56.4+/-7.1 years). There were two control groups. The first control group consisted of 19 healthy subjects (11 women, 8 men; mean age 52.6+/- 7.4 years), while the second group included 16 patients (11 women, 5 men; mean age 56.5+/-9.3 years) with rheumatoid arthritis and anemia (diseased control group). Hepcidin measurement was performed using Hepcidin Prohormone ELISA (Solid Phase Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) test kit. RESULTS: Mean serum hepcidin levels were 243.2+/-48.8 ng/ml, 374.5+/-86.4 ng/ml, and 234+/-59.9 ng/ml in the patient group, in diseased controls, and in healthy controls, respectively. Hepcidin levels were higher in diseased controls compared to the patient group and healthy controls (p=0.001). There were no significant differences between the patient group and healthy controls. CONCLUSION: These findings did not support the hypothesis that hepcidin levels could be increased in atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases as a marker of chronic inflammation.

Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides↗

PubMed2005

Hyperprolactinaemia does not always mean 'hyperprolactinaemia'!

The presence of macroprolactinaemia was investigated in the symptom-free hyperprolactinaemia cases to reveal its incidence. The serum prolactin (PRL) fractions in 21 female patients with hyperprolactinaemia without any clinical symptoms were analyzed with PEG (polyethylene glycol precipitation) procedure. In 14 of these 21 cases, hyperprolactinaemia was detected with a high fraction of macroprolactin. In cases with asymptomatic hyperprolactinaemia, it is more appropriate to employ the PEG precipitation test to detect the disorder. High levels of serum prolactin, do not essentially indicate the presence of a prolactinoma but may only indicate macroprolactinaemia.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Hypercalcemia associated with a uterine leiomyoma: a case report and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Humoral hypercalcemia is known to be an important cause of hypercalcemia associated with malignancy. Humoral hypercalcemia due to benign conditions has been rarely reported. CASE: We report on a 45-year-old woman with humoral hypercalcemia secondary to uterine leiomyoma. Following the surgical removal of leiomyoma by hysterectomy, serum calcium, suppressed parathyroid hormone (PTH) and elevated parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTH-rP) levels were normalized. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the second reported case of humoral hypercalcemia associated with uterine leiomyoma. We suggest that for women with hypercalcemia who had suppressed PTH and elevated PTH-rP levels, uterine leiomyoma should be included in the differential diagnosis.

Female↗

PubMedDate not supplied

No association between methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase C677T polymorphism and breast cancer.

Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) is an enzyme (EC 1.5.1.20), that reduces 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate to 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, a carbon donor for the homocysteine to methionine conversion. MTHFR is a key enzyme that regulates folate metabolism which has an important role in DNA synthesis, DNA repair and methylation. The association between MTHFR C677T polymorphism and breast cancer has been investigated in several previous studies. Some researchers have shown an association between C677T polymorphism and breast cancer, but not all researchers found this association however. This study was designed to investigate, in the Turkish population, the association of MTHFR C677T polymorphism and breast cancer. Forty women patients with breast cancer and 68 healthy women were included in the study. MTHFR gene polymorphism was determined by the PCR-RFLP method. SPSS 10.0 for windows was used to determine statistical significance. No differences were observed in the distribution of MTHFR genotypes or allele frequencies in the cases versus the controls. It was found that the frequencies of MTHFR polymorphism were 55%, 40%, 5% for CC, CT, TT genotype in patients and 56%, 38%, 6% in healthy controls respectively. Furthermore, association was observed among family history, metastatic risk and MTHFR genotypes in patients. Our data fail to support a relationship between MTHFR C677T and the risk for breast cancer. It may be that there are ethnic differences in terms of this relationship.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Macroprolactinemia in childhood and adolescence: a cause of hyperprolactinemia.

Human prolactin consists of multiple forms of different sizes including three major prolactin (PRL) species, termed as little, big, and big-big PRL. If serum contains big-big PRL, it is termed macroprolactinemia; no symptoms of hyperprolactinemia develop due to low biological activity of big-big PRL. There are still few data regarding macroprolactinemia in children and adolescents. In this paper we describe six patients with macroprolactinemia, one of whom was asymptomatic and the other five either had headache, menstrual disturbance, short stature, increased hair growth or early puberty, compatible with high PRL levels. Two of the cases had microadenoma. Initial mean +/- SD PRL levels of the patients were 75.2 +/- 22.8 ng/ml (range: 42.3-105.2 ng/ml). Macroprolactin analysis revealed big-big PRL levels of the patients ranging between 21.6-98.6 ng/ml. It was noteworthy that bromocriptine (BRC) therapy started in three patients caused an abrupt decrease in PRL levels. It may be concluded that macroprolactinemia should be taken into account in the differential diagnosis of hyperprolactinemia in childhood and adolescence, whether or not they have relevant clinical symptoms.

Adenoma↗