Insulin sensitivity in prepubertal Caucasian normal weight children.

Background: Determining whether or not a child is insulin resistant is becoming a matter of fundamental interest even in childhood, as the incidence of metabolic complications of insulin resistance is rising. Thus reference values are needed.

Aim: To set percentiles for HOMA-IR and WBISI in Caucasian normal weight prepubertal children.

Inflammatory cytokines and S-100b protein in patients with hepatitis C infection and cryoglobulinemias.

Objective: To investigate a predictive role for the protein S-100b and serum circulating levels of Th1/Th2 cytokines in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection with and without mixed cryoglobulinemia (MC).

Methods: Sixty chronically HCV-infected patients were divided into two groups: 30 with and 30 without MC. Patients with MC presented detectable mixed cryoglobulins and clinical weakness, purpura and arthralgias.