Evaluation of Endocrine Parameters as Predictor of Major Depressive Disorder.

Background: The diagnosis of the disease, major depressive disorder (MDD), entirely depends on the presence of some symptoms without any biochemical parameter to support it. Depletion of dopamine though is an established feature, is not the sole causative factor of MDD. Moreover, it has very little diagnostic value due to a short half-life.

Hyperhomocysteinemia, a biochemical tool for differentiating ischemic and nonischemic central retinal vein occlusion during the early acute phase.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to differentiate ischemic central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) from nonischemic CRVO during the early acute phase using plasma homocysteine as a biochemical marker.

Methods: Fasting plasma homocysteine, serum vitamin B12, and folate levels were measured in 108 consecutive unilateral elderly adult (age >50 years) ischemic CRVO patients in the absence of local and systemic disease and compared with a total of 144 age and sex matched nonischemic CRVO patients and 120 age and sex matched healthy control subjects.

Results: Homocysteine level was significantly increased in the patients with ischemic CRVO in comparison with nonischemic CRVO patients (p = 0.

Establishment of Trimester-Specific Reference Intervals of Serum TSH & fT4 in a Pregnant Indian Population at North Kolkata.

Reference intervals (RIs) of serum thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (fT4) were determined in 402 healthy pregnant women by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique after partitioning them into three trimesters. The reference population was chosen from a study population of 610 pregnant females by applying strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. The assays were done using proper quality control measures.

Assessment of placental oxidative stress in pre-eclampsia.

Objective: To study oxidative stress in placental tissue as well as in serum in pre-eclamptic women.

Methods: Fifty pre-eclamptic cases and fifty normal pregnant women were selected in the study. Thio barbituric acid reacting substances (TBARS) was measured as oxidative stress marker and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and GSH (reduced glutathione) were measured for assessment of antioxidant status in placental tissue extract and serum.

Study of oxidative stress in obsessive compulsive disorder in response to treatment with Fluoxetine.

Oxidative stress has been found to play important role in several neuropsychiatric diseases including Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. A longitudinal case control study was conducted to evaluate the oxidative stress in 30 newly diagnosed obsessive compulsive disorder patients and same number of control patients. Serum thiobarbituric acid reacting substances, plasma ascorbate were assessed to evaluate oxidative stress and Yale Brown obsessive compulsive scale for disease severity before and after treatment with Fluoxetine at the average dosage of 40 mg/day.

Correlation between lipid peroxidation-induced TBARS level and disease severity in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Oxidative stress is thought to play an important role in several neuropsychiatric diseases including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Thiobarbituric acid reacting substances (TBARS) are products formed as a result of free radical induced lipid peroxidation in the human body. Our study investigated the correlation between TBARS and the clinical severity of OCD as indicated by the Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS).