The Genetics of Glucose-6-Phosphate-Dehydrogenase (G6PD) and Uridine Diphosphate Glucuronosyl Transferase 1A1 (UGT1A1) Promoter Gene Polymorphism in Relation to Quantitative Biochemical G6PD Activity Measurement and Neonatal Hyperbilirubinemia.

Unlabelled: Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency and polymorphism in uridine diphosphate glucuronosyl transferase 1A1 (UGT1A1) were associated with significant neonatal hyperbilirubinemia (NHB) and increased risk for kernicterus. However, quantitative screening tests for G6PD enzyme activity proved unsatisfactory in estimating the risk for significant NHB, especially in heterozygous females that could present phenotype overlap between normal homozygotes, heterozygotes, and deficient homozygotes, resulting in a continuum of intermediate G6PD activity.

Objective: To examine the association of genotype and phenotype in newborns with decreased G6PD activity and its relation to NHB.

Umbilical Cord and Neonatal Transthyretin and Their Relationship to Growth and Nutrition in Preterm Infants.

Background: Transthyretin (TTR), also known as prealbumin, has been suggested as an indicator of protein and nutritional status.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the maternal and umbilical cord (UC) TTR in relation to intrauterine growth, and the serum TTR of preterm infants in relation to nutritional status and growth.

Methods: After application of exclusion criteria, 49 preterm infants (mean gestational age and birth-weight 32.

[ALPHA-1-ANTITRYPSIN ACTIVITY IN PATIENTS HOSPITALIZED FOR CELLULITIS].

Introduction: Deficiency or impaired activity of alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT), which neutralizes multiple proteolytic enzymes, such as collagenases and elastases may result in significant tissue autodigestion. Hence, AAT may have a role in the healing process in chronic and acute inflammation including skin infection, such as cellulitis.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of AAT activity and inflammatory markers in patients with cellulitis.

Adenosine deaminase activity in patients with Crohn's disease: distinction between active and nonactive disease.

Background: Crohn's disease (CD) is a common chronic inflammatory bowel disease. During the disease a cascade of immunologic events occur including mucosal influx of inflammatory cells like neutrophils. Adenosine deaminase (ADA) is important in inflammatory responses and serves as a marker of activated leukocytes.

Anthropic arguments and the cosmological constant, with and without the assumption of typicality.

We reexamine claims that anthropic arguments provide an explanation for the observed smallness of the cosmological constant, and we argue that correlations between the cosmological constant value and the existence of life could at best be demonstrated only under restrictive assumptions. Causal effects are more subtle to uncover. The assumption of our typicality is crucial to such arguments.

Oxidative stress, inflammation and neutrophil superoxide release in patients with Crohn's disease: distinction between active and non-active disease.

Increased oxidative stress has been previously demonstrated in patients with Crohn's disease (CD). However, to date, this parameter has not been assessed in a comparative study of patients in prolonged remission and those with the active disease. We report here our study of lipid peroxidation, antioxidant and inflammation status in serum derived from 16 active CD patients, 27 clinically stable patients, and 15 healthy controls.

Paraoxonase activity following exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program.

Purpose: The effect of gender on paraoxonase activity was determined in 37 ischemic heart disease patients who underwent a 12-week aerobic exercise training program.

Methods: Paraoxonase activity was measured by its arylesterase activity (spectrophotometrically, at 250 degrees C, wavelength 270 nm).

Results: A 16.

The early anti-oxidant effect of carvedilol predicts the clinical course in congestive heart failure patients.

Background: Carvedilol, a beta1 and beta2 as well as an alpha1 adrenoreceptor antagonist with multiple hemodynamic, anti-ischemic and anti-oxidant properties, is widely accepted for the treatment of hypertension and congestive heart failure (CHF). It has been shown to improve morbidity and mortality in CHF.

Objectives: To assess whether the anti-oxidant effect of carvedilol has an impact on the clinical course in post-myocardial infarction (MI) CHF.

Enhanced oxidative stress and leucocyte activation in neoplastic tissues of the colon.

Excess of intracellular reactive oxygen species results in an environment that may modulate gene expression, or damage cellular molecules. These events are assumed to contribute to the process of carcinogenesis. In the present study, we measured the extent of lipid peroxidation and antioxidative status in colonic tumors and normal colonic mucosa obtained from 25 patients with colorectal carcinoma.

Exercise training modulates cytokines activity in coronary heart disease patients.

Background: Physical activity may lower the risk for coronary artery disease (CAD) by mitigating inflammation, which plays a key role in the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of aerobic exercise training on levels of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, IL-1, IL-6, IL-10, INF-gamma, and C-reactive protein (CRP), in CAD patients participating in a cardiac rehabilitation program.

Methods And Results: Twenty-eight patients, age 64+/-7.

Modifications and oxidation of lipids and proteins in human serum detected by thermochemiluminescence.

Detection of electronically excited species (EES) in body fluids may constitute an important diagnostic tool in various pathologies. Examples of such products are triplet excited carbonyls (TEC), which can be a source for photon emission in the 400-550 nm range. The aim of the present study was to determine the actual contribution of lipid and protein components (protein carbonyls) to photon emission generated by thermochemiluminescence (TCL) during the heating of biological fluids.