Effect of Patient Empowerment Model on Smoking Cessation: Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Smoking is a preventable cause of chronic morbidity. Patient empowerment is a process through which people establish greater control over their health-related decisions and actions. To assess the effect of patient empowerment versus health education on the nicotine dependence score and progress of patients under different stages of smoking cessation.

Diagnostic value of alpha-glutathione S-transferase as a sensitive marker of increased risk for hepatocellular damage in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection: relation to HCV viraemia.

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection is a disease characterized by a silent evolution, a wide fluctuation of transaminase activities, and the potential presence of significant histological lesions in patients with normal concentrations of transaminases. Alpha-Glutathione S-transferase (alpha-GST) is a class of enzymes responsible for cellular detoxifying processes. Its wide hepatic distribution, high cytosolic concentration, and short in vivo plasma half-life of this enzyme are properties, which may make monitoring this enzyme more clinically useful than conventional biochemical liver function tests as a marker of hepatocellular damage.

The role of interferon-gamma and vitamin-A in modulating telomerase activity in breast cancer patients.

Telomerase is a ribonucloprotein enzyme that appears to play a role in carcinogenesis. To understand the regulatory mechanisms which govern telomerase activity, we used telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) to quantitate and compare telomerase activity in cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) with and without INF-gamma in breast cancer patients. Serum levels of IFN-gamma and vitamin-A were also measured to look for a possible influence of these chemotherapeutic agents on telomerase activity.