Serum glial fibrillary acidic protein and neurofilament light chain in treatment-naïve patients with unipolar depression.

Background: Unipolar depression has been associated with increased levels of glial dysfunction and neurodegeneration biomarkers, such as Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP) and Neurofilament light chain (NfL). However, previous studies were conducted on patients taking psychotropic medication and did not monitor longitudinal associations between disease status and GFAP/NfL.

Methods: Treatment-naïve patients with unipolar depression (n = 110) and healthy controls (n = 33) were included.

Short-term biological variation of serum glial fibrillary acidic protein.

Objectives: Serum glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) is an emerging biomarker for intracerebral diseases and is approved for clinical use in traumatic brain injury. GFAP is also being investigated for several other applications, where the GFAP changes are not always outstanding. It is thus essential for the interpretation of GFAP to distinguish clinical relevant changes from natural occurring biological variation.

Arterial and venous blood sampling is equally applicable for coagulation and fibrinolysis analyses.

Objectives: No consensus exists upon whether arterial and venous blood samples are equivalent when it comes to coagulation analyses. We therefore conducted a comparative cohort study to clarify if arteriovenous differences affect analyses of primary and secondary hemostasis as well as fibrinolysis.

Methods: Simultaneous paired blood samplings were obtained from a cannula in the radial artery and an antecubital venipuncture in 100 patients immediately before or one day after thoracic surgery.

[Haemoglobin A1c measurements when to use and when not].

Haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) reflects the glycaemic status of the latest 2-3 month and is used in both diagnosing and monitoring diabetes. Different circumstances may lead to spurious HbA1c results as summarised in this review. HbA1c is susceptible to changes in erythrocyte turnover (e.