Purpose. The main objective of the study was to create a mathematical model that describes the melatonin circadian secretion and, then the functionality of the model was tested by a comparison of the melatonin secretions in children with and without epilepsy. Material and Methods. The patients were divided into the epilepsy group (EG, n = 52) and the comparison group (CG, n = 30). The melatonin level was assessed by a radioimmunoassay method. The diurnal melatonin secretion was described using a nonlinear least squares method. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was chosen to estimate the dependence of the acquired data. The model reproduces blood concentration profiles and its parameters were statistically analyzed using the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test and logistic regression. Results. The correlation analysis performed for the EG and CG groups showed moderate correlations between age and the melatonin secretion model parameters. Patients with epilepsy are characterized by an increased phase shift of melatonin release.
The main aim of the study was to compare the melatonin rhythms in subjects with Angelman syndrome (n = 9) and in children with (n = 80) and without (n = 40) epilepsy (nonepileptic patients diagnosed with peripheral nerve palsies, myopathy, and back pain) using our mathematical model of melatonin circadian secretion. The characteristics describing the diurnal hormone secretion such as minimum melatonin concentration, release amplitude, phase shift of melatonin release, and sleep duration as well as the dim light melatonin onset (DLMO) of melatonin secretion and the γ shape parameter allow analyzing the fit and deducing about how much the measured melatonin profile differs from a physiological bell-shaped secretion. The estimated sleep duration and phase shift of melatonin release as well as the DMLO offsets at 25% and 50% relative thresholds are the key characteristic of Angelman syndrome children. As revealed from the γ shape parameter, the melatonin secretion profiles are disturbed in majority of the AG subjects revealing rather a triangular course instead of the bell-like one.
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