Background. The detection of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) is of interest because of their importance in the pathogenesis of arterial or venous thrombosis. They could be a “second hit” of an inflammatory event such as infection. The aim of our study was to assess the performance of antiphospholipid antibody biomarker to predict in-hospital mortality in intensive care unit (ICU) septic patients. Methods. We conducted a prospective single-center observational study including consecutive critically ill septic adults admitted to the intensive care unit. Clinical and laboratory data including enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for antiphospholipid antibodies (anticardiolipin (aCL), antiphosphatidylserine (aPS)) were obtained. Blood samples were collected on days 1, 3, 5, 8, and 10 of hospitalization. The primary study endpoint was ICU mortality defined as death before ICU discharge. Secondary end points included correlation between SOFA score and biological parameters. Results. A total of 53 patients were enrolled. 18.8% of patients were aPL positive. In-hospital mortality rate was 60%. Multivariate analysis showed that age and aCL at days 3 and 5 along with SOFA at day 3 were independent outcome predictors. A significant positive correlation existed between SOFA at days 3, 5, and 8 and antiphospholipid antibody concentrations. Conclusions. Our data showed that antiphospholipid was useful biomarkers for the prediction of mortality in critically ill septic patients. We found a positive correlation between SOFA score and antiphospholipid antibodies.
Introduction: Cardiovascular diseases have become more common in young adults. Their emergence is due to the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in a Tunisian young adult group. Material and methods: This is an epidemiological study of 705 Tunisians volunteers, free from any cardiovascular pathology; who are recruited at the Military Hospital of Tunis. Besides the classical cardiovascular risk factors (obesity, dyslipidemia, smoking, alco-hol…), we evaluate the level of homocysteinemia and determined the C677T mutation of the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene by PCR-RFLP method. Results and conclusions: The mean age of our population is 28.25 ± 9.08 with a male majority (83.8%). We have 43.8% obese subject or overweight, 54.3% smokers and 12.9% alcoholics. The lipid profile showed that 12.6% of the population had hypercholesterolemia and 39.5% had hypoHDLemia, 7.9% had a high lipoprotein(a) concentration. In our study population we found that 10.9% of subjects had an hs-CRP concentration greater than 3 mg/L. Genotyping of the MTHFR gene revealed that 34% of young adults had a mutated genome (CT). The results showed a significant correlation between different factors, such as cholesterolemia and obesity. The prevalence of these risk factors showed the severity of our young people's health status and imposes a change in the way of Tunisians life.
Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease whose global expansion gives it the characteristics of a pandemic. Diabetes risk factors are well known. In this work we proposed to study the role of genetic polymorphism of the eNOS G894T gene in the development of diabetes on the one hand and of these degenerative complications other. Methods: We conducted a prospective case-control study in which we included 200 subjects divided into 100 patients with type 2 diabetes and 100 controls in apparent good health. For each patient and control we measured lipid parameters, CRP-us and sought the G894T polymorphism of eNOS gene by PCR-RFLP. Results: The analysis of our results shows a statistically significant elevated TG values (p < 10 −3
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