Preeclampsia is a pregnancy-related disorder and considered as one of the major reasons of infants and mothers death in developed nations. HELLP disorder is a problem related to childbirth that usually happens in women with intense preeclampsia and associated with different features, including hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelet count. Due to normal hepatic markers during pregnancy, our purpose is to examine these factors in pregnant women and their association with disorders such as preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome. This case-control study included 99 Iranian pregnant women that were divided into two group including preeclamptic and normotensive pregnant women. Samples were collected from Ahvaz city. We measured liver enzymes activity (ALT, AST, and ALP), total bilirubin and direct bilirubin and blood platelets by calorimeter methods in both groups. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the platelet level in both groups. However, we found a significant difference in the serum level of ALT, AST, ALP and total bilirubin between two groups (p<0.05), while the result related to direct bilirubin was not significant at the end of the study. The outcomes related to this study show that hepatic biomarkers in pregnant women with preeclampsia was higher than normal pregnant women, therefore, we can predict more likely to develop HELLP syndrome in pregnant women with preeclampsia.
The relentlessly beating heart has the greatest oxygen consumption of any organ in the body at rest reflecting its huge metabolic turnover and energetic demands. The vast majority of its energy is produced and cycled in form of ATP which stems mainly from oxidative phosphorylation occurring at the respiratory chain in the mitochondria. A part from energy production, the respiratory chain is also the main source of reactive oxygen species and plays a pivotal role in the regulation of oxidative stress. Dysfunction of the respiratory chain is therefore found in most common heart conditions. The pathophysiology of mitochondrial respiratory chain dysfunction in hereditary cardiac mitochondrial disease, the aging heart, in LV hypertrophy and heart failure, and in ischaemia-reperfusion injury is reviewed. We introduce the practicing clinician to the complex physiology of the respiratory chain, highlight its impact on common cardiac disorders and review translational pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment strategies.
: During the past two decades, multiple viral epidemics have emerged, including the epidemics of H1N1 influenza in 2009 and the Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in 2002 - 2003. Moreover, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was initially recognized in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Recently, cases of another lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) were discovered in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on December 31st 2019, and reported to the WHO country office in the country. Studies in the field have referred to the identification of first symptomatic people in early December 2019. Since experts in the field could not determine the causative agent of the disease, they mistakenly categorized the first reported cases as pneumonia of unknown etiology (PUE). Therefore, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), as well as local CDCs, arranged a full outbreak investigation plan, ascribing the etiology to a newly discovered virus of the coronavirus (CoV) family (i.e., the causative agent of COVID-19).
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