STUDY DESIGN: A wide range of socio-demographic characteristics of Chinese, Malay and Indian women attending routine gynecologic care in Singapore were prospectively collected. Physical performance was objectively measured by hand grip strength and the Short Physical Performance Battery. Percent VAT was determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Fasting serum concentrations of glucose, insulin, IL-6, TNF- α, and hs-CRP were measured.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: was insulin resistance, expressed as the homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR).
RESULTS: 1159 women were analyzed, mean age 56.3 (range 45-69) years, comprising women of Chinese (84.0%), Indian (10.2%), and Malay (5.7%) ethnic origins. The adjusted mean differences for obesity (0.66, 95% CI 0.32-1.00), VAT area in the highest vs lowest tertile (1.03, 95% CI 0.73-1.34), low physical performance (0.63, 95% CI 0.05-1.24), and highest vs lowest tertile of TNF- α (0.35, 95% CI 0.13-0.57) were independently associated with HOMA-IR. Women of Malay and Indian ethnicity had higher crude HOMA-IR than Chinese women. However, after adjustment for obesity, VAT, physical performance, and TNF- α, no differences in mean HOMA-IR remained, when comparing Chinese women with those of Malay ethnicity (0.27, 95% CI -0.12 to 0.66) and with those of Indian ethnicity (0.30, 95% CI -0.01 to 0.66).
CONCLUSIONS: Insulin resistance was independently associated with obesity, high VAT, low physical performance, and high levels of TNF- α in midlife Singaporean women. These variables entirely explained the significant differences in insulin resistance between women of Chinese, Malay and Indian ethnicity.
METHODS: This study included 159 septic patients admitted to an intensive care unit. Leukocytes count, procalcitonin (PCT), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and paraoxonase (PON) and arylesterase (ARE) activities of PON-1 were assayed from blood obtained on ICU presentation. Logistic regression was used to derive sepsis mortality score (SMS), a prediction equation describing the relationship between biomarkers and 30-day mortality.
RESULTS: The 30-day mortality rate was 28.9%. The SMS was [еlogit(p)/(1+еlogit(p))]×100; logit(p)=0.74+(0.004×PCT)+(0.001×IL-6)-(0.025×ARE)-(0.059×leukocytes count). The SMC had higher area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (95% Cl) than SOFA score [0.814 (0.736-0.892) vs. 0.767 (0.677-0.857)], but is not statistically significant. When the SMS was added to the SOFA score, prediction of 30-day mortality improved compared to SOFA score used alone [0.845 (0.777-0.899), p=0.022].
CONCLUSIONS: A sepsis mortality score using baseline leukocytes count, PCT, IL-6 and ARE was derived, which predicted 30-day mortality with very good performance and added significant prognostic information to SOFA score.
METHODS: Thirty six patients with head injury admitted to neurosurgical ICU in University Malaya Medical Centre were recruited for this study, over a 6-month period from July 2014 to January 2015. Patients were randomized to receive either an immunonutrition (Group A) or a standard (Group B) enteral feed. Levels of biomarkers were measured at day 1, 5 and 7 of enteral feeding.
RESULTS: Patients in Group A showed significant reduction of IL-6 at day 5 (p
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 32 female Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups. The baseline group was sacrificed at the start of the study, and another group was sham operated. The remaining rats were ovariectomized and either given olive oil as a vehicle or treated with tocotrienol at a dose of 60 mg/kg body weight. After four weeks of treatment, blood was withdrawn for the measurement of interleukin-1 (IL1) and interleukin-6 (IL6) (bone resorbing cytokines), serum osteocalcin (a bone formation marker) and pyridinoline (a bone resorption marker).
RESULTS: Tocotrienol supplementation in ovariectomized rats significantly reduced the levels of osteocalcin, IL1 and IL6. However, it did not alter the serum pyridinoline level.
CONCLUSION: Tocotrienol prevented osteoporotic bone loss by reducing the high bone turnover rate associated with estrogen deficiency. Therefore, tocotrienol has the potential to be used as an anti-osteoporotic agent in postmenopausal women.
MATERIALS: We recruited consecutively adult patients with SIRS admitted to an intensive care unit. They were divided into sepsis and noninfectious SIRS based on clinical assessment with or without positive cultures. Concentrations of PCT and IL-6 were measured daily over the first 3 days.
RESULTS: A total of 239 patients were recruited, 164 (68.6%) had sepsis, and 68 (28.5%) died in hospital. The PCT levels were higher in sepsis compared with noninfectious SIRS throughout the 3-day period (P < .0001). On admission, PCT concentration was diagnostic of sepsis (area under the curve of 0.63 [0.55-0.71]), and IL-6 was predictive of mortality, (area under the curve of 0.70 [0.62-0.78]). Peak IL-6 concentration improved the risk assessment of Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score for prediction of mortality among those who went on to die by an average of 5% and who did not die by 2%
CONCLUSIONS: Procalcitonin measured on intensive care unit admission was diagnostic of sepsis, and IL-6 was predictive of mortality. Addition of IL-6 concentration to SOFA score improved risk assessment for prediction of mortality. Future studies should include clinical indices, for example, SOFA score, for prognostic evaluation of biomarkers.