INTRODUCTION Several studies have shown that lactoferrin (LF) and neopterin (NT) are correlated with infection. The aim of this study is to determine whether serum levels of LF and NT are associated with postoperative infectious complications in patients with acute traumatic spinal cord injury. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 268 patients with acute traumatic spinal cord injury who underwent ...

Background: The tumor marker CA 125 is commonly used in the screening and diagnosis of ovarian malignancy. However, recent studies have proven a limited role for CA 125 as a diagnostic marker for ovarian cancer. Moreover, it is often elevated in non-cancerous and inflammatory conditions as well. Aims: To evaluate the utility of CA 125 in the workup of intestinal tuberculosis/ tuberculous perito...

Spin resonance of individual spin centers allows applications ranging from quantum information technology to atomic-scale magnetometry. To protect the quantum properties of a spin, control over its local environment, including energy relaxation and decoherence processes, is crucial. However, in most existing architectures, the environment remains fixed by the crystal structure and electrical co...

Crosstalk between salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) signaling is well-studied but not during leaf senescence. We found that the senescence-specific WRKY53 transcription factor interacts with the JA-inducible protein EPITHIOSPECIFYING SENESCENCE REGULATOR (ESR/ESP). The expression of these genes is antagonistically regulated in response to JA and SA, respectively, and each negatively in...

The aim of this study is to determine platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and lymphocytes to monocytes ratio (LMR) levels in Behçet's disease (BD) and to investigate their relationships with disease activity.Hematological and inflammatory parameters including high-sensitivity C-reactive proteins (hs-CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), PLR, and LMR were examined in BD and healthy controls...

BACKGROUND Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is an immune mediated inflammatory disease of medium and large arteries which afflicts older people. The classical presentation features include: headache, visual disturbances, and jaw claudication. Patients diagnosed with GCA have also been observed to be at higher risk for the subsequent development of strokes. CASE PRESENTATION We describe a case of an...

BACKGROUND Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) is a biomarker increasingly used for the assessment of systemic inflammation. We aimed to evaluate suPAR for the assessment of inflammatory activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in remission. METHODS In our cross-sectional study we measured plasma suPAR and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels as well as erythrocyte sedim...

We read with great interest the original article “Rapid induction of remission in large vessel vasculitis by IL-6 blockade” by Dr. Seitz et al. [1]. One of us (F.J.F-F) is very interested in the treatment of giant-cell arteritis because his mother was diagnosed with giant-cell arteritis 5 months previously. She had polymyalgia rheumatic for several months, and headache was the main manifestatio...

OBJECTIVE Antifibrillar collagen type II (anti-CII) antibody-positive patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have early but not late signs of increased inflammation and joint erosions. We wanted to replicate this in a large RA cohort, and to relate to human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DRB1* alleles. METHODS Anti-CII and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP)2 were measured at baseline in 773 pa...

Background: To evaluate the effect of treatment on musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) and explore whether MSUS are associated with therapeutic response in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients treated Tofacitinib combination methotrexate (MTX). Methods: We enrolled 102 RA MTX from a multicenter, exploratory, short-term, prospective observational cohort study who received biologic or targeted synthe...