BACKGROUND AND AIM Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most frequent and common functional gastrointestinal diseases. For its diagnosis, clinical criteria are still used. Our objective was to asses if there are specific serum biomarkers for the diagnosis of IBS, and as secondary purpose we aimed to analyze the specificity and sensitivity - where determined - for the proposed biomarkers...

The use of biomarkers in medicine lies in their ability to detect disease and support diagnostic and therapeutic decisions. New research and novel understanding of the molecular basis of the disease reveals an abundance of exciting new biomarkers who present a promise for use in the everyday clinical practice. The past fifteen years have seen the emergence of numerous clinical applications of s...

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a third most common epithelial carcinoma. CRC is known to develop from the early precancerous lesion to full blown malignancy via definite phases due to cumulative mutations and aberrant methylation of number of genes. The use of serum biomarkers that is non-invasive to discriminate cancer patients from healthy persons will prove to be an important tool to improve the...

spirometry has been used as a common diagnostic test in asthma. most of the patients with a mild asthma have a fev1 within normal range. hence, other diagnostic methods are usually used. the aim of this study was to evaluate whether eosinophil cationic protein (ecp) could be an accurate diagnostic marker of mild asthma. in this study diagnosis of asthma was made according to internationally acc...

PURPOSE Plexiform neurofibromas (pNF) are Schwann cell tumors found in a third of individuals with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). pNF can undergo transformation to malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNST). There are no identified serum biomarkers of pNF tumor burden or transformation to MPNST. Serum biomarkers would be useful to verify NF1 diagnosis, monitor tumor burden, and/or detect...

OBJECTIVE To identify serum biomarkers of papillary thyroid cancer. METHODS Prospective analysis was performed of banked tumor and serum specimens from 99 patients with thyroid masses. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was employed to measure levels of five serum proteins previously demonstrated to be up-regulated in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC): angiopoietin-1 (Ang-1), cytokeratin ...

BACKGROUND Circulating nucleic acids (CNAs) offer unique opportunities for early diagnosis of clinical conditions. Here we show that microRNAs, a family of small non-coding regulatory RNAs involved in human development and pathology, are present in bodily fluids and represent new effective biomarkers. METHODS AND RESULTS After developing protocols for extracting and quantifying microRNAs in s...

BACKGROUND Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is currently used as a biomarker for diagnosis and management of prostate cancer (CaP). However, PSA typically lacks the sensitivity and specificity desired of a diagnostic marker. OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to identify an additional biomarker or a panel of biomarkers that is more sensitive and specific than PSA in differentiating benign ve...

BACKGROUND Calcific aortic valve stenosis (CAVS) is seen in a large proportion of individuals over 60 years. It is an active process, influenced by lipid accumulation, mechanical stress, inflammation, and abnormal extracellular matrix turnover. Various biomarkers (BMs) are studied, as regards mechanisms, diagnosis and prognosis. METHODS In the calcified valves calcium deposition, elastin frag...