BACKGROUND Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune enteropathy triggered by the ingestion of gluten. Gluten-sensitive individuals (GS) cannot tolerate gluten and may develop gastrointestinal symptoms similar to those in CD, but the overall clinical picture is generally less severe and is not accompanied by the concurrence of tissue transglutaminase autoantibodies or autoimmune comorbidities. By st...

This is the first report of an early association between elevated fibrinogen and asymptomatic unicentric Castleman's disease (CD). A 49-year-old asymptomatic female who was serving as a normal control in an unrelated study was incidentally found to have significantly elevated levels of plasma fibrinogen. Upon further investigation with computer tomography scans and magnetic resonance imaging, t...

The most frequently reported species of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) damage associated with ageing is the 4977-bp 'Common Deletion'. However, recent observations have raised several issues within the deletion debate namely: the significance of the 4977-bp deletion (CD) as a universal DNA marker of ageing and mitochondrial dysfunction; and the possibility for maternal transmission of deletions in h...

Platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH) is an enzyme hydrolyzing platelet-activating factor (PAF), a potent inflammatory mediator, but the relationship between this enzyme and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is not fully elucidated. The aim of the present study was to examine the usefulness of the serum PAF-AH activity in order to differentiate ulcerative colitis (UC) from Crohn's ...

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) comprising Crohn disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are chronic inflammatory conditions with polygenic susceptibility. Interactions between TNF-alpha and TNF-alpha receptor play a fundamental role in inflammatory response. This study investigates the role that selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and haplotypes in the TNF-alpha receptor (TNSFR...

AIM The study aimed to evaluate high-sensitivity CRP (hsCRP) as a diagnostic and predictive marker in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). MATERIAL/METHODS Medical history of 106 patients with IBD revealed hsCRP concentrations at diagnosis and during the follow-up period. RESULTS The study showed that the majority of investigated patients had elevated hsCRP concentrations at diag...

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an inflammatory disease of unclear etiopathogenesis and challenging diagnosis, frequently complicated by anemia and malnutrition. C-reactive protein (CRP) remains the only biochemical marker of clinical relevance. The aim of this study was to test hypothesis that transferrin, coinfluenced by inflammation, malnutrition, anemia, and oxidative stress, may better...

BACKGROUND Faecal calprotectin (FC) is one of the most widely used non-invasive tests for the diagnosis and assessment of Crohn's disease (CD) activity. Despite this, factors other than disease activity which affect levels have not been extensively reviewed. This is of importance when using FC in the diagnostic setting but also may be of utility in studying the aetiology of disease. OBJECTIVE...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate QT dispersion (QTd), which is the noninvasive marker of ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death, and P-wave dispersion, which is the noninvasive marker of atrial arrhythmia, in patients with conversion disorder (CD). PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 60 patients with no known organic disease who were admitted to outpatient emergency cli...

BACKGROUND Intestinal fibrosis and subsequent stricture formation represent frequent complications of Crohn's disease (CD). In many organs, fibrosis develops as a result of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). Recent studies suggested that EMT could be involved in intestinal fibrosis as a result of chronic inflammation. Here, we investigated whether EMT might be involved in stricture for...