International journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Research

73-76

Authors: Seema Verma, Arunima Karkun, Huma Naz Siddiqui

The present study was carried out to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of clove oil extracted from clove. Screening for antibacterial and antifungal of clove oil was done using agar well diffusion. Four Bacterial and ten fungal species were taken. According to the result clove oil was more effective against Bacteria as compared to Fungi. We can conclude by this study that clove oil works better as antibacterial. It was also observed that by increasing concentration of clove oil the growth of fungi was decreased.

83-88

Authors: Radhika Krishnaswamy, Soniya Lukose

Background: The Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is considered to be the most reliable measure of the functional capacity of the kidneys and is it has proved to be the most sensitive and specific marker of changes in overall renal function. The accurate measurement of the GFR is time consuming, expensive, and not practical for routine clinical use.1 Though Inulin clearance is considered to be the gold standard test, it has not been used widely because it time consuming, expensive, requires continuous infusion, and constraining for the patient. 2, 3, 4 Creatinine clearance is most commonly used for the estimation of GFR. The need to collect a urine sample remains a major limitation of the creatinine clearance test.5 Many formulae have been developed to transform serum creatinine so that it may accurately reflect, GFR.6 Variations in creatinine production owing to age and sex related differences in muscle mass have been measured and incorporated into the formulas to improve the GFR.7 In adults, the most commonly used formulae are those derived from the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) and the Cockcroft-Gault (CG), which have not been validated in Indian population. 8 This study was aimed to compare the diagnostic performance of the MDRD Cockcroft-Gault formulae, and Measured Creatinine Clearance in Indian population. Materials and Methods: In 370 subjects Creatinine Clearance was calculated by Routine Creatinine Clearance test using serum and urine Creatinine and also through MDRD and the Cockcroft-Gault formulae. Subjects were divided into two groups based on the Measured Creatinine Clearance values. Group A consisted of subjects with Measured Creatinine Clearance >60 ml/min. Group B consisted of subjects with Measured Creatinine Clearance <60 ml/min Statistical analysis: Correlation (Pearsons correlation) between the values of Clearance obtained through the three methods in the above two groups was analyzed using SPSS-16 version. Results: Group A (Measured Creatinine Clearance >60 ml/min) The Cockcroft-Gault formula showed strong positive correlation (r value 0.756, p value <0.001) with the Measured Creatinine Clearance than the MDRD formula. (r value 0.684,p value <0. 001) Group B (Measured Creatinine Clearance <60 ml/min) both Cockcroft and MDRD showed weak positive correlation with Measured Creatinine Clearance. Cockcroft ((r value 0.617, p value <0.001) MDRD (r value 0.613, p value <0.001) Conclusion: The present study shows weak positive correlation between the Measured Creatinine Clearance, MDRD and Cockcroft formulae at Clearance values<60 ml/min and strong positive correlation between Measured Creatinine Clearance and Cockcroft formula at Clearance values >60 ml/min. Since MDRD formula includes age, gender, and race and developed for the western population with chronic renal insufficiency, further research is needed in our population, to establish and incorporate adjustment& Correction factors in the formula, so that it can be used for a wider range of renal function, in our population to give reliable results and therefore can replace the traditional Measured Creatinine Clearance test.

97-109

Authors: Sanjay D Gabhale, Pallavi Taparia, Dharamveer Yadav, S.P. Agnihotri

Background: Pleural effusion is an abnormal collection of fluid in pleural space resulting from excess production or disruptions of homeostatic forces that regulate the flow of fluid in and out of the area. It is a frequent manifestation of serious thoracic disease whose specific diagnosis is a challenging task. Pleural effusion can be due to Infectious, malignant, parapneumonic disease and tubercular or other causes. Diagnosis of PE is not straight forward due to associated heart disease, malignancy or infection. A specific biomarker is therefore required for differential diagnosis of pleural effusion. C- Reactive Protein is an acute phase protein synthesized by hepatocytes and widely used to assess severity of infection and is directly associated to degree of inflammation in diseased state. The aim of this study is to assess specificity and sensitivity of Pleural Fluid CRP and other routine biochemical indices in diagnosis of exudative Pleural effusion arising due to varying etiologies. Material and Method: The study involved 187 adult patients diagnosed with exudative pleural effusionand classified into 5 groups as follows: 1. malignant pleural effusion (MPE), 2. Chronic non-specific inflammation (CNI), 3. Parapneumonic pleural effusion (PPE), 4.Tubercular pleural effusion (TBPE) and 5. Others. After complete clinical evaluation, routine Pleural fluid analysis and CRP was analysed. Reciever Operating Characterstics (ROC) analysis established the cutoffs of CRP for discriminating between groups. Result and Discussion: Pleural Fluid CRP level was significantly higher in infectious parapneumonic group, followed by Chronic non specific inflammatory group and Tubercular cases with lowest value in malignant group. ROC analysis of Pleural fluid CRP provided good sensitivity (97.05%), specificity (71.76%), NPV of 95.31% and PPV of 80.48 %for the differentiation of tubercular vs. non tubercular effusions. In ROC analysis of CRP for differentiation of Parapneumonic from non Parapneumonic pleural effusion (tubercular, chronic non-specific inflammation, malignant and others), sensitivity of 100%, specificity 98.88%, NPV of 100% and PPV of 81.82% was seen at cut off level of 90.8 mg/l. It provides largest Area under Curve I.e 1.000. CONCLUSION: Pleural fluid CRP can be used as a diagnostic aid specially differentiating between acute and chronic inflammation and also between infectious and non infectious inflammation with CRP value more than 30 mg/l almost excludes malignancy. Pleural fluid CRP can be used as specific biomarker for differential diagnosis of Parapneumonic pleural effusion with excellent sensitivity and acceptable specificity.

120-122

Authors: Ramesh Chandra Thanna, Rekha Choudhary, Swati Pathak, Amrita Vamne, Shreya Nigoskar

Background: Uric acid is the final product of the purine metabolism in humans. The 2 final reactions in its production which catalyze the conver-sion of hypoxanthine to xanthine and the latter to uric acid are catalyzed by the enzyme xanthine oxidoreductase. The role of uric acid in the progression of prediabetes to diabetes has been known. Serum uric acid has been shown to be associated with cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and chronic kidney disease. Aims & objectives: The present study was done to see the level of uric acid in preeclampsia and regnancy induced hypertension (PIH) patients. Material and Methods: The study involves 50 cases of preeclamsia of age group between 20-35 year and 50 controls with similar age group.Srum uric acid was done from all subjects by uricase method in semi-automated biochemistry analyser after centrifugation of samples. Results: The observed mean serum uric acid levels in preeclampsia was 7.48±0.59 mg/dl as compare to 4.12±0.59 in control group. The difference between them is highly significant because p-value is less than 0.05. Conclusion: High serum uric acid level could be a useful indicator of the maternal and fetal complication.