Clinical significance of Galectin-1 and Galectin-4 in rheumatoid arthritis patients and their potential role as diagnostic markers

Aim of the work: To investigate the utility of serum Galectin-1 (Gal-1) and Galectin-4 (Gal-4) as potential markers for diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to explore their relationship with disease activity. Patients and methods: Serum Gal-1 and Gal-4 of 60 RA patients were compared to 30 age and sex-matched controls. Potential relationship of both markers with disease activity assessed using Disease activity score-28 joints (DAS-28), seropositivity (Rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-citrullinated protein antibody (ACPA)), functional classification assessed using modified health assessment questionnaire (MHAQ), radiographic progression assessed using Larsen score and treatment was investigated. Results: The study included 60 patients; 54 (90 %) females and 6 (10 %) males with a mean age of 42.6 ± 10.1 years and disease duration of 7.5 ± 6.4 years. Their mean DAS-28 was 4.6 ± 1.0, their MHAQ was 1 ± 0.5 and their Larsen score was 41.3 ± 9.9. The mean of Gal-1 and Gal-4 were both significantly lower in RA patients in comparison to control group (4.4 ± 1.5 ng/ml vs 38.1 ± 25.5 ng/ml and 1.2 ± 0.7 ng/ml; p < 0.001vs 8.1 ± 7.0 ng/ml; p < 0.001 respectively. At a cut off value ≤7.7 for Gal-1 and ≤2.3 for Gal-4 was successfully able to differentiate between RA patients and control group. There was no correlation between both Gal-1 &amp; Gal-4 and DAS-28, MHAQ, Larsen score, RF or ACPA titres. Conclusion: Gal-1 &amp; 4 serum levels have a potential role as diagnostic markers in patients with RA. Both markers however cannot be regarded as disease activity or severity markers

Assessment of informational needs in Behcet’s patients

Behçet’s disease (BD) is one of the rare rheumatologic diseases which affects most commonly young adults in the third or fourth decade of life. Inspite of the multi system nature of the disease can lead to temporary or permanent functional disability, informational needs of BD patients is still unknown as no studies has investigated such issue, hence the aim is to assess the informational needs among patients with Behçet’s disease.&nbsp; A cross-sectional descriptive design on a convenient sample of 68 adult BD patients was utilized. Data was collected using the following tools: (a) structured interview questionnaire and (b) the Arabic version of Toronto Informational Needs Questionnaire (TINQ) adapted for BD. &nbsp;The highest percentage of the study sample was male (82.40%) came from rural area (61.80%) and aged 31-42 (58.00%) with a mean age of (38±7.01 years). The study results showed the information related to treatment, disease characteristics, investigative tests and psychosocial items are highly important needs among BD patients. Age, gender and education are influencing factors for informational needs in the sample of the study. Further replication of the study is recommended from different geographical areas

The Prognostic Role of NEDD9 and P38 Protein Expression Levels in Urinary Bladder Transitional Cell Carcinoma

Background. The most common malignant tumor of the urinary bladder is transitional cell carcinoma (TCC). Neural precursor cell-expressed developmentally downregulated protein 9 (NEDD9) is found to be a cell adhesion mediator. P38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase is a serine/threonine kinases member which can mediate carcinogenesis through intracellular signaling. Methods. To assess their prognostic role; NEDD9 and p38 protein were evaluated in sections from 50 paraffin blocks of TCC. Results. The high expressions of NEDD9 and p38 protein were significantly associated with grade, stage, distant metastasis (p<0.001), number of tumors, lymph node metastasis, and tumor size (p<0.001, 0.002; 0.018, <0.001; and 0.004, 0.007, respectively). High NEDD9 and p38 detection had a worse 3-year OS (p=0.041 and <0.001, respectively). By multivariate analysis the NEDD9 and p38 protein expression levels and various clinicopathological criteria including gender, grade, stage of the tumor, and regional lymph node involvement were independent prognostic parameters of TCC of the urinary bladder patients’ outcome. Conclusion. NEDD9 and p38 protein expressions were poor prognostic markers of TCC