Procalcitonin: A Severity Marker for Pre-Eclampsia?

Introduction: Pre-eclampsia is a common and potentially dangerous disorder of human pregnancy. The maternal syndrome of hypertension and proteinuria is part of a severe systemic inflammatory response that includes leukocyte and endothelial cell activation.PCT is a polypeptide consisting of 116 aminoacids and is the precursor of calcitonin. Over the last decade, PCT has become increasingly popular as a novel marker of infection in the intensive care unit setting. The aim of our study was to evaluate changes in serum levels of PCT in pregnancies complicated with mild pre-eclampsia or severe pre-eclampsia and further investigate the correlation with CRP.Methods: Throughout the study period, 80 pregnant women complicated with mild preeclampsia, 80 pregnant women complicated with severe preeclampsia and 80 healthy pregnant women as a control group, giving a total of 240 pregnant women were enrolled into study.Results: Both severe pre-eclampsia and mild pre-eclampsia groups showed significantly higher PCT values when compared with control healthy group (p<0.05). Also, severe pre-eclampsia group showed significantly higher PCT values when compared with mild pre-eclampsia group (p<0.05).A statistically significant correlation was observed in between presence of pre-eclampsia and procalcitonin positivity (p<0.05). And also severity of pre-eclampsia has shown a statistically significant correlation with high values of procalcitonin (p<0.05).Conclusion: Procalcitonin might be a diagnostic marker for investigating women especially with suspected severe preeclampsia

The Prevalence and Risk Factors of Human Papillomavirus in Female Sex Workers

Objective: Human papillomavirus virus (HPV) is the major causative factor for cervical cancer, and sex workers are at high risk for HPV infection. In this study, we aimed to estimate the prevalence and risk factors of HPV infection among female sex workers (FSWs)