Endothelin 1 levels in relation to clinical presentation and outcome of Henoch Schonlein purpura

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Henoch Schonlein purpura (HSP) is a common vasculitis of small vessels whereas endothelin-1 (ET-1) is usually reported elevated in vasculities and systematic inflammation. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether ET-1 levels are correlated with the clinical presentation and the outcome of HSP.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study sample consisted of thirty consecutive patients with HSP. An equal number of healthy patients of similar age and the same gender were served as controls. The patients' age range was 2–12.6 years with a mean ± SD = 6.3 ± 3 years. All patients had a physical examination with a renal, and an overall clinical score. Blood and urinary biochemistry, immunology investigation, a skin biopsy and ET-1 measurements in blood and urine samples were made at presentation, 1 month later and 1 year after the appearance of HSP. The controls underwent the same investigation with the exception of skin biopsy.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>ET-1 levels in plasma and urine did not differ between patients and controls at three distinct time points. Furthermore the ET-1 were not correlated with the clinical score and renal involvement was independent from the ET-1 measurements. However, the urinary ET-1 levels were a significant predictor of the duration of the acute phase of HSP (HR = 0.98, p = 0.032, CI0.96–0.99). The ET-1 levels did not correlate with the duration of renal involvement.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Urinary ET-1 levels are a useful marker for the duration of the acute phase of HSP but not for the length of renal involvement.</p

Material differentiation in forensic radiology with single-source dual-energy computed tomography

The goal of this study was to investigate the use of dual-energy computed tomography (CT) in differentiating frequently encountered foreign material on CT images using a standard single-source CT scanner. We scanned 20 different, forensically relevant materials at two X-Ray energy levels (80 and 130 kVp) on CT. CT values were measured in each object at both energy levels. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to determine intra-reader reliability. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to assess significance levels between X-Ray attenuation at 80 and 130 kVp. T test was used to investigate significance levels between mean HU values of individual object pairings at single energy levels of 80 and 130 kVp, respectively. ANOVA revealed that the difference in attenuation between beam energies of 80 kVp compared to 130 kVp was statistically significant (p < 0.005) for all materials except brass and lead. ICC was excellent at 80 kVp (0.999, p < 0.001) and at 130 kVp (0.998, p < 0.001). T test showed that using single energy levels of 80 and 130 kVp respectively 181/190 objects pairs could be differentiated from one another based on HU measurements. Using the combined information from both energy levels, 189/190 object pairs could be differentiated. Scanning with different energy levels is a simple way to apply dual-energy technique on a regular single-energy CT and improves the ability to differentiate foreign bodies with CT, based on their attenuation values