Search

Background: Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are examples of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), which are chronic gastrointestinal tract illnesses with no known cause. In UC, there is a correlation between leucine-rich alpha-2 glycoprotein (LRG) and clinical disease activity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between UC patients' LRG serum levels and their illness activity and severity. Method: We performed this prospective cohort study on 36 Ulcerative colitis patients. C-Reactive Protein (CRP), serum urea, creatinine, total bilirubinand fecal calprotectin were assessed. Serum LRG levels were measured by using double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: The best cutoff of baseline LRG for diagnosing severe UC in comparison to mild and moderate cases was =67.4µg/ml with area under curve 0.913 with sensitivity 91.7%, specificity 87.5%, positive predictive value 78.6%, negative predictive value 95.5% and overall accuracy 91.7% (p=0.002). A statistically significant positive correlation was revealed between baseline LRG and Mayo score (p<0.001). A significant difference was found between mild, moderate &severe disease groups with baseline LRG (p<0.001). On comparing each two groups with one way ANOVAand Mann Whitney test, the difference was significant between mild and both moderate and severe disease (significantly lower in mild group with p values of 0.013, and <0.001 respectively). Conclusions: Leucine-rich glycoprotein could be a reliable serum biomarker for the assessment of clinical disease activity in patients with IBD. It can be an alternative to CRP and fecal calprotectin for the assessment of ulcerative colitis disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sorafenib is the standard treatment for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with advanced stage disease. An accurate prediction model is important to ascertain the prognosis of HCC patients treated with sorafenib. This study aimed to predict the outcome of HCC patients treated with sorafenib using ACLR and HALP scores. Methods: This Observational Retrospective Cohort Study was conducted on 110 Patients with HCC patients from January 2015 to December 2022 at Medical Oncology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University. Results: HALP and ACLR score were significantly associated with treatment outcome among HCC patients treated with sorafenib. HALP was a predictor for treatment outcome among HCC patients treated with sorafenib at cut off point of 42.9 with sensitivity of 75.7% and specificity of 86.3%. ACLR was a predictor for treatment outcome among HCC patients treated with sorafenib at cut off point of 75.6 with sensitivity of 78.4% and specificity of 82.2%. High HALP score indicates better prognosis with a cut off of 42.9. Low ACLR indicates better prognosis with a cut of 75.6. Conclusion: Both HALP and ACLR scores can be used as valid prognostic scores for independently predicting the overall prognosis in HCC patients treated with Sorafenib. Having a low HALP score indicates worse prognosis, while, our results showed that the cut off for ACLR 75.6 .. but high and low score didn't show any significance in predicting the PFS or OS but they show significant sensitivity and specificity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are both examples of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) that are chronic GIT diseases of unknown etiology. Aim: This research aimed to ascertain the interleukin-23 serum level in Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis disease patients. Patients and Methods: The research was a case-control investigation involving 72 participants, subdivided into 48 patients who were either hospitalized in ICU or inpatient wards or outpatient clinics (IBD OPD) in Internal Medicine Department, (Zagazig University Hospitals). In addition, 24 healthy individuals who were age- and sexmatched were selected as a control. Results: There were discernible contrasts between the groups with regard to the levels of IL-23. When the two groups are compared, it is clear that there was a considerable distinction between Crohn's disease (CD) in remission and moderate and severe ulcerative colitis. In addition, there was a significant difference between Crohn's disease, which is moderately severe, and ulcerative colitis, which is very severe. There is a large gap between having moderate Crohn's disease and having moderate ulcerative colitis. Conclusion: The findings of this study lend support to the hypothesis that determining an individual's IL-23 levels may be helpful in determining the degree to which Crohn's disease or UC is present. It is possible to postulate that IL-23 is a reliable indicator of the eventual results of the patients. Therefore, it is possible for it to be evaluated with a lower amount of effort and cost compared to other markers and procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]