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Aim of the work This study aimed to assess serum levels of some adipocytokines (leptin, adiponectin and resistin) and IL-6 in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) to evaluate their relationship to disease activity and functional capacity. Patient and method Twenty-five AS patients were enrolled. Body mass index (BMI), Bath AS Disease Activity Index (BASDAI), Bath AS Functional Index (BASFI) and acute phase reactants, such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, were assessed. Serum leptin, adiponectin, resistin and interleukin (IL)-6 levels were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results The mean levels of leptin (9.1 ± 3.9 ng/ml), resistin (2.27 ± 1.15 ng/ml) and IL-6 (9.2 ± 5.8 pg/ml); were significantly elevated in patients with AS compared to the controls (p = 0.000, p = 0.0028 and p = 0.000, respectively). Only serum leptin levels correlated significantly with IL-6 (p = 0.004), and both serum leptin and IL-6 levels correlated significantly with BASDAI (p = 0.02 and p = 0.005, respectively), ESR (p = 0.04) and CRP (p = 0.01 and p = 0.006, respectively) in AS patients. Serum resistin did not correlate with any of the AS disease parameters, whereas, serum adiponectin neither significantly elevated nor correlated with any of these parameters. Conclusion The associations of significantly increased levels of serum leptin and IL-6 with AS disease activity parameters give clues to their role in the inflammatory process of the disease. Failure to find any correlation between high serum resistin levels and AS disease activity parameters is suggestive of its role in the pathogenesis rather than disease activity.

Four simple, rapid and sensitive spectrophotometric methods have been proposed for the determination of enalapril maleate in pharmaceutical formulations. The first method is based on the reaction of carboxylic acid group of enalapril maleate with a mixture of potassium iodate (KIO3) and iodide (KI) to form yellow colored product in aqueous medium at 25 ± 1°C. The reaction is followed spectrophotometrically by measuring the absorbance at 352 nm. The second, third and fourth methods are based on the charge transfer complexation reaction of the drug with p-chloranilic acid (pCA) in 1, 4-dioxan-methanol medium, 2, 3-dichloro 5, 6-dicyano 1, 4-benzoquinone (DDQ) in acetonitrile-1,4 dioxane medium and iodine in acetonitrile-dichloromethane medium. Under optimized experimental conditions, Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration ranges of 2.5-50, 20-560, 5-75 and 10-200 µg mL-1, respectively. All the methods have been applied to the determination of enalapril maleate in pharmaceutical dosage forms. Results of analysis are validated statistically.

A kinetic spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of perindopril erbumine in pure and commercial dosage forms. The method is based on the reaction of drug with potassium permanganate in alkaline medium at room temperature (30 ± 1 °C). The reaction was followed spectrophotometrically by measuring the increase in absorbance with time at 603 nm and the initial rate, fixed time (at 8.0 min) and equilibrium time (at 90.0 min) methods were adopted for constructing the calibration graphs. All the calibration graphs are linear in the concentration range of 5.0–50.0 μg/ml. The limits of detection for initial rate, fixed time and equilibrium time methods were 0.752, 0.882 and 1.091 μg/ml, respectively. The activation parameters such as E a , ΔH ‡ , ΔS ‡ and ΔG ‡ were also determined for the reaction and found to be 60.93 kJ/mol, 56.45 kJ/mol, 74.16 J/K mol and −6.53 kJ/mol, respectively. The variables were optimized and the proposed methods are validated as per ICH guidelines. The method has been further applied to the determination of perindopril erbumine in commercial dosage forms. The analytical results of the proposed methods when compared with those of the reference method show no significant difference in accuracy and precision and have acceptable bias.

Two optimized and validated spectrophotometric methods have been developed for the determination of amiodarone hydrochloride in commercial dosage forms. Method A is based on the reaction of tertiary amino group of the drug with N-bromosuccinimide in methanol–acetone medium resulting in the formation of a yellow colored product, which absorbed maximally at 353 nm. Method B involves the formation of a colored chloroform extractable ion-pair complex of the drug with bromothymol blue at pH 2.32 absorbing maximally at 400 nm. Beer’s law is obeyed in the concentration ranges 50–600 and 2–55 μg mL−1 with molar absorptivity of 1.58 × 102 and 1.50 × 104 L mol−1 cm−1 for methods A and B, respectively. The regression analysis yields the calibration equations: A = 4.012 × 10−4 + 1.16 × 10−3 C and A = 9.612 × 10−4 + 2.198 × 10−2 C for methods A and B, respectively. The application of the proposed methods to commercial dosage forms is presented.