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Outbreaks of Ebola virus can cause substantial mortality in affected countries. The largest outbreak of Ebola to date is currently underway in West Africa, with 3944 cases reported as of September 5, 2014. For the sake of deriving a better understanding of the Ebola transmission dynamics, we have undertaken to revisit data from the initial spark of origin of the Ebola virus, which occurred in 1976 in Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo). By fitting a mathematical process to time series stratified by disease onset, outcome and source of infection, we have managed to estimate several epidemiological quantities, previously admitted to be too challenging to measure, including hospital and infected community contribution infection to the widespread transmission.

Ephedra, an ancient herb, is applied to treat common cold and influenza for such a long time in China. Pseudoephedrine is a main active ingredient from Ephedra which is used for relieving nasal congestion clinically. We previously reported that pseudoephedrine showed a potent anti-inflammatory effect other than sympathomimetic effects. In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether pseudoephedrine could protect mice from the H1N1 virus infection. The mice were infected with a 20% LD50 influenza A virus (IAV) suspension via intranasal administration to establish a virus infection model. Further, the mice were orally administered pseudoephedrine or oseltamivir for 4 days from one day after infection. Our results showed that pseudoephedrine improved lung pathological damage during the IVA infection period, and it dramatically increased the survival rate and attenuated loss of body weight compared with the virus-infected control group. In addition, pseudoephedrine inhibited the cytokine storms and mRNAs expression of the TLR7 signaling pathway. Surprisingly, pseudoephedrine showed an inhibitory effect on the replication of IAV. These results give clear evidence that pseudoephedrine is a potential anti-influenza drug by blunting cytokine storms and inhibition of replication of IAV, and following these results, we speculate that it should be tested in the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19, a severe epidemic in China currently) in which the cytokine storms play a key role to damage bronchi and lung in the early stage.

Background: The development of COVID-19 having been set apart as the third presentation of an exceptionally pathogenic coronavirus into the human populace after the extreme intense SARS-COV and MERS-COV in the twenty-first century. The infection itself doesn’t make a crucial commitment to mortality, anyway “cytokine storm” created by the unreasonable invulnerable reaction activated by the virus can result in a hyperinflammatory response of lung tissues and deadly lung injury, and in this way increment death rate. In this manner, immunomodulatory medications ought to likewise be remembered for treatment of COVID-19. Presentation of the hypothesis: the virus particles invade the respiratory mucosa firstly and infect other cells, triggering a series of immune responses and the production of cytokine storm in the body, which may be associated with the critical condition of COVID-19 patients. Once a cytokine storm is formed, the immune system may not be able to kill the virus, but it will certainly kill many normal cells in the lung, which will seriously damage the of lung function. Patients will have respiratory failure until they die of hypoxia. It is not yet clear what the death rate of Covid-19 will be, though the best estimate right now is that it is around 1 percent, 10 times more lethal than seasonal flu due to cytokines storm which trigger a violent attack by the immune system to the body, cause acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multiple organ failure, and finally lead to death in severe cases of COVID-19 infection. Therefore, inhibiting cytokine storm can significantly reduce inflammatory injury in lung tissues. Pyridostigmine (PDG), cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway (CAP) is a neural mechanism that modulates inflammation through the release of acetylcholine (ACh), resulting in decreased synthesis of inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α and IL-1. This finding emphasis, the nervous and immune systems work collaboratively during infection and inflammation. Implications of the hypothesis: Administrations of Pyridostigmine (PDG) as cholinergic agonist inhibits the inflammatory response and lower the mortality of COVID-19 patients. Likewise, activation of the CAP during systemic inflammation down-regulates the production and release of inflammatory cytokines. 

A respiratory outbreak of COVID-19 started from Wuhan, China and on 30 January 2020, WHO declared this infection to be epidemic, implementing public health emergency worldwide. On 11th March 2020, observing its prevalence in the whole world and WHO declared as a pandemic. Many countries completely collapse in the grip of this pandemic, as there are no effective treatments available, the precaution is the sole remedy to minimize this infection. The emergence and pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 (since the SARS-CoV in 2002 and MERS-CoV in 2012] manifest the third time outline of highly contagious and pathogenic infection with infect-ability to spread globally in the twentieth-first century. The SARS CoV-2 genome is highly identical to bat coronavirus which is considered to be the perfect natural host. This coronavirus even utilizes the same ACE2 receptor as SARS-CoV and mainly spread the infection to the respiratory tract, which evidently showed that transmission of this virus through interactions and exposures. The death toll of these infected patients is increasing day by day especially when they have prehistory fatal diseases like cardiovascular, diabetics, and respiratory diseases. In this review, we summarized and explained the research progressed and available data on epidemiology, COVID-19 phylogenetic relation and its impact of different fatal disease and their relation and discuss the precautionary methods to combat this pandemic. Moreover, the pieces of evidence of spreading the virus through pets and prevention of being spreading by copper metal endorsement.

In the actual COVID-19 emergency, as pandemic disease, in many countries at the same time there was the rapid need to use preventive and therapeutic measures to control the diffusion of infection. In PC AREA (Italy north) in the period between March and May 2020, in fact, were observed about 1000 deaths related to COVID-19 (in march 2020 + 271% death vs 2019). Between all the measure submitted by public international institution like WHO, OMS, CDC and many other, the deeply use of disinfectants product became a crucial fact in safety procedure and protocols. The high amount of this disinfectants and antiseptic was needed especially in hospital settings or assimilates structure (named as COVID-19 hospital) but also for territorial healthcare need. So it was needed to buy from industries this product but also to start an internal production in galenic laboratories. This because pharmaceutical industries not provided in some cases the request amount of this “”safe life products. In this work is reported a practical experience in a public hospital, Pc AREA related GALENIC extra -ORDINARY PRODUCTION of disinfectants and antispetics. The result of this local experience experience can be easily translated to other countries in the world (advanced or also not advanced).

“Pharmacodynamics of cannabinoids “(i.e. a set of biological effects elicited in the living organism by interaction with its biochemical and biophysical functions up to the cellular level) is studied for a long time during both, physiological and pathological conditions. Cannabinoids received their names according to their natural occurrence as constituents of Cannabis sativa L. (marijuana). 

Objective: To determine the impact of Adenotonsillectomy on Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children’s before and after surgery. Study Design: Prospective, Observational, before and after the trial. 142 children who underwent Adenotonsillectomy were included in the study. Parents were made to fill pre and post-operative questionnaires which were customized from Tonsil and Adenoid health status instrument (TAHSI) and HR-QoL (Health-related quality of life) forms, one day prior to the surgery and 6 months after the surgery respectively, and the results were tabulated and analyzed. Setting: Tertiary pediatric otolaryngology practices. Result: Out of the 142 children in the study, 80 were male and 62 were female. Male to Female ratio is 1.3:1. Age group 1-4 years had the highest number of patients while the age group 9-12 had the least. Preoperatively the Mean score of the domain for Sleep disturbances, Physical Symptoms, Emotional distress, Daytime functions, and Caregiver concern was 14.1, 15.83, 6.89, 7.54, and 13.78 respectively. After 6 months of the surgery, the score decreased to 4.65, 4.22, 4.32, 3.1 and 4.2 respectively. This shows a significant improvement in the symptom complex and the quality of the life. Conclusion: Adenotonsillectomy definitely leads to an improvement in the HRQoL in children as the majority of parents were extremely satisfied with the surgical outcome. Almost all of the parents reported a decrease in Sleep disturbances, Physical Symptoms, Emotional distress, Daytime functions, and Caregiver concern

Introduction: Current pediatric residents spend less time in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and as a result, resident exposure to neonatal pathophysiology has decreased. Engaging learners efficiently while balancing clinical demands is challenging. Practices to enhance adult education include integration of problem centered learning into the demands of daily life in an environment in which learners feel safe asking questions and expressing themselves. Methods: With this principal in mind, we developed a curriculum to enhance resident and medical student education during busy NICU rotations. The curriculum was case-based, available on-line and facilitated by neonatology faculty and fellows. A template designed to be concise and interactive was used to create and present the cases. After the case vignette, the template prompted medical students and residents to generate a differential diagnosis, order a diagnostic workup and narrow the diagnosis. Discussion of the diagnoses occurred at the conclusion of the cases; however, the template discouraged didactic lectures. Results: In two years, cases were viewed 2,362 times. Facilitators and learners rated the quality and utility of the cases favorably overall. Cases took approximately 20 minutes to complete. Approximately 57% of survey respondents reviewed 1-2 cases per week and 9.6% reviewed 3-5 cases per week. Discussion: A template with a concise and consistent format to construct and present cases allows for the creation of a curriculum that can be incorporated into a clinically demanding service and may enhance clinical teaching and learner engagement.

We explored if adolescents with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) had functional postural control impairments and how these deficits are linked to a disturbance in the processing and integration of sensory information. We evaluated the displacements of the center of pressure (COP) during maximal leaning in four directions (forward, backward, rightward, leftward) and under three sensory conditions (eyes open, eyes closed, eyes closed standing on foam). GTS adolescents showed deficits in postural stability and in lateral postural adjustments but they had similar maximal COP excursion than the control group. The postural performance of the GTS group was poorer in the eyes open condition (time to phase 1 onset, max-mean COP). Moreover, they displayed a poorer ability to maintain the maximum leaning position under the eyes open condition during mediolateral leaning tasks. By contrast, during forward leaning, they showed larger min-max ranges than control subjects while standing on the foam with the eyes closed. Together, these findings support the idea that GTS produces subclinical postural control deficits. Importantly, our results suggest that postural control disorders in GTS are highly sensitive to voluntary postural leaning tasks which have high demand for multimodal sensory integration.

Background: In Wilms’ tumor, the time elapsed between clinical diagnosis and the start of treatment is clearly associated with morbidity and mortality. As treatment delay can influence patient survival, identification of possible causes can mitigate the consequences arising from prolonged diagnostic uncertainty. Objective: To ascertain whether an initial diagnosis of Wilms’ tumor in the emergency department influences patient prognosis depending on the type of referral for definitive treatment. Patients and methods: Retrospective chart review of 98 children receiving treatment for Wilms’ tumor at the Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA) between April 2003 and December 2016. Patients were categorized into two groups: those referred directly from an emergency public department to INCA and those first transferred to another hospital before being referred to INCA. Results: Of the 98 cases included in the study, 42.9% were direct referrals and 57.1% were indirect referrals. Presence of an abdominal mass was the most common presenting complaint, followed by abdominal pain. In cases with larger tumors, the mean tumor volume was greater than reported elsewhere in the literature, suggesting longer disease duration. Significantly higher tumor volumes were observed in patients with a palpable abdominal mass as compared to those with the second most frequent complaint (abdominal pain). Conclusion: The findings of this study support the hypothesis that patients diagnosed with kidney masses in the emergency department are at greater risk of delayed diagnosis when they are referred first to a non-specialized outside hospital than when referred directly to a specialized cancer treatment unit.

Six clinical Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from different clinical samples. Isolates ASIA1 and ASIA2 isolated from urine samples of urinary tract infected patients; ASIA3 isolated from swab samples of burn abscess patients at Assiut University hospital as well as ASIA4, ASIA5 and ASIA6 obtained from blood samples of different cancer patients at South Egypt Cancer Institute. All isolates showed varied abilities to produce halo zones of hydrolysis with different diameters on blood agar, heated plasma agar, casein agar and skim milk agar plates along with different clot lyses percent. Staphylococcus aureus ASIA3, ASIA4 and ASIA6 produced 4.83, 5.98 and 2.08 U/mL of staphylokinase on tryptone soy broth reduced to 1.95, 2.08 and 1.70 U/mL on casein hydrolysate yeast extract broth, respectively. On the other hand, Staphylococcus aureus ASIA1, ASIA2 and ASIA5 gave 2.20, 2.93 and 3.65 U/mL on CYEB compared to 2.10, 1.88 and 3.41 U/mL on TSB as production medium. The staphylokinase yielded from the hyperactive producer Staphylococcus aureus ASIA4 was increased for 7.64-fold (from 2.08 U/mL to 15.88 U/mL) on the optimized fermentation medium composed of 5.0 g sucrose as carbon source, 10.0 g soy bean as nitrogen source, 5.0 g NaCl, K2HPO4 5.0 g and pH 7.0 that inoculated with isolate ASIA4 and incubated for 24 h at 35 °C. Moreover, Staphylokinase activity reached its peak at the optimal enzymatic reaction conditions which were reaction time 25 min, casein as substrate, reaction pH 8.0, reaction temperature 40 °C. In addition it retained 100% of its activity at temperature ranged between 15 and 45 °C and pH ranged from pH 6.0 to 9.0. EDTA inhibited the enzyme activity by 3.0% to 32.2% with increasing its values from 30.0 to 90.0 mM. MgCl2 at a concentration of 30 mM increased the enzyme activity by 4% and then slightly decreased at higher concentrations but NaCl was potent staphylokinase activator at concentrations lower than 90 mM.

In this review After Observing biomedical literature (starting from some heart disease) results that some pathological phenomena are deeply involved in some metabolic endocrine condition: Kinetics and gradients in metabolism, catabolism, time related, toxic like effect, electrical cell membrane status, smooth vascular muscle cell hyper-reactivity, platelet iperactivations, central autonomic control after acute stroke, great electrolytes unbalances et other factors as pro-hypertrophic signaling and oxidative stress. Observing actual current therapy in some metabolic endocrine therapy often is used association of drugs (in example in type II diabetes). In Many other pathologies efficacy drug therapy exist, and often only 1 pharmacological molecule resolve the pathological condition. But in many disease even associating 2-3-4 drugs the % of cure not increase (efficacy, effectiveness). It mean that this drugs strategies are not the really best? Or it mean a low active level? Why for this pathological condition this association drugs in currently use not do the right works as really needed? There is the need for new really efficacy drugs strategy that show a profile of efficacy as requested in order to resolve the pathological condition? Or to be added to the actual therapy? The actual pharmacological strategies in some metabolic endocrine disorder is really the best? Or other strategies can be introduced?

The responsiveness of hypertensive subjects to different types of physical exercises and length of intervention, has been investigated in samples of our dynamic cohort study (“Move for Health” program) based on spontaneous demand for healthy lifestyle with supervised exercises and dietary counseling. After clinical selection and baseline assessments they were spontaneously assigned to exercise protocols of strength (PAc) isolated or combined with endurance (walking) exercises (PMi) daily or in alternated days(PMiA), hydrogymnastics(PHy) and tread mill high- intensity exercises(PHit), applied during 10(experiment 1) and 20(experiment 2) weeks of intervention. Baseline demographic, socioeconomic, anthropometric and physical activity and fitness characteristics were similar among protocols. Ten-week training improved VO2max. Similarly in all protocols while hand grip increased only in PAc. In average, there was a 16% reduction rate of hypertension rate from baseline with both, SBP and DBP, reduced by PHy and only SBP by the PMi. After adjustments hypertension was more reduced by PAc, PMi and PHy. In the 20-week experiment, higher SBP was similarly reduced by PAc or PMiA and DBP by PMiA, after adjustments. Hence, so far, our generated data suggest physical exercises as an effective tool for hypertension reduction, from 10 weeks to 3 year-long supervised protocols composed by surface or aquatic activities with strength or endurance exercises. PAc takes longer and short-period responsiveness can be achieved by either combined (strength-endurance) or hydrogymnastic exercises. Thus, exercise training is a time-and type-dependent tool, feasible, costless and scientific-based rheostatic-allostatic alternative for the current “sick-care” drug-dependent homeostatic approach to hypertension med care.

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) is globally defined as coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, or peripheral arterial disease presumed to be of atherosclerotic origin and it is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality for individuals with or without diabetes and is the largest contributor to the direct and indirect catastrophic costs of cardiovascular disorder. Very common conditions coexisting into the cardiovascular risk (e.g., obesity, hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia) are clear risk factors for ASCVD, and diabetes itself confers independent risk. Numerous studies have shown the efficacy of controlling individual cardiovascular risk factors in preventing or slowing ASCVD in people with these disorders. In other words it is not enough control one risk factor. We need to develop novel strategies to detect and control all of them at the same time. Thus, large benefits are seen when multiple cardiovascular risk factors are addressed simultaneously. Under the current paradigm of aggressive risk factor modification in patients with cardiovascular risk, there is evidence that measures of 10-year coronary heart disease (CHD) risk among U.S. adults with cardiovascular risk have improved significantly over the past decade and that ASCVD morbidity and mortality have decreased. In Mexico the Mexican Institute of Social Security is implementing new strategies of primary and secondary prevention in order to confront this pandemic. In this review, we analyze the state of the art to approach at the same time the different cardiovascular risk factors, in an integral form because of this is the real worldwide challenge of health.

Rationale: Blood Pressure measurement has transitioned to the oscillometric method in most hospitals in the United States, however out-patient offices mainly use the auscultatory technique. Objective: To determine time taken to measure blood pressure by an automatic oscillometric device compared to an auscultatory measurement device and to determine what each measurement costs. Methods: Blood Pressures were measured in a single primary care office by medical assistants (MA) for patients seen for office visits. Timed measurements were performed using an automated oscillometric Welch Allyn Connex Vital Signs Monitor (WA) and manually using a Tycos device. A minimum of 400 readings were taken with each method. Results: The average time to manually measure BP was 58.6 seconds, whereas the WA average was 39.8 seconds, 18.8 seconds faster (p<0.05). There was an improvement in measurement time with MA experience with the WA device (p<0.05). The average MA cost to measure a single BP using the manual method was $0.35 vs. the WA method ($0.24) or a savings of $0.11 per measurement. The improvement with experience of WA method reduced cost to $0.17 per measurement. Conclusion: The oscillometric method saved 17cents per measurement potentially saving $1,119 per year for our primary care practice.

Background: Several epidemiologic studies indicate that up to 50% of patients with heart failure have a preserved ejection fraction, and this proportion has increased over time. The knowledge of its severity and associated comorbidity is determining factor to develop adequate strategies for its treatment and prevention. This study was focus on the creation of a cohort and follow-up of Mexican population and to analyze its severity as well as its interaction with the comorbidity of other cardiovascular risk factors. Methods: We included patients from different sites of Mexico City than were sent to the Cardiology hospital of the National Medical Center in Mexico City for the realization of an echocardiogram as part of their assessment by the presence of dyspnea, edema, or suspicion of hypertensive heart disease. Complete medical history, physical examination and laboratory studies including Brain Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) serum levels were performed. Diagnosis of diastolic dysfunction was based on symptoms and echocardiographic data including time of deceleration, size of left atrium, e´ septal and e´ lateral, as well as E wave, A wave and its ratio E/A. All patients had left ventricle ejection fraction > 45%. Results: We included 168 patients with HFpEF. The most common risk factor was hypertension (89.2%), followed by overweight and obesity (> 78.5%), dyslipidemia (82.1%) and diabetes (42.8%). Women were dominant, 108 (64.3%); the mean age was 63 years old. When we classify by severity of diastolic dysfunction, we found that 41.1% were grade I, 57.1% were grade II and only 1.8% were grade III. The risk factors most strongly associated with the severity of diastolic dysfunction were hypertension, obesity and dyslipidemia. We found BNP levels highly variables, but the levels were higher detected as the ejection fraction was approaching to 45%. At one year of follow up mortality was not reported. Conclusion: HFpEF is a frequent entity in patients with cardiovascular risk factors in Mexico. The most common risk factor was hypertension. The combination of hypertension, overweight and dyslipidemia predicted the severity of diastolic dysfunction. We recommend that all Mexican patient with hypertension and overweight or obesity should be submitted as a part of its medical evaluation to an echocardiogram study in order to detect diastolic dysfunction even though the signs or symptoms are or not evident.

The measures put in place by many governments around the world to fight the spread of COVID-19 have drastically reduced visits to diabetes centres. To keep providing people with diabetes the professional support they need and reduce the inconvenience caused by the interruption of traditional assistance, the typical control visit can be carried out by virtual visit, telemedicine (TM) that should have the necessary characteristics to provide a correct execution. Especially this is important for pregnant women first diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), they have the necessity to frequent checks in a short time due to the pregnancy.

SARS-CoV2 can induce multiple immunological and endocrinological changes. We report the case of a COVID-19 associated hyperthyroidism in a young female. Per definition the patient – because of having given birth six weeks previously - had a postpartum thyroiditis. However thus no antibodies were detected, the thyroiditis ceased without medication after the dissolving of the virus disease and the fT3/fT3-ratio proved a destructive thyreopathy as well as there was a close time link onset of the symptoms with the novel corona virus infection we argue it to be a COVID-19 induced thyrotoxicosis. This proves the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to alter thyroid function, therefore all COVID-19 patients should be monitored regarding endocrinological changes and TSH, fT3, fT4 should be assessed.

Introduction: Obesity defined as increased fatty mass is progressively rising in recently, even though its affects begins to all systems in childhood and adolescence periods, the most important morbidity and mortality reason of obesity is its effects on the cardiovascular system. Researches point out endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerosis as the reason of the cardiovascular system disease in obesity. The studies conducted on childhood period related to this subject are highly limited and the results of these are also controversial. Therefore in our study the effects of obesity on endothelial functions in children and adolescents was assessed by flow mediated dilation (FMD) method. In addition to that, effects of epidemiological, biochemical, hormonal and clinical features of cases to FMD were investigated. Material and method: A total number of 104 cases were cover in this study. Obese group (group 1) was consisted of 59 children whose body mass index (BMI) was ≥ 95th percentile and mean age was 12 ± 2.8 years old. The control group (group 2) consisted of 45 children whose body mass index (BMI) was between 25th -84th percentil and mean age was 11.4 ± 2.9 years old. The detailed history, epidemiological data and physical examination were performed. The population classified three groups according to sport activities. 97th percentile and higher values were accepted as morbid obesity. The blood pressure was measured with a mercury sphygmomanometer with utilizing the proper size cuff in compliance with the criterion used by the “National High Blood Pressure Education Program Working Group”. The complete blood count and biochemistry tests (renal and liver function tests, electrolytes, lipids, hsCRP) of the cases were analysed with biochemistry Roche Cobas Integra 800 and hormon assays of the cases (thyroid function tests, diurnal cortisol, ACTH, 17 OHP, prolactin, DHEA-S) were analysed by ECLIA method on Roche Elecsys 2010 device in the laboratory of our hospital. IR-HOMA values > 2.5 in prepuberal and > 4 in pubertal were defined as the insulin resistance. Bone ages of cases were evaluated with left hand wrist X-ray by using Greulich and Pyle Bone Age Atlas. flow mediated dilation (FMD) was used to assess the endothelial functions of all cases. The brachial artery was evaluated with SPG 12 MHz surface probes by using GE voluson ultrasound system in this method. FMD was expresses as percent (%) increase according to the basal vein dimension. 7% mean value was taken as the limit in the comparisons. Results: The ratio of male and female was 20/39 in group 1 and 14/31 in group 2. 32.3% of the cases in group 1 and 47.6% of the cases in group 2 were prepubertal. The waist and hip circumferences ratio of the group 1 (0.86 ± 0.05) was significantly higher than group 2 (0.80 ± 0.07). While there was no difference between groups 1 and 2 in terms of the birth weight, using duration period of vitamin D and beginning time to additional nutrition, breastfeeding duration of group 1 (10.6 ± 7.8 months) was significantly shorter than group 2 (14 ± 7.4 months). BMIs of the mothers in group 1 were statistically higher than the mothers in group 2 (27.5 ± 4.8 kg/m² and 24.3 ± 3.2 kg/m² respectively. The mean of IR-HOMA was 4 ± 2.9 in group 1 and 1.9 ± 0.8 in group 2 and there was the insulin resistance in 51% of the obese cases. The dyslipidemia was diagnosed in 38.5% of the cases in group 1. The systolic and diastolic blood pressures in group 1 (117 ± 12.2 mmHg and 73.7 ± 9.4 mmHg respectively) were significantly higher than in group 2 (107.5 ± 9.1 mmHg and 68.2 ± 7.1 mmHg respectively). Hypertension was determined in 25% of the cases included in group 1. The minimum values of FMD in groups 1 and 2 were 1.01% and 3.1% respectively. The maximum values of FMD in groups 1 and 2 were 9.7% and 15% respectively. The mean values of FMD was %5 ± 2.3 in group 1 and %8.1 ± 3.5 in group 2. Compared with group 2, group 1 demonstrated significantly impaired FMD. There was no association between FMD and the birth weight, breastfeeding duration, physical exercises in two groups. A negative correlation was found between FMD and BMI (p < 0.01, r = -0.402). The correlation was determined between FMD and BMI of the mother (p = 0.017, r = -0.305) and the presence of obese individuals in the family (p = 0.021, r =-0.413). It was found that a significant negative correlation between FMD and waist-hip circumference ratio (p = 0.003, r = -0.421). When each groups were assessed in terms of biochemical and hormonal characteristics, there was low negative correlation between FMD and uric acid level and strong negative correlation between FMD and ALT level were determined in group 1. Conclusion: In our study showed that the obesity begins in the childhood period may cause to the endothelial dysfunction. For this reason, according to our opinion, recognition prior indicators of endothelial dysfunction in early time may be helpful both to take the precautions required and to prevent cardiovascular complications in childhood and influences to the adult period. The rising sizes of the waist and hip circumferences, positive family history for obesity and obesity of the parents were determined as the most important parameters negative affecting FMD. Unlike the literature, the association between endothelial dysfunction and GGT level the indicator of the hepatosteatosis in obese children was also found as well as FMD and ALT have also a close association independent from BMI in this study. Thus, a different point of view was formed since ALT may possibly have a predictor value in the assessment of the endothelial functions and it is also found as a highlighted risk factors for the endothelial dysfunction in this study. Because of this reason, it can be recommended that when the liver function tests carry out in obese children it does not show only hepatosteatosis but also can be used as an early indicator of the cardiovascular complications of obesity. Another important subject to be emphasize that the ALT level in the childhood period may be an early cardiovascular risk indicator in both obese and nonobese children.

Background: The main cause of adrenal insufficiency (AI) in paediatric patients is prolonged treatment with corticosteroids. Determination of plasma cortisol (PC) during ACTH test is the most used adrenal function indicator in clinical practice. However, determination of salivary cortisol (SC), a simple test especially useful in children in order to avoid invasive procedures, can be used as an alternative technique for the diagnosis of adrenal disease. Methods: A two-year prospective study (January 2014-January 2016) in paediatric patients (2-18 years of age) treated with corticosteroids for more than fifteen days, who were investigated for suspected AI. Low-dose ACTH test was used to determine adrenal function and samples for SC and PC were obtained simultaneously in basal situation and during the test (at 30, 60 and 90 minutes). Results: 230 samples (118 PC-112 SC) of 30 studies belonging to 20 patients (4 males), mean age 10.93 years ± 3.69 SD. Pearson’s correlation coefficient showed a positive correlation between PC and SC (r = 0.618, p < 0.001). All the studies with some determination of PC higher than 18 μg/dL (n = 8) had a SC peak higher than 0.61 μg/dL with a specificity of 66.67% and a sensitivity of 93.94% (ROC analysis). Conclusion: Measurement of SC is a less invasive, easier and quicker test than PC to measure plasma free cortisol levels. In our study, a SC peak in low-dose ACTH test higher than 0.61 μg/dL was able to discriminate patients without AI, and proved to be a useful tool in the initial evaluation of children with suspected AI.Introduction The activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in response to critical illness and the resulting release of cortisol from the adrenal cortex are essential to stress adaptation. Adrenal insufficiency (AI) is described as the inability of adrenal glands to produce an appropriate hormonal secretion not only under stress but also in basal situation. Therefore, a low baseline plasma cortisol (PC) (< 5 μg/dL) and a poor cortisol response to stimulation with exogenous adrenocorticotropic hormone (peak < 18 μg/dL) are some of the defining criteria of this condition [1,2]. It is well known that the main cause of AI in paediatric patients is prolonged treatment with exogenous corticosteroids, which is an iatrogenic cause derived from the increasing complexity of paediatric pathologies and the increased use of prolonged high-dose corticosteroid therapy. In clinical practice, adrenal function is usually assessed by the total PC (determined by low-dose ACTH test). This implies the placement of a vascular access which is often a traumatic experience for children. PC includes protein-bound fraction and serum-free cortisol. The latter constitutes the biologically active form of the hormone and is responsible for glucocorticoid activity on peripheral organs. Most of the circulating cortisol is bound to plasma proteins (over 90%), such as cortisol-binding globulin (CBG) and albumin, whereas only about 10% of circulating cortisol is free. Hence, the measurement of plasma-free cortisol level has been considered more representative of adrenal function (especially in critically ill adults and children) [1,2], because some conditions, such as hypoalbuminaemia or hypoproteinaemia (frequent in critically ill patients or in patients with cirrhosis), may lead to misinterpretation of adrenal function with an overestimation of the prevalence of AI. But the direct measurement of free PC is a laboratory-dependent and time-consuming procedure that is not available for routine use. Salivary cortisol (SC) is one of the several indirect methods available to determine free PC [3], as SC levels accurately reflect free PC [4] even in cases of hypoalbuminaemia or CBG abnormality [1,5]. For this reason, in the last years, this technique (SC) has been introduced as a non-invasive tool in the diagnosis of adrenal cortical disorders, for its simplicity and applicability in the paediatric population. However, few studies to date have evaluated the usefulness of SC as a diagnostic method in children with AI. No interactions between exogenous corticoids and SC have been described [6]. The aim of the present study was to assess the usefulness of determining salivary cortisol levels as a diagnostic tool in children with suspected secondary iatrogenic AI.