Browsing by Author "Tosun, Mehmet"

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Asymmetric Dimethylarginine Levels in Patients With Cutaneous Anthrax: a Laboratory Analysis
(Bmc, 2014) Sunnetcioglu, Mahmut; Mengeloglu, Zafer; Baran, Ali Irfan; Karahocagil, Mustafa; Tosun, Mehmet; Kucukbayrak, Abdulkadir; Aypak, Cenk
Background: Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), the main endogenous inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase, is considered to be associated with endothelial dysfunction. High ADMA levels have been shown to be related with disorders causing vascular inflammation such as hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis, chronic heart failure, stroke and sepsis. Cutaneous anthrax (CA) is a serious infectious disease which may cause vasculitis. The aim of the study was to investigate the serum ADMA levels in patients with CA. Methods: A total of 35 serum samples of the patients with CA and 18 control sera were tested for ADMA levels using ADMA ELISA kit (Immunodiagnostik AG, Bensheim, Germany). Results: ADMA levels were found to be significantly higher in the patients group than the controls (p < 0.001). In addition, ADMA levels were found to be positively associated with sedimentation rates (R = 0.413; p = 0.026), and inversely associated with international normalized ratio (INR) levels (R = -0.46; p = 0.011). A cut-off value of 0.475 of ADMA had a sensitivity of 74.3%, specificity of 77.8%, and accuracy of 75.5% in the diagnosis of CA. Conclusion: Although the exact mechanism still remains unclear, ADMA levels could be related to immune activation in CA. In addition, these data might suggest the higher ADMA levels in patients could be due to the perivascular inflammation and vasculitis in CA.
High Asymmetric Dimethylarginine (Adma) Levels in Patients With Brucellosis
(Springer/plenum Publishers, 2014) Mengeloglu, Zafer; Sunnetcioglu, Mahmut; Tosun, Mehmet; Kucukbayrak, Abdulkadir; Ceylan, Mehmet Resat; Baran, Ali Irfan; Akdeniz, Hayrettin
Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) is the main endogenous inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase and is considered to be associated with endothelial dysfunction. Brucellosis, a zoonotic disease caused by Brucella spp., can manifest as vasculopathy. The present study was performed to investigate the relationship between ADMA and brucellosis. Serum samples from 39 patients with an accurate diagnosis of brucellosis and from 18 healthy control individuals were included in this study. ADMA levels were significantly higher in the patient group than the controls (P < 0.001). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis indicated that ADMA level a parts per thousand yen0.61 had a sensitivity of 79.5 %, specificity of 88.9 %, positive predictive value of 93.9 %, and negative predictive value of 66.7 %. This is the first report of an association between brucellosis and high levels of ADMA. In conclusion, ADMA levels should be tested in brucellosis cases and that further studies to clarify the mechanism underlying the association between ADMA and brucellosis are required.