Biomedical subjects

Lorena Duca

Publications and source records attributed to Lorena Duca.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Changes in erythropoiesis, iron metabolism and oxidative stress after half-marathon.

OBJECTIVE: In marathon runners changes in red blood cell count, haematocrit and haemoglobin in relation to haemodilution have been reported. Moreover, it has been hypothesized that strenuous exercise induces oxidant stress through several different mechanisms. This study investigated the haematological variables, iron status and oxidative indices before, immediately and 48 h after a race in 8 healthy trained males aged 33-44 years running a 21-km marathon in 79 +/- 3 min. METHODS: The haematological parameters were determined by standard procedures. Erythropoietin and soluble-transferrin receptor were evaluated immunoenzymatically. Nontransferrin-bound iron (NTBI) was assayed by high-performance liquid chromatography after nitrilotriacetic acid chelation. Malonyldialdehyde (MDA) concentration was assayed colorimetrically. RESULTS: The total number of reticulocytes rose significantly after the run with a significant increase in the high-RNA-content fraction (14 +/- 5, p < 0.0006). Erythropoietin rose by 26% (15.0 +/- 2.8 mU/ml, p < 0.004) and by 25% (14.9 +/- 2.13 mU/ml, p < 0.02) immediately and 48 h after the race, respectively. Serum iron and serum ferritin remained unchanged but NTBI and serum MDA increased significantly immediately after running (1.16 +/- 0.40 mmol/l, p < 0.0008; 0.76 +/- 0.16 mmol/l, p < 0.0001). Significant positive correlations at any time between MDA and polymorphonuclear neutrophils (p = 0.0005), MDA and NTBI (p = 0.0018), polymorphonuclear neutrophils and NTBI (p = 0.0008) and between lactate dehydrogenase and NTBI (p = 0.0212) were observed. CONCLUSIONS: The erythropoietic changes observed in marathon runners are the results of several interacting mechanisms that involve either the haemopoietic system per se or erythrocyte haemolysis and oxidative stress.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Iron burden and liver fibrosis decrease during a long-term phlebotomy program and iron chelating treatment after bone marrow transplantation.

In this retrospective study, we report the results of the association of a combined phlebotomy program and chelation in hereditary sideroblastic anemia (HSA) to reduce iron overload after bone marrow transplantation (BMT). A male HSA patient, not responding to pyridoxine treatment, was submitted to successful allogeneic BMT. As there was a persistence of a tissue iron overload, a regular phlebotomy program was started followed by chelation. A significant decrease of iron burden was obtained using a combined treatment with deferoxamine (DFO) and deferiprone (L1) in addition to the phlebotomy program. A 10-year follow-up shows a marked decrease in the concentration of serum ferritin, non-transferrin-bound iron (NTBI), liver iron and normal hemoglobin (Hb), which allows the patient to reach and maintain a good quality of life.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Erythrocyte ferritin concentration: analytical performance of the immunoenzymatic IMx-Ferritin (Abbott) assay.

Together with serum ferritin, erythrocyte ferritincan be a valuable diagnostic tool for evaluating the degree of impaired iron metabolism in different diseases. We collected peripheral blood samples from 64 subjects (22 healthy volunteers, 20 patients with hereditary hemochromatosis, and 22 patients on regular hemodialysis with secondary anemia) to evaluate whether an immunoenzymatic method generally used for serum ferritin can also be used to determine erythrocyte ferritin levels under various conditions of body iron status. Serum and erythrocyte ferritin levels were assayed in parallel using a microparticle enzyme immunoassay (MEIA) IMx-Ferritin kit and an IMx analyzer. The inter-assay imprecision of the serum and erythrocyte ferritin assays was 4.9% and 5.05%, the intra-assay imprecision was 2.2% and 2.3%, and the mean recovery was 102% (range 96-105%) and 101% (range 99-105%), respectively. Both serum and erythrocyte ferritin assays showed a detection limit of 1 microg/L and good linearity (R(2) = 0.99) in the intervals 13.9-443 and 3.9-135.6 microg/L, respectively. Our findings demonstrate that the IMx-Ferritin assay currently used to measure serum ferritin levels can also be adopted to measure erythrocyte ferritin insofar as it clearly discriminates high and low erythrocyte ferritin levels in cases of both iron overload and deficiency.

Adult↗