PURPOSE: The precise molecular mechanisms culminating in coronary artery disease (CAD) are not well understood, despite a wealth of knowledge on predisposing risk factors and pathomechanisms. CAD and myocardial infarction (MI) are complex genetic diseases; neither the environment alone, nor a single gene, cause disease, rather, a mix of environmental and genetic factors lead to atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the present study, our aim was to investigate the roles of prothrombin G20210A mutation and Factor VLeiden mutation in atherosclerotic coronary artery disease. 287 subjects (106 control subjects, who were angiographically normal, and 181 angiographically documented coronary atherosclerotic patients who exhibited coronary artery narrowing to a degree of > or = 50%) were included in this study. The mutations were assessed with LightCycler Real-Time PCR mutation detection kits (Roche Diagnostics, GmbH, Germany). RESULTS: 6.6% of control subjects, and 6.1% of patients with (50% coronary artery narrowing were determined to have the Factor VLeiden heterozygote mutation. 6.6% of control subjects had the Prothrombin G20210A heterozygote mutation, while 7.7% of patients with (50% coronary artery narrowing had this mutation. The OR for Factor VLeiden was 1.52 (CI: 0.240-9.602) and for Prothrombin G20210A mutation, the OR was 1.415 (CI: 0.287-6.962). CONCLUSION: Although both the heterozygote Factor VLeiden and Prothrombin gene mutations were more frequent in patients with CAD than in control subjects, there was no statistical relationship found to exist between coronary artery disease and the Factor VLeiden and Prothrombin G20210A mutations.
Aged ; Coronary Artery Disease/*genetics ; Factor V/*genetics ; Female ; Gene Frequency ; Genotype ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; *Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Prothrombin/*genetics

Psoriasis is a common, chronic inflammatory skin disease with unknown etiology. Recently it has been suggested that increased ROS production and deficient function of antioxidant systems activities may be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. Although there are several studies investigating oxidant/antioxidant systems in psoriatic patients, the data obtained from these studies is not concordant. In this study, superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme activity, and malondialdehyde (MDA) and antioxidant potential (AOP) levels in thirty-five patients with psoriasis were investigated and compared with those of twenty-four control subjects. Clinical severity of the disease was determined according to the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) scores in the patients. Plasma SOD activity and MDA levels were significantly higher (p=0.012 and p=0.005 respectively), whereas AOP levels were lower, in patients than controls (p=0.001). There was no correlation between PASI scores and plasma SOD, MDA, and AOP levels. Our findings may provide some evidence for a potential role of increased ROS production and decreased antioxidant activity in psoriasis.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Antioxidants/*metabolism ; Case-Control Studies ; Female ; Human ; Male ; Malondialdehyde/blood ; Middle Aged ; Oxidants/*blood ; Psoriasis/*blood ; Superoxide Dismutase/blood

Superficial mycosis, including dermatophytic infections, tinea versicolor, and cutaneous candidiasis is mostly limited to the outer layers of the skin, nails, and mucous membranes. In this study, Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) polymorphism and lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations were compared between 42 patients with superficial fungal disease and 27 control subjects. Both the patients and controls were found to be normolipemic. The patients with superficial fungal disease had significantly higher concentrations of high-density cholesterol (HDL) compared to the control group (p=0.0462). However, there was no difference in the serum triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol concentrations. A significantly higher incidence of heterozygosity E2/3 was found in the patients (p=0.0228), and significantly lower incidence of homozygosity E3/3 in all patients, and those with candidiasis and dermatophytosis (p=0.0139, 0.0194 and 0.0337, respectively) compared to the control group. The E3/4 genotype differences between patients and controls were not statistically significant. There were slight differences in the allele frequencies between the two groups, but these did not reach statistically significant levels. It was concluded that the presence of apoE2/3 genotype, high HDL-cholesterol levels and the absence of apoE3/3 genotype can be regarded as risk factors for superficial fungal disease, especially dermatophytosis.
Apolipoproteins E/*genetics ; Candidiasis, Cutaneous/blood/epidemiology/*genetics ; Gene Frequency ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease/epidemiology ; Genotype ; Human ; Lipids/*blood ; *Polymorphism (Genetics) ; Prospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Tinea Versicolor/blood/epidemiology/*genetics