INTRODUCTIONThis study aims to evaluate the relationship between increased B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels in stroke patients and clinical parameters such as age, sex, medical history, blood pressure, Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS).

MATERIALS AND METHODSThis is a prospective study of 123 stroke patients at the Emergency Department. The patients were divided into 3 groups according to the NIHSS scores. The analysis of the mean difference between continuous variables and plasma BNP levels was assessed using the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis. Spearman correlation analysis was performed for BNP and other clinical parameters.

RESULTSThe BNP levels of patients who had a medical history of hyperlipidaemia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease were significantly higher than in patients without these diseases. Patients who had atrial fibrillation (AF) in their electrocardiography had significantly higher BNP levels than patients with sinus rhythm. A positive correlation was found between plasma BNP levels with age, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and NIHSS and a negative correlation was found between plasma BNP levels and GCS. There was a significant difference between the BNP levels of NIHSS groups.

CONCLUSIONWe consider that plasma BNP levels could help us in interpreting the general clinical severity, functional capacity and clinical progress of stroke patients at the time of admission in the Emergency Department. In evaluating the high BNP levels in stroke patients, we must keep in mind that age, AF, BUN and medical history can affect the BNP levels.

Adult ; Age Factors ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Atrial Fibrillation ; blood ; complications ; Blood Urea Nitrogen ; Coronary Artery Disease ; blood ; complications ; Diabetes Mellitus ; blood ; Electrocardiography ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Female ; Glasgow Coma Scale ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias ; blood ; complications ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Natriuretic Peptide, Brain ; blood ; Prospective Studies ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; blood ; complications ; Severity of Illness Index ; Stroke ; blood ; complications

Objective To determine the antileishmanial vaccine effectiveness of lipophosphoglycan (LPG) and polyacrylic acids (PAA) conjugates on in vivo mice models. Methods LPG molecule was isolated and purified from large-scale Leishmania donovani parasite culture. Protection efficacies of LPG alone, in combination with Freund's adjuvant, in a physical mixture and in conjugate (consisting of various LPG concentrations) with PAA, were comparatively determined by various techniques, such as cultivation with the micro-culture method, assessment of in vitro infection rates of peritoneal macrophages, determination of parasite load in liver with Leishman-Donovan Units, and detection of cytokine responses. Results Obtained results demonstrated that the highest vaccine-mediated immune protection was provided by LPG-PAA conjugate due to all parameters investigated. According to the Leishman-Donovan Units results, the sharpest decline in parasite load was seen with a ratio of 81.17% when 35 μg LPG containing conjugate was applied. This value was 44.93% for the control group immunized only with LPG. Moreover, decreases in parasite load were 53.37%, 55.2% and 65.8% for the groups immunized with 10 μg LPG containing LPG-PAA conjugate, a physical mixture of the LPG–PAA, and a mixture of LPG + Freund's adjuvant, respectively. Furthermore, cytokine results supported that Th1 mediated protection occurred when mice were immunized with LPG-PAA conjugate. Conclusions It has been demonstrated in this study that conjugate of LPG and PAA has an antileishmanial vaccine effect against visceral leishmaniasis. In this respect, the present study may lead to new vaccine approaches based on high immunogenic LPG molecule and adjuvant polymers in fighting against Leishmania infection.