Serum prohepcidin in pulmonary tuberculosis.
OBJECTIVE
Anemia of chronic disease is the second most encountered anemia following iron deficiency in patients who develop acute or chronic immune activation. Pulmonary tuberculosis is an infectious disease which results in an inflammatory response frequently causing anemia. We investigated whether prohepcidin can be used successfully to disclose the cause of anemia and to monitor the result of the therapy in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.


METHODS
The study was performed in 40 male patients and 15 healthy controls that had a diagnosis of tuberculosis with a positive sputum smear and did not receive any previous treatment. They were treated for 6 months.


RESULTS
The study revealed a significant elevation of prohepcidin in patients with tuberculosis in comparison to those of healthy control subjects. Additionally, prohepcidin levels significantly decreased after treatment in the patient group but remained high in comparison to control group.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that prohepcidin is high in pulmonary tuberculosis and might be a marker for monitoring the response to treatment.
Kaplan
Mustafa
M
Departments of Internal Medicine, GATA Haydarpasa Training Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
Erikci
Alev Akyol
AA
Ozturk
Ahmet
A
Kirilmaz
Ata
A
Tas
Dilaver
D
Ciftci
Faruk
F
Kartaloglu
Zafer
Z
D000328:Adult; D000740:Anemia / Q000097:blood* / Q000382:microbiology; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000097:blood*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D064451:Hepcidins; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000097:blood*; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications; D055815:Young Adult
D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D015415:Biomarkers; D064451:Hepcidins; D011498:Protein Precursors