Clinical Efficiency of Narrow Band-Ultraviolet B Phototherapy and Methotrexate Therapy and their effects on Serum Tumor Necrosis Factor-Alpha in Patients with Cutaneous Lichen Planus.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the clinical efficiency of Narrow Band-Ultraviolet B (NB-UVB) phototherapy and methotrexate (MTX) therapy and their effects on serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) in patients with cutaneous lichen planus (CLP). Methods: The present cohort study was carried out on 60 patients with CLP who attended the Out-patient Clinics of the Dermatology, Department, Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, South Valley University between May 2018 and December 2019.The included patients were indiscriminately classified into two treatment groups; group A (30 patients), received NB-UVB phototherapy for three months and group B (30 patients), received MTX therapy for three months. All the patients were assessed clinically and TNF-α before and after treatments. Results: There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups of treatment regard clinical improvement after treatment (P=0.149). Regarding levels of TNF-α, there was a statistically significant difference between the two treatment groups after treatment (P=0.024). There was a statistically significant reduction in TNF-α level after treatment in the MTX group. Conclusion: This study concluded that NB-UVB phototherapy and MTX therapy were clinically effective in the treatment of patients with CLP. MTX therapy was more efficient in the reduction of TNF-α level than NB-UVB phototherapy in patients with CLP.

Determination of serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) levels in metabolic syndrome patients from Saudi population

Objectives: To detect the relationship between serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) components in patients of the Saudi population. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out at Jouf University Saudi Arabia from September 2019 to August 2020 and comprised of 183 individuals (91 cases and 92 controls). The blood samples were drawn from the patients visiting two tertiary care settings of Al Jouf province. Biochemical analysis was conducted on various instruments, and serum TNF-α was measured by the ELISA method. Results: The levels of serum glucose fasting, lipid profile, HbA1c and body mass index (BMI) were raised significantly in cases of MetS than controls (p = 0.001). Serum TNF-α was significantly higher in patients (58.04 ± 15.44) than controls (48.81 ± 10.30). It was correlated with the BMI, blood HbA1c, serum fasting glucose (SFG) and serum high density lipoprotein (HDL). The weak positive correlation was found with BMI (r = 0.18; p = 0.01), serum glucose (r = 0.21; p = 0.007) and HbA1c (r = 0.14; p = 0.04), but found negative association with serum HDL (r = -0.18; p = 0.01). Conclusion: The serum TNF-α was raised in metabolic syndrome patients than the healthy controls. It was positively associated with high BMI, serum fasting glucose, and HbA1c and found linked and negatively linked to low HDL levels in MetS patients in the Saudi population. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.3.3897 How to cite this:Ullah MI, Alzahrani B, Alsrhani A, Atif M, Alameen AAM, Ejaz H. Determination of serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) levels in metabolic syndrome patients from Saudi population. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(3):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.3.3897 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.