Regression of left ventricular wall thickness during ACE-inhibitor treatment of essential hypertension is associated with an increase in insulin mediated skeletal muscle blood flow.

Unlabelled: Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) has been associated with insulin resistance, a condition with an impaired insulin-mediated vasodilation in skeletal muscle. ACE-inhibitors have been reported to be superior to most other antihypertensive drugs in inducing a regression of LVH. In a double-blind study with parallel groups, 50 patients with essential hypertension were randomized to treatment with either fosinopril (20 mg o.

Plasma thrombopoietin levels in thrombocytopenic states: implication for a regulatory role of bone marrow megakaryocytes.

To evaluate the diagnostic value of thrombopoietin (TPO, c-mpl ligand) measurements, and clarify the regulatory mechanisms of TPO in normal and in thrombocytopenic conditions, the plasma TPO concentration was determined in normal individuals (n = 20), umbilical cord blood (n = 40), chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP; n = 16), in severe aplastic anaemia (SAA; n = 3), chemotherapy-induced bone marrow hypoplasia (n = 10), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS; n = 11), and sequentially during peripheral blood progenitor cell transplantation (n = 7). A commercially available ELISA and EDTA-plasma samples were used for the analysis. The plasma TPO concentration in the normals and umbilical cord blood were 52 +/- 12 pg/ml and 66 +/- 12 pg/ml, respectively.

The impact on reproduction of an orally administered mixture of selected PCBs in zebrafish (Danio rerio).

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) were orally exposed to a mixture of 20 PCBs in three different dose levels (0.008, 0.08, and 0.

Low symptomatic load in Crohn's disease with surgery and medicine as complementary treatments.

Background: The treatment of Crohn's disease has changed owing to the recognition of its chronicity. Medical maintenance treatment and limited resections have evolved as major concepts of management, regarded as complementary, and both aim at reducing the symptoms.

Methods: We investigated the symptomatic load in Crohn's disease as reflected in a cross-sectional study of the symptom index, physicians' assessment, and the patients' perception of health.

Metabolic control, quality of life, and negative life events: a longitudinal study of well-controlled and poorly regulated patients with type 1 diabetes after changeover to insulin pen treatment.

In a previous study of a group of 74 patients with Type I diabetes, quality of life was found to be consistently enhanced a year after transition to multiple injection therapy with the insulin pen, whereas metabolic control (HbA1C) only improved moderately. The aim of the present investigation was to examine quality of life, recent life events, and metabolic control longitudinally in this original study group over a 5-year period beginning 1 year after transition to the insulin pen. Multiple analysis of variance with a repeated-measures design was used to analyze the data longitudinally and compare metabolic control in subgroups of well-controlled and poorly regulated patients during the study period.

Decreased expression of signal-transducing CD3 zeta chains in T cells from the joints and peripheral blood of rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Although T cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have previously been determined to have poor proliferative responses to a variety of stimuli, the underlying mechanism is not known. We have investigated the expression of the signal-transducing zeta molecule in subsets of T cells and natural killer (NK) cells derived from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and synovial fluid mononuclear cells (SFMC) of RA patients using quantitative flow cytometry, Western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry. A decrease of zeta expression was apparent in all investigated lymphocyte subsets from the PBMC and SFMC of RA patients, as compared to the corresponding subsets from healthy age- and sex-matched controls.

6 alpha-Fluoro- and 6 alpha,9 alpha-difluoro-11 beta,21-dihydroxy-16 alpha,17 alpha-propylmethylenedioxypregn-4-ene-3,20-dione: synthesis and evaluation of activity and kinetics of their C-22 epimers.

It is generally accepted that the anti-inflammatory effect of glucocorticosteroids cannot be separated from their adverse effects at the receptor level. However, modification of the pharmacokinetics through structural alterations could provide steroids with a better therapeutic index than those currently used. Thus, new 16 alpha,17 alpha-acetals between butyraldehyde and 6 alpha-fluoro- or 6 alpha,9 alpha-difluoro-16 alpha-hydroxycortisol were synthesized and studied.

No evidence for an altered mRNA expression or protein level of haematopoietic cell phosphatase in CD34+ bone marrow progenitor cells or mature peripheral blood cells in polycythaemia vera.

Polycythaemia vera (PV) is a myeloproliferative disorder characterized by haematopoietic progenitor cells being hypersensitive to cytokines such as erythropoietin, interleukin-3, stem cell factor and insulin-like growth factor 1, which results in an increased production of mature blood cells. The pathogenetic cellular mechanism(s) behind this hypersensitivity to cytokines is unknown, but the number of cytokine receptors and the interaction between ligand and receptor are normal in PV. Interest has therefore focused on post-receptor mechanism(s).

Circulating angiotensin converting enzyme levels are increased in concentric, but not eccentric, left ventricular hypertrophy in elderly men.

Objective: To study the cross-sectional relationship between circulating angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) activity and echocardiographically determined left ventricular geometry in a study of 380 70-year-old men participating in a health-survey reexamination and 50 patients with hypertension.

Methods: Two-dimensional guided M-mode and Doppler echocardiography. Fluorometric assay of serum ACE activity.

Pen injection and change in metabolic control and quality of life in insulin dependent diabetes mellitus.

A second follow-up of metabolic control and quality of life in insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) patients who had switched 3 years before from syringe to multiple pen injection treatment, was carried out. A total of 73 consecutive outpatients were enrolled in the initial follow-up study in 1988, 1 year after their changeover to insulin pen, with their metabolic control and quality of life examined. The present study concerns the reexamination of 65 of them in 1990.

Investigation of the Effects of the Structure and Chelate Size of Bis-oxazoline Ligands in the Asymmetric Copper-Catalyzed Cyclopropanation of Olefins: Design of a New Class of Ligands.

A set of novel, C(2)-symmetric bis-oxazoline ligands has been synthesized by mounting two oxazoline rings onto an optically active 1,3-dioxolane backbone. This design allows for the control of both orientation as well as the proximity of the oxazolinyl R-groups around the reactive site. As a result of the twist imparted by the 1,3-dioxolane ring, the stereogenic oxazolinyl substituents can be brought either toward or away from the complexed metal in a controllable fashion.

[Somatostatin receptors. A new way to diagnosis and therapy of neuroendocrine tumors].

Verification of the presence of somatostatin receptors on neuroendocrine tumour cells opened up unique diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities. Long-acting somatostatin analogues are currently used to alleviate symptoms of excessive hormone synthesis in patients with such tumours. Radiolabelled somatostatin analogues can be used both for high specificity and high sensitivity scintigraphic localisation of such tumours and for intraoperative scintillation detection.

The internal barriers of rotation for the 209 polychlorinated biphenyls.

The internal barrier of rotation (Erot) was calculated for all 209 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) by using a semi-empirical method, viz. the Austin Model 1 (AMI) Hamiltonian. The difference in total energy between a forced planar state and an optimised twisted structure was defined as Erot.

Somatostatin Receptors in the Diagnosis and Therapy of Neuroendocrine Tumor.

The expression of somatostatin receptors in neuroendocrine tumors has facilitated the diagnosis and surgical treatment of patients with these tumors. After injection of a radiolabeled long-acting somatostatin analog, (111)In-octreotide, scintigraphic tumor imaging can ben performed as well as intraoperative tumor localization. During localization studies very high (111)In concentration values were found in tumor tissues versus normal tissues, especially in carcinoid tumors and endocrine pancreatic tumors.

Metabolic effects of carvedilol in hypertensive patients.

Objective: Fifty-six patients with essential hypertension were recruited to study the metabolic effects of carvedilol, a non-selective beta-adrenoceptor-blocker with alpha 1-adrenoceptor blocking properties.

Methods: The study started with a single-blind, 4-6-week placebo-treatment period followed by an open 6-month active treatment period. There was an option to increase the dose from 25 mg carvedilol to 50 mg daily after 6 weeks.

Linearity evaluation in absorbance detection: the use of light-emitting diodes for on-capillary detection in capillary electrophoresis.

A model which takes into account both stray light and polychromatic light was used to predict and evaluate linearity in on-capillary detection in capillary electrophoresis (CE). According to the model the stray light is the major factor which determines linearity under typical CE operating conditions. By calculating theoretical absorbance versus concentration plots, the influence of different levels of stray light and polychromatic light on linearity is demonstrated.

Internalization of indium-111 into human neuroendocrine tumor cells after incubation with indium-111-DTPA-D-Phe1-octreotide.

Unlabelled: Neuroendocrine tumor cells frequently overexpress somatostatin receptors at their cell surfaces. To evaluate the possibility of using the somatostatin analog 111In-DTPA-D-Phe1-octreotide for radiation therapy, we studied the binding and subsequent internalization of 111In into three types of cultured human neuroendocrine tumor cells.

Methods: Primary cultures of gastric carcinoid, midgut carcinoid and glucagonoma cells were incubated with 111In-DTPA-D-Phe1-octreotide and cell-surface bound, internalized and released 111In activity was measured.

Current pharmacologic treatment of multiple sclerosis symptoms.

About 350,000 persons in the United States have multiple sclerosis, and primary care physicians are often called on to provide symptomatic therapy for these patients. We review our current pharmacologic approach to the management of multiple sclerosis exacerbations and the symptoms of spasticity, fatigue, bladder and bowel involvement, neurobehavioral complaints, pain syndromes, dystonic spasms, and tremor and ataxia.

Cluster headache is an inherited disorder in some families.

We investigated the familial occurrence of cluster headache in 370 probands with cluster headache, diagnosed according to the operational diagnostic criteria of the international Headache Society. Seven probands belonged to three families. A positive family history of cluster headache was found in 7% (25 of 366) of the families.

Systemic radionuclide therapy using indium-111-DTPA-D-Phe1-octreotide in midgut carcinoid syndrome.

A 55-yr-old woman with a midgut carcinoid syndrome due to metastatic spread of an ileal tumor to the liver, paraortic and mediastinal lymph nodes and to the skeleton was given systemic radionuclide therapy with 111In-DTPA-D-Phe1-octreotide. Before therapy, dosimetric calculations were performed on whole-body scintigraphs and 111In retention was shown to be long-lasting. Excretion was mainly seen during the first 24 hr after injection; thereafter whole-body retention remained stationary at 30%.

Computer optimization of background electrolyte composition in the separation of metal ions by capillary electrophoresis.

The iterative regression design developed earlier for high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been applied successfully to the optimization of the separation of 11 metal ions by capillary electrophoresis. The parameters used for optimization were pH (over the range 3.5-5.