Effects of chronic treatment by amiodarone on transmural heterogeneity of canine ventricular repolarization in vivo: interactions with acute sotalol.

Objective: The present study was designed to examine the effects of chronic amiodarone on the different ventricular cell subtypes in situ and to evaluate its interactions with sotalol.

Methods: Three groups of dogs were studied. Group I (n = 8) received no treatment.

Aluminium-related osteodystrophy and desferrioxamine treatment: role of phosphorus.

We investigated (1) the prevalence of aluminium overload among 96 patients with symptomatic bone disease haemodialysed from 1987 to 1989 in the Sao Paulo area, Brazil; (2) the effect of 6 months desferrioxamine (DFO) treatment (1-2g/week). All patients underwent a first bone biopsy. Aluminium overload (extent of stainable bone aluminium more than 20% trabecular surface) was observed in 74 of 96 patients.

Utility of thallium-201 and iodine-123 metaiodobenzylguanidine in the scintigraphic detection of neuroendocrine neoplasia.

Metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) is a specific marker for neuroendocrine tumours, such as phaeochromocytoma, neuroblastoma, medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) and paraganglioma, but it suffers in some cases (especially in MTC) from a lack of sensitivity. Thallium is a well-known marker of cellularity with a great sensitivity and a lack of specificity. In order to determine whether the association of these two markers is able to improve the detection of neuroendocrine lesions, 137 scintigraphic examinations using MIBG and thallium were performed in 101 patients referred for suspicion or follow-up of neuroendocrine tumours.

[Biliary scintigraphy. Application to the study of chronic cholestasis].

In a sample population of 49 subjects (7 normal, 42 with various liver diseases), the parameters of the activity/time curve of trimethylbromo-iminodicetic acid (TBIDA) biliary scintigraphy were compared with the clearances of bromosulfophthalein (BSP) and indocyanine green (ICG). Correlation between T1/2 and P2 BSP slope was r = 0.50 (n = 33; P < 0.

Correction of severe secondary hyperparathyroidism in two dialysis patients: surgical removal versus percutaneous ethanol injection.

Two chronic hemodialysis patients had recurrent, severe secondary hyperparathyroidism. The first had no sonographically visible parathyroid gland in the neck. Computed tomography (CT) scan indicated the existence of a parathyroid mass in the upper mediastinum, which was removed surgically.

[Thyroid cancer revealed by a suppressive hot nodule].

We report the case of a 62-year old woman in euthyroidism who presented with a thyroid cancer located within a hot nodule. The nodule was partially extinctive, and the triiodothyronine test showed incomplete suppression. Fine needle cytology showed no malignant cells.

[Resistance to desiccation of Biomphalaria glabrata adults infested by various miracidia of Schistosoma mansoni].

1200 adult Biomphalaria glabrata were submitted during 6 weeks to anhydrobiosis condition. Some snails were healthy, some were previously infected 3 days or 12 days ago with 8 +/- 2 miracidia of Schistosoma mansoni, others were shedding cercariae. The snails were put on soil or buried into hermetically closed, or ventilated, plastic boxes.

Radioiodinated meta-iodobenzylguanidine uptake in medullary thyroid cancer. A French cooperative study.

Fifty meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) scintiscans were performed in three groups of medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) patients. Group 1 (n = 11) included treated patients with normal calcitonin levels; Group 2 (n = 24) included patients with elevated calcitonin levels due to sporadic and isolated MTC; Group 3 (n = 15) included patients with elevated calcitonin levels due to familial MTC or multiple endocrine neoplasia Type IIA syndrome (MEN). In Group 1 three pheochromocytoma were depicted by MIBG scintiscan.

[The influence of anhydrobiosis on the infestation of Biomphalaria glabrata by Schistosoma mansoni miracidium].

410 Biomphalaria glabrata (Caribbean strain of Guadeloupe) have been infected with one miracidium of Schistosoma mansoni, 110 snails, used as controls have been kept into water; the survival rate was 96.4% after 4 weeks and 25.4% produced cercariae.

Uptake of 131I-MIBG by medullary carcinoma of thyroid in familial cases.

Medullary carcinoma of the thyroid (MCT) and pheochromocytoma are APUD tumors. MIBG (Meta Iodo Benzyl Guanidine) uptake by pheochromocytomas is now well known but very few cases of MIBG uptake in sporadic MCT have been described. We report here the two first cases of inherited MCT with MIBG uptake.

[Risk of vertebral fracture after menopause: identification of subjects at high risk by dual photon absoprtionometry].

Dual photon absorptionometry of bone is used to detect in an exposed population those subjects who are high risk of fracture and also to follow up the evolution of these patients. 37 women who have suffered fractures have been compared to 41 women without fractures of similar age distribution. A highly significant correlation between body height and Bone Mineral Content (BMC) of the lumbar spine is found in the control group thus allowing the calculation of the expected BMC value for each patient.

[Experimental schistosomiasis III. Observations on the infestation of Biomphalaria glabrata by a miracidium of Schistosoma mansoni].

380 B. glabrata infected with 1 miracidium of S. mansoni produced 87 positive snails (22,9%), 38 of which sending out male cercariae and 49 female cercariae.

[Chromosome abnormalities associated with Phl and acturial survivorship curve in chronic myeloid leukemia. Probabilistic interpretation of blastic transformation of CML].

Sixty-six patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia, all with Philadelphia chromosome, have been studied for chromosomic abnormalities associated (CAA) to Ph', as well as for actuarial curve of survivorship. Patients dying from another disease were excluded from this study. Frequency of cells with CAA was measured and appeared strongly higher after blastic transformation than during myelocytic state; probability to be a blastic transformation is closely correlated with this frequency.

[Diagnostic value of parasitologic examinations and of indirect immunofluorescence test in S. haematobium schistosomiasis (author's transl)].

A study has been carried out in 690 patients admitted in a Paris hospital and from Mali, Senegal and Mauretania origin, in order to compare the three available techniques for the diagnosis of infection with S. haematobium: urine centrifugation deposit control, biopsy of rectal mucosa and indirect immunofluorescence test. The prognostic value of each of these three techniques has been reevaluated.

A technique for multiple, high-rate blood samplings via an external cannula in rats.

A method for obtaining multiple, high-rate blood sample collections from rats without the use of anesthesia and anticoagulant is described. The surgical procedure consists of a bypass of the carotid via a cannula; this cannula forms a loop above the rat's head and is available for blood sampling. The method permits the investigation of high-frequency oscillations in blood components of rat.

[Analysis of disorders of the principal pathways of calcium metabolism in Paget's disease. Effects of calcitonin administration. 26 cases].

Analysis of the principal routes of calcium metabolism by means of calcium-45 in 26 patients suffering from Paget's diseases sometimes showed, in agreement with data from the literature, a considerable increase in the common stocks of calcium in 25 cases, and an elevation in the anabolism (Vo+) in bone and in the catabolism (Vo-) in bone in all cases. The calcium balance was sometimes equal, but often clearly positive (10 cases) or negative (10 cases) and the level intestinal absorption of calcium was usually within the normal limits. An elevation in the endogenous fecal calcium (Vf) noted in half of the cases, although no value was below normal, seemed to represent an metabolic anomaly of abnormally high frequency in patients with Paget's disease, even though this fact has never been emphasized before.

[Tests of stimulation of calcitonin secretion. Value in medullary cancer of the thyroid].

The detection of high circulating levels of calcitonin is a most valuable procedure to diagnose advanced cases of medullary carcinoma of the thyroid. However, the diagnosis of a primitive tumor in the early stages of development (as in cases of the familial form of the disease) or of a metastasis following ablation of the tumor is more difficult. In the latter cases, the levels of circulating calcitonin may be within normal limits, and for diagnosis one must then resort to tests to stimulate the secretion of calcitonin.

Calcitonin treatment of post-menopausal osteoporosis. Evaluation of efficacy by principal components analysis.

The efficacy of long term treatment of senile osteoporosis by low doses of calcitonin was established using five parameters of calcium kinetics and a quantitative pain scale. Under treatment the calcium balance improved, due predominantly to a decrease in bone resorption associated with an increase in bone accretion and intestinal absorption of calcium. In addition, the hormone had a marked analgesic effect, which increased with the length of the treatment.

[Multidimensional analysis in clinical investigation. Application to the pathogenic classification of idiopathic hypercalciuria].

Multidimensional analytical techniques enable any number of variables to be studied simultaneously. These techniques have been described and a few examples of their application to biomedical research given. A classification of so called "idiopathic hypercalciuria" was made using this approach which demonstrated the existence of three possible mechanisms of pathogenesis.