Valid treatment options for osteoporosis and osteopenia in HIV-infected persons.

Objective: To review clinical data on bone ossification agents that may be considered for use in the treatment of osteoporosis and osteopenia in HIV-infected patients.

Data Sources: A literature search was performed using MEDLINE (1950-January 2008), EMBASE, PubMed, and abstracts from major HIV conferences (February 2001-October 2007). These searches were limited to human data published in English and used the key words bisphosphonates, calcitonin, raloxifene, teriparatide, HAART, osteopenia, osteoporosis, and HIV/AIDS.

Fibroblast growth factor signaling in the developing tracheoesophageal fistula.

Background/purpose: The Adriamycin-induced rat model of esophageal atresia and tracheoesophageal fistula (EA/TEF) provides a reliable system for the study of EA/TEF pathogenesis. The authors previously hypothesized that faulty branching lung morphogenesis pathways were a critical component of its pathogenesis. The authors have found evidence for faulty fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling related to epithelial-mesenchymal interactions in the fistula tract.

Glucagon is required for early insulin-positive differentiation in the developing mouse pancreas.

The embryonic pancreas is thought to develop from pluripotent endodermal cells that give rise to endocrine and exocrine cells. A key guidance mechanism for pancreatic development has previously been found to be epithelial-mesenchymal interaction. Interactions within the epithelium, however, have not been well studied.

Complete discontinuity of the distal fistula tract from the developing gut: direct histologic evidence for the mechanism of tracheoesophageal fistula formation.

The embryogenesis of tracheoesophageal anomalies remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to better define the embryogenesis of developing esophageal atresia with tracheoesophageal fistula (EA/TEF), with specific attention to the controversial issue of whether a discontinuity exists in the foregut during its development of EA/TEF. Pregnant outbred rats were injected with adriamycin (2 mg/kg i.

A comparative study of the hemostatic effects of two monophasic oral contraceptives containing 30 mu(g) ethinylestradiol and either 2 mg chlormadinone acetate or 150 mu(g) desogestrel.

Objectives: To determine the effect of two low-dose monophasic oral contraceptives containing either 2 mg chlormadinone acetate or 150 microg desogestrel on blood clotting and fibrinolysis.

Methods: In vivo markers of intravascular coagulatory and fibrinolytic activity were measured in 45 volunteers randomly assigned to a 6-month treatment with one of the two study preparations.

Results: During oral contraceptive use, the procoagulatory activity increased (increased prothrombin fragment 1+2), the anticoagulatory capacity changed (increased protein C activity, decreased activated protein C sensitivity, decreased protein S activity and decreased antithrombin III activity) and the fibrinolytic system was activated (increased concentrations of plasmin-antiplasmin complexes and D-dimer as well as total fibrin degradation products).

Fertility and pregnancy outcome after myomectomy in sterility patients.

Objectives: To examine total pregnancy rate, pregnancy rate in relation to pretreatment with GnRH-analogues, the frequency of myoma recurrencies and the influence of size, number and localization of removed myomata on pregnancy rate and outcome in infertility patients after myomectomy.

Study Design: A comparative, retrospective non-randomized clinical study involving 67 patients with desire for children and no other recognizable infertility factor. Myomectomy had been performed between 1985 and 1993.

Hormonal oral contraceptives, urinary porphyrin excretion and porphyrias.

The influence of hormonal oral contraceptives on the urinary porphyrin excretion of 40 healthy females has been studied. Two different hormonal oral contraceptives (combinations of gestoden or desogestrel, respectively, and ethinylestradiol) were applied for half a year. In each case twenty women received one of these two combinations.

Pharmacokinetics and protein binding of 3-ketodesogestrel and gestodene in the serum of women during 6 cycles of treatment with two low dose oral contraceptives.

The serum concentrations of 3-ketodesogestrel (KDG) and gestodene have been measured in 30 and 31 women respectively who took low dose oral contraceptives containing 30 micrograms ethinylestradiol together with either 150 micrograms desogestrel or 75 micrograms gestodene for 6 months. On days 1, 10 and 21 of the first third and sixth treatment cycles blood samples were drawn at 0, 0.5, 1, 1.

Influence of gestodene and desogestrel as components of low-dose oral contraceptives on the pharmacokinetics of ethinyl estradiol (EE2), on serum CBG and on urinary cortisol and 6 beta-hydroxycortisol.

A randomized controlled clinical trial was undertaken over a 6-month treatment period with two low-dose combined oral contraceptives (OC) to investigate whether the metabolism and elimination of ethinyl estradiol (EE2) is differently influenced by the two progestational components gestodene (G) and desogestrel (D), an issue which has been very controversial recently. The two formulations contained 30 micrograms EE2 each, together with either 75 micrograms G or 150 micrograms D. Of the 40 young women recruited for each formulation, 31 of each group were available for statistical evaluation.

Isolation of luteinising hormone receptor binding inhibitor from bovine corpus luteum.

A luteinising hormone receptor binding inhibitor (LHRBI) has been purified from bovine corpus luteum (CL). Steroid-free extract of the CL was subjected to successive chromatographies on Sephadex G-50, Q-Sepharose, Orange A dye and metal chelate affinity columns followed by high performance-reverse phase and gel filtration columns. Purification was monitored by the ability of the fractions to inhibit the binding of 125I-human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) to porcine granulosa cells in vitro.

Transvaginal hysterosalpingo-contrast sonography for the assessment of tubal patency with gray scale imaging and additional use of pulsed wave Doppler.

Objective: To determine whether the additional use of pulsed wave (PW) Doppler can improve the tubal diagnosis reached with gray scale imaging in doubtful cases.

Design: The study is an open, uncontrolled clinical trial of women of childbearing age.

Setting: Clinical environment.

Influence of modern low-dose oral contraceptives on hemostasis.

Several reports have appeared on the increased risk of thromboembolic diseases associated with the use of oral contraceptives (OCs). The increased risk of thromboembolism has been related to increased circulating blood levels of certain factors of both the clotting and fibrinolytic systems seen in OC users. These changes have been associated primarily with the estrogen component of the OC preparations.

[Transvaginal contrast hysterosalpingo-sonography with the B-image procedure and color-coded duplex sonography for the assessment of fallopian tube patency].

Transvaginal hysterosalpingo-contrast-sonography (HYCOSY), a new method for the direct assessment of tubal patency by means of ultrasonography, was employed in 68 women with infertility problems. In 67 cases, the findings were compared with hysterosal-pinography or chromolaparoscopy, performed either subsequently while the patient was still under the anaesthetic or later. The contrast demonstration of the Fallopian tubes was performed with the B mode procedure in 54 cases (Group 1) and by means of colour-coded duplex sonography in 14 (Group 2).

[Transvaginal contrast hysterosonography. A new diagnostic procedure for the differentiation of intrauterine and myometrial findings].

In 30 patients with sterility problems, menstrual irregularities, and/or suspected tumor the uterine wall was evaluated by transvaginal hystero-contrast-sonography (CoSy). These findings were compared with those of hysterosalpingography (HSG) or chromo-laparoscopy which were done during the same anesthesia. In 6 patients there was no coincidence, and additional information of relevance could be achieved by the other procedure.

[The corpus luteum in the ultrasound image and its endocrine function].

The corpora lutea of 38 patients with sterility problems were sonographically measured. In a total of 51 cycles the corpus luteum values were compared with the estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P) plasma levels on the day of sonographic examination (SE). In 49 SEs performed immediately following ovulation the corpus luteum was cystic in 26 cases (means = 14.

The sonographic and endocrinologic evaluation of the endometrium in the luteal phase.

Follicular development and the endometrial thickness were determined sonographically in 19 outpatients with different causes of sterility, treated during natural or stimulated cycles. The estimates of the endometrial thickness, assessed by ultrasound in the mid-luteal phase, and the levels of 17 beta-oestradiol and progesterone in the same patients sampled on the day of sonography were compared. Five patients became pregnant (group 1) and showed good progesterone values.

Regulators of steroid secretion and inhibin activity in human ovarian follicular fluid.

Inhibin activity from human follicular fluid was purified by successive chromatographies on Sephadex G-50, DEAE-Biogel A and orange A dye matrix. Inhibin activity was associated only with the protein(s) that bound to orange A (OrA-2). Daily injection of OrA-2, 1 h prior to hMG into 10-day-old female rats for 4 days caused a significant inhibition of hMG-induced estradiol secretion.

Simplification of the method of in vitro fertilization: sonographic measurements of follicular diameter as the sole index of follicular maturity.

As a simplification of the in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure, repeated sonographic scanning of follicular diameters in stimulated cycles was performed, until the largest visible follicle reached a mean diameter of at least 20 mm, at which time human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) was administered. Follicle puncture was performed either guided by sonography or by laparoscopy 34-36 hr after the hCG injection, and following insemination oocytes were cultured for 48-60 hr before embryo transfer (ET). Serum levels of luteinizing hormone (LH), prolactin (PRL), and estradiol-17 beta (E2) at the time of hCG injection as well as follicular fluid levels of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), LH, and PRL as well as progesterone (P), testosterone (T), and E2 at the time of puncture were determined in retrospect using specific radioimmunoassay (RIA).

Oocyte maturation as regulated by follicular factors.

Follicular fluid (FFl), obtained from 24 women treated with clomiphene/hCG in an in vitro fertilization program, was characterized with respect to steroid hormone levels and oocyte maturation inhibitor (OMI) activity. Three FFl samples apparently were derived from cystic follicles and contained low steroid levels and no OMI activity in an in vitro rat oocyte assay. The remaining 21 follicles contained normal preovulatory steroid levels and mature and generally fertilizable oocytes.

Long arm deletions of the X chromosome and their symptoms: a new case (bp q24) and a short review of the literature.

The clinical and cytogenetic data from a 26-year-old female with del(X)(q24----ter) are reported. This breakpoint has not been described yet. Besides this report we give a comparative summary of 24 cases from the literature with different deletions of Xq.

Inhibition of progesterone secretion in cultured human granulosa cells by a low molecular weight fraction of human follicular fluid.

Previous studies demonstrated that a low molecular weight peptide fraction (G10-3) from human follicular fluid (FFl) could inhibit steroidogenesis by rat granulosa cells in vitro. In the present study this FFl fraction was tested upon human granulosa cells. The G10-3 fraction (less than 1000 mol wt) was obtained by sequential gel filtration on Sephadex G50 and G10 of a steroid-free extract of a pool of human FFl collected from various-sized follicles at different stages of the menstrual cycle.

In vitro inhibition of rat oocyte meiosis by human follicular fluid fractions.

We studied the effect of low molecular weight fractions of human follicular fluid (FF1) on rat oocyte meiosis and progesterone secretion by the granulosa cells. Steroid-free FF1 extracts were filtered through Sephadex G50 gel. One highly retarded fraction was obtained (GF-3), which was either used for testing or further purified by filtration on Sephadex G10, the G10-3 fraction of which was used for experiments.

Ectopic production of placenta-"specific" tissue proteins (PP5 and PP11) by malignant breast tumors.

With use of an enzyme-bridge immunoperoxidase (PAP) technique, an immunohistochemical localization of the two new placenta-"specific" tissue proteins, PP5 and PP11, was investigated in 16 cases of breast cancer. PP5 was localized in the cytoplasm of breast cancer cells in 62.5% of cases examined and PP11, in 46.