Hyperhomocysteinemia in patients with diabetes mellitus with and without diabetic retinopathy.

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of hyperhomocysteinaemia in diabetic patients with no diabetic retinopathy (no DR), with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR).

Research Design And Methods: This prospective, case-control study, included 179 diabetic patients and 156 age-matched controls with no diabetes and no history of ocular disease, who were undergoing routine physical checkups. Plasma homocysteine levels of all study participants were measured using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

Association of neovascular age-related macular degeneration and hyperhomocysteinemia.

Purpose: To assess the relationship between plasma homocysteine levels and exudative neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Methods: A prospective comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in outpatient ophthalmology clinics in a university-affiliated medical institution.

Elevated homocysteine levels in young male patients with schizophrenia.

Objective: Elevated plasma homocysteine has been found to be a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease as well as cerebral vascular disease, suggesting that some risk factors can accelerate or increase the severity of several CNS disease processes. The authors measured plasma homocysteine levels in patients with chronic schizophrenia in their catchment area.

Method: A one-way analysis of covariance with age and sex as covariates was performed on the total plasma homocysteine levels of 193 patients with schizophrenia compared with 762 subjects without the diagnosis of schizophrenia who were evaluated in a screening program for employee health.

Hyperhomocysteinemia in children on renal replacement therapy.

Hyperhomocysteinemia is an independent risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis in adult patients on dialysis or after kidney transplantation. There are few data on homocysteine (Hcy) concentrations in children under these circumstances. The aim of our study was to evaluate plasma Hcy levels and their determining factors in children on renal replacement therapy.

Homocysteine blood level in long-term care residents with oropharyngeal dysphagia: comparison of hand-oral and tube-enteral-fed patients.

Background: Levels of homocysteine, methylmalonic acid, and relevant vitamins were measured and evaluated in patients with oral dysphagia (OD) receiving long-term care (LTC).

Methods: Group A was composed of 26 orally fed patients, and group B was composed of 25 patients who were fed by nasogastric tube. All patients were hospitalized in the LTC departments of the Geriatric Medical Center, Shmuel Harofe.

Is blood homocysteine elevated in migraine?

Objective: To determine total serum homocysteine levels in a large group of patients with migraine with and without aura.

Background: Hypercoagulable state is a known risk factor for stroke in the young. The existence of a hypercoagulable state has been postulated in migraine and homocysteinemia with young-onset stroke.

Homocysteine elevation with fibrates: is it a class effect?

Background: Case-control and prospective studies indicate that an elevated plasma homocysteine level is a powerful risk factor for atherosclerotic vascular diseases. Certain medications can induce hyperhomocystinemia, such as methotrexate, trimethoprim and anti-epileptic drugs. There are few reports indicating an interaction between lipid-lowering drugs (cholestyramine and niacin) and homocysteine.

The relation of plasma total homocysteine levels to prevalent cardiovascular disease in older patients with ischemic stroke.

The objectives of this study were to describe the distribution of serum levels of total homocysteine (HCys) in a sample of older patients consecutively admitted following acute ischemic cerebral stroke, as compared with healthy controls, and to test for possible relationships of HCys levels to some of the prevalent cardiovascular diseases in these stroke patients. One hundred and thirty-seven stroke patients and 132 healthy controls (age > or =60) participated in this study. HCys levels were determined by HPLC method with fluorescence detection.

Glycerol induced ARF in rats is mediated by tumor necrosis factor-alpha.

Glycerol-induced acute renal failure (ARF) in rats is a model of acute trauma in which intra-muscular injection of 50% glycerol causes rapid myoglobinuria, oliguria, and a rapid reduction in glomerular filtration rate. We found that plasma tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is rapidly induced in glycerol injected rats. It can be detected in some animals as early as 30 minutes post-injection, peaks at one hour (range: 4 to 32 U/ml) with no significant difference between blood from renal vein and vena cava, and decreases by three hours.

Memory performance of young and old subjects related to their erythrocyte characteristics.

Several papers reported in recent years on a change in the age population distribution of the circulating erythrocytes in old mice, rats, rabbits, and humans. The results indicate the presence of a chronologically younger cell population in old animals and humans. The cells are typically lower in density and larger.

Beta-adrenergic receptors in the urinary bladder of adult and developing rats.

Specific beta-adrenergic receptors were demonstrated in the urinary bladder of adult and developing rats, by direct tissue binding with LD [125I]-cyanopindolol (CYP). The maximum number of binding sites (Bmax) was 167 +/- 25 fmol/mg membrane protein and the dissociation constant (KD) equalled 61 +/- 33 pM. The Hill slopes of the LD [125I]-CYP binding showed a single class of noncooperative receptor sites.

The calcium channel blocker nisoldipine delays progression of chronic renal failure in humans (preliminary communication).

Chronic renal failure (CRF) patients with a stable course were asked to participate in a follow-up program in which they were randomized into two groups: 1) the placebo group taking their standard antihypertensive therapy without any calcium ion blocker: and 2) the nisoldipine group, those patients taking the calcium channel blocker nisoldipine as the only antihypertensive drug. The two groups had similar blood pressures on entering the study (151 +/- 21.3/90.

The control of hypertension and its effect on renal function in rat remnant kidney.

Blood pressure control and its influence on the rat remnant kidney function were studied. The deterioration in kidney function was followed for up to 20 weeks at 4-weekly intervals in four groups of 5/6th nephrectomised rats. The groups studied were: (1) Control, untreated (C), given normal rat chow containing 21% protein; (2) nisoldipine (a dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker) treated (N), given nisoldipine freshly mixed daily in normal chow (0.

Relationship between plasma renin activity and distal nephron sodium delivery and reabsorption in man.

The relationship between plasma renin activity and distal tubular sodium delivery and reabsorption was examined in man. Distal sodium delivery and reabsorption were measured during hypotonic volume expansion by the free water clearance method, or during hydropenia or isotonic volume expansion by the lithium clearance method. The maximal water diuresis method and the lithium clearance method both showed a negative correlation between plasma renin activity and distal sodium delivery and reabsorption.

Calcium entry-blockade with verapamil in cyclosporine A plus ischemia induced acute renal failure in rats.

The possible alleviating effect of verapamil, a calcium entry blocker, on the resulting renal damage from the combination of a short episode of ischemia and CyA was studied in rats. Immediately after right nephrectomy the rats were divided into five experimental groups. Group 1: left renal pedicle clamping for 20 minutes.

Beta-adrenergic receptors on polymorphonuclear cell membranes in essential hypertension.

Beta adrenergic receptor binding sites were determined and characterized by specific binding of (+/-)[125I] iodocyanopindolol to membranes obtained from circulating polymorphonuclear leukocytes. No difference was found in the number of receptor sites and in their dissociation constants (Kd) between patients with untreated essential hypertension (EH), EH treated with drugs other than beta blockers, and in normotensive controls. The group with EH receiving treatment with beta blockers had a significantly higher receptor density and Kd as compared with all the other groups (p less than 0.

Cyclosporine and short ischaemia: a new model of experimental acute renal failure in rats.

To determine whether a mild episode of ischaemia may be a factor in the production of cyclosporine (Cys) toxicity, right nephrectomy was performed in three groups of Charles River rats: I. Ischaemia (left renal pedicle clamping) for 20 minutes, without treatment; II. Ischaemia of 20 minutes, followed by IP Cys 60 mg/kg BW/day; III.

Calcium-entry blockade and pressor effect of angiotensin II in normal and nephrectomized rats.

The pressor effect of intravascular boli of 1.5 micrograms/kg angiotensin II was studied in untreated and in verapamil-pretreated intact rats and in rats 24 h after bilateral nephrectomy. An initial i.

Beneficial effect of verapamil in ischemic acute renal failure in the rat.

To investigate the possible protective effect of Ca2+ blockers in ischemic acute renal failure (ARF), verapamil, in a dose of 10 micrograms/kg body wt/min was administered for 100 min, starting 15 min before the total occlusion of the left renal artery after right nephrectomy in rats. Mean 24-hr creatinine clearance, blood urea, and serum creatinine levels, 24 hr after declamping, were used as a measure of kidney function. These values which were 135 +/- 1.

Evidence for an extrarenal action of chlorothiazide on serum potassium.

The effects of chlorothiazide and furosemide on serum potassium were studied in fasting anuric patients maintained by chronic hemodialysis and compared to a control period when no drug was administered. Serum potassium levels were significantly lower following oral chlorothiazide (15 mg/kg body weight) than during the control period. After intravenous furosemide (1 mg/kg body weight), potassium levels were midway between those of the chlorothiazide and control periods, but statistical significance was not attained.

Lithium prevents saline deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA) hypertension in the rat.

Uni-nephrectomized rats drinking 1% saline instead of water, were given Doca intramuscularly, 50 mg/kg BW per week for 2 weeks. The mean blood pressure in the control group was 105 +/- 4 (+/- S.E.

beta 1-Adrenergic receptors in kidney tubular cell membrane in the rat.

We used a beta-adrenergic antagonist, (-) 3H-dihydroalprenolol, to demonstrate binding sites in purified rat kidney preparations that consistsed of plasma membranes of cells from tubules. The tubular origin of these plasma membranes was shown by electron microscopy and Na-K-ATPase enrichment. The binding was rapid (t1/2, 78 sec) and rapidly reversible (t1/2, 48 sec).