Thoracic duct injury resulting in abnormal newborn screen.

Measurement of T-cell receptor excision circles (TREC) in neonates has allowed for population-based screening of severe combined immunodeficiency and other disorders associated with T-cell lymphopenia. In addition to primary T-cell lymphopenic disorders, secondary causes of T-cell lymphopenia can be diagnosed with TREC analysis. We discuss the diagnostic evaluation of a patient with normal TREC analysis at birth that became abnormal after cardiac surgery.

Regulation of plasma aldosterone levels by metoclopramide: a reappraisal of its mechanism from dopaminergic antagonism to serotonergic agonism.

It has been thought, since the late 1970s, that dopamine exerts a tonic suppression of plasma aldosterone levels in human subjects. This action, however, had not been established directly using dopamine and dopamine mimetic drugs, which do not, in fact, affect the aldosterone levels. Rather, the conclusion was arrived at indirectly, based on the increase in aldosterone levels seen with dopamine receptor blockers; metoclopramide in particular, considered at the time of its discovery in the 1960s to be a new generation dopamine antagonist.

Further characterisation of [3H]8-hydroxy-2-(di-N-propylamino)tetralin binding sites in human brain postmortem.

The saturation parameters and the pharmacological characteristics of the binding of the serotonin 1A (5-HT1A) receptor agonist [3H]8-hydroxy-2-(di-N-propylamino)tetralin ([3H]8-OH-DPAT), as well as the effects of nucleotides and divalent cations (Mg2+, Mn2+) on it, were compared in some human postmortem brain regions: the main cortical areas, hippocampus and striatum. [3H]8-OH-DPAT labelled a single population of recognition sites with the highest maximal capacity (Bmax) in the hippocampus and the lowest affinity in the striatum. Among the various cortical areas, the frontal cortex exhibited the highest Bmax.