Vitamin-B12 status of patients on long-term metformin therapy.

Vitamin-B(12) malabsorption has been found in 21 (30%) of 71 diabetic patients taking long-term metformin therapy in addition to dietary management. The patients with evidence of B(12) malabsorption had significantly lower haemoglobin levels (and significantly higher serum folic acid levels) than those with normal B(12) absorption. Steatorrhoea was found in only one patient.

Immunoglobulin M specific for measles and mumps in multiple sclerosis.

Sera from 43 patients with multiple sclerosis were tested by immunofluorescence. Sera from patients with active multiple sclerosis included four with measles virus-specific immunoglobulin M (measles IgM) and two with mumps virus-specific IgM (mumps IgM). In one case each mumps IgM and measles IgM seem to have persisted for two and a half years and three years respectively.

Thyroid suppressibility: follow-up for two years after antithyroid treatment.

In hyperthyroidism suppression and non-suppression of early radioiodine neck uptake by exogenous thyroid hormone after a course of antithyroid drugs does not indicate clearly those patients who will eventually relapse or have a remission. Sixty-four hyperthyroid patients have been followed up for two years after an 18 to 24 months' course of carbimazole. Twenty-eight patients had suppressed at the end of the carbimazole course and 20 of these remained in remission for two years, and 36 were non-suppressed and 21 of these relapsed.

Measles immunoglobulins in subacute sclerosing panencephalitis.

Normal responses of measles specific immunoglobulins M and G (IgM and IgG) were defined in 10 children with measles. Abnormal responses of measles IgM and IgG were found in both sera and cerebrospinal fluids from three cases of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. In two patients the serum titres of measles IgM and IgG were abnormally high.

Immunoglobulin responses in rubella and its complications.

Normal responses of rubella-specific IgG and IgM antibody were assessed in eight patient by immunofluorescence. A prolonged rubella-specific IgM response was shown in three patients with complications of rubella infection. Two patients had thrombocytopenic purpura and one had carpal-tunnel compression.

Glibenclamide therapy in diabetes mellitus.

In an initial trial of glibenclamide in the treatment of maturity onset diabetes mellitus 28 patients were treated for up to one year and no toxic effects or side-effects were encountered. The hypoglycaemic potency of this drug is such that 5 mg. of glibenclamide corresponds to about 1,500 mg.

Cardiovascular state of newly discovered diabetic women.

A cardiovascular study of a group of 90 newly diagnosed diabetic women aged 35 to 75 years was begun in 1965 and a repeat examination was carried out on the same patients in 1968. A high prevalence of ischaemic heart disease was found in these patients at the time of diagnosis, and this finding had some predictive value as regards prognosis over the three-year period.A comparative study with general medical outpatients and long-established diabetics (greater than 10 years' duration of disease) confirmed the high prevalence of ischaemic heart disease in late-onset mild diabetics controlled by diet or oral drugs.

Circadian variation of glucose, insulin, and free fatty acids during long-term use of oral hypoglycaemic agents in diabetes mellitus.

The circadian rhythms of preprandial and postprandial blood glucose, free fatty acids, and insulin levels were measured in groups of normal and of diabetic patients controlled by diet alone or by diet with tolbutamide, chlorpropamide, or metformin. All groups showed a greater insulin release after the first meal of the day than after subsequent meals. Diabetic patients controlled for more than two years on diguanide therapy showed the closest resemblance to non-diabetic control subjects.