Pioglitazone treatment increases spontaneous growth hormone (GH) secretion and stimulated GH levels in polycystic ovary syndrome.

Background: Low GH levels, probably due to insulin resistance and increased abdominal fat mass, are well described in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). GH acts as an important ovarian cogonadotropin, and GH disturbances may be an additional pathogenic factor in PCOS. Decreased abdominal fat mass and improved insulin sensitivity during pioglitazone treatment may affect GH secretion.

Cotreatment of acromegaly with a somatostatin analog and a growth hormone receptor antagonist.

Context: Pegvisomant is a GH receptor antagonist that blocks the peripheral actions of GH in acromegaly. Pegvisomant, in contrast to somatostatin (SMS) analogs, does not suppress the activity of the GH-producing adenoma.

Objective: We assessed the effects of cotreatment with pegvisomant and SMS in acromegaly on GH secretion, IGF-I levels, and glucose tolerance.

Follow-up of a girl with cleft lip and palate and multiple malformations: trisomy 20 mosaicism.

We describe a 16(1/2) -year-old girl with multiple anomalies including cleft lip and palate and a normal karyotype in blood lymphocytes. Because of hyperpigmention along the lines of Blaschko, her karyotype in skin fibroblasts was examined, which showed mosaicism for trisomy 20. This is the first report to our knowledge of this karyotype where hyperpigmentation and facial clefting occurred together.

A mutation in the receptor binding site of GDF5 causes Mohr-Wriedt brachydactyly type A2.

Background: Brachydactyly type A2 (OMIM 112600) is characterised by hypoplasia/aplasia of the second middle phalanx of the index finger and sometimes the little finger. BDA2 was first described by Mohr and Wriedt in a large Danish/Norwegian kindred and mutations in BMPR1B were recently demonstrated in two affected families.

Methods: We found and reviewed Mohr and Wriedt's original unpublished annotations, updated the family pedigree, and examined 37 family members clinically, and radiologically by constructing the metacarpo-phalangeal profile (MCPP) pattern in nine affected subjects.

Plasticity and acclimation to light reflected in temporal and spatial changes of small-scale macroalgal distribution in a stream.

The small-scale distribution pattern of macroalgae in the river Ilm, in Germany was monitored. These patterns were then related to abiotic factors and tested to discover whether the distribution of the common macroalgae, Cladophora glomerata (L.) Kütz.

Higher bone mineral density in Caucasian, hirsute patients of reproductive age. Positive correlation of testosterone levels with bone mineral density in hirsutism.

Objective: The mechanisms leading to higher bone mineral density (BMD) in hirsute patients than in healthy controls have seldom been examined. We compared the metabolic, hormonal and bone metabolic parameters in hirsute patients and female controls and correlated BMD and bone metabolic parameters with testosterone, oestradiol and metabolic parameters.

Patients: Fifty-one Caucasian, reproductive-aged, hirsute patients referred to the outpatient clinic of an academic tertiary-care medical centre and 63 healthy, female Caucasian controls matched for season, weight and age.

Is it homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysis? Compelling evidence for both types of catalysts derived from [Rh(eta5-C5Me5)Cl2]2 as a function of temperature and hydrogen pressure.

Addressed herein is the 20+ year-old question of whether the true benzene and cyclohexene hydrogenation catalysts derived from the organometallic precursor [Rh(eta5-C5Me5)Cl2]2, 1, are homogeneous or heterogeneous. The methodology employed is that developed earlier (Lin, Y.; Finke, R.

Morphometric X-ray absorptiometry: reference data for vertebral dimensions in a population-based sample of young Danish men.

Purpose: To determine reference values for vertebral heights in healthy young Danish males using morphometric X-ray absorptiometry (MXA).

Material And Methods: A population-based study group of 487 males aged between 20 and 30 years (mean 25 years) from the county of Funen, Denmark, were recruited. Using a Hologic QDR 4500 (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry) DXA-scanner, MXA scans covering the vertebrae from T4 to L4 were acquired for each subject.

Significantly higher adrenocorticotropin-stimulated cortisol and 17-hydroxyprogesterone levels in 337 consecutive, premenopausal, caucasian, hirsute patients compared with healthy controls.

Objective: To investigate whether elevated ACTH-stimulated 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17OHP) levels are caused by CYP21 genetic defects or by a general adrenal hyperresponsiveness in hirsute patients.

Methods: A total of 337 hirsute patients were evaluated by Ferriman-Gallwey score, serum testosterone, ACTH-stimulated 17OHP, and cortisol during the follicular phase. A cutoff value of 16 nmol/liter for maximum ACTH-stimulated 17OHP (M17OHP) responses was defined as the upper limit of the 95% confidence interval (CI) for the 97.

Prevalence of endocrine diseases and abnormal glucose tolerance tests in 340 Caucasian premenopausal women with hirsutism as the referral diagnosis.

Objective: To perform an audit on the examination of hirsute patients and to establish a rational routine examination program in an outpatient endocrine clinic.

Design: Systematic, retrospective audit.

Setting: Academic tertiary-care medical center.

An excess of chromosome 1 breakpoints in male infertility.

In a search for potential infertility loci, which might be revealed by clustering of chromosomal breakpoints, we compiled 464 infertile males with a balanced rearrangement from Mendelian Cytogenetics Network database (MCNdb) and compared their karyotypes with those of a Danish nation-wide cohort. We excluded Robertsonian translocations, rearrangements involving sex chromosomes and common variants. We identified 10 autosomal bands, five of which were on chromosome 1, with a large excess of breakpoints in the infertility group.

Deaths in a neonatal intensive care unit: a 10-year perspective.

Objective: To examine changes in the characteristics and management of infants dying in a regional neonatal intensive care unit in 1987-1988 vs. 1997-1998.

Setting: The level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Rikshospitalet, Oslo, Norway, handles both regional and national referrals.

Dose-, IGF-I- and sex-dependent changes in lipid profile and body composition during GH replacement therapy in adult onset GH deficiency.

Objective: Patients with GH deficiency of adult onset (GHDA) exhibit dyslipidaemia and increased cardiovascular morbidity. GH replacement potently reduces body fat and serum lipids in GHDA. In recent years, lower GH doses have been introduced.

Energy expenditure in patients with propionic and methylmalonic acidaemias.

Resting energy expenditure (REE) was investigated in 8 children with propionic and methylmalonic acidaemias because a lowered REE has been reported in the literature. We observed a marginally elevated REE and think that adequate caloric intake and the use of a synthetic amino acid mixture are responsible for this.

Guidelines for managing lesser prairie-chicken populations and their habitats.

Lesser prairie-chicken () populations have declined by >90% since the 1800s. These declines have concerned both biologists and private conservation groups and led to a petition to list the lesser prairie-chicken as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Most of the land in the current range of the lesser prairie-chicken is privately owned, and declines have been primarily attributed to anthropogenic factors.

Bucillamine induces the synthesis of vascular endothelial growth factor dose-dependently in systemic sclerosis fibroblasts via nuclear factor-kappaB and simian virus 40 promoter factor 1 pathways.

The pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis (SSc) is characterized by activation of the immune system, impaired angiogenesis, and activated dermal fibroblasts. The effects of the immunosuppressive agent bucillamine (SA 96) on fibroblasts and angiogenic factors have not been examined. SA 96, and particularly its metabolite SA 981, increased the levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) mRNA and protein dose-dependently in dermal fibroblasts from patients with SSc and healthy control subjects without influencing cell viability.

Patients with eating disorders. A high-risk group for fractures.

Purpose: To analyze fracture risk and bone mineral density in patients with eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and other eating disorders).

Design: Clinical overview.

Findings: Bone mineral density is decreased and fracture risk increased in patients with anorexia nervosa.

Barriers to the use of medications to treat alcoholism.

In 1994, naltrexone became the first medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration as an adjunct in alcoholism treatment in almost fifty years. Despite evidence of its efficacy, use of naltrexone is not widespread. Patient and physician focus groups were used to identify reasons naltrexone has not been prescribed more widely.