Warfarin-induced skin necrosis.

Warfarin-induced skin necrosis is a rare but serious complication of treatment with this commonly prescribed drug. This lesson presents the case of a patient with extensive skin necrosis after inappropriately prolonged warfarinisation and delayed recognition. The condition is briefly reviewed to highlight key features and risk factors.

Germ cell damage and Leydig cell insufficiency in recipients of nonmyeloablative transplantation for haematological malignancies.

Most bone marrow transplant recipients are infertile due to reversible or irreversible testicular failure. However, little is known about the gonadotoxic potential of the newly introduced nonmyeloablative transplants. We undertook a 24-month longitudinal study in a cohort of 32 recipients of nonmyeloablative transplantation to test whether the combined regimen of fludarabine, melphalan and CAMPATH-1H can induce damage to germ cell (GC) and Leydig cell (LC) compartments.

Relationship between myoinositol influx and lipids in diabetic neuropathy.

Diabetic neuropathy is associated with abnormalities in lipid metabolism and has been postulated to be associated with abnormal myoinositol metabolism. Leucocyte myoinositol influx was measured using a triple isotope method in long-standing type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetic patients with and without diabetic neuropathy and in a group of matched controls. No differences in fasting lipid, glucose concentrations or glycated haemoglobin were found in the diabetic groups.

Effects of the beta-adrenergic agonist, ritodrine, and insulin on plasma potassium concentrations in fetal lambs.

Prolonged infusion of the beta 2-adrenergic agonist, ritodrine, into sheep during late pregnancy decreased maternal plasma K+ from 3.6 to 2.5 mmol l-1 during the first 6-8 h of infusion, as it does during tocolysis in women.

Abnormal myoinositol influx in human leucocytes in diabetes but not specifically in diabetic neuropathy.

Abnormal myoinositol metabolism has been implicated as a contributor to the development of diabetic neuropathy. Furthermore, in vitro glucose inhibits animal and human myoinositol transporters. To investigate whether myoinositol transport is abnormal in diabetic subjects with and without neuropathy, we used a triple-isotope technique to measure [14C]myoinositol uptake in leucocytes from 23 insulin-dependent diabetic subjects and 13 matched nondiabetic subjects.