[Screening for Down's syndrome--results of a 3-year study].

In a group of 5382 examined pregnant women the authors demonstrate the results of systematic prenatal screening of Down's syndrome. From the results it is apparent that it is essential to supplement each examination of alpha-fetoprotein by assessment of total HCG which is considered a parameter of greater impact for prediction of chromosomal aberrations. Since the beginning of 1993 all examinations were evaluated, using the commercial software ALPHA; its advantage is in particular that it expresses the overall risk due to age and two parameters assessed by laboratory tests and the reduction of the magnitude of the risk group to the acceptable level of 6.

[Hyperinsulinemia--the common denominator in type II diabetes mellitus,obesity, hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia and atherosclerosis].

During the last twenty years we witnessed a remarkable increase in knowledge of the mechanism as regards insulin action, the central hormone of metabolic regulations. Interest in cellular and molecular mechanisms of action was conditioned by a high prevalence of insulin resistance and the fact that insulin resistance holds a key position in the pathogenesis of many diseases, in particular atherosclerosis, obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus type II, ovarian hyperandrogenism and others. The syndrome of hyperinsulinaemia/insulin resistance is the basic component of the so-called X syndrome defined in 1988 by Reaven.

[Risk factors for ischemic heart disease in healthy persons with hyperinsulinemia and normal glucose tolerance].

The authors investigated the relationship of plasma insulin to some risk factors of ischaemic heart disease (IHD). They examined 79 healthy men--drivers of international truck transport with a normal glucose tolerance. The group comprised 21 men with hyperinsulinaemia.

[The importance of the determination of primary bile acids in diseases of the digestive tract].

The authors assessed the concentration of primary bile acids in patients with liver diseases, diseases of the gallbladder and biliary pathways, with affections of the pancreas and in a control group. Primary bile acids and their conjugated derivatives were assessed by radioimmunoanalysis from the patients' serum, using radiodiagnostic sets of Farmos Co. Finland.

Estrogen receptors in human goitrous and neoplastic thyroid.

An attempt was made to quantify the number of specific estrogen binding sites in specimens of human goitrous or neoplastic thyroid tissue obtained by surgery. Using synthetic estrogen [3H]moxestrol as a radioligand, the concentrations of estrogen receptors found were very low (average 0.57 +/- 0.

Effect of nifedipine on the adrenocortical and somatotrophic secretory reserve and TSH and thyroid hormone plasma levels.

The authors investigated the effect of one week's administration of therapeutic doses of the calcium antagonist nifedipine on the hormone homeostasis of clinically healthy subjects. The insignificant tendency towards an increase of the adrenocorticotrophic and somatotrophic secretory reserve and the unaltered levels of thyrotrophin, triiodothyronine and thyroxine rule out possible adverse side-effects of the administered therapeutic doses of nifedipine on the hormone balance of the mentioned systems. The authors discuss also the physiological impact of the assessed findings.

Effect of hypercalcaemia on adrenocortical and growth hormone secretion.

The authors investigated in 19 healthy women changes in the plasma levels of cortisol and growth hormone during acute hypercalcaemia induced by a load of 8.9 mg Ca2+/kg body weight, administered as intravenous infusion and the effect of hypercalcaemia on the adrenocortical and somatotrophic secretory reserve assessed by the test with insulin hypoglycaemia. Hypercalcaemia causes a rise of the basal cortisol plasma level starting at the 90th minute from the onset of the infusion when the calcium level reaches values of 2.

Plasma insulin, carbohydrate, and free fatty acid changes in newly born infants of diabetic and non-diabetic mothers after loading with glucose, fructose, and galactose.

Changes in the concentration of blood glucose, fructose and galactose and their disappearance rate, concentration of plasma insulin, free fatty acids, blood lactate and pyruvate after intravenous glucose, fructose and galactose loads (1 g/kg) were studied in 23 infants of insulin treated diabetic mothers (IDM). The control group consisted of 42 infants of healthy mothers (IHM). The disappearance rate of these monosaccharides was higher in IDM that in IHM (P less than 0.