Targeted Treatment Reverses Increased Left Cardiac Work in Unilateral vs. Bilateral Primary Aldosteronism.

Background: The incidence of cardiovascular complications may be higher in unilateral than bilateral primary aldosteronism (PA). We compared noninvasive hemodynamics after targeted therapy of bilateral vs. unilateral PA.

Volume overload is a major characteristic in primary aldosteronism: a 3-year follow-up study.

Objectives: We examined haemodynamics, focusing on volume balance and forward and backward wave amplitudes, before and after 2.8 years of targeted treatment of primary aldosteronism. Patients with essential hypertension and normotensive individuals were examined for comparison ( n  = 40 in each group).

Adrenal androgens versus cortisol for primary aldosteronism subtype determination in adrenal venous sampling.

Objective: We examined if measurement of adrenal androgens adds to subtype diagnostics of primary aldosteronism (PA) under cosyntropin-stimulated adrenal venous sampling (AVS).

Design: A prospective pre-specified secondary endpoint analysis of 49 patients with confirmed PA, of whom 29 underwent unilateral adrenalectomy with long-term follow-up.

Methods: Concentrations of androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS) were measured during AVS in addition to aldosterone and cortisol.

Aldosterone-to-renin ratio is related to arterial stiffness when the screening criteria of primary aldosteronism are not met.

Aldosterone-to-renin ratio (ARR) is a screening tool for primary aldosteronism (PA), but the significance of ARR when the PA criteria are not met remains largely unknown. In this cross-sectional study we investigated the association of ARR with haemodynamic variables in 545 normotensive and never-medicated hypertensive subjects (267 men, 278 women, age range 19-72 years) without suspicion of PA. Supine haemodynamic data was recorded using whole-body impedance cardiography and radial tonometric pulse wave analysis.

Rapid C-reactive protein and white cell tests decrease cost and shorten emergency visits.

Background: Elevated white blood cells (WBC) in blood and C-reactive protein (CRP) in serum are often used as non-specific markers for bacterial etiology of infection in children. The aim of the present study was to evaluate how rapid WBC and CRP testing influences patient flow and cost in the pediatric emergency room (ER).

Methods: This study was a retrospective chart review.

Tomato Ve disease resistance genes encode cell surface-like receptors.

In tomato, Ve is implicated in race-specific resistance to infection by Verticillium species causing crop disease. Characterization of the Ve locus involved positional cloning and isolation of two closely linked inverted genes. Expression of individual Ve genes in susceptible potato plants conferred resistance to an aggressive race 1 isolate of Verticillium albo-atrum.

Epidemiology and traumatology of injuries in elite soccer: a prospective study in Finland.

A prospective study of male soccer injuries among 12 teams playing at the highest competition level was carried out in Finland in 1993. Overall, two out of three players were injured during the whole season. The injury incidence per 1000 playing hours among injured players and all players during games was higher than during practice, 14.

Binding of tyrosine-A-14(125I)-monoiodoinsulin to human erythrocytes.

We have studied the method for the determination of human erythrocyte insulin receptor concentrations using tyrosine-A-14-monoiodoinsulin as the labelled ligand with increasing amounts of unlabelled insulin in a saturation assay. An overnight incubation at 0-+4 degrees C was found to give the highest receptor concentrations and highest affinities for the ligand. Insulin receptor concentrations were found to be very low and lower in erythrocytes from normal females than from normal male subjects (7.

Progestin-like effects of danazol on rabbit uterus.

The action of danazol on cytosol and nuclear progestin and estrogen receptor concentrations and on the induction of uteroglobin synthesis were studied in the rabbit uterus in vivo. In addition, the relative binding affinity of danazol for the uterine progestin receptor was measured in vitro. Administration of increasing doses of danazol (10, 50, or 100 mg/kg BW daily) for 5 days to adult rabbits tended to decrease the concentrations of cytosol and nuclear progestin and estrogen receptors, whereas the uterine uteroglobin content increased with increasing doses of danazol.

Danazol has progestin-like actions on the human endometrium.

The administration of danazol, 200 mg three times daily, from the 3rd to the 23rd day of the cycle to normally menstruating women exhibited the following actions on the human endometrium: significantly reduced cytosol oestrogen and progestin receptor concentrations, and declined 17 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase activity. Very similar results were obtained during medroxyprogesterone acetate (100 mg daily) treatment for the same period of time. Danazol administration did not decrease circulating gonadotrophin levels but clearly suppressed luteal serum oestradiol and progesterone concentrations.

Serum sex steroid and peptide hormone concentrations, and endometrial estrogen and progestin receptor levels during administration of human leukocyte interferon.

Five normally cycling healthy women were given daily subcutaneous injections of human leukocyte interferon (3 X 10(6) units/day) from the 3rd through 23rd day of the menstrual cycle, and serum steroid and peptide hormone concentrations monitored at 3-day intervals during the treatment and the preceding control cycle. Concentrations of cytosol and nuclear estrogen receptors (ERC and ERN, respectively) and progestin receptors (PRC and PRN) were also measured from endometrial biopsies taken on the 24th day of the control and treatment cycle. In addition, an extensive monitoring of clinical chemical and hematological tests from the blood samples were performed.

Estrogen and progestin receptors in endometriosis lesions: comparison with endometrial tissue.

Cytosol estrogen (ER) and progestin (PR) receptors were quantified in 47 endometriosis lesions from 41 patients and compared with receptor measurements in the endometrial tissue of nine of these patients. Half of the specimens of endometriosis tissue contained PR only, in concentrations that were significantly lower than in the endometrium. Only 30% of the specimens of endometriosis tissue contained the two receptors simultaneously, and levels of ER were very low compared with those in the endometrium.

Postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy with estrogen periodically supplemented with antiestrogen.

To inhibit endometrial stimulation during postmenopausal estrogen therapy, 25 women with climacteric symptoms were treated with a daily dose of 1.25 mg of conjugated estrogens for 7 weeks followed by a period of 10 days with clomiphene citrate administration (50 mg per day). This combination was repeated three times during the 6-month trial.

Cyclic clomiphene citrate treatment lowers cytosol estrogen and progestin receptor concentrations in the endometrium of postmenopausal women on estrogen replacement therapy.

Clinical and experimental studies have indicated that a nonsteroidal antiestrogen, clomiphene citrate, might prevent the stimulatory action of estrogens on the human endometrium. To investigate the mechanisms of this effect, the treatment of 19 postmenopausal patients with conjugated estrogens for 6 months was supplemented cyclically for 10 days with clomiphene citrate after every 7 weeks. Ten patients ingested clomiphene citrate alone, whereas 9 patients continued estrogen treatment during clomiphene supplementation.

Progesterone-regulated changes in transcriptional events in rabbit uterus.

The role of steroid receptors in the early events of progesterone action was elucidated by examining the temporal relationship between the nuclear accumulation of progestin receptor and changes in activities of RNA polymerases I and II, as well as that of chromatin template in rabbit uterus. Following a 5-day estrogen pretreatment, the animals received an intravenous injection of progesterone (10 mg), after which they were killed at timed intervals. Nuclear progestin receptor level, as measured by an exchange assay, reached the peak value 30 min after hormone administration (11 600 to 46 600 sites/nucleus) and declined to the control levels by 4 h.

Orseillin BB and crystal violet, a differential staining combination for paraffin sections and water mounts of fungi.

A saturated solution of orseillin BB in 3% acetic acid followed by a 1% aqueous solution of crystal violet provides an excellent differential staining for sections of ascomycetous fructifications. The technique stains a wide variety of fungus and host cells, revealing considerable morphological and cytological detail. It is appropriate for microscope slides both of unfixed material mounted in water and of picric acid-fixed paraffin sections.

Middle ear effusions -- complications of disease and treatment.

The results of treatment of secretory otitis media with commonly found disease in Finland is described. Treatment includes adenoidectomy and/or insertion of tympanostomy tubes with mastoidectomy in selected cases. Tympanostomy tube treatment results in an increased amount of visible tympanic membrane scar formation and tympanosclerosis, but these are of no major functional importance.

Immunological defects in children with chronic otitis media.

A total of 59 children with chronic otitis media were examined for possible immunological defects by determination of serum gammaglobulin and immunoglobulins IgG, IgA and IgM, and by a tuberculin test, and additionally by noting any lymphopenia. Some divergence from normal values was found in 38 patients (64%). 14 children (24%) showed pathologically low immunoglobulin levels and 7 (12%) even a subtotal absence of one of the immunoglobulin fractions.

The ultrastructure of the Spilocaea state of Venturia inaequalis in vivo.

There are indications that the fungus enzymatically degrades the cuticle and epidermal cell wall. The epidermal cells and to a lesser degree the palisade mesophyll cells beneath a sporulating lesion (susceptible reaction) are killed or seriously disrupted. Various stages of conidiogenesis, including development of the pprimary conidium, were observed.

Clinical results and complications of tympanostomy.

Tympanostomy tube treatment was used in 181 patients on 323 ears and a followup study was made as an average three years and two months later. Sixty-five percent of the ears had healed completely and in these the average tube treatment time had been 11.3 months.