Enteral feeding in stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.

Objective: The study aimed to compare the effectiveness of a defined formula diet with a blenderized diet on nutritional and respiratory function parameters and to determine the bacteriological load of the two formulations.

Methodology: Seventeen patients, aged 50-75 years, admitted to the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital for chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema, were studied. They were divided into two groups according to dietary regimens.

Untreated Graves' disease patients without clinical ophthalmopathy demonstrate a high frequency of extraocular muscle (EOM) enlargement by magnetic resonance.

12 of 17, a significant frequency (71%), of untreated Graves' disease patients with no clinical ophthalmopathy showed extraocular muscle (EOM) enlargement by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Enlargement was bilateral in 41% and unilateral in 29% in these patients. Apparent enlargements of EOM were also detected, by MRI, in all of 11 Graves' disease patients with clinical ophthalmopathy, bilateral in 73% and unilateral in 27% of patients in this group.

Suppressive doses of thyroxine do not accelerate age-related bone loss in late postmenopausal women.

To examine whether suppressive doses of thyroxine have any adverse effects on bone, we evaluated various bone metabolic markers (lectin-precipitated alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcin, carboxyl-terminal region of type I collagen propeptide, tartrate-resistant alkaline phosphatase, and urinary excretion of hydroxyproline and pyridinium crosslinks), incidence of vertebral deformity, total body and regional (lumbar spine and radius) bone mineral densities (BMDs), and rates of bone loss in 24 late postmenopausal (more than 5 years after menopause) women who were treated with levothyroxine (L-T4) after total thyroidectomy for differentiated carcinoma. Depending on the clinical records, including serum TSH levels measured by immunoradiometric assay, these patients were divided into two groups. One group of patients was given suppressive doses of L-T4 (TSH < 0.

Correlation between suppression of c-myc and antiproliferative effect of transforming growth factor-beta 1 in thyroid carcinoma cell growth.

The growth regulatory activity of transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF beta 1) was studied in a clonal strain of thyroid papillary carcinoma cell (NPA). Despite the presence of TGF beta 1 and its receptor messenger RNA in thyroid carcinoma, the molecular mechanism of TGF beta 1 action on cell growth of thyroid carcinoma has not yet been elucidated. Exogenously added TGF beta 1 inhibited DNA synthesis and cell growth in a dose- and time-dependent manner at concentrations of 0.

Expression of parathyroid hormone related peptide in human pituitary tumours.

The presence of parathyroid hormone related peptide (PTHrP) was studied in 20 patients with pituitary adenomas and one patient with pituitary adenocarcinoma. PTHrP expression was shown in almost all of the pituitary adenomas (95%) and in 100% (n = 7) growth hormone producing pituitary adenomas. A metastatic lesion from a pituitary growth hormone producing adenocarcinoma revealed strongly expressed PTHrP.