Intestinal and renal effects of low-volume phosphate and sulfate cathartic solutions designed for cleansing the colon: pathophysiological studies in five normal subjects.

Objectives: Ingestion of a concentrated low-volume phosphate solution produces copious diarrhea, which cleanses the colon, but it occasionally causes renal failure due to calcium phosphate precipitation in renal tubules. We hypothesized that a concentrated low-volume sulfate solution would be an equally effective cathartic, and that urine produced after sulfate would have less tendency to precipitate calcium salts than urine produced after phosphate.

Methods: Hydrated subjects ingested 75 ml of phosphosoda or an equimolar dose of sulfate salts in a small volume of solution.

Serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-I and insulin-like growth factor-I binding protein-3: quality control for studies of stored serum.

The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) axis, particularly IGF-I and IGF binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3), has been the subject of much attention because of its role in juvenile growth and their association with cancers at several sites. However, epidemiologic studies of IGF-I and IGFBP-3 have had mixed results and several authors have speculated that quality control (QC), sample storage history, and other methodologic concerns could play a role in this heterogeneity. This article documents the results of storage history and QC efforts for a study of IGF-I and IGFBP-3 in 6,226 serum samples from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANES III).

Apoptosis in ibuprofen-induced Stevens-Johnson syndrome.

Cytokines play a role in the immunopathological and molecular mechanisms of drug-induced hypersensitivity reactions (HSR). The objective of the current report was to analyze the reliability and correlation between the clinical symptoms observed in a patient that presented an ibuprofen-induced Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS), her lymphocyte toxicity assay to the incriminated drug, and the cytokine secretion in the patient's sera. In her skin biopsy, the apoptotic keratinocytes is shown.

Levels of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and IGF binding proteins 2 and 3 in serial postoperative serum samples and risk of prostate cancer recurrence.

Objectives: To determine changes of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), IGF binding protein-2 (IGFBP-2), and IGFBP-3 levels in serial postoperative serum samples from prostate cancer patients with and without relapse and to evaluate the prognostic value of these molecules in the recurrence of prostate cancer.

Methods: From a group of patients with prostate cancer who had been followed for disease recurrence for almost 5 years after radical prostatectomy, we selected 38 patients (cases) who developed recurrent disease and 40 patients (controls) who were in remission. Of these patients, 70 had 4 and 8 had 3 serial postoperative serum samples collected.

Growth hormone stimulation testing in both short and normal statured children: use of an immunofunctional assay.

Accurate interpretation of the results of GH stimulation tests is of pivotal importance not only in the evaluation of the etiology of growth retardation in children but also in the selection of the best candidates for GH therapy. We performed this study to test a novel immunofunctional GH ( IFGH) assay that makes use of the concept that one GH molecule dimerizes two GH receptors and compared the results with those obtained using two GH assays, the Diagnostic Systems Laboratories ELISA and a Hybritech immunoradiometric assay in 19 children with short stature undergoing routine GH stimulation testing. We also tested 13 normally statured control children to revisit the issue of what constitutes normal GH responses to stimuli, using all three assays and arginine and either L-dopa or insulin-induced hypoglycemia as secretagogues.