Higher incidence of paediatric inflammatory bowel disease by increasing latitude in Norway, but stable incidence by age.

Aim: To examine possible geographical and temporal differences in the incidence of childhood-onset inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in Norway, motivated by previous research indicating relevant environmental factors explaining changing epidemiology.

Methods: We analysed data from children born in Norway from 2004 to 2012 (n = 541 036) in a registry-based nationwide study. After validating registry diagnoses against medical records, we defined IBD as ≥2 entries of International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10) codes K50, K51 and K52.

Antibiotic Use in Term and Near-Term Newborns.

Objectives: We aimed to study whether national and local antibiotic stewardship projects have reduced the antibiotic use in newborns and to monitor potential changes in adverse outcomes.

Methods: In a nationwide, population-based study from Norway, we included all hospital live births from 34 weeks' gestation (n = 282 046) during 2015 to 2019. The primary outcome was the proportion of newborns treated with antibiotics from 0 to 28 days after birth.

Effects on plasma noradrenaline may explain some of the improved insulin sensitivity seen by AT-1 receptor blockade.

Aims: We have previously found improved insulin sensitivity in hypertensives after additional treatment with angiotensin II-receptor blocker (ARB) compared with calcium-channel blocker (CCB) alone, despite similar blood pressure lowering effects. In this study, we compare the effect of these two principal different vasodilating agents on the autonomic nervous system in the same patients, and test whether potential differences in these variables might explain the difference seen in insulin sensitivity.

Methods: In a double-blind crossover study, 21 hypertensive patients were randomized to receive either 100 mg losartan (ARB) or 5 mg amlodipine (CCB) in addition to an open-labelled treatment of amlodipine 5 mg.

Extremely slow formate elimination in severe methanol poisoning: a fatal case report.

Unlabelled: Methanol poisoning is a potentially fatal medical emergency because of its metabolism to formic acid. The half-life of formate has been reported in the range of 2.5-12.

Sympathetic activity and cardiovascular risk factors in young men in the low, normal, and high blood pressure ranges.

We hypothesized that resting blood pressure is related to sympathetic activity in young men who are unaware of their blood pressure status in high, normal, and low ranges and that there is a relationship between sympathetic activity and coronary risk factors. Forty-three healthy, young men from the 1st [group 1, 106/52+/-2/2 mm Hg (+/-SEM), n=15], 50th (group 2, 129/79+/-2/1 mm Hg, n=15), and 98th to 99th percentile (group 3, 166/97+/-3/1 mm Hg, n=13) at a blood pressure screening were studied with intraarterial blood pressure, heart rate, and arterial plasma catecholamine responses to a mental, cold pressor, and orthostatic stress test. At baseline, group 3 had significant higher blood pressure (137/74+/-3/2 mm Hg) than group 2 (126/66+/-3/2 mm Hg; P<0.

Cigarette smoking may reduce plasma leptin concentration via catecholamines.

Background: Leptin might influence body weight among smokers.

Design: (A) Screening of plasma leptin levels in 222 sedentary, smoking and non-smoking middle-aged men. (B) Double-blind, placebo-controlled smoking intervention on smokers (n=31).

Monday and non-Monday concentrations of lifestyle-related blood components in the Oslo Diet and Exercise Study.

Objective: We hypothesized that participants of intervention studies have an unfavourable lifestyle at the weekend compared with the rest of the week, thus affecting the concentrations of components in samples drawn on Mondays.

Design: The hypothesis was examined using data from the Oslo Diet and Exercise Study, a 2 x 2 randomized intervention trial on diet and exercise involving 209 participants. Each person chose which day of the week to attend for blood sampling, both before and after the 1 year of intervention.

Beta-thromboglobulin in urine and plasma: influence of coronary risk factors.

Blood platelet activation in vivo was evaluated by measuring beta-thromboglobulin in plasma and high molecular weight beta-thromboglobulin in urine in hypertensive smoking and nonsmoking middle-aged men (n=36) and in normotensive age-matched controls (n=40). We found no significant linear relationships between nocturnal or resting urinary high molecular weight beta-thromboglobulin and plasma beta-thromboglobulin in the combined hypertensive and normotensive groups. The excretion of high molecular weight beta-thromboglobulin correlated significantly with diastolic blood pressure when all subjects were pooled.

Acute effects of cigarette smoking on platelet function and plasma catecholamines in hypertensive and normotensive men.

In this randomized controlled crossover study essential hypertensive men (n = 13) and matched normotensive controls (n = 18) were examined before and during cigarette and sham smoking to assess the acute effects of smoking on platelets and plasma catecholamines. Platelet activity in vivo was determined by measurements of the released alpha-granule constituent beta-thromboglobulin (beta-TG) in plasma and in urine. Urinary high molecular weight beta-TG and venous plasma epinephrine increased significantly during smoking in the hypertensive group, but not among the normotensive men.

Supplementary selenium influences the response to fatty acid-induced oxidative stress in humans.

The mutual influences of wheat selenium (Se) and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) on plasma Se and indicators of increased oxidative stress were investigated in a randomized, double-blind study with 31 women (23.5 +/- 3.4 yr).

Transdermal nitroglycerin: clinical and pharmacokinetic consequences of renewing the patch and the application site.

Objective: We examined whether nitroglycerin (glyceryl trinitrate, GTN) patch treatment for 24 h could induce local cutaneous changes that impaired drug delivery and clinical efficacy.

Methods: Twenty angina patients were exercise-tested after 2 and 24 h of treatment and then 2 h after patch renewal. The patch was either renewed on a new skin location or on the previous application site in a randomised, double-blind, cross-over protocol.

Mechanisms of tolerance during treatment with nitroglycerin patches for 24 h.

Objective: We examined the relationship between tolerance development, counterregulatory responses and arterial vasodilating effects evaluated by digital pulse plethysmography.

Methods: Twenty patients with stable angina pectoris were exercise tested before, after 2 and after 24 h of open nitrate patch treatment.

Results: The effects observed after 2 h of treatment on exercise duration, ST-segment depression, blood pressure and heart rate were lost in most individuals after 24 h.

Effects of carvedilol and atenolol on arterial pulse curves (plethysmography) and finger temperature after hand cooling.

Objective: In a double-blind, parallel study, the effects of 25 mg carvedilol and 50 mg atenolol on peripheral finger circulation and arterial pulse curve configuration were compared.

Methods: Healthy volunteers (n = 17) were examined at baseline and for 15 min after 60 s of hand cooling in ice-water. Finger temperature and digital plethysmography were recorded each minute from the cooled and the control hands.

Blood platelet responses to laboratory stress in young men. The effect of awareness of high blood pressure.

Healthy 19-year old males from the 95th percentile of mean arterial screening blood pressure were randomized to prolonged mental stress by receiving a letter informing of a high screening blood pressure (n = 13), or a neutral letter (n = 13). Blood platelet function in vivo was assessed by measurements of plasma concentrations of the platelet-specific protein beta-thromboglobulin, platelet counts, and mean platelet volumes before and during two laboratory stress tests (hand cold pressor test and arithmetic challenge). The cold pressor test caused a significant increase in beta-thromboglobulin concentrations in both groups, and significantly more in the uniformed group.

Acute effects of low dose nicotine gum on platelet function in non-smoking hypertensive and normotensive men.

Twenty non-smoking middle-aged men with mild untreated essential hypertension were compared to age-matched controls (n = 22) in a double-blind placebo controlled study. Plasma and urinary concentrations of the platelet-specific protein beta-thromboglobulin (beta-TG), platelet count and mean platelet volume were measured before and after chewing 2 mg nicotine gum. The mean plasma nicotine concentration increased to 4.

Does dietary arsenic and mercury affect cutaneous bleeding time and blood lipids in humans?

Fish species may contain considerable amounts of trace elements, such as selenium (Se), arsenic (As), and mercury (Hg). The present study investigated the relationships between dietary intake of these elements and cutaneous bleeding time and blood lipids in 32 healthy volunteers. For 6 wk, one group (n = 11) consumed approx 250 g Se-rich fish daily, providing them with an average Se intake of 115 +/- 31 micrograms Se/d, Hg intake of 18 +/- 8 micrograms/d, and As intake of 806 +/- 405 micrograms/d, all values analyzed in 4-d duplicate food collections.

Bleeding times related to serum triglyceride levels in healthy young adults.

A diet rich in fish tends to increase the bleeding time both in patients and healthy controls. Another effect of such a diet is a reduction in serum triglyceride levels in the individuals. It is not known whether these two effects are interrelated.

A new isosorbide dinitrate extended-release formulation: pharmacokinetic and clinical parameters in patients with stable angina pectoris.

In a double-blind, cross-over study the acute clinical efficacy and pharmacokinetic profile of a newly developed isosorbide dinitrate extended-release (ISDN-ER) formulation (10 mg immediate release and 60 mg slow release) were examined in eight angina patients. Exercise tests were done 1 h before and 1, 6 and 10 h after acute ISDN or placebo; similar testing was repeated after 14 days of open-labelled treatment. At 1, 6 and 10 h after administration, ISDN-ER significantly reduced the mean ST depression at highest comparable workload (HCWL) by 0.

Effect of cold pressor test and awareness of hypertension on platelet function in normotensive and hypertensive women.

Plasma beta-thromboglobulin (beta-TG) concentration, reflecting platelet function in vivo, was compared in fertile women with untreated essential hypertension and age-matched normotensives, in two separate studies. In the first study, hypertensives and normotensives were aware of their blood pressure status. Blood was sampled through arterial and venous indwelling catheters, and no difference in beta-TG was found between the groups.

Platelet selenium as indicator of wheat selenium intake.

The effect of an increased intake of wheat selenium (Se) on platelet Se, serum Se, whole-blood Se, and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) levels was investigated in 14 healthy Norwegian females (age 21-53 years). The intake of 60 micrograms Se per day as wheat Se, for six weeks, significantly increased the platelet Se (mean +/- SEM) from 9.1 +/- 1.

Effects of fish oil, nifedipine and their combination on blood pressure and lipids in primary hypertension.

In a double-blind, crossover, placebo-controlled study the effects of four weeks' treatment with 4.55 g/day of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on BP and serum lipids were assessed in 18 males with hypertension (WHO stage I-II). At the end of the double-blind phase, eight patients on placebo (olive oil) and ten patients on fish oil treatment were given nifedipine 20 mg twice daily added to their regimens for four weeks.

The sympathetic nervous system may modulate the metabolic cardiovascular syndrome in essential hypertension.

The association between blood pressure and coronary artery disease may be caused by a concurrence of atherogenic biochemical abnormalities in hypertensive patients, i.e., the metabolic cardiovascular syndrome (increased total cholesterol, triglycerides, and insulin; decreased high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol; and insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, and blood platelet dysfunction).

Awareness of high blood pressure increases arterial plasma catecholamines, platelet noradrenaline and adrenergic responses to mental stress.

Thirty-six, 19-year-old men within the 95th percentile of mean blood pressure (110 mmHg) at a routine medical screening were randomized into two groups and requested to return for a follow-up visit in 2 weeks. One group was sent a neutral letter, while the other was sent a letter conveying the information that their blood pressures were elevated. After 15 min sitting in the laboratory, there was a significantly higher heart rate (P less than 0.

Gradient centrifugation to isolate platelets for determination of trace elements by neutron-activation analysis.

A nonionic iodinated compound, Nycodenz, was used for density-gradient isolation of platelets before analysis for trace elements by instrumental neutron activation. The platelet samples were almost free from plasma and erythrocytes, and the trace element contribution from additives was insignificant for the elements investigated. The reproducibility of the trace element analysis in platelets attests to the usefulness of density-gradient separation.