An overnight high-dose dexamethasone suppression test for rapid differential diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome.

We have developed a high-dose dexamethasone suppression test that can be administered overnight with a single 8-mg dose and used the new procedure in the differential diagnosis of 83 patients with Cushing's syndrome. In 76 patients with surgically or pathologically proven cause--60 with Cushing's disease, 7 with the ectopic adrenocorticotrophic hormone syndrome, and 9 with adrenal tumors--suppression of plasma cortisol levels to less than 50% of baseline indicated a diagnosis of Cushing's disease. The test had a sensitivity of 92%, a specificity of 100%, and a diagnostic accuracy of 93%.

Reduced solubility of short-acting soluble insulins when mixed with longer-acting insulins.

Using insulins from three manufacturers, we examined the recovery by radioimmunoassay of short-acting soluble insulin when mixed with long-acting insulin as a function of the ratio of the mixture and the time of pre-mixing. In ratios of 1:2, 1:3, and 1:5 (short- to long-acting insulin), all Novo, Nordisk, and Lilly short-acting insulins tested showed a significant loss of solubility when mixed with the respective company's long-acting insulin either for less than 75 s or for 20 min before centrifugation. In ratios of 1:1, Novo's Actrapid (regular) with Monotard (lente) and Lilly's regular with lente showed no significant loss of solubility when pre-mixed for less than 75 s, and the regular insulin also showed no significant loss when pre-mixed for 20 min.

Anovulatory effect of synthetic analogs of arginine vasotocin in the rat.

We synthesized a series of analogs of arginine vasotocin by systematically substituting each residue, and we then evaluated the anovulatory activity of these compounds in the rat, investigating the correlation between molecular structure and anovulatory, pressor, and antidiuretic activities. Substitution of the N-terminus cysteine with 3-mercaptopropanoic acid in arginine vasotocin and arginine vasopressin produced a 3- to 4-fold increase in both anovulatory and antidiuretic activity and only a 10% change in pressor activity. A similar substitution with lysine vasopressin produced no significant change in either anovulatory or antidiuretic potency; however, the pressor activity was reduced by half.

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