Ethnicity affects IGFBP-3 and IGF-II in normal healthy young adult subjects.

Objective: While the effects of age on the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) axis are well documented, the influence of ethnic background is unknown. The differences in IGF and IGF binding proteins (IGFBPs) were investigated in two ethnic groups.

Design: A cross-sectional study of an age-selected cohort of healthy, normoglycaemic, non-obese Caucasian (C) and Asian (A) subjects.

A family history of NIDDM is associated with decreased aortic distensibility in normal healthy young adult subjects.

Objective: NIDDM is associated with stiffer arteries and an increased incidence of macrovascular disease. NIDDM has strong familial inheritance. We studied the associations of a family history of NIDDM with blood pressure-corrected aortic distensibility (Cp).

Aortic distensibility in post-menopausal women receiving Tibolone.

Both oestrogen and androgens have been shown to affect the structural composition and biophysical properties of the arterial wall in vitro. A non-invasive Doppler ultrasound technique, based on the measurement of pulse wave velocity along the thoraco-abdominal aortic pathway, was used to assess aortic compliance C in vivo in 49 normotensive, normal, healthy post-menopausal female subjects. 23 of the women had been receiving Tibolone, a synthetic steroid structurally related to norethisterone, for at least 3 years.

Aortic compliance measured by non-invasive Doppler ultrasound: application of a personal computer based MkII system and its repeatability.

A non-invasive pulse-wave-velocity Doppler ultrasound technique for the assessment of aortic compliance is described. A computational approach for correcting for the effect of non-chronic changes in blood pressure is considered and applied to compliance measurements performed on an age-select cohort of 70 normotensive, normal healthy volunteers. In order to permit the wider availability of the pulse-wave-velocity Doppler ultrasound technique, the authors have developed a MkII system based on a standard 80486/33 MHz IBM compatible WINDOWS based personal computer; real-time spectral analysis being achieved using a relatively inexpensive but fast analogue to digital signal processing card.