Assessment of physician responses to abnormal results of bone densitometry studies.

Objective: To assess how physicians who have ordered bone densitometry studies respond to abnormal results.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of cases from physicians affiliated with a community teaching hospital. The study sample consisted of 142 female patients with abnormal bone mineral density (BMD) who had been referred by 50 physicians (internists or gynecologists).

Adrenocorticotropin radioimmunoassay: properties of antisera against synthetic ACTH(1-24) and its clinical application.

Two antisera against synthetic ACTH(1-24) developed in rabbit showed strikingly different affinities toward the ACTH molecule. Both antisera (A-6 and A-7) were highly specific for the COOH-terminal region of ACTH(1-24). Antisera A-6 recognized ACTH(1-39) poorly.

C-Peptide reserve in insulin-dependent diabetes. Comparative responses to glucose, glucagon and tolbutamide.

Residual beta cell secretory capacity was assessed in short term (2 months to 2 years) and long term (5 to 8 years) insulin-dependent diabetics by measurement of serum C-peptide immunoreactivity during three provocative tests: glucose, tolbutamide, and glucagon. Minimal C-peptide secretion could be detected in only one out of seven long term diabetics by the stimulatory tests. All seven short-term diabetics responded to at least one provocative test of beta cell reserve, although these responses were blunted.

Screening for hypertension in the emergency department.

Review of emergency department charts at three university-affiliated hospitals showed that less than half of all patients who had elevated blood pressure (BP) recorded were recognized by physicians to be hypertensive. At the primary teaching hospital, less than one third of patients with the greatest BP elevation (greater than 20 mm Hg above normal) were sent for some type of hypertension follow-up care.