Comparable efficacy and tolerability of formoterol (Foradil) administered via a novel multi-dose dry powder inhaler (Certihaler) or the Aerolizer dry powder inhaler in patients with persistent asthma.

Background: For maximum treatment compliance there is a need to provide asthma patients with devices that suit their particular preferences. The Foradil Certihaler is a novel multi-dose dry powder inhaler developed to increase the choice of devices available.

Objectives: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of formoterol administered via the Foradil Certihaler, or via the single-dose inhaler Foradil Aerolizer.

The effects of GH and hormone replacement therapy on serum concentrations of mannan-binding lectin, surfactant protein D and vitamin D binding protein in Turner syndrome.

Objective: Studies in animals and humans indicate that growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) modulate immune function. Recently, it was reported that GH therapy increased the level of mannan-binding lectin (MBL) in normal patients, and that treatment of acromegalics with pegvisomant decreased the levels of MBL. The effect on MBL was thought to be due to a specific action of GH, since IGF-I treatment did not affect MBL.

Evidence of increased visceral obesity and reduced physical fitness in healthy insulin-resistant first-degree relatives of type 2 diabetic patients.

Objective: First-degree relatives (FDR) of type 2 diabetic patients are often insulin resistant. Visceral obesity is closely linked to both insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. We therefore hypothesized that the inheritance of an increased tendency to store fat in visceral fat depots may be a characteristic phenotypic feature in FDR contributing to their insulin resistance.

Turner syndrome and the heart: cardiovascular complications and treatment strategies.

Turner syndrome is a condition usually associated with reduced final height, gonadal dysgenesis, and thus insufficient circulating levels of female sex steroids, and infertility. A number of other signs and symptoms are seen more frequently with the syndrome. With respect to cardiac function, congenital malformations of the heart and the great vessels, hypertension and ischemic heart disease, and increased risk of aortic dissection are all conditions that the pediatrician or the physician caring for females with Turner syndrome should keep in mind.

MR imaging of the normal sacroiliac joint with correlation to histology.

Objective: The microscopic study of the various components of joints provide a proper basis for understanding the nature of pathologic lesions to which they are subject and their imaging appearances. This study was designed to correlate MR imaging with a systematic histological study of the normal sacroiliac joint (SIJ), which to our knowledge is not available in the literature.

Design And Patients: Five male cadavers, aged 20 to 45 years, and seven male and seven female volunteers, aged 23 to 44 years, were investigated with oblique transaxial and coronal MR imaging of the SIJs.

Additive effects of cortisol and growth hormone on regional and systemic lipolysis in humans.

Growth hormone (GH) and cortisol are important to ensure energy supplies during fasting and stress. In vitro experiments have raised the question whether GH and cortisol mutually potentiate lipolysis. In the present study, combined in vivo effects of GH and cortisol on adipose and muscle tissue were explored.

Natural history and clinical management of optic pathway glioma.

Twenty-five consecutive unselected patients with optic pathway glioma (OPG) were primarily observed and treated if progression was evident. Diagnosis was based on MRI. The natural history of the OPG disease was more indolent in 12 patients with neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) than in the others, and regressions were commonly observed.

[Adrenal scintigraphy].

Adrenal scintigraphy is a functional imaging technique for evaluation of adrenal gland hyperfunction. In this review the methodology and multiple applications of the examination are described. The role of scintigraphy in the light of the relatively high radiation dose to the patient is defined and compared with other imaging modalities.

[Educational needs of physicians and nurses working in palliative care].

Introduction: The WHO definitions of palliative care have been adopted in Denmark and implemented in the national guidelines. The aim of this study was to assess the educational needs of doctors and nurses in palliative care in a Danish county hospital and the related primary care sector.

Materials And Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was mailed to an anonymous cross-section of hospital nurses and doctors, home care nurses and GPs in the related primary care sector.

Magnetic resonance imaging of sacroiliitis in early seronegative spondylarthropathy. Abnormalities correlated to clinical and laboratory findings.

Objective: To compare a new MRI scoring system of the sacroiliac joints (SIJs) in early spondylarthropathy (SpA) with clinical and laboratory parameters.

Methods: Forty-one patients (24 males, 17 females) with a median age of 26 yr and a median duration of inflammatory low back pain of 19 months were included. They all fulfilled the ESSG-criteria for SpA.

TGF-beta1 induces aberrant laminin chain and collagen type IV isotype expression in the glomerular basement membrane.

Transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) contributes to the thickening of the glomerular basement membrane (GBM), abnormal deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM) therein and expansion of the mesangial matrix (MM) in several glomerular kidney diseases. However, the influence of TGF-beta1 on the expression of collagen IV isotypes and laminin chains in the GBM and the MM in vivo is not known in detail. By using transgenic mice with TGF-beta1 expression targeted to the juxtaglomerular apparatus and a combination of immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, immunoelectron microscopy and in situ hybridization, we investigated the contribution of different laminin chains and collagen type IV isotypes to the basement membrane thickening and mesangial expansion.

[Surgical treatment of giant cell tumor of bone].

Introduction: This study analyses a 5-year follow-up after treatment of giant cell tumour of bone during a 31-year period.

Material And Methods: Sixty patients with giant cell tumours of bone had been treated at the Centre for Musculoskeletal Tumours at Aarhus University Hospital. All patients were followed at regular intervals for 5-35 years, median = 11 years.

Impaired basal glucose effectiveness but unaltered fasting glucose release and gluconeogenesis during short-term hypercortisolemia in healthy subjects.

Excess cortisol has been demonstrated to impair hepatic and extrahepatic insulin action. To determine whether glucose effectiveness and, in terms of endogenous glucose release (EGR), gluconeogenesis, also are altered by hypercortisolemia, eight healthy subjects were studied after overnight infusion with hydrocortisone or saline. Glucose effectiveness was assessed by a combined somatostatin and insulin infusion protocol to maintain insulin concentration at basal level in the presence of prandial glucose infusions.

Optimisation of scoliosis examinations in children.

Objective: To present results of optimising scoliosis examination by changing from a conventional film/grid (F/G) to air-gap technique using computed radiography (CR), and to evaluate different methods for estimating effective radiation doses.

Materials And Methods: Forty-nine children and adolescents were examined with an F/G technique, and 21 with air-gap and CR techniques. Entrance surface doses (ESD) were determined with lithium fluoride thermoluminescence dosimeters.