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Biomedical subjects

D Bird

Publications and source records attributed to D Bird.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

Spontaneous rupture of a liver cell adenoma after long term methyltestosterone: report of a case successfully treated by emergency right hepatic lobectomy.

A case of spontaneous rupture of a liver cell adenoma is reported in a female transexual treated with methyltestosterone 150 mg daily for 7 years. Emergency right hepatic lobectomy was performed successfully. Histology showed peliosis hepatis also. Emergency resection of a liver cell adenoma has been reported in a young woman taking oral contraceptives, and an elective resection in another female transexual treated with methyltestosterone. However, to the best of our knowledge this is the first case of emergency resection of a spontaneously ruptured liver cell adenoma in a transexual treated with long term methyltestosterone. Since there are numerous other patients similarly treated, it may be expected that this complication will be seen again.

Adult

Interrelation of the pituitary-thyroid system at birth in man.

Samples of cord blood derived from 105 normal babies after uncomplicated deliveries were assayed for thyroxine (T4), tri-iodothyronine (T3), reverse tri-iodothyronine (rT3), thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG) and thyrotrophin (TSH). The values for T3, rT3 and TSH were log-normally distributed (geometric means 0.62 nmol/l, 3.28 nmol/l and 10.9 mu./l respectively) and those for T4 and TBG were normally distributed (means 126 nmol/l and 13.7 mg/l), The data were systematically analysed and no evidence was obtained to suggest that the concentration of TSH, which varied widely, was regulated by any of the thyroid hormones alone or in combination. There was a direct relation between the concentrations of T4 and T3 in the cord blood at birth but not between either of these and rT3. There is thus no evidence of a functional interdependence of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid system in man at birth.

Fetal Blood

Reverse triiodothyronine, thyroid hormone, and thyrotrophin concentrations in placental cord blood.

Reverse triiodothyronine (rT3), triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), thyroxine binding globulin (TBG), and thyrotrophin (TSH) were measured in sera from placental cord blood in an unselected series of 272 deliveries. In this series the concentrations of rT3 (mean 3.33 nmol/l, 95% confidence limits 1.6--7.0 nmol/l), were log normally distributed and did not overlap the adult normal range (0.11--0.44 nmol/l). There were no correlations between the cord blood concentrations of rT3, T3, T4, and TSH. The cord serum rT3 concentration was not influenced by maturity, birth-weight, or neonatal risk factors, whereas these factors did affect the concentrations of T3, T4, AND TBG. There is no arteriovenous rT3 concentration difference across the placenta, therefore the cord rT3 reflects the systemic rT3 concentration in the baby at birth. As rT3 in the neonate largely, if not entirely, derives from thyroxine from the fetal thyroid, measurement of the cord rT3 concentration may be a good immediate screening test for neonatal hypothyroidism.

Fetal Blood

Regulation of thyrotrophin secretion by negative feedback of tri-iodothyronine on the hypothalamus.

Bilateral injections of tri-iodothyronine (T3, 2 ng in 2 microliter artificial cerebrospinal fluid, CSF) were made into the hypothalami of 15 hypothyroid rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) prepared with chronically implanted intrahypothalamic cannulae. In 29 out of 96 such injections, the concentration of thyrotrophin (TSH) in the plasma fell rapidly by more than 30% and returned to the basal value over the succeeding 48 h, in 13 experiments the fall was 20-30% and in the remaining 54 experiments the level of TSH was unaltered. With [125I]T3, the extent of diffusion of T3 through the hypothalamus in these experiments was shown to be very limited. The hypothalamic injection sites were subsequently identified histologically and it was found that in those experiments in which the level of TSH in the plasma had fallen, T3 had been injected into either the dorsomedial nucleus or the lateral hypothalamic area extending into the preoptic region. Injection of artificial CSF alone into these areas of the hypothalamus did not affect the concentration of TSH. Direct intrapituitary injections of T3 (4 ng) resulted in small and inconstant changes in the concentration of TSH in the plasma and injections of T3 (400 ng) into the third ventricle were without any effect. These experiments demonstrate that T3 can rapidly inhibit the secretion of TSH by a direct action upon defined parts of the hypothalamus.

Animals

Non-clostridial gas gangrene in the diabetic lower limb.

Three cases of non-clostridial gas gangrene in diabetic lower limbs are reported. This rare condition occurs only in diabetes with peripheral neuropathy and is invariably fatal unless treated surgically. The clinical picture is deceptive with a slow, but insidiously progressive course, and the late appearance of skin necrosis. Antibacterial therapy is ineffective in preventing death. A serious delay may be fostered by inconclusive bacteriological investigations. Urgent radical amputation is required to save the patient's life.

Adult

Obesity in a New Zealand community.

A retrospective analysis of the height, weight and certain biochemical data from the Rangiora Diabetic Survey is presented. In this survey 93 percent of the 2670 adult Europeans in Rangiora were studied. A high prevalence of obesity was found with 31 percent of the men and 46 percent of the women being greater than 20 percent above their ideal body weight. More than half the women aged 50 years and over were obese by the criteria used. The peak prevalence of obesity was in the seventh decade for women and in the eighth and ninth decades for men. There were significant increases in serum uric acid in obese men and women in each age decade. A surprise finding in the obese men was the increase in plasma protein levels but this did not occur in the obese women. Both men and women had a trend towards higher blood sugars when obese.

Adult