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Biomedical subjects

G L Robertson

Publications and source records attributed to G L Robertson.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1979

Plasma vasopressin in uncontrolled diabetes mellitus.

Concentrations of the antidiuretic hormone, arginine vasopressin, were measured in 28 patients with severe hyperglycemia to determine if abnormalities in hormonal regulation of water excretion could contribute to the extreme dehydration of uncontrolled diabetes mellitus. Vasopressin levels were markedly elevated in both nonketotic and ketotic patients, indicating that vasopressin deficiency plays no role in the polyuria that accompanies hyperglycemia. Instead, the observed increases in vasopressin represent an ineffective effort to conserve water in the face of an overwhelming solute diuresis caused by the glucosuria. The reasons for such marked elevations in plasma vasopressin in these diabetic patients are multifactorial. Both groups of diabetic patients had evidence of hypovolemia, which was sufficient in magnitude to stimulate vasopressin release. Furthermore, nausea provided an independent stimulus to vasopressin secretion in many patients. Osmotic stimulation might have resulted from the large fraction of unidentified plasma solutes, but this factor alone was not sufficient to explain the markedly increased concentrations of vasopressin. Whether such elevations in vasopressin could have metabolic and/or hemodynamic effects in uncrontrolled diabetes remains to be established.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

The response of arginine vasopressin to intravenous ethanol and hypertonic saline in man: the impact of aging.

The effect of age on the hypothalamic-hypophyseal-renal axis in normal man was determined by assaying plasma arginine vasopressin (AVP) responses to inhibitory and to secretory stimuli. Nine young (21-49 years) and 13 old (54-92 years) subjects received IV ethanol (375 mg/m2 per min). AVP levels fell progressively during the infusion in the young group, but fell for only 30 min in the old group and then rose paradoxically despite the continuing increase in blood ethanol. Eight young (22-48 years) and 8 old (52-66 years) men were provided identical osmolal loads by a 2-hour IV infusion of 3% NaCl at 0.1 ml/kg per min. Serum AVP rose 2.5 times the baseline in the young and 4.5 times the baseline in the old men despite identical free water clearances. Osmoreceptor sensitivity (the slope of AVP on osmolality) was greater in the old subjects. The heightened sensitivity to hyperosomolality helps examine the paradoxical response to ethanol, since osmolality increased during that time. This increased AVP response may severe to compensate for the reduced renal ability to conserve salt and water in aging man.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

The role of vasopressin and prolactin in abnormal salt and water metabolism of obese patients before and after fasting and during refeeding.

Arginine vasopressin (AVP) and prolactin (PRL) concentrations were measured in the plasma of grossly obese subjects to determine if abnormalities in salt and water homeostasis could be related to these hormones. Acute oral water loads and hypertonic saline infusions were administered during baseline obesity, after prolonged fasting, and after hypocaloric refeeding. Only 64.7%, 46.1%, and 70.1% of a water load was excreted during the respective three stages. Pre-water load plasma AVP levels were normal, but after the water load the obese failed to suppress AVP secretion in a normal fashion; this defect was corrected after fasting and with refeeding. Salt loading resulted in appropriate osmolality and AVP responses. Serum prolactin levels, normal at baseline during all phases, rose slightly after water loading during fasting. Hypertonic.saline produced no changes in prolactin levels in the obese or in the normal controls. In the disordered salt and water metabolism of the obese, persistently high AVP values during water loading appeared to be a factor in the delay of water excretion. In the observed water retentionduring dietary restriction and refeeding, secretion of AVP and PRL did not appear to have a major regulatory function.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Selective osmoreceptor dysfunction in the syndrome of chronic hypernatremia.

A patient with the syndrome of chronic hypernatremia (serum Na+: mean = 154, range 139-184 mEq/l, n = 30) and hypodipsia due to a hypothalamic injury was studied to evaluate osmolar and baroreceptor control of arginine vasopressin (AVP) secretion. Resting plasma AVP levels measured by radioimmunoassay were inappropriately low for the degree of plasma hyperosmolality: range = less than 0.5-2.1 pg/ml, n = 10, with corresponding levels of plasma osmolality (P osM) greater than 300 m osmol/kg, suggesting either direct damage to the AVP synthesis and storage area or impaired afferent osmoreceptor function. Direct pituitary damage seemed unlikely, since anterior pituitary function was normal by standard testing. The existence of adequate neurohypophyseal stores of AVP was demonstrated by baroreceptor stimulation with the hypotensive agent trimethaphan (Arfonad): plasma AVP rising to 50.0 pg/ml during transient hypotension (BP = 70/0). Osmoreceptor function was evaluated during acute water loading followed by hypertonic saline infusion. During hypertonic saline infusion plasma AVP levels correlated with P osM (R = .87, P less than .01, n = 8), suggesting some residual osmotic regulation of AVP release. The osmotic threshold for AVP release (the x-axis intercept of the plasma AVP-P osM regression line) was not higher than normal. However, the AVP levels throughout this study remained markedly subnormal for the degree of plasma hyperosmolality (maximum plasma AVP = 1.9 PG/ML when P os M = 327 M OSMOL/KG). Since a substantial amount of AVP was released with baroreceptor stimulation, the inadequate rise in plasma AVP level with hyperosmolality indicates that afferent input from the osmoreceptor/thirst area of the hypothalamus is selectively impaired in this patient. These findings directly demonstrate a dissociation of osmoreceptor function from the AVP secretory apparatus in man.

Arginine Vasopressin↗
PubMed1976

The interaction of blood osmolality and blood volume in regulating plasma vasopressin in man.

The effect of blood volume on the osmotic control of the antidiuretic hormone, arginine vasopressin (AVP), has been studied in 18 healthy young adults. Changes in blood osmolality and/or volume were produced by each of 3 procedures--fluid deprivation, orthostasis, and hypertonic saline infusion--and the resultant changes in plasma AVP were measured by radioimmunoassay and expressed as a function of the simultaneous level of plasma osmolality. When the subjects were hydropenic and recumbent, a highly significant correlation between plasma AVP and osmolality was observed that was described by the regression equation y = 0.35 (x -281.0) where y represents the plasma AVP concentration in pg/ml and x the plasma osmolality in mosmol/kg. When these same hydropenic subjects were studied in the upright position, a maneuver that reduces intrathoracic blood volume, plasma AVP and osmolality still showed a significant correlation, but the regression equation describing this relation, y = 0.31 (x -277.8), occupied a position significantly to the left of that found during recumbency. Conversely, when the same subjects were studied during infusion of hypertonic saline, a procedure that increases blood volume, plasma AVP and osmolality again correlated significantly but the regression equation describing this relation, y = 0.32 (x -282), now occupied a position significantly to the right of that obtained during recumbent and hydropenic conditions. These results indicate that moderate increases or decreases in blood volume do influence the osmoregulation of AVP in man, but the effects are relatively small and limited to adjustments in the set of the receptor toward higher or lower levels of osmolality.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Mechanism of diuretic response to increased left atrial pressure in the anesthetized dog.

The mechanism whereby an increase in left atrial pressure (LAP) causes a water diuresis in the anesthetized dog remains controversial. In the present study LAP was increased by inflation of an atrial balloon in two groups of animals. In the first group of eight intact dogs, mean LAP was increased from 3.4 to 17.6 mm Hg (P less than 0.001). The rise in LAP was associated with a mean increase in urine flow (V) from 0.70 to 1.29 ml/min (P less than 0.001), a decrease in urinary osmolality (Uosm) from 808 to 490 mOsm/kg of H2O (P less than 0.001) and an increase in free water clearance (CH2O) from -0.684 to -0.200 ml/min (P less than 0.025). This diuresis was associated with a mean decrease in antidiuretic hormone concentrations in plasma as measured by radioimmunoassay from 27.6 to 12.3 pg/ml (P less than 0.02). The changes in the urinary indexes and in the antidiuretic hormone concentrations were reversible and returned to control levels when the LAP was allowed to return to normal. A second group of dogs was acutely hypophysectomized, steroid replaced and given a constant infusion of vasopressin. In these animals, mean LAP was increased from 3.0 to 16.0 mm Hg (P less than 0.001) but no significant change in V (0.49 to 0.56 ml/min), Uosm (878 to 845 mOsm/kg of H2O) or CH2O (-0.750 to -0.620 ml/min) occurred. Cardiac output, renal arterial pressure, glomerular filtration rate and solute excretion were comparable in the two groups. We therefore conclude that suppression of antidiuretic hormone release is the primary mechanism whereby increased LAP causes a water diuresis in the anesthetized dog.

Animals↗
PubMed1975

Ewing's sarcoma as a cause of the syndrome of inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone.

A patient with Ewing's sarcoma presented with the syndrome of inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone (SIADH) (1). Plasma values for vasopressin were found to be over four times the normal values expected for the plasma osmolality. At postmortem examination, the arginine vasopressin concentration in the tumor tissue was ten times that of the plasma. These data suggest that Ewing's sarcoma may cause SIADH.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Impaired water handling in chronic obstructive lung disease.

Impaired water excretion has been described in stable, nonedematous patients with chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD). To elucidate the mechanism involved, we measured basal glomerular filtration rate (GFR), effective renal plasma flow (ERPF), and water, sodium, and solute excretion for 4 hours after water loading (20 ml. per kilogram orally or as D5W intravenously) in two groups of 10 age-matched, hypoxic, stable, nonedematous COLD normocapneic and hypercapneic patients (PCO2 less than or greater than 45 mm. Hg, respectively). In 5 patients of each group, additional measurements of plasma and urine osmolality and plasma vasopressin were made at 30-minute intervals after oral water loading and the results compared to those obtained in 10 normal control subjects. Hypoxic (PO2 61 plus or minus 2 mm. Hg), normocapneic (PCO2 39 plus or minus 1 mm. Hg) patients had normal GFR (114 plus or minus 5 ml. per minute) and ERPF (517 plus or minus 31 ml. per minute) and excreted the load normally (101 plus or minus 5 per cent of oral or intravenous water per 4-hours). This was associated with a normal rate of sodium excretion (34 plus or minus 5 mEq. per 4-hours) and low-normal plasma vasopressin (1.9 plus or minus 0.7 pg. per milliliter) which was suppressed appropriately with water loading. Hypercapneic (PCO2' 62 plus or minus 5), hypoxic (PCO2' 57 plus or minus 2) patients had normal GFR (106 plus or minus 7), low baseline vasopressin (1.1 plus or minus 0.2) which was suppressed appropriately, and decreased (p less than 0.05) 4-hour water excretion (63 plus or minus 8 per cent), 4-hour sodium excretion (15 plus or minus 9), and ERPF (394 plus or minus 31). A significant correlation was observed between impaired water and impaired sodium excretion (p less than 0.05). These studies indicate that in COLD patients: (1) hypercapnia but not hypoxemia is related to the abnormal water handling and to the increased reabsorption of sodium by the renal tubule; (2) the defect in water excretion is not related to abnormal vasopressin secretion or metabolism; (3) the alteration in sodium excretion may be due to hypercapneic-induced increase in renal bicarbonate reabsorption and/or abnormal renal blood flow.

Adult↗
PubMed1973

Development and clinical application of a new method for the radioimmunoassay of arginine vasopressin in human plasma.

A radioimmunoassay has been developed that permits reliable measurements of plasma arginine vasopressin (AVP) at concentrations as low as 0.5 pg/ml in sample volumes of 1 ml or less. Nonhormonal immunoreactivity associated with the plasma proteins is eliminated by acetone precipitation before assay, leaving unaltered a component that is immunologically and chromatographically indistinguishable from standard AVP. Storage of plasma results in a decline in AVP concentration and, thus, must be carefully regulated. The plasma AVP values obtained by our method approximate the anticipated levels and vary in accordance with physiologic expections. In recumbent normal subjects, plasma AVP ranged from (mean +/-SD) 5.4+/-3.4 pg/ml after fluid deprivation to 1.4+/-0.8 pg/ml after water loading, and correlated significantly with both plasma osmolality (r=0.52; P<0.001) and urine osmolality (r=0.77; P<0.001). After fluid restriction, plasma AVP was uniformly normal relative to plasma osmolality in patients with nephrogenic diabetes insipidus and primary polydipsia but was distinctly subnormal in all patients with pituitary diabetes insipidus. The infusion of physiologic amounts of posterior pituitary extract caused a dose-related rise in plasma vasopressin that afterwards declined at the expected rate (t(1/2)=22.5+/-4 min). We conclude that, when used appropriately, our radioimmunoassay method provides a useful way of assessing AVP function in man.

Acetone↗