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Biomedical subjects

M Rieu

Publications and source records attributed to M Rieu.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

[Discordance between the short and standard metyrapone tests in isolated corticotropin insufficiency].

A 71-year-old man presented with clinical and common biological features of secondary adrenal insufficiency. Basal ACTH level was in the normal range. As it has been previously reported in ACTH deficiency, cortisol response to ACTH-test was normal. A single-dose metyrapone test, performed to confirm the diagnosis of adrenal insufficiency, gave unexpectedly normal results. However 11-desoxycortisol (compound S) response to standard-metyrapone test was subnormal ascertaining the diagnosis of ACTH-deficiency. Thus normal responses to single-dose metyrapone test do not imperatively exclude secondary adrenal failure.

Adrenal Insufficiency↗

Evaluation of insulin-like growth factor (somatomedin) levels in acromegaly.

In untreated acromegalic patients, mean serum level of insulin-like growth factor (IGF) is two times higher than in controls, and all patients have IGF values above the mean + 2 SD of the controls, while some of these patients have normal GH values. After treatment, clinical status correlates better with IGF than with GH. Thus, measurements of serum IGF can be helpful in the diagnosis of acromegaly and in assessment of the efficiency of therapy.

Acromegaly↗

Serum levels of insulin-like growth factor (IGF) and IGF binding protein in insulin-dependent diabetics during an episode of severe metabolic decompensation and the recovery phase.

Serum insulin-like growth factor (IGF) and IGF-binding protein (IGF BP) levels were determined in 13 insulin-dependent diabetic patients (30-60 yr of age) during an episode of severe metabolic decompensation and the recovery phase. After separation by acidic gel filtration, the samples were assayed for IGF using a protein-binding assay (which measures mainly IGF I-related peptides) and for IGF BP by measuring the binding activity, in both assays using IGF I as tracer. The reference standard was a pool of normal adult serum with an assigned potency of 1 U IGF and 1 U IGF BP per ml. The mean IGF level in the uncontrolled state, 0.55 +/- 0.05 (SEM) U/ml, was about half that of normal subjects (1.03 +/- 0.03 U/ml, P less than 0.001). With treatment, IGF levels reached the normal range within 3 days. The pattern of changes in IGF BP levels was roughly similar, although the values in the uncontrolled state were less depressed (0.78 +/- 0.04 U/ml vs. 0.98 +/- 0.04 in normal subjects, P less than 0.01). Highly significant correlations (P less than 0.001) were found between IGF levels and the biological parameters reflecting control of the diabetes: glycosuria (r = -0.60), glycemia (r = -0.52), ketonemia (r = -0.65), and HCO3- (r = 0.58). Similar but less significant correlations were found for IGF BP. The mean GH level during the period of metabolic decompensation (9.0 +/- 1.5 ng/ml) was elevated compared to that after recovery (2.9 +/- 0.8 ng/ml) (P less than 0.025). There was a negative correlation between GH values and IGF levels (r = -0.67, P less than 0.001). The correlation with IGF BP was much less significant (r = -0.38, P less than 0.05). The results clearly reflect the role of insulin and nutritional factors in the control of IGF levels. They also support the notion that the biosynthesis of IGF and IGF BP is not regulated in the same way.

Adult↗

Recent advances on endogenous Na+,K+-ATPase inhibitors: clinical investigation and purification.

Evidence exists which demonstrates the relationship between a Natriuretic Factor or Na+,K+-ATPase inhibitor and volemic expansion, both in man and animal. Patients having extracellular volume expansion have been studied for the effect of their plasma on erythrocytes 3H-ouabain binding. High levels of ouabain-like activity was found in plasma from acromegalic patients and patients with chronic renal failure. High levels were also observed in some hypertensive patients. A partial purification of such a compound was performed from urine of hypertensives. The partially purified compound inhibited to a greater extent the Na+,K+-ATPase semi-purified from dog kidney than that from sheep brain. The present data are consistent with the possible regulation of the activity or the secretion of plasma ouabain-like activity by extracellular volume.

Acromegaly↗

[Circulating inhibitor of sodium active transport in essential hypertension and volemic expansion].

Circulating inhibitors of the Na+ pump have been proposed as participating in sodium excretion, extracellular and vascular volume regulation and as hypertensiogenic agents. The presence of digitalis-like compounds in human plasma has been investigated by measuring its ability to compete with tritiated ouabain for binding to the digitalis site of red blood cells. Their activities in plasma from either hypertensive or volume expanded patients were compared. High levels were found in plasma from 37 p. cent of the untreated patients with essential hypertension, 64 p. cent of patients with end-stage renal failure and 71 p cent of acromegalic patients in the hypersecreting phase. The patients of these two last classes have been selected as being normotensives and without family history of hypertension. An increased activity of the inhibitor should more likely be linked to the positive Na+ balance and the volemic expansion which characterise these last two diseases than to high blood pressure. The observations that the activity of the inhibitor is correlated with the plasma volume in acromegalic patients, it returns to normal values after hemodialysis in renal insufficiency or successful therapy of acromegaly and the decrease in its activity is proportional to the weight lost during dialysis in uremic patients, agree with this proposal.

Adult↗

Plasma ouabain-like properties in hypertension and volume expansion.

The presence in human plasma of compounds able to interact with the sodium pump has been investigated. The effects of whole and deproteinized plasma on the parameters of ouabain binding to the digitalis sites of the sodium pump were compared. Changes in the apparent affinity were potentialized by deproteinization. High levels of ouabain-like activity were observed to be present not only in some hypertensive patients but also in normotensive patients with chronic renal failure and active acromegaly, indicating a probable relationship with positive sodium balance and volemic expansion.

Acromegaly↗

[Hematologic repercussions of disorders of thyroid secretion].

The effects on blood of abnormal thyroid hormone secretion were investigated in a prospective study involving 80 patients. Anaemia, when present, could usually be ascribed to association with another pathology. In non-anaemic patients an excess or a deficiency of thyroid hormones had opposite effects on erythrocytes. Leucocytes as a whole were not influenced by hypothyroidism, but untreated hyperthyroidism seemed to be responsible for a relative decrease in the number of neutrophils and a relative increase in the number of eosinophils and mononucleate cells. Platelet counts were unaffected by variations in thyroid hormone levels. Excluding the effects on blood of synthetic antithyroid drugs, the changes observed were generally reversible after correction of the abnormal hormone secretion.

Adult↗

Effects of 10 days administration of percutaneous dihydrotestosterone on the pituitary-testicular axis in normal men.

Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) was administered percutaneously in a dose of 125 mg twice daily for 10 days to 12 normal men. Basal plasma levels of testosterone (T), 17 beta-estradiol (E2), and LH were measured every 2 days in these men and every 5 days in subjects from a control group receiving placebo. The daytime course of plasma hormone levels between two DHT applications was studied in six men. LRH tests were performed in nine men before and on day 10 of DHT administration. Plasma levels of free T and free E2, and T - E-binding globulin capacity and affinity were measured in six men before and on days 5 and 10 of DHT administration. Before DHT administration, there was no difference in basal plasma levels of T, DHT, E2, and LH between the control and the DHT-treated group. In the latter group, plasma DHT levels increased sharply from 0.52 +/- (+/- SE) to 3.70 +/- 0.92 ng/ml on day 2 (P less than 0.001) during DHT treatment. Plasma T, E2, and LH levels decreased significantly from 7.33 +/- 0.74 to 1.33 +/- 0.54 ng/ml (P less than 0.001), from 46 +/- 5 to 20 +/- 3 pg/ml (P less than 0.01), and from 7.8 +/- 1 to 4.2 mIU/ml (P less than 0.05), respectively. Except for a small decrease in plasma DHT (P less than 0.05) 12 h after the previous DHT application, hormone levels were stable during the time between the two DHT treatments. The responses of LH and FSH to LRH were not different before and on day 10 of DHT administration. Plasma levels of free T and free E2 as well as those of total T and E2 decreased; however, the percentages of unbound T and E2 were not different before and during DHT administration. T - E-binding globulin capacity and affinity were not modified by DHT administration. Changes in plasma DHT levels were negatively correlated with those in The results of this study demonstrate that 10-days DHT administration has an inhibitory effect on the hypothalamo-pituitary-testicular axis in normal men.

Adult↗

Evaluation of treated acromegalic patients with normal growth hormone levels during oral glucose load.

Twenty-one treated acromegalics with plasma GH levels less than or equal to 5 ng/ml were evaluated during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Serum insulin-like growth factor (IGF) levels, measured by a competitive binding assay, were high in 10, normal in 8 and low in 3 patients. Urinary calcium excretion (Ca U), measured over 24 h, was elevated in 9 of the 10 patients whose IGF levels were high, whereas only 1 of the patients with normal or low IGF levels was hypercalciuric. A paradoxical rise in GH following TRH injection was observed in 5 of the 10 patients whose IGF levels were high, whereas all patients with normal or low IGF levels showed no GH response to TRH. GH levels greater than or equal to 10 ng/ml occurred during ornithine (ORN) administration in 6 of the 18 patients with normal or high IGF levels. The remaining 12 patients with no GH rise during ORN included 2 cases in which IGF levels were high and GH rose following TRH, and 2 cases in which IGF levels were normal and GH levels were greater than or equal to 10 ng/ml during insulin-induced hypoglycaemia (IIH), thus excluding a GH deficiency. These results show that acromegaly is not cured in certain treated patients with normal GH levels during OGTT. It seems that IGF and Ca U determinations are valuable indices of activity, in contrast to GH response to ORN. The GH response to TRH is also relatively useful.

Acromegaly↗

Investigation of the endogenous Na+-pump inhibitor in essential hypertension and blood volume expansion.

The digitalis-like activities of plasma extracts from 108 patients and normal subjects were measured by their ability to compete with ouabain for binding to the digitalis sites of the Na+-pump. High levels were found in 18 of 54 untreated patients with moderate hypertension, 10 of 14 patients with end-stage renal failure and six patients with active acromegaly. These levels returned to control values after dialysis in the patients with renal insufficiency and high levels of the inhibitor, and after successful surgery and cobalt therapy in seven acromegalic patients. An increase in circulating Na+, K+-ATPase inhibitor was also found in rats after chronic sodium loading. These results indicate that levels of the circulating compound with digitalis-like properties do not result from high blood pressure but, rather, are related to blood volume and Na+ balance.

Acromegaly↗

Studies on the treatment of idiopathic gynaecomastia with percutaneous dihydrotestosterone.

We have studied clinical and endocrine parameters in a group (group A) of forth men referred to us because of persistent idiopathic gynaecomastia (of more than 18 months duration), before and during the administration of percutaneous dihydrotestosterone (DHT). The endocrine parameters (testosterone (T), 17 beta-oestradiol (E2), DHT, gonadotrophins (FSH and LH) and prolactin (PRL), were compared to those of control groups of 12 healthy men on DHT therapy (group B) and 10 on placebo (group C). Local administration of DHT was followed by the complete disappearance of gynaecomastia in 10 patients, partial regression in 19 and no change in 11 patients after 4 to 20 weeks of percutaneous DHT (125 mg twice daily). Before treatment the T + DHT/E2 ratio was significantly (P less than 0.001) lower in group A 244 +/- 21 (SEM) than in groups B and C (361 +/- 21) while T, DHT and E2 concentrations were all within the normal range. During DHT treatment plasma hormone levels were measured in 26 patients from group A: DHT levels increases significantly (day 0: 1.63 +/- 0.14 nmol/l; day 15: 12.8 +/- 1.6 nmol/l, P less than 0.001) while T and E2 levels fell significantly (T: day 0: 22.6 +/- 1.2 nmol/l; day 15: 11.0 +/- 1.5 nmol/l, P less than 0.001; E2: day 0: 110.5 +/- 7.12 pmol/l; day 15: 86.79 +/- 9.4 pmol/l, P less than 0.01). The T/E2 ratio decreased from 231 +/- 20 to 164 +/- 27 (P less than 0.05) while the T + DHT/E2 ratio increased significantly (P less than 0.02) to a normal mean value (day 15: 354 +/- 57).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗

Influence of thyroid status on hemoglobin A2 expression.

We studied the electrophoretic pattern of hemoglobin (Hb) and red blood cell indices in 128 women divided into four groups: group I, 36 nonanemic hyperthyroid women, divided in two subgroups: 36 with untreated hyperthyroidism (subgroup IA) and 9 made euthyroid by antithyroid drug therapy (subgroup IB); group II, 12 nonanemic women with untreated hypothyroidism; group III, 30 women known to be heterozygous for beta-thalassemia; and group IV, 50 healthy women. The mean (+/- SEM) HbA2 level was higher (P less than 0.001) in subgroup IA (3.21 +/- 0.06%) than in subgroup IB (2.42 +/- 0.09%) and group IV (2.48 +/- 0.04%), but lower (P less than 0.001) than in group III (5.26 +/- 0.12%). The mean HbA2 level was lower (P less than 0.001) in group II (1.99 +/- 0.08%) than in group IV. Hb fetal was detectable in eight patients of subgroup IA and undetectable in subgroup IB and groups II and IV. The mean cellular volume was lower (P less than 0.001) in subgroup IA than in other nonanemic groups. The mean cellular volume was higher (P less than 0.001) in group II than in group IV. Follow-up of nine patients who became euthyroid with treatment showed the normalization of these erythrocyte parameters. These results suggest that thyroid hormones can modulate the synthesis of delta- and gamma-globin chains.

Adult↗

[Detection of peripheral diabetic neuropathy. A reappraisal of electrophysiological data].

In addition to motor and sensory nerve conduction, monosynaptic triceps surae reflex, amplitude of median nerve voltage and response of extensor digitorum brevis and soleus muscles were investigated in 29 diabetic patients. These parameters were altered earlier than motor and sensory nerve conduction, which considerably increased the incidence of subclinical peripheral neuropathy (90% of the patients). It was also found that sensory fibers were affected earlier than motor fibers. The electrically detected neuropathy correlated with duration of diabetes and control of glycaemia.

Axons↗