Clonidine influences renal sympathetic nerve activity and renal function in experimental heart failure.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to S Carlsson.
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Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH; EC 1.2.1.3) activity was determined in leukocytes and erythrocytes from alcoholic patients during different stages of disulfiram (Antabuse) treatment. Assays were performed by incubating intact isolated blood cells in phosphate-buffered saline (pH 7.4, 37 degrees C), using 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetaldehyde (DOPAL), the biogenic aldehyde derived from dopamine, as substrate. The ALDH activity was assessed from the amount of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) formed, as analysed by high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. The leukocyte ALDH, which is similar to the liver "mitochondrial" low-Km ALDH isozyme, was maximally inhibited (about 40-60%) within 2 to 3 days after the initial disulfiram administration (dosage 200 or 400 mg/day orally). The time to reach maximum inhibition (about 95%) of the erythrocyte ALDH, which closely resembles the liver "cytosolic" high-Km isozyme, varied from 3 to more than 6 days. When medication was completed, the leukocyte ALDH activity remained unaltered for the first 2 days, and did not revert to normal levels until about 6 to 7 days after terminating treatment. The erythrocyte ALDH was still inhibited by about 90% 1 week after the last disulfiram administration. These results suggest that the leukocyte ALDH activity might provide an easily accessible marker for monitoring effect and time course of ALDH inhibition during disulfiram treatment.
Irindalone is a new antihypertensive agent with affinity to serotonin (5-HT2) receptors and at higher concentrations also to alpha 1-adrenoceptors. The present study was designed to evaluate the relative importance of the antagonism of central and peripheral alpha 1- and 5-HT2-receptors in the blood pressure lowering properties or irindalone after acute administration. In conscious Sprague-Dawley rats intravenous irindalone (0.05-1.5 mg/kg) dose-dependently reduced the blood pressure. In the same dose-range irindalone antagonized pressor responses to phenylephrine and electrical stimulation of the spinal sympathetic outflow (SNS) in the pithed rats, indicating that the acute blood pressure lowering effect is primarily related to the blockade of alpha 1-adrenoceptors. However, the concomitant 5-HT2-receptor blockade may contribute since irindalone in a dose (0.15 mg/kg) where it had no alpha-adrenoceptor blocking properties enhanced the hypotensive response to selective alpha 1-adrenoceptor blockade by prazosin (1 micrograms/kg). We found no evidence that central mechanisms contributed to the blood pressure lowering effect of irindalone. In anaesthetized rats irindalone (1 mg/kg) did not reduce the directly recorded sympathetic nerve activity. Intracerebroventricular administration of irindalone in conscious rats (10-100 micrograms) had no consistent effects on the blood pressure and did not enhance the hypotensive response to intracerebroventricularly administered prazosin (10 micrograms). Finally, the hypotensive response to irindalone was not influenced by depletion of central serotonin stores (by PCPA). It is concluded that the blood pressure lowering effect of irindalone following acute administration is related primarily to blockade of peripheral alpha-adrenoceptors but that the concomitant blockade of 5-HT2-receptors may contribute.
In a previous study prolonged low-frequency muscle stimulation in the hind leg of the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) was shown to induce a reduction in blood pressure (about 15 mmHg) that lasted for many hours. We showed in that study that endorphin and serotonin systems were involved. In the present study drugs with selective affinity for the serotonin (5-HT) receptors were used to analyse further the involvement of different serotonin systems. In one group of SHR, a prestimulatory dose of metitepine maleate (a 5-HT1 and 5-HT2 receptor antagonist) completely abolished the post-stimulatory depressor response. The long-lasting depressor response was still present, although less pronounced, after a bolus dose of the 5-HT2 blocking agent ritanserin (R 55667) at the start of stimulation. The 5-HT3 receptor antagonist ICS 205-930 did not influence the response at all, nor did the selective 5-HT1a receptor agonist 8-OH-DPAT enhance the depressor response. These results indicate that the reduction in blood pressure after muscle stimulation is mainly mediated by the 5-HT1 receptor.
In a previous study, prolonged low-frequency muscle stimulation, inducing dynamic contractions in the hind leg of unanaesthetized rats, was shown to give rise to a hypoalgesia. The increase in pain threshold, measured as squeak threshold to noxious electric pulses, lasted 3 h. In the present study, the involvement of the endogenous opioid system in the post-stimulatory analgesia was investigated using selective opioid receptor antagonists. The post-stimulatory analgesia was completely reversed back to prestimulatory control levels by naloxone, 1 mg kg-1. ICI 154,129 and MR 2266 BS, selective delta- and kappa-receptor antagonists respectively, did not significantly influence the post-stimulatory analgesia, although ICI 154,129 had a minor pain threshold-lowering effect. Rats pretreated with beta-funaltrexamine, a mu-receptor antagonist, did not exhibit any post-stimulatory analgesia. These results suggest that opioid systems are involved in the increase in pain threshold after muscle stimulation and that the analgesic response is both elicited and maintained by the mu-receptor.
The aim of this study was to examine and characterize the post-ganglionic innervation of the adrenal gland, using a neurophysiological nerve recording technique. Adrenal multifibre nerve activity was recorded in chloralose-anaesthetized Wistar rats. To test for post-ganglionic nerve activity, trimethaphan, a ganglionic blocker, was given intravenously. About 60% of the adrenal nerve preparations tested responded with a marked decrease in nerve activity (to 52 +/- 11% of pre-trimethaphan activity, P less than 0.01), while other nerves responded with an increase in activity (to 152 +/- 29% of pre-trimethaphan activity, P less than 0.01). Based on these responses, the nerves were considered to contain predominantly post- or preganglionic fibres respectively, and the difference in response to an intravenous injection of trimethaphan between the two groups was significant (P less than 0.01). It was also demonstrated that the post-ganglionic adrenal nerve activity had a greater variability in firing pattern than preganglionic adrenal nerve activity. We also examined whether there was any cardiac rhythmicity in the investigated nerves. There was a weak cardiac rhythmicity in six out of 12 post-ganglionic adrenal nerves, but there was no cardiac rhythmicity in the remaining six post-ganglionic nerves, and we observed no cardiac rhythmicity in preganglionic nerves. In contrast, renal sympathetic nerves showed a profound cardiac rhythmicity. Our results might explain recent histological findings of a direct post-ganglionic innervation of the adrenal cortex. We speculate that this nerve population is involved in steroid synthesis indirectly via regulation of the cortical blood flow or directly via a direct innervation of parenchymal cells in the adrenal cortex.
The aim of this study was to examine the effect of i.v. morphine on sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) in the rat. Adrenal SNA and renal SNA were recorded simultaneously, together with mean arterial pressure and heart rate, in chloralose-anesthetized, artificially ventilated rats. Separate groups of rats were subjected to vagotomy. In intact rats, i.v. injection of morphine (1 mg/kg) caused an immediate transient depressor response. Within 1-3 sec, renal SNA was markedly inhibited in parallel with hypotension and bradycardia. After a few minutes, mean arterial pressure and renal SNA returned toward base-line levels, and subsequently they declined gradually again below base line. Adrenal SNA, however, showed an immediate brief increase. In the vagotomized rats, an extended renal SNA excitation occurred, accompanied by a rise in mean arterial pressure. After about 15 min, these variables returned toward base-line levels. The adrenal SNA excitation still occurred in the vagotomized rats. The renal depressor and the renal and adrenal pressor responses were all abolished by naloxone pretreatment. It is concluded that i.v. injection of morphine induces a highly differentiated response of SNA. A pronounced immediate increase in adrenal SNA occurs in parallel with renal SNA inhibition. The renal nerve inhibition is mainly reflexly obtained by opioid receptor-mediated activation of vagal afferents. The predominant central action of morphine seems to be sympathetic excitation which is also mediated through opioid receptors.
Cerebral blood flow (CBF, by laser Doppler flowmetry) and extracellular cortical concentrations (by microdialysis) of adenosine, inosine, xanthine, hypoxanthine, and lactate were measured together with somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) in chloralose-anaesthetized spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) during relative cerebral ischemia induced by hypotensive hemorrhage. Reduction of mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) to 40-50 mm Hg, which decreased SEP to about 50% of prebleeding control level, decreased CBF only to about 75% of control due to cerebrovascular "autoregulation." A secondary, marked rise in cerebrovascular resistance (CVR) occurred after about 15 min in parallel with a striking increase in heart rate (after initial bradycardia). This late rise in heart rate is probably elicited by relative ischemia in medullary centers. The increase in CVR might indicate increased sympathetic nerve activity to the circle of Willis and large cerebral arteries. Cortical lactate increased initially but started to decline after about 30 min, and after 2 h it was not significantly higher than control. Cortical adenosine, inosine, hypoxanthine, and xanthine increased slowly and were significantly elevated after 50 min of hemorrhage. After 80 min, adenosine and inosine had returned to initial levels, while hypoxanthine and xanthine were further elevated. Despite the apparent partial recovery of metabolic disturbances during late hemorrhage, and with a blood flow maintained at 75% of resting control, SEP did not improve. It is suggested that the depression of SEP is not primarily caused by circulatory-metabolic derangements, but instead by activation of specific inhibitory systems.
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Sixteen European countries participated in this WHO-IAEA intercomparison for which transmission CAP (College of American Pathologists) thyroid and IAEA-WHO liver phantoms were used. A total of 257 laboratories submitted 428 image evaluation reports. Overall results showed differences in performance between the various countries but similarities in performance for two gamma camera subgroups defined by year of manufacture, before and after 1980. A unique review of current European liver imaging practice is presented in terms of technical parameters, imaging conditions and evaluation procedures, and quality control procedures. The WHO-IAEA intercomparison demonstrated the need to establish new, or to improve the existing, quality control programmes in certain countries. However, the large number of participating laboratories, 257 compared with 70 in the previous WHO study, (Volodin et al. 1985), shows that these international studies are serving a useful purpose in promoting quality control in nuclear medicine imaging laboratories.
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During a five-year-period percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty (PTRA) was attempted in 90 renal arteries with 109 stenoses and 3 occlusions in 78 patients. Complications were systematically recorded and classified as major, minor and radiological-technical. Twenty-one major complications (20.8%) including one fatality occurred as well as 17 minor, (16.8%) and 37 radiological-technical (36.6%) problems. The last group showed no clinical symptoms. The frequency of complications in our series is high compared with that in a survey of ten papers reviewing results in 675 patients. The most marked discrepancy was our high frequency of septic problems. Radiological changes are not usually reported in other series, probably because they are regarded as methodological but we considered these as potentially dangerous and important to report as they can lead to clinically relevant complications. Because of the problems reported here PTRA should only be performed in centres where complications can be properly dealt with.
A battery of monoclonal antibodies was raised against a preparation of lentil lectin-binding membrane glycoproteins from human brain. Out of 26 established hybridomas, nine produced antibodies against the human Thy-1 antigen. For the remaining 17 lines, reactivity with at least six other antigens could be identified after immunoprecipitation and immunoblotting. Several of the antigens were di- or trimeric, mainly in the molecular weight range of 60-120 kDa. Two of the antibodies were reactive with high-molecular-weight aggregates and four targets for the antibody reactivity were not identifiable by immunoprecipitation of iodinated antigens. Three of the identified antigens were shown by quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay tests on various human tissues to be specifically expressed in the brain.
A total of 444 persons were examined for the presence of thyroid nodules on average of 43 years after having been treated with x-rays for cervical tuberculous adenitis. Of this total, 101 subjects had undergone surgery for thyroid nodules: 25 for carcinoma (6%) and 76 for benign nodules (17%). Carcinoma occurred with the same frequency in multinodular and uninodular glands. Because of the uneven age distribution in the current series, it could not be decided whether there was a higher susceptibility of the young thyroid to the induction of thyroid carcinoma or benign nodules. The dosage range for the whole series was 0.40 to 50.90 Gy (40-5090 rad). There was a positive correlation between the absorbed radiation dose and the probability of developing benign and malignant thyroid nodules, even after doses of 20 Gy or more. The risk of developing thyroid carcinoma was equal for men and women, while the female-to-male ratio for benign nodules was 2.9:1, indicating that risk factors associated with females are of less importance in irradiated than in nonirradiated populations. The median latency for carcinoma was 40 years, suggesting that the increased risk of thyroid carcinoma after irradiation remains for the rest of the patient's life.
In a population study of samples of 60-, 50-, and 30-year-old men, information about injuries suffered during life was obtained by personal interview. Included were head injuries with unconsciousness, and injuries which had caused restricted activity for more than one day or had caused medical attendance. The interview technique was the only way to cover all these injuries. Possible biases are discussed. The results indicated that the young men tended to report a higher incidence of injuries, to suffer their first injury at an earlier age and to attend medical services to a larger extent than the older men. An incidence peak in adolescence was reported in all three cohorts. Accidents with multiple injuries were more common in higher ages in all cohorts. Falls, blows, and impacts, cutting and piercing agents, and traffic accidents were the most common causes of injuries in all cohorts.
In a prospective multicenter study, 244 men with highly or moderately differentiated prostatic cancer in stage I, II or III (VACURG) were consecutively randomized to three groups of treatment: Group A (77 patients) received polyestradiol phosphate (Estradurin, Leo) 80 mg i.m. every fourth week + ethinyl estradiol (Etivex, Leo) 150 micrograms daily, group B (72 patients) estramustine phosphate (Estracyt, Leo) 280 mg twice daily, and group C (76 patients) no therapy. Only men without current or previous other malignancy and without cardiovascular disease were admitted to the study. After 4 1/2 years 125 of the 244 patients had left the study, 9 because of cancer progression (stage IV, VACURG). The most serious complications were cardiovascular, including ischemic heart disease, cardiac decompensation, cerebral ischemia and venous thromboembolism, which occurred in 24 patients from group A and 9 from group B as compared to only one patient in group C. The subgroup superficial or deep venous thrombosis comprised 11 group A and 2 group B patients. Estrogens (E + e) offered as palliative treatment to patients with non-generalized prostatic carcinoma is burdened with a high incidence of serious cardiovascular complications.
A follow-up examination of 444 persons treated with x-rays for tuberculous cervical adenitis was performed to determine if the risk for hyperparathyroidism (HPT) following radiation exposure can be related to the age at treatment, the dose of x-rays, or the sex of the patient. The overall incidence of HPT was 14%. There was no definite age-dependent difference in susceptibility to the induction of HPT. The doses of radiation among the 63 subjects who developed HPT ranged from 0.6 to 45.7 Gy (60-4570 rad). There was a statistically significant positive correlation between the dose of radiation and the probability of developing HPT. After doses of 14 Gy (1400 rad) or more 29% of the subjects had developed HPT. After neck irradiation women had twice the relative risk of men of developing HPT. This sex ratio was lower than in the series of nonirradiated HPT patients treated at the same institution during the time of the follow-up study.
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