Severe hypoglycaemia in a person with insulin autoimmune syndrome accompanied by insulin receptor anomaly type B.

AIMS: A rare case of the insulin autoimmune syndrome (IAS) accompanied by insulin receptor anomaly is reported. METHODS: Antibodies to insulin and insulin receptor were determined in the patient with severe hypoglycaemia before and after the treatment with prednisolone. RESULTS: Titers of antibody to insulin and insulin receptors were 73.0% and 41.5%, respectively. Drug-induced lymphocyte stimulation tests were all negative for the suspicious drugs. Her HLA-DR was DRB1*0403/04051. Following steroid therapy, the formation of antibodies was suppressed and alleviated her symptoms. Scatchard analysis yielded findings specific to polyclonal antibodies. CONCLUSIONS: The changes in autoantibodies resulted in alleviation of the hypoglycemic symptoms as a result of steroid therapy.     

Iron-containing proteins in the plasma and serum of the blood in patients during hyperbaric oxygenation therapy

Extra-erythrocyte hemoglobin (EEH) level and total peroxidase activity (TPA) have been analysed in the blood serum and plasma of 44 patients following hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO). The levels of the parameters tested decreased after 3 HBO procedures and remained low to the end of the treatment period in the first group of patients. In the second group of patients, on the contrary, EEH and TPA levels increased after 3 HBO procedures and remained high to the end of the treatment period. In both groups of patients EEH changes correlated with TPA alterations. Possible EEH and TPA determination for the estimation and enhancement of HBO treatment efficacy is discussed.     

Initial stages of validation by penile volume assessment that sexual orientation is distributed dimensionally

Kinsey concluded that homosexuality and heterosexuality were distributed dimensionally in the normal population, a significant percentage of whom experienced homosexual feelings. This conclusion has been ignored by most sex researchers. Twenty men seeking treatment for compulsive sexual behaviours reported a dimensional distribution of heterosexual and homosexual feelings, rated by questionnaire on 11-point scales. Their penile volume responses to 10-second movies of nude women and men were assessed. Significant correlations were found between individual subjects' penile volume and questionnaire assessment of heterosexual/homosexual feelings, validating their questionnaire-assessed dimensional distribution of their feelings. The finding was considered to provide the initial stage of physiological validation of the questionnaire, which in previous studies demonstrated a dimensional distribution of heterosexual/homosexual feelings in representative samples of medical students, supporting Kinsey's conclusion.     

Epidemiology of borderline personality disorder

The limited epidemiological data available on borderline personality disorder suggest that the prevalence of the disorder is between .2 and 1.8 percent in the general community, 15 percent among psychiatric inpatients, and 50 percent among psychiatric inpatients with a diagnosis of personality disorder. No data on the incidence--the rate of new cases--of the disorder have been reported, and inferences about incidence based on prevalence rates are complicated by differences in the formal designation of personality disorders before and after DSM-III was issued. Current findings suggest that about 76 percent of borderline patients are female. Epidemiological study of borderline personality disorder has been hindered by the lack of a brief semistructured interview that can be used with large population samples and that does not require substantial clinical expertise. The authors discuss alternative research methods, including use of lay interviewers, recoding of existing data, telephone interviews, and self-report inventories.     

Rapid control of purity for the cytoplasm of male-sterile seed stocks by means of a dot hybridization assay

To produce hybrids, one member of the parental line is genetically made male-sterile. This male-sterile trait is encoded by mitochondria so that it is maternally inherited. Consequently, the progeny of a male-sterile plant is fully sterile. Nevertheless, during the handling of cytoplasmic male-sterile seed stocks, some mixture with seeds of the maintainer lines can occur. Up to the present time, the only way to check the homogeneity of the cytoplasmic male-sterile seed stock was to grow the plants until flowering time. We have developed a method which can be used immediately after the harvest, allowing us to check samples from both sunflower and sugar beet. We used the mitochondrial plasmid, present only in the maintainer lines, as a probe for the total nucleic acids prepared from the cytoplasmic male-sterile seed stocks which might be contaminated. The signals compared to those of samples artificially contaminated allow us to measure as few as one male-fertile seed in 1000 seeds in a rapid and accurate manner.     

Microbiological aspects of heat sterilization of drugs

International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy - In order to calculate the minimum sterilization process conditions to obtain the generally accepted sterility level (less than 1·10?6...     

Indomethacin distribution in acute pharmacological response among rats

A detailed examination of quantitative relationships of pharmacological action with plasma and tissue concentrations of indomethacin has been undertaken in the rat, after single oral administration of two sustained release preparations. In this study, drug was assayed by high performance liquid chromatography, whereas antiinflammatory response was assessed through the carrageenin-induced edema test. Significant linear correlations (p less than 0.001) were found between logarithmically transformed percent inhibition of edema and logarithmically transformed plasma, as well as tissue levels of indomethacin. However, the lack of significance for partial correlation regarding tissue concentration, contrary to plasma concentration, suggests that pharmacological response is more closely related to the latter, indicating that antidematous effect is mediated via the circulating drug rather than a local action in target tissues. This assumption is further discussed from the equivalence point of view. The relevance of this type of study in the case of topical administration of indomethacin is addressed as well. Taking into account the predictive value of the rat paw edema test for clinical efficacy, relationships similar to those observed are to be expected in man. The high correlation existing between plasma concentration of indomethacin and its pharmacological effect justifies the development and use of sustained release preparations in order to improve the outcome of treatment with this nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug.