Unwanted and mistimed births in the United States: 1968--1973

Unwanted U.S. marital fertility was down to just nine percent by 1973. The largest proportion of unwanted births was reported by poor black women--23 percent--but this group registered the steepest decline in unwanted childbearing of all the poverty-status and racial groups studied.     

Beta adrenergic-blockers decrease adrenergically stimulated N-acetyltransferase activity in pineal glands in organ culture.

Treatment with 10 μM l-propranolol caused a rapid decrease in the high level of acetyl coenzyme A: serotonin N-acetyltransferase (EC 2.3.1.5, N-acetyltransferase) activity in pineal glands cultured in the presence of 1 μM norepinephrine. d-Propranolol was ineffective except at high concentration (1 mM). The same stereospecificity was also observed in organ culture when d- or l-propranolol was tested as a blocker of the norepinephrine-induced increase in N-acetyltransferase activity. Practolol (10–300 μM), a relatively specific β₁,-blocker, also initiated a decrease and inhibited the norepinephrineinduced increase in N-acetyltransferase. Butoxamine (10–300 μM), a relatively specific β₂-blocker, had no significant effect in either experimental situation. The percentage decrease in N-acetyltransferase activity after 40 min of treatment with l-propranolol was strongly dependent on temperature. At 40° C enzyme activity decreased by 92% but at 34° C enzyme activity decreased by only 50%.l-Propranolol (20 μM) did not inhibit the increase or initiate a decrease in N-acetyltransferase activity in pineal glands treated with 1 mM N⁶,O² -dibutyryl adenosine cyclic 3',5'-monophosphate.The fast response observed when l-propranolol was added to the culture medium of norepinephrinetreated glands was not blocked by cycloheximide treatment.Concentrations of ouabain or K⁺, which are known to completely inhibit the norepinephrine-stimulated increase in N-acetyltransferase activity, caused only a small decrease in induced N-acetyltransferase activity, similar to that due to cycloheximide treatment.     

A Clinical Evaluation of Serum Angiotensin Converting Enzyme in Sarcoidosis

Summary: Angiotensin converting enzyme was measured in the serum of 52 patients with sarcoidosis, 67 healthy control subjects and 64 patients with pulmonary and non-pulmonary diseases. The patients with sarcoidosis were classified on clinical grounds as having active or inactive disease.
In 26 patients with active sarcoidosis not taking corticosteroids the mean serum ACE was significantly higher than in normal controls (P < 0.001). 73% of these patients had elevated serum ACE. Only two out of 12 (17%) patients with inactive sarcoidosis not taking corticosteroids had elevated serum ACE. Serum ACE was normal in patients taking oral corticosteroids for longer than two weeks.
Eighty per cent of patients with active sarcoidosis with radiological evidence of pulmonary parenchymal involvement had an elevated serum ACE compared to 25% in patients with normal chest X-rays and 60% of those with bilateral hilar lymphadenopathy.
All sarcoid patients with hypercalcaemia had elevated serum ACE whereas only half of those with normal serum calcium had elevated ACE.
In the patients with other thoracic and granulomatous conditions serum ACE was normal or rarely marginally elevated.
Serum ACE appears to be of value in the diagnosis of active sarcoidosis.