The thiocyanate test was carried out in 18 patients with Hashimoto's disease. Thiocyanate was given orally several hours after the administration of tracer doses of 131I when the thyroid counts seemed to have reached a plateau. The per cent discharge of thiocyanate test was significantly higher in the groups with lower level of T4 (less than 5.5 microgram/100 ml), RSH (less than 25.5%) and BMR (less than +2.5%), and higher levels of TSH (greater than 10.0 muU/ml). A chi-square (chi2) test with Yates correction led to chi2 = 3.56 (1 df) with P = 0.06 (per cent discharge vs T4, RSU, BMR and TSH). Then the per cent thiocyanate discharge was increased with the degree of hypothyroidism in patients with Hashimoto's disease. The correlation between the per cent discharge and 131I 24 h uptake was not significant. It was apparent that the iodide concentration mechanism was present even in the severe hypothyroid stage of Hashimoto's disease. This disproportion between the uptake of iodide and the iodide organification may result in the increase in unbound iodide. It is concluded that the hypothyroidism in Hashimoto's disease may not be caused by a defect in iodide organification, even if it correlated to the degree of hypothyroidism.
Health examinations were performed in 147 people living in a cadmium-polluted area, Kosaka Town, Japan. 33 of 147 residents had some indications of proximal tubular dysfunction, such as renal glucosuria, tubular proteinuria, and aminoaciduria, and 10 of them were diagnosed as having multiple proximal tubular dysfunctions. Detailed examinations revealed that none of the cases had any causal diseases other than chronic cadmium poisoning. Residents' mean cadmium intake and mean urinary cadmium concentration were over 3 times as high as those in control areas. From these findings, renal lesions identified in these residents were concluded as chronic cadmium poisoning induced by environmental cadmium pollution.
There are many health foods presently available. Some health foods are sold with the sales message “a medicine for cancer”, so a lot of patients pay a large amount of money for them. Therefore we carried out a questionnaire survey which was given to patients to find out how many patients take health foods. For comparison purposes we did the same survey on diabetics and patients suffering from chronic illnesses like hepatitis and hypertensions, and then we analysed the differences among disease. In addition, we also checked out the safety of health foods.The ratio of taking health foods was especialy high for cancer patients, and they also spent a lot of money on them. There are several reports about adverse reactions of health foods and interactions between medicines and health foods. In addition health foods are often sold with the sales message that they act like a medicine. For these reasons, we have to provide information on the safety, interactions, effects and prices of such health foods with patients and doctors. This remains an important task as pharmaeists which has to be confronted in the future.
To evaluate the role of serum calcium in human insulin secretion, insulin responses after a 100-g oral glucose load were studied in nine patients with primary hyperparathyroidism, five with idiopathic hypoparathyroidism, three with pseudohypoparathyroidism and one with normocalcemic secondary hyperparathyroidism. Glucose tolerance values in these disorders were almost normal. Insulin responses in primary hyperparathyroidism were increased, and those in idiopathic hypoparathyroidism and pseudohypoparathyroidism were reduced significantly as compared to normal subjects. Isulin response in secondary hyperparathyroidism was normal. The calculated insulin area during an oral glucose load was significantly correlated with serum calcium (5.1 to 12.2 mg per deciliter), and a linear relation was obtained (y = 1.59x - 3.3, r = 0.81, p less than 0.001), although a relation with the glucose area was not found. These observations indicate that serum calcium has an important effect on insulin secretion in parathyroid disorders.
Abstract. The sources of TSH, which was excessively released by sulpiride (dopamine D 2 receptor antagonist), were studied in 15 female patients with PRL-secreting adenoma (18-43 years). Sequential 3-day administration of sulpiride (100 mg, im) was given to 12 patients with prolactinoma and 6 normal female subjects (19-24 years). Patients with prolactinoma showed much greater TSH responses than normal subjects on the first day. However, TSH responses to sulpiride disappeared on the 2nd and 3rd day in both groups. In contrast, plasma PRL responses to the 1st sulpiride administration were smaller in patients with prolactinoma than in normal subjects, and the response disappeared following the 2nd administration in both groups. When TRH (500 μg, iv) was administered 120 min after the 3rd sulpiride injection, TSH and PRL increments were not different from those before the sulpiride injection in both patients with prolactinoma (N=6) and normal subjects (N=6) Further, combined administration of sulpiride and TRH in 5 patients with prolactinoma clearly enhanced the TSH and PRL responses compared with the single administration of each agent. These results suggest that there may be two readily releasable pituitary TSH and PRL pools, i.e. one dopamine-related and the other TRH-related, in patients with prolactinoma and normal female subjects.
This multi-institutional co-operative study examined the preventive effect of niceritrol on arteriosclerotic diseases. Patients with hyperlipidemia (serum cholesterol above 220mg/dl and/or triglyceride above 150mg/dl) or low HDL-cholesterol (7lt;45mg/dl for males and7lt;50mg/dl for females) were enrolled into the study and they were divided into two groups, i. e. control group (n=382) and niceritrol group (n=661). In the niceritrol group, an anti-lipidemic agent (nicotinic acid derivative, niceritrol 750mg per day) was administrated, and in the control group, administration of any kind of anti-lipidemic agents was prohibited. Serum lipids and ECG recordings were examined regularly during the study period in both group.The results showed that serum total cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL-cholesterol decreased significantly and HDL-cholesterol increased significantly from the baseline in the niceritrol groups while there were no significant changes of serum lipids observed in the control.Improvement rate of Ischemic ECG changes during the study period was significantly greater in the niceritrol group (26.0%) than in the control group (2.9%) (p<0.05).These results indicate the benefical effect of niceritrol in the treatment of Ischemic heart disease via amelioration of hyperlipidemia.
