0000000000149688
AUTHOR
F. Durante
The pancreatic beta-cell response to intravenous administration of glucose in elderly subjects.
A study was made of the serum insulin level after the intravenous administration of glucose (0.33 gm/ kg) in two groups of normal subjects—18 in the 60–85 age bracket, and 16 in the 23–45 age bracket. All had a normal coefficient of glucose utilization and a normal blood glucose curve after intravenous administration of glucose. Serum insulin was assayed by the radio-immunological method, with use of an ion exchange resin. Blood samples were drawn at 2, 5, 10, 30, 45 and 60 minutes after the end of the glucose infusion. In the elderly subjects the maximal value was reached only after 5 minutes and the mean value was 39± 9 µU/ml (range, 27–50), whereas in the younger subjects the serum insul…
Effects of Intravenous Erythromycin Lactobionate in Respiratory Infections
The antibiotic erythromycin lactobionate given intravenously acts almost exclusively on Gram-positive bacteria. Even at high plasma and tissue concentrations there is an almost total absence of side-effects. It could be considered, therefore, as first choice in the treatment of patients with infectious respiratory diseases. Most of the 40 patients admitted to the present study were elderly and all had either acute or chronic and becoming acute respiratory disease. Their clinical symptoms and levels of phlogosis improved on treatment with erythromycin lactobionate without any interruption of therapy due to side-effects and toxicity. The absence of unfavourable pharmacological interactions f…
Two consecutive clinical trials on cisplatin (CDDP), hepatic arterial infusion (HAI), and I.V. 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) chemotherapy for unresectable colorectal liver metastases: An alternative to FUdR-based regimens?
Several phase III clinical trials demonstrated that hepatic arterial chemotherapy for unresectable colorectal liver metastases is able to provide significantly higher response rates than those obtained by systemic route: in more than 500 patients collected from 6 randomized trials, the median values of objective response rates were 55% after fluoxuridine (FUdR) continuous hepatic arterial infusion (HAI) vs. 18.5% after FUdR or 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) intravenous (i.v.) chemotherapy. Furthermore, the majority of those studies reported that median survival increased in the patient subgroups treated with intrahepatic chemotherapy, even if not always statistically significant [1-6]. Certainly, FU…
Diuretic Therapy in Old Patients
The administration of diuretics is indicated in several clinical conditions characterized by more or less severe water and salt retention (congestive heart failure, non-compensated liver cirrhosis, renal syndromes etc.), or in cases in which water and sodium depletion is supposed to improve some pathophysiological aspects of clinical symptoms (e. g. as background treatment in arterial hypertension, or as emergency treatment in left ventricular failure.