Search results for "PLASMA"
showing 10 items of 4043 documents
Vitamin D kinetics in the acute phase of critical illness: A prospective observational study.
2017
Abstract Purpose The objective of this study was to assess the vitamin D kinetics in critically ill patients by performing periodic serum vitamin D measurements in short time intervals in the initial phase of a critical illness. Materials and methods We performed vitamin D serum measurements: at admission and then in 12-hour time intervals. The minimum number of vitamin D measurements was 4, and the maximum was 8 per patient. Results A total of 363 patients were evaluated for participation, and 20 met the inclusion criteria. All patients had an initial serum vitamin D level between 10.6 and 39 ng/mL. Nineteen patients had vitamin D levels between 10 and 30 ng/mL, which means that they had v…
Serum levels of substance P are decreased in patients with type 1 diabetes.
2000
Morphological and immunohistochemical studies in diabetic subjects have shown a depletion of the neuropeptide substance P (SP) in the central and peripheral nervous system. This is the first study investigating serum levels of substance P in type 1 diabetes patients (n=50) and controls (n=75) by means of an enzyme immunoassay. The serum level of SP was significantly decreased in the diabetic group compared to the control group (10.12+/-0.29 vs. 12.25+/-0.38 pg/ml; p<0.0001). In diabetic patients, there was no correlation of substance P levels with age, serum creatinine, albuminuria, total cholesterol, HDL- or LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, HbA1c, type or duration of diabetes and gender. Fu…
Dose-response relationships and plasma concentrations of digitalis glycosides in man.
1978
An inter-individual, randomized, double-blind study of digitoxin (Dt) and β-acetyl digoxin (D) was performed in 120 healthy male volunteers. Groups of 10 persons each received orally D 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 or 0.6 mg and Dt 0.04, 0.08, 0.12, or 0.16 mg daily for 7 days; Loading doses were given for the first three days. Plasma levels were measured with an86Rb-erythrocyte assay 24 h after the last dose. ECG, carotid artery pulse and phonocardiogram were recorded prior to (b) and 24 h after (a) the last dose. QTc, amplitude of T-waves in V2 to V6, electromechanical systole (QS2c) and left ventricular ejection time (LVETc) were measured. The differences between a and b (Δ-values) reflect …
Insulin, renin-aldosterone system and blood pressure in obese people.
2001
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between insulin, the renin-aldosterone system and blood pressure in obese subjects. DESIGN AND METHODS: A cross sectional study of a group of severely obese normotensive subjects who were surgical candidates (n=39; mean BMI: 47.8±1.4) and a group of hypertensive patients (n=57; mean BMI: 28.0±0.7) twenty-nine of whom had BMI>27. All subjects were studied after 15 days on a balanced diet. Insulin, plasma renin activity and aldosterone were measured. RESULTS: Fasting insulin, plasma renin activity and aldosterone were higher in severely obese normotensive subjects than in hypertensive subjects (respectively 32.3±3.0 vs 13.1±1.0 mU/l, P=0.0001; 1.34±0.22…
Behaviour of nitric oxide metabolites in unprofessional athletes before and after a cardiopulmonary test.
2010
Physical training causes an increase in nitric oxide (NO) production [2, 3, 8, 9] and this datum explains the link between exercise and endothelium and seems to demonstrate how regular training upregulates eNOS expression, although it is not sure if this upregulation is due to shear stress or metabolic factors [3]. However, it must be underlined that besides to be directly influenced by exogenous NO, erythrocytes express a functional NOS [5, 6, 11, 13] that raises the circulation NO pool. The literature data describe that an 8-week exercise training induced an increase in plasma levels of NO metabolites (NOx), that persisted four weeks after interruption of training [8]. A similar trend was…
Plasma catecholamine responses and neural adaptation during short-term resistance training
2000
Low exercise-induced plasma adrenaline (A) responses have been reported in resistance-trained indi- viduals. In the study reported here, we investigated the interaction between strength gain and neural adaptation of the muscles, and the plasma A response in eight healthy men during a short-term resistance-training period. The subjects performed 5 resistance exercises (E1-E5), consisting of 6 sets of 12 bilateral leg exten- sions performed at a 50% load, and with 2 days rest in between. Average electromyographic (EMG) signal amplitude was recorded before and after the exercises, from the knee extensor muscles in isometric maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) as well as during the exercises (a…
Cerebral abscesses imaging: A practical approach
2020
Abstract: Brain abscesses (BAs) are focal infections of the central nervous system (CNS) that start as a localised area of weakening of the brain parenchyma (cerebritis) and develops into a collection of pus surrounded by a capsule. Pyogenic (bacterial) BAs represent the majority of all BAs; in some cases, the diagnostic and therapeutic management can be challenging. Imaging has a primary role in differentiating BAs from other lesions. Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI) is essential for the identification of the lesion, its localisation and its morphological features. However, cMRI does not allow to reliably differentiate BAs from other intracranial mass lesions such as necrotic…
Safety of plasma-derived protein C for treating disseminated intravascular coagulation in adult patients with active cancer
2012
Cancer-related disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is a life-threatening condition for which no effective treatment is currently available. Protein C (PC), a modulator of coagulation as well as the inflammatory system, has been successfully tested (in its activated recombinant form [a-rPC]) in sepsis-related coagulopathy, but with an increased risk for major bleeding. Plasma-derived PC (pd-PC) is more suitable than a-rPC in patients at high risk from bleeding due to its self-limiting process. We carried out a single-arm study evaluating the role of pd-PC in adult cancer patients with overt DIC. Over a period of 3 years, we treated 19 patients with overt DIC and a PC plasma concentr…
Norepinephrine transporter gene polymorphism is not associated with susceptibility to alcohol dependence
2002
Abnormalities in monoamine neurotransmission have been implicated in the pathogenesis of alcoholism, mood disorders and schizophrenia. Murine norepinephrine transporter gene (NET) has been mapped to a region on chromosome 8 where a quantitative trait locus for ethanol sensitivity. Therefore we tested whether norepinephrine transporter (NET) gene variants confer susceptibility to either alcohol dependence or severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms. There is a highly polymorphic silent G1287A mutation in the NET gene. In our study 157 alcoholics and 185 healthy unrelated matched control subjects were analyzed for a silent G1287A mutation. No significant differences in allele and genotype distribut…
Retinol-binding protein 4: a new marker of virus-induced steatosis in patients infected with hepatitis C virus genotype 1.
2008
Retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) is an adipocytokine associated with insulin resistance (IR). We tested serum levels of RBP4 to assess its link with steatosis in patients with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C (CHC) or nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Nondiabetic patients with CHC (n = 143) or NAFLD (n = 37) were evaluated by liver biopsy and anthropometric and metabolic measurements, including IR by the homeostasis model assessment. Biopsies were scored by Scheuer classification for CHC, and Kleiner for NAFLD. Steatosis was tested as a continuous variable and graded as absent-mild <30%, or moderate-severe > or =30%. Thirty nondiabetic, nonobese blood donors served as controls. …