scholarly journals Does GH replacement therapy in adult GH-deficient patients result in recurrence or increase in size of pituitary tumours?

2002 ◽  
pp. 807-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
AG Hatrick ◽  
P Boghalo ◽  
JB Bingham ◽  
AB Ayres ◽  
PH Sonksen ◽  
...  

OBJECTIVE: Hypopituitary GH-deficient patients have an increased cardiovascular mortality and GH replacement in this population has resulted in considerable therapeutic benefit. GH replacement involves administration of a potentially mitogenic substance to patients with a previous or residual pituitary tumour. Our objective was to evaluate whether GH replacement results in an increase in the size of pituitary tumours. METHODS: This was a non-randomised observational study on patients recruited from the endocrine clinic. All subjects had GH deficiency, proven on an insulin tolerance test and were divided into those who were or were not receiving long-term GH replacement. Comparison of change in pituitary size was made with interval radiological imaging of the pituitary. RESULTS: Seventy-five patients (40 men and 35 women) were in the study, 47 were on long-term GH replacement and there were 28 controls. The average length of treatment for the treated group was 3.6 patient years. Thirty-nine patients in the treated group had at least 2 years of GH treatment between imaging studies of the pituitary. Two patients in the treated group had an increase in pituitary size (non-functioning adenomas) and two in the control group (one functioning and one non-functioning adenoma adenoma). None of these four patients required further treatment. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Using a representative cohort of hypopituitary patients attending an endocrine clinic, GH replacement was not associated with an increased pituitary tumour recurrence rate. Although the results are not conclusive, in the period of observation GH had little adverse effect but longer studies are required to be certain.

1998 ◽  
Vol 116 (3) ◽  
pp. 1710-1714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Margarida Galvão ◽  
Zulma Fernandes Peixinho ◽  
Nelson Figueiredo Mendes ◽  
Luiz Estevão Ianhez ◽  
Emil Sabbaga

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to analyze the long-term evolution of patients submitted to endolymphatic irradiation as a pre-transplant preparation. SETTING: Referral center of university hospital. DESIGN: Case-control study. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: The study was designed to evaluate the incidence of rejection, kidney loss, leukopenia, infection, and graft survival in the group treated (group 1) prior to surgery, compared to a control group (group 2) composed of patients under identical clinical conditions (sex, age, type of donor, immunosuppressive therapy and time of transplant) that did not undergo treatment preparation. PATIENTS: Patients were selected from amongst transplantation candidates on a long-term waiting list, some with a high level of antibodies against panel. The control group was chosen from amongst recently transplanted patients. Patients in the treated group received lipoiodine containing 131I with specific activity ranging between 4 and 6 mCu/ml. RESULTS: A significant difference between the two groups was found with regard to the incidence of rejection crises (21.0% in group 1 and 73.6% in group 2; P= 0.003), and the maintenance dose of azathioprine (smaller in group 1; P< 0.01). As to kidney graft loss due to rejection, a tendency to significance could be identified (10.5% in group 1 and 42.1% in group 2; P= 0.063); however, the difference was not significant between the two groups in terms of reversibility of rejection episodes during the first 60 post-transplant days. CONCLUSIONS: The authors concluded that this method, besides being relatively innocuous (there was no compromising of either the thyroid gland or of gonad function and there was no increase in tumor incidence), has an extended immunosuppressive effect, and can be indicated for cadaveric renal allograft recipients, especially those showing high panel reactivity.


Author(s):  
Asmaa K. Abdelghany ◽  
Akram M. El-Kashlan ◽  
Hosny H. Emeash ◽  
Fatma Khalil

Abstract Background Animal models are used to provide an adequate investigation of brain-behaviour, physiological and path physiological relationships to give insight into human behaviour and the underlying processes of drugs affecting the nervous system. Scopolamine; SCO (alkaloid l-(2)-scopolamine [l-(2)-hyoscine]) has a competitive inhibitory effect on muscarinic receptors for acetylcholine. Thus, this study was designated to investigate the effect of long-term SCO treatment on locomotor, exploratory and anxiety-like behaviours of rats using open field test. Results The long-term SCO treatment induced a prominent increase in locomotion (hyperactivity) and exploratory behaviour of rats. In addition, anxiety-like behavioural patterns showed a non-significant difference in SCO treated compared to control. Serotonin level was significantly decreased in the scopolamine treated group in comparison with the control group. Conclusions Data suggested that long-term SCO treatment resulted in marked neurobehavioural alterations in a rat as an animal model.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 3563-3571
Author(s):  
Afifa Safdar ◽  
Khairunnuur Fairuz Azman ◽  
Rahimah Zakaria ◽  
Che Badariah Ab Aziz ◽  
Usman Rashid

Introduction: Aging is a physiological process accompanied by cognitive decline, particularly in memory deterioration. D-galactose is a reducing monosaccharide which, if systemically exposed, causes accelerated senescence in several organs and is widely being used as an ideal agent to induce brain aging in animal models. Goat milk is a food of high nutritional value which has been demonstrated to possess strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. However, thus far, little is known of its possible effects on the brain, especially on memory during aging. The present study examined the efficiency of goat milk supplementation on memory performance in a D-galactose induced aging rat model. Methods: Fifty-two male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into four groups: 1) control group, 2) goat milk treated group, 3) D-galactose treated group, and 4) goat milk plus D-galactose treated group. D-galactose (120 mg/kg subcutaneously) and/or goat milk (1 g/kg orally) were administered continuously for six weeks, preceded and followed by novel object recognition and T-maze tests. Results: Prior to goat milk and D-galactose administration, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) in memory performance among all groups. Six weeks of D-galactose administration significantly decreased (p<0.001) short-term, long-term and spatial memory performance. Goat milk supplementation in the D-galactose induced rats managed to protect against memory decline, as exhibited by significantly higher (p<0.0001) short-term, long-term and spatial memory performance of the D-galactose plus goat milk treated group, compared to the D-galactose treated group. Conclusion: In conclusion, goat milk possesses memoryenhancing effects and, hence. may be useful in protecting against age-related memory deficits.  


2015 ◽  
Vol 119 (6) ◽  
pp. 663-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Yuan Lin ◽  
Shin-Da Lee ◽  
Chia-Ting Su ◽  
Tsung-Lin Cheng ◽  
Ai-Lun Yang

Dysfunction of insulin and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is associated with the pathophysiology of hypertension. The influence of long-term exercise on vascular dysfunction caused by hypertension remains unclear. We investigated whether long-term treadmill training improved insulin- and IGF-1-mediated vasorelaxation in hypertensive rats. Eight-week-old male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were randomly divided into sedentary and exercise (SHR-EX) groups. The SHR-EX group was trained on a treadmill for 60 min/day, 5 days/wk, for 8 wk. Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) were used as the normal control group. After training, aortic insulin- and IGF-1-mediated vasorelaxation was evaluated in organ baths. Additionally, the roles of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), nitric oxide synthase (NOS), and aortic protein expression were examined in the three groups. Compared with sedentary SHR and WKY groups, insulin- and IGF-1-mediated vasorelaxation was significantly enhanced to a nearly normal level in the SHR-EX group. After endothelial denudation, blunted and comparable vasorelaxation was found among the three groups. Pretreatment with selective PI3K and NOS inhibitors attenuated insulin- and IGF-1-mediated vasorelaxation, and no significant difference was found among the three groups after the pretreatment. The aortic protein levels of the insulin receptor (IR), IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R), insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1), and endothelial NOS (eNOS) were also significantly increased in the SHR-EX group compared with the other two groups. These results suggested that treadmill training elicited the amelioration of endothelium-dependent insulin/IGF-1-mediated vasorelaxation partly via the increased activation of PI3K and NOS, as well as the enhancement of protein levels of IR, IGF-1R, IRS-1, and eNOS, in hypertension.


2000 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 3153-3157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Østergaard ◽  
Runa Vavia Yieng-Kow ◽  
Thomas Benfield ◽  
Niels Frimodt-Møller ◽  
Frank Espersen ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The polysaccharide fucoidin is a selectin blocker that inhibits leukocyte recruitment into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) during experimental pneumococcal meningitis. In the present study, the effect of fucoidin treatment on the release of the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-1 (IL-1), and IL-8 into the CSF was investigated. Rabbits (n = 7) were treated intravenously with 10 mg of fucoidin/kg of body weight every second hour starting 4 h after intracisternal inoculation of ∼106 CFU of Streptococcus pneumoniae type 3 (untreated control group, n = 7). CSF samples were obtained every second hour during a 16-h study period. Treatment with fucoidin caused a consistent and significant decrease in CSF IL-1 levels (in picograms per milliliter) between 12 and 16 h (0 versus 170, 0 versus 526, and 60 versus 1,467, respectively;P < 0.02). A less consistent decrease in CSF TNF-α levels was observed in the fucoidin-treated group, but with no significant difference between the two groups (P > 0.05). In contrast, there was no attenuation in CSF IL-8 levels. Indeed, there was a significant increase in CSF IL-8 levels (in picograms per milliliter) in the fucoidin-treated group at 10 and 12 h (921 versus 574 and 1,397 versus 569, respectively;P < 0.09). In conclusion, our results suggest that blood-derived leukocytes mainly are responsible for the release of IL-1 and to some degree TNF-α into the CSF during pneumococcal meningitis, whereas IL-8 may be produced by local cells within the brain.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaochen Wang ◽  
Guiqiu Zhao ◽  
Jing Lin ◽  
Nan Jiang ◽  
Qian Wang ◽  
...  

Aims. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of timolol in the treatment of myopic regression after laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK).Methods. We searched MEDLINE, CENTRAL, EMBASE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Chinese Biological Medicine (CBM) from the inception to July 2015 for relevant randomized controlled trials that examined timolol therapy for myopic regression. The methodological quality of the studies included was assessed using the Revman 5.3 software.Results. We included six clinical trials involving 483 eyes in this review, including 246 eyes in treated group and 237 eyes in controlled group. We observed statistically significant improvements on the postoperative SE in the 3 months. However, the change of CCT was not statistically different between the control group and the experimental group. There were fewer cases of IOP, UDVA, and CDVA in treated group having significant difference from the controlled group.Conclusions. Topical timolol could be an effective treatment for reduction of myopic regression especially the spherical errors after myopic LASIK. Further RCTs with larger sample sizes for these trials are warranted to determine the efficacy and limitation for myopic regression after LASIK.


2007 ◽  
Vol 65 (suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 49-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda A. Reno ◽  
Paula T. Fernandes ◽  
Gail S. Bell ◽  
Josemir W. Sander ◽  
Li M. Li

PURPOSE: To evaluate whether an inappropriate attitude towards a person having an epileptic seizure contributes to the stigma found in society and whether an appropriate attitude helps to diminish it in the short term; to perform a long term investigation about information remembered and stigma perception after an educational lecture. METHOD: This study was performed in two steps: Step 1. Students of first year of high school of two schools in Campinas completed a questionnaire including the Stigma Scale of Epilepsy following a seizure demonstration. They were divided into three groups: a) one group had a demonstration of proper attitudes towards someone having an epileptic seizure; b) one group was shown incorrect procedures; c) control group. After the completion of the questionnaire, an educational lecture about epilepsy was given. Step 2: six months later, the questionnaire was re-administered. RESULTS: The comparison between the four groups (step 1 and step 2) show a significant difference (Anova (3,339)=2.77; p=0.042). Pairwise comparison using Fisher's Least-Significant-Difference Test showed a significant difference between the group shown incorrect procedures (step 1) versus step 2, and the control group (step 1) versus step 2, but no difference between the group shown correct procedures (step 1) versus step 2. DISCUSSION: Exhibiting proper attitudes towards a person experiencing an epileptic seizure may cause significant differences among the subjects’ degrees of stigma towards people with epilepsy. It is therefore fundamental that there should be de-stigmatization campaigns provided, to correct information and provide appropriate education.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vildan Güngörer ◽  
Mehmet Öztürk ◽  
Mustafa Yasir Özlü ◽  
Şükrü Arslan

ABSTRACT Objectives Long-term therapy with low-dose methotrexate (MTX) is widely used in treatment of rheumatic diseases, in children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate liver elasticity in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) who received MTX and compare the results with control group. Methods Liver elasticity was evaluated with shear wave elastography (SWE) technique in 25 patients aged 3–17 years who were followed up with JIA and received MTX and compared with 25 healthy controls of the same age and weight. Factors that had an effect on liver elasticity were examined. Results The mean SWE value of patients was 2.64 ± 2.13 m/s and 24.10 ± 18.50 kPa, whereas 1.83 ± 0.16 m/s and 10.09 ± 1.83 kPa in control group. There was a significant difference in liver elasticity in the patient and control groups. When the patients were evaluated as Group 1 (&lt; 1000 mg) and Group 2 (≥ 1000 mg) according to the cumulative MTX dose, no significant difference was obtained. There was positive correlation between liver elasticity and weekly MTX dose and age. Conclusions Our study revealed that liver elasticity significantly decreased in patients who received MTX when compared with the control group. The elastography technique will be understood better over time and used safely in many areas.


2016 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 1487-1496 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.S. Lucas ◽  
E.T.F. Siqueira ◽  
M.M.H. Haguiwara ◽  
S.S. Azevedo ◽  
S.E. Yotsuyanagi ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT A non-surgical sterilant (NSS) was used with the objective of assessing the zootechnical performance, carcass and meat quality, and hormone levels. 90 male piglets were selected with birthweights varying between 1.5kg to 2.0kg. The control group was constituted of 45 males castrated by the conventional surgical method, at the seventh day of age, and the treated group was constituted of 45 males castrated with NSS (active principle of zinc gluconate in the concentration of 26.2mg/mL associated to the dimethyl sulfoxide at 0.5%), with the application of the first dose on the seventh day of age and the second dose on the fourteenth day of age. The zootechnical assessments were carried out on the farm and consisted: weight gain in the periods per animal and feed conversion. The slaughter of the animals and the assessment of the carcass and meat quality and hormone levels were carried out in a slaughterhouse and the municipality of Campinas (SP). The study demonstrated that the use of NSS was a viable alternative in relation to the zootechnical performance and the carcass quality. In relation to the meat quality there was no significant difference in the majority of the assessed parameters.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 2473011420S0030
Author(s):  
Jesse King ◽  
Chris M. Stauch ◽  
Ryan M. Ridenour ◽  
Umur Aydogan

Category: Lesser Toes; Midfoot/Forefoot Introduction/Purpose: Hammertoe deformities are the most common pathology of the forefoot, accounting for up to 48% of all forefoot operations. There is currently limited evidence documenting differences in foot radiographs and radiographic measurements that may represent a predisposition to developing hammertoe deformity. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether patients with hammertoe deformity demonstrate increased radiographic measurements of first, second, or third metatarsal (MT) lengths as well as Meary’s angle compared to a healthy control group. Methods: Following IRB approval, an institutional radiology database was queried from January 2009-2018 for patients with ICD- 9 and ICD-10 diagnosis codes for hammertoe deformity of the 2nd or 3rd phalange. Control cases were selected using diagnosis codes for acute plantar fascial pain in the same timeframe with medical record review to exclude patients with prior lower extremity injury, surgery or pathology. 234 hammertoe and 110 control patients met inclusion and exclusion criteria. Automated 1:1 case-control matching was performed to control for age, sex and laterality. Following matching, the sample size consisted of 80 patients in each cohort. Proximal to distal end-to-end articular surface radiographic lengths were documented for metatarsals and phalanges of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rays on anteroposterior radiographs. Lateral talar-first metatarsal (Meary’s) angle was measured using weightbearing sagittal radiographs by calculating the angle formed by lines that bisect the talar neck and anatomic neck of the first metatarsal. Results: A total of 160 patients (80 cases and 80 controls) were included in the study. Mean age was 47.7 years among hammertoe cases and 47.5 years among controls (p=0.92). 54 of 80 cases in each group were female. There was a statistically significant increase in the average Meary’s angle among hammertoe patients (5.23 +- 8.60°) compared to controls (2.15 +- 5.96°) (p<0.01). The average length for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd metatarsals were 65.6, 80.0, and 76.7 mm, respectively for the hammertoe patients and 62.8 mm, 76.0 mm, and 73.5 mm among control cases, respectively. For all three metatarsals, this difference was statistically significant (p<0.01; Table 1). There was no statistically significant difference between lengths of the proximal or distal phalanges. Conclusion: Patients with hammertoe deformity were associated with an increased length on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd metatarsals. Also, these patients demonstrated an increased Meary’s angle creating pes planus deformity. These results illustrate the importance of both medial column instability and long metatarsal length in the development of hammertoe deformity. [Table: see text]


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