Acta medica Scandinavica最新文献

Twenty-eight patients with Bartter's syndrome diagnosed during the years 1964-86 and followed for an average of 9.9 years have been reviewed. Their mean age at the time of diagnosis was 32.9 years. As a group they were shorter than normal subjects. In 19 patients hypokalaemia was detected incidentally. Neuromuscular symptoms, usually minor, had occurred in 19 subjects. Pregnancies and deliveries were unremarkable. One patient has died from malignant lymphoma, the others are alive. Of these, one patient has developed renal failure and received a renal transplant. The other patients have preserved a normal renal function and the majority have been healthy and working full time. Treatment rarely resulted in normokalaemia. The annual incidence of the syndrome has been estimated at 1.2 per million people.

The effects of psychosocial and clinical factors on mortality in ischemic heart disease (IHD) were examined in a 10-year follow-up of 150 middle-aged men. Three groups of men were included: men with clinically manifest IHD, men with risk factors and healthy men. Psychosocial factors were assessed by means of standardized questionnaires. They comprised educational level, social class, marital status and a comprehensive assessment of the daily rounds of life of these men. Furthermore, a subjective rating of the own general health status was obtained. The clinical investigation included a standard physical examination, fasting serum lipids, glucose and urate, a frontal and sagittal chest X-ray and a 24-hour ambulatory ECG monitoring. During follow-up 37 men died, 20 of them from IHD. Non-survivors were discriminated from survivors by the following factors: older age, lower education, lower social class, higher systolic blood pressure, increased ventricular irritability and cardiac enlargement. Furthermore, a relative social isolation as indicated by a low social activity level and a poor self-rated general health status was characteristic of non-survivors. In multivariate analyses three factors emerged as the equally strong predictors of mortality, both from all causes and from IHD: social isolation, a poor self-rated health status and ventricular irritability. The psychosocial mortality predictors were independent of and of similar strength as the clinical predictors.

Serum uric concentration was determined in a series of 1462 women, aged 38-60 when first examined in 1968-69, as the first phase of a longitudinal population study in Gothenburg, Sweden. Serum uric acid concentration was positively correlated to the 12-year overall mortality in univariate analysis. No relationship was observed between initial serum uric acid values and incidence of myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, ECG changes indicating ischaemic heart disease or stroke. The association between serum uric acid concentration and mortality was independent of age, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, adipose tissue distribution, smoking habits, serum cholesterol concentration, serum triglyceride concentration, serum creatinine concentration, serum calcium concentration, use of diuretics, and haematological disease. The increased mortality could not be explained by any increase in malignant neoplastic disease.

Disturbances of calcium or vitamin D metabolism have been suggested to be of pathogenetic importance both for hypertension and impaired glucose tolerance, two disorders that are commonly associated. In the present study 65 men, aged 61-65 years, with impaired glucose tolerance were enrolled in a prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled study over 12 weeks evaluating the effects of 0.75 microgram alphacalcidol, a synthetic analog to the active metabolite of vitamin D. In the 26 patients with blood pressure greater than or equal to 150/90 mmHg before treatment a significant reduction (p less than 0.01) of both the systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure was found after therapy (from 171/95 to 150/88 mmHg). The effect was additive to concomitant antihypertensive treatment and was correlated (p = 0.03) to a reduction of serum levels of parathyroid hormone. Also in the whole group of patients given alphacalcidol blood pressure was moderately lowered from a mean of 152/87 +/- 22/10 (SD) to 143/84 +/- 17/8 mmHg. There were no relationships between the changes in body weight, blood glucose or insulin parameters and the changes in blood pressure during the trial. The findings are compatible with the concept that calcium metabolism influences blood pressure regulation and suggest that supplementation with a physiologic dose of active vitamin D could be beneficial for patients with high blood pressure.