Acta medica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae最新文献

The cortisol level was studied during and after delivery in the mothers and their newborns after normal deliveries, elective Caesarean sections, and steroid pre-treated vaginal deliveries. The suppressive effect of Caesarean section, and steroid pre-treated vaginal deliveries. The suppressive effect of exogenous steroid was observed in both the mother and the newborn but its extent was not significant and its duration transitory; in 48 hours it disappeared. In the newborns delivered by elective Caesarean section, an extreme increase in the cortisol level was observed. The cortisol level in the amniotic fluid was not suitable for evaluating the function of the hypophysis-adrenal axis, especially not after steroid prophylaxis.

From complex biochemical, fluorescence-microscopic and enzyme-histochemical studies of the thyroid in rats it is concluded that the thyroid exerts, in addition to its catecholaminergic stimulatory effect, a serotonin-inhibiting regulatory activity, subject to the stimulatory effect of TRH.

Many effects of transfer factor can be used for testing of its activity in vitro. Its effect on rosette formation has been utilized in two methods: the enhancement of rosetting of trypsin-treated T lymphocytes and the increase of 'active' rosettes depressed under some immunopathological conditions. 'Active' rosetting lymphocytes of healthy blood donors if kept at 37 degrees C for 4 hr shed partly their sheep red blood cell-binding receptors into the culture medium supplemented with 25% fetal calf serum. The adding of the negative skin test-converting fraction of dialysable leucocyte extracts inhibits the decrease of the number of rosettes. Possible explanations for the observed phenomenon are: transfer factor increases the rate of receptor synthesis, it causes uncovering or redistribution of the receptors, or it stabilizes otherwise shed membrane structures.

The sera of patients with IgG-myeloma, IgM-macroglobulinaemia and with processes accompanied by high polyclonal Ig-levels were measured by radial immunodiffusion for immunoglobulins, coeruloplasmin, alpha-2-macroglobulin, C3-component, transferrin, alpha-1-antitrypsin, alpha-2-haptoglobin and haemopexin. In the presence of typical changes in the immunoglobulin concentrations, elevation of alpha-2-macroglobulin was found only if polyclonal Ig was increased. The concentration of the C3 component was reduced only in IgM macroglobulinaemia, that of transferrin only in IgG-myeloma, that of alpha-2-haptoglobin only in IgM-macroglobulinaemia and in case of increased polyclonal Ig.

Serum samples from 130 patients with chronic (persistent or active) hepatitis, including cirrhosis, and 70 patients with chronic alcoholic disease, all confirmed by biopsy, were examined by counter electrophoresis (CEP) for HBsAg. The patients were residents in the South-Transdanubian region of Hungary. Of the former 25%, of the latter 3%, proved positive. In 138 of the cases, 4 different tests were performed, viz. CEP, complement fixation, reverse passive haemagglutination (RPH) and radioimmunoassay (RIA). The results were positive in 24, 36, 43 and 60%, respectively, in chronic hepatitis and in 4, 6, 8 and 14%, respectively, in cases of alcoholic origin. Serum samples from the same patients were tested for anti-HBs and anti-HBc. Positive anti-HBs was found in 24% of the patients with chronic hepatitis and in 26% of those with alcoholic liver disease. The presence of anti-HBc was demonstrated in 42% and 38%, respectively. Joint evaluation of RPH-positive and anti-HBc positive cases on the one hand and of RIA-positive and anti-HBc positive cases on the other resulted in 68% and 71% HB virus-related positivity, respectively. The present study failed to furnish evidence in support of the presence of hepatitis A virus of its involvement in the aetiology of chronic liver disease.

It is suggested on the ground of the present study that in a number of cases of duodenal ulcer it is an immunoglobulin of the class IgG which, as a stimulating factor, accounts for overproduction of gastric HCl. This immunoglobulin takes effect by direct attachment to the parietal cells.

Ninety-two patients of advanced age were studied in whom arterial hypertension was associated with chronic bradycardia, the cessation of bradycardia after pacemaker implantation was followed by a significant fall or permanent normalization of the high blood pressure. In three cases cerebral blood flow was found low, but it increased when the heart rate was normalized on pacing. In order to check the results obtained in humans, cerebral blood supply was restricted by carotids ligation, in some animals the vertebral artery of one side was also ligated. During obstruction of cerebral blood flow, bradycardia induced by av block or vagal stimulation was followed by an increase in arterial blood pressure. It is suggested that disturbances of cerebral blood flow associated with bradycardia have a decisive part in the pathogenesis of hypertension in old age.

In 103 out of 220 alcoholics (46.8%) with no heart disease electrocardiographic abnormalities were found, sinus tachycardia, T-wave irregularities and intraventricular conduction disturbances being the most common features. Comparing 138 chronic alcoholics with those of 134 healthy abstainers for the systolic time-intervals, the following abnormalities were found in the former group: prolonged PEP and ICT, shortened LVET, increased PEP/LVET and heart rate. Correction of the time intervals for heart-rate left the direction of the changes unaffected. Nor was the age of the subjects found to affect the intervals to any significant degree either in the alcoholics or in the control group. It is therefore assumed that the effect of alcohol on the time-intervals operates through at least two mechanisms, an increase in heart-rate, and a depression of myocardial contractility.