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Biomedical subjects

A Habte-Michael

Publications and source records attributed to A Habte-Michael.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1985

Glucose and insulin homeostasis during the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction.

Plasma concentrations of glucose and insulin were measured in ten patients during the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction of tetracycline-treated louse-borne relapsing fever. Plasma glucose fell significantly in eight of the ten patients associated with the peak of the reaction, but plasma insulin remained low. Glucoregulation by insulin was therefore normal. This evidence questions the role of macrophage mediator-induced pancreatic insulin release in causing hypoglycaemia in borreliosis or bacterial endotoxicosis.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Meptazinol diminishes the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction of relapsing fever.

Naloxone, an opioid antagonist, and meptazinol, an opioid antagonist with agonist properties, were tested in a double-blind placebo-controlled trial in 24 Ethiopian patients with louse-borne relapsing fever. The potentially fatal Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction (J-HR), which invariably follows tetracycline treatment of the disease, was unaffected by naloxone, 30-40 mg intravenously, but was diminished by meptazinol, 300-500 mg intravenously. Compared with naloxone and placebo, meptazinol reduced the clinical severity of the reaction, significantly delayed and shortened its chill phase, delayed the rise in temperature, and reduced peak temperature and changes in pulse and respiratory rates and leucocyte count. High-dose corticosteroids given before or at the time of tetracycline treatment failed to alter the reaction, which is thought to result from release of endotoxin-like substances. Meptazinol is the first effective treatment for the J-HR of louse-borne relapsing fever. This finding suggests a role for endogenous opioids in the pathogenesis of the J-HR.

Adolescent↗