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E Héron

Publications and source records attributed to E Héron.

20 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1996

The urinary metanephrine-to-creatinine ratio for the diagnosis of pheochromocytoma.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the operating characteristics of two tests for diagnosing pheochromocytoma: 1) measurement of the ratio between urinary metanephrine and creatinine levels and 2) measurement of urinary metanephrine levels alone. A second objective was to ascertain the reasons for false-positive test results. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Hypertension referral center. PATIENTS: 1013 patients referred for hypertension and tested for pheochromocytoma. MEASUREMENTS: 24-hour urinary levels of metanephrine (measured using liquid chromatography) and creatinine. The presence of pheochromocytoma was confirmed at surgery. In patients with positive test results, the absence of pheochromocytoma was documented by negative results of retests and imaging procedures. RESULTS: Of 58 patients with increased metanephrine levels or increased metanephrine-to-creatinine ratios, 20 had pheochromocytoma and 38 did not. Of the 38 patients without pheochromocytoma, 15 had high metanephrine levels but normal metanephrine-to-creatinine ratios. The respective operating characteristics of measurement of urinary metanephrine levels and measurement of the metanephrine-to-creatinine ratio were as follows: sensitivity, 95% and 100%; specificity, 98% and 98%; positive predictive value, 46% and 47%; and negative predictive value, 100% and 100%. In 13 of the 23 patients who had a high metanephrine-to-creatinine ratio, various acute events may have caused hypersecretion of catecholamines. CONCLUSIONS: Measurement of the metanephrine-to-creatinine ratio is a sensitive and specific test for pheochromocytoma. However, acute events may increase urinary metanephrine excretion to the level that occurs with tumors.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

The complete exon-intron structure of the 156-kb human gene NFKB1, which encodes the p105 and p50 proteins of transcription factors NF-kappa B and I kappa B-gamma: implications for NF-kappa B-mediated signal transduction.

The NFKB1 gene encodes three proteins of the NF-kappa B/Rel and I kappa B families: p105, p50, and (in mouse) I kappa B-gamma. We determined the complete genomic structure of human NFKB1. NFKB1 spans 156 kb and has 24 exons with introns varying between 40,000 and 323 bp in length. Although NFKB2, which encodes p100 and p52, also has 24 exons and has a comparable exon-intron structure, it is 20 times shorter (8 kb; Fracchiola et al. (1993) Oncogene 8, 2839-2845) than NFKB1. We propose that the long size of NFKB1 is important for transient activation of NF-kappa B complexes containing p50. I kappa B-gamma corresponds to the carboxyl-terminal half of p105. DNA sequence analysis showed that the 3'-end of human intron 11 and the 5'-end of exon 12 of NFKB1 are colinear with the 5'-untranslated region of mouse I kappa B-gamma cDNA. I kappa B-gamma is thus likely to be generated by transcription starting within intron 11 and not by alternative splicing of the mouse mRNA encoding p105 and p50.

Amino Acid Sequence↗