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Biomedical subjects

P A Serrano

Publications and source records attributed to P A Serrano.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Comparative study of roles of the lobus parolfactorius and intermediate medial hyperstriatum ventrale in memory formation in the chick brain.

Two discrete areas of the chick brain, the intermediate medial hyperstriatum ventrale (IMHV) and lobus parolfactorius (LPO), were found to have different functions during the formation of memory for a 1-trial peck-avoidance paradigm. Glutamate, ouabain, and emetine, known to disrupt short-, intermediate-, and long-term memory when injected into the IMHV, were injected into the cerebellum and LPO. All amnestic agents investigated produced amnesia when injected into the IMHV; only one of these agents produced amnesia when injected into the LPO, and none of the agents produced amnesia when injected into the cerebellum. The chick brain was also found to exhibit hemispheric asymmetries: The left IMHV and LPO were more sensitive to the amnestic agents than their corresponding right structure. From these data, hypotheses for the roles of these structures during memory are proposed.

Animals

Dopamine excretion in benign pheochromocytoma.

Dopamine excretion is reported in 27 patients with benign pheochromocytoma. In 21 patients the tumours were in the adrenal (one patient, bilateral), four were extra-adrenal, and two were assumed to be so since they were not found at laparotomy. Dopamine excretion was found to be higher in the patients with extra-adrenal tumours and in one patient--with bilateral pheochromocytoma. Slight increase of dopamine excretion was found in two of the remaining patients. These observations--indicate that while increased dopamine excretion may be present in patients with malignant pheochromocytoma it can be also increased in some patients with benign tumours.

Adolescent

Energy metabolism and hormonal profile in children with edematous protein-calorie malnutrition.

Modifications in energy metabolism and endocrine homeostasis (plasma insulin and growth hormone values, glucose and free fatty acid levels, serum thyroxine and TSH, free thyroxine index, and urinary catecholamines) were investigated in eight children with edematous protein-calorie malnutrition. Caloric expenditure was low at admission and correlated linearly with increased caloric intake throughout the study. The hormonal changes at admission were characterized by a negligible insulin response to intravenous arginine or glucose and by markedly elevated growth hormone levels which were neither increased by arginine nor suppressed by intravenous glucose. Serum thyroxine values were low, but free thyroxine index and serum TSH levels were within normal limits. At admission to the study, 24-hour urinary excretion of dopamine and norepinephrine was relatively reduced in relation to the excretion of epinephrine. All these modifications were corrected at time of the recovery study. It is suggested that in edematous protein-calorie malnutrition, insulin acts as the primary regulator of peripheral fuel release and that the high, nonsuppressible growth hormone levels may form part of an important homeostatic mechanism to provide substrates for brain metabolism via lipolysis.

Anthropometry

[Dopamine in essential arterial hypertension: excretion of its metabolite homovanillic acid].

The results obtained in a group of 66 hypertensive patients in which the AHV values were 5.7 plus and minus 0.4 mM/24 hrs., were reported. These values were compared to those obtained in 42 healthy subjects: 7.0 plus and minus 0.5 mM/24 hrs. The difference was statistically significant P less than 0.05. The values of excretion of urinary dopamine in both groups were also presented. A value of 225.7 plus and minus 13.0 mug/24 hrs. was obtained for the hypertensives, while the value for the healthy groups was 361.2 plus and minus 16.5. The statistical study in this case showed a high significance p smaller or less than 0.001. There were no changes in the levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline nor in the metabolite of these two amines, that is, AVM.

Adolescent