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Biomedical subjects

R D Soloway

Publications and source records attributed to R D Soloway.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Prospective, randomized study of diagnosis and outcome in acute upper-gastrointestinal bleeding: endoscopy versus conventional radiography.

Sixty patients with mild to moderate upper-gastrointestinal bleeding were admitted to a prospective, controlled study of diagnosis and management, and were randomized to endoscopy or upper-gastrointestinal (UGI) barium series as the initial study. Definitive localization of the source of bleeding was made initially in 69% of the endoscopy group and 21% of the UGI group (P less than 0.0005). Of 54 patients undergoing both studies, endoscopy was definitive in 67% and UGI series in 22%. Thus, endoscopy also made more diagnoses when used as the second study (P less than .01). The use of endoscopy as the initial procedure led to significantly more rapid diagnosis than with UGI series. However, there were no significant differences between the two groups in clinical outcome. Endoscopy is the initial diagnostic procedure of choice in patients with mild to moderate upper-gastrointestinal bleeding because it enables detection of superficial bleeding lesions and has significantly increased the speed of diagnosis.

Acute Disease

Pigment vs cholesterol cholelithiasis: clinical and epidemiological aspects.

This prospective study demonstrated that among 92 consecutive patients who underwent cholecystectomy for gallstones at an urban university hospital, 27% had pigment stones and 73% had cholesterol stones. Age, sex, and weight, but not race, were significant determinants of stone type. The mean hemoglobin, direct and total serum bilirubin, and fasting glucose concentrations were similar for each group. The presence of alcoholism, diabetes, thyroid disease, or heterozygous hemoglobinopathy did not influence stone type. The average patient with pigment stones is a lean man or woman 63 years old; in contrast the composite patient with cholesterol stones is a modestly overweight woman 43 years old.

Adult

Effects of meals and interruption of enterohepatic circulation on flow, lipid composition, and cholesterol saturation of bile in man after cholecystectomy.

In 4 patients studied after cholecystectomy and common-duct exploration for cholesterol gallstones, bile salt (BS) and phospholipid (PL) output and bile flow increased significantly in response to breakfast, but cholesterol (Ch) output was unaltered. Simultaneously, Ch concentration decreased while PL and BS concentrations did not change. The degree of Ch saturation of bile, [BS PLUS PL]/[ch], decreased in each study, whether or not the original ratio indicated Ch supersaturation; in 3 of 5 studies, an initially super-saturated bile became unsaturated with Ch in response to breakfast. No significant changes were noted after lunch. During interruption of enterohepatic circulation (EHC), studies with radiolabeled bile acids indicated that the increased bile acid output in response to meals was secondary to increased recirculation of intestinal bile acids rather than to de novo bile acid synthesis. This mechanism may account for the adequate delivery of BS and for the decreased degree of Ch saturation of bile postprandially in cholecystectomized patients.

Aged

Evaluation of radiographic lucency or opaqueness of gallstones as a means of identifying cholesterol or pigment stones. Correlation of lucency or opaqueness with calcium and mineral.

A major criterion for the selection of patients with gallstones for treatment with chenodeoxycholic acid is the radiographic demonstration of lucent gallstones. In this study, we sought to evaluate the degree of selectivity of that criterion for distinguishing patients with cholesterol stones from those with pigment stones and to define the determinants of stone lucency or opaqueness. Of 92 lucent stones, 14% were pigment stones; and of 18 of opaque stones, 33% were cholesterol. Thus, the criterion of stone lucency allows inclusion of a significant number of subjects (14%) with lucent pigment stones, which may account for about one-half of the reported 33% incidence of treatment failures with chenodeoxycholic acid. Conversely, of patients with opaque stones, the one-third with cholesterol stones would be excluded from chenodeoxycholic acid treatment. Calcium is the major metal of both types of stones. However, opaque stones contain 6 times more calcium than lucent stones, which accounts for the difference in radiographic appearance.

Bile Pigments

Triketocholanoic (dehydrocholic) acid. Hepatic metabolism and effect on bile flow and biliary lipid secretion in man.

[24-(14)C]Dehydrocholic acid (triketo-5-beta-cholanoic acid) was synthesized from [24-(14)C]cholic acid, mixed with 200 mg of carrier, and administered intravenously to two patients with indwelling T tubes designed to permit bile sampling without interruption of the enterohepatic circulation. More than 80% of infused radioactivity was excreted rapidly in bile as glycine- and taurine-conjugated bile acids. Radioactive products were identified, after deconjugation, as partially or completely reduced derivatives of dehydrocholic acid. By mass spectrometry, as well as chromatography, the major metabolite (about 70%) was a dihydroxy monoketo bile acid (3alpha,7alpha-dihydroxy-12-keto-5beta-cholanoic acid); a second metabolite (about 20%) was a monohydroxy diketo acid (3alpha-hydroxy-7,12-di-keto-5beta-cholanoic acid); and about 10% of radioactivity was present as cholic acid. Reduction appeared to have been sequential (3 position, then 7 position, and then 12 position) and stereospecific (only alpha epimers were recovered). Bile flow, expressed as the ratio of bile flow to bile acid excretion, was increased after dehydrocholic acid administration. It was speculated that the hydroxy keto metabolites are hydrocholeretics. The proportion of cholesterol to lecithin and bile acids did not change significantly after dehydrocholic acid administration. In vitro studies showed that the hydroxy keto metabolites dispersed lecithin poorly compared to cholate; however, mixtures of cholate and either metabolite had dispersant properties similar to those of cholate alone, provided the ratio of metabolite to cholate remained below a value characteristic for each metabolite. These experiments disclose a new metabolic pathway in man, provide further insight into the hydrocholeresis induced by keto bile acids, and indicate the striking change in pharmacologic and physical properties caused by replacement of hydroxyl by a keto substituent in the bile acid molecule.

Bile