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R Mollica

Publications and source records attributed to R Mollica.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Cold-induced changes in plasma norepinephrine, epinephrine and dopamine concentrations in patients with Raynaud's phenomenon.

To investigate the role of the sympathetic system in Raynaud's phenomenon, which has not yet been elucidated, we measured the levels of norepinephrine, epinephrine and dopamine before, immediately and 30 min after the cold pressor test in plasma from 17 patients with primary, 6 with secondary Raynaud's phenomenon and 19 volunteers, matched for age and sex. Patients had significantly low baseline epinephrine (0.13 +/- 0.02 vs 0.37 +/- 0.04, nmol/l, p less than 0.001, mean +/- S.E.), but normal norepinephrine and dopamine (norepinephrine: 1.77 +/- 0.16 and 2.06 +/- 0.18; dopamine: 0.10 +/- 0.01 and 0.11 +/- 0.02, patients and controls). Immediately after the cold test norepinephrine significantly increased (p less than 0.001) in patients (2.42 +/- 0.22) and controls (3.24 +/- 0.28); epinephrine increased in patients (0.18 +/- 0.02, p less than 0.02); dopamine did not show any significant change (0.13 +/- 0.01 and 0.13 +/- 0.02, patients and controls). In the recovery period, while norepinephrine and epinephrine returned to baseline in both groups, dopamine increased in controls (0.21 +/- 0.04, p less than 0.005) but remained unchanged in patients (0.11 +/- 0.01). We conclude that there is no sympathetic overactivity in Raynaud's phenomenon and propose a role for circulating dopamine in post-ischaemic vasodilatation as an explanation for the particular behaviour of dopamine.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Effect of chronic ketanserin treatment on serotonin-induced platelet aggregation in patients with Raynaud's phenomenon.

To investigate whether the variable efficacy in Raynaud's phenomenon of long-term oral ketanserin treatment might be related to variation in the sensitivity of 5-HT2 receptors to ketanserin, serotonin-induced platelet aggregation was measured in ten patients with Raynaud's phenomenon at various times after treatment with ketanserin. Platelet aggregation was completely inhibited 90 min after 40 mg ketanserin, but not 12-14 h after the last dose of 40 mg on the 31st day of continuous twice daily administration. However, 90 min after an additional dose of 40 mg, platelet aggregation was again completely inhibited. The present results indicate that ketanserin 40 mg b.d. does not continuously inhibit platelet 5-HT2 receptors in patients with Raynaud's phenomenon and suggest that more frequent intake might be more effective.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1975

Serum, renal, and urinary lysozyme levels after hypohysectomy.

Hypophysectomy is known to cause a rise in the renal lysozyme levels and atrophy of the proximal tubules of the kidney. The present study describes the relationship of serum, urinary, and renal lysozyme levels in hypophysectiomized animals. The renal lysozyme level continued to rise during the first 4 weeks after hypophysectomy and then remained constant while the serum level increased immediately after hypophysectomy and plateaued. Hypophysectomy did not produce lysozymuria for the time periods used in these experiments despite obvious tubular atrophy by the end of the 1st week after hypophysectomy. These data suggest that tubular atrophy must progress to a severe stage before a lysozymuria is produced. Thus the absence of urinary lysozyme activity does not exclude the possibility of proximal tubule injury.

Animals↗