PubMed HealthSearch

Biomedical subjects

S Shilo

Publications and source records attributed to S Shilo.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Chronic cutaneous polyarteritis nodosa simulating recurrent thrombophlebitis.

A 30-year-old man who had 12 repeated hospital admissions within a period of 7 years for localized pain and swelling of the extremities is described. Excision biopsy of several subcutaneous lesions revealed histologic changes typical of polyarteritis nodosa (PN). Systemic disease was excluded because of a normal testicular biopsy, negative abdominal angiogram, and the lack of evidence for renal or other visceral involvement. Response to steroid therapy was excellent. Cutaneous PN is a distinct subset of polyarteritis with a chronic course and excellent prognosis. The present case underlines the need for a greater awareness, and for considering early biopsy of suspected lesions in patients with multiple episodes of apparent superficial thrombophlebitis.

Adult

Effect of non aromatizable androgens on LHRH and TRH responses in primary testicular failure.

We have assessed the gonadotropin, TSH and PRL responses to the non aromatizable androgens, mesterolone and fluoxymestrone, in 27 patients with primary testicular failure. All patients were given a bolus of LHRH (100 micrograms) and TRH (200 micrograms) at zero time. Nine subjects received a further bolus of TRH at 30 mins. The latter were then given mesterolone 150 mg daily for 6 weeks. The remaining subjects received fluoxymesterone 5 mg daily for 4 weeks and 10 mg daily for 2 weeks. On the last day of the androgen administration, the subjects were re-challenged with LHRH and TRH according to the identical protocol. When compared to controls, the patients had normal circulating levels of testosterone, estradiol, PRL and thyroid hormones. However, basal LH, FSH and TSH levels, as well as gonadotropin responses to LHRH and TSH and PRL responses to TRH, were increased. Mesterolone administration produced no changes in steroids, thyroid hormones, gonadotropins nor PRL. There was, however, a reduction in the integrated and incremental TSH secretion after TRH. Fluoxymesterone administration was accompanied by a reduction in thyroid binding globulin (with associated decreases in T3 and increases in T3 resin uptake). The free T4 index was unaltered, which implies that thyroid function was unchanged. In addition, during fluoxymesterone administration, there was a reduction in testosterone, gonadotropins and LH response to LHRH. Basal TSH did not vary, but there was a reduction in the peak and integrated TSH response to TRH. PRL levels were unaltered during fluoxymesterone treatment.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult

The interrelationships between prolactin and thyrotrophin secretion following dopaminergic blockage in patients with mild hyperprolactinaemia without any demonstrable pituitary tumour.

PRL, TSH and gonadotrophin responses to the dopaminergic antagonist, metoclopramide, were studied in mildly hyperprolactinaemic patients with normal sella radiology and CT scan. Eleven female patients with basal PRL levels ranging from 23 to 124 ng/ml were challenged with intravenous metoclopramide (10 mg) and on subsequent occasions with TRH (200 micrograms) and LHRH (100 micrograms). On the basis of the PRL secretory pattern following metoclopramide and TRH stimulation, the patients were divided into two groups. Group I comprised six subjects who were PRL non-responsive to TRH and metoclopramide. Group II (five subjects) demonstrated PRL responses to TRH and metoclopramide indistinguishable from female controls. Mean +/- SD basal PRL levels were 68.5 +/- 29.9 ng/ml in Group I and not different in Group II (40.6 +/- 12.0 ng/ml). Basal LH levels were increased in Group II, whereas FSH was increased in Group I. Basal TSH levels were lower in Group I than the controls. Following metoclopramide, Group I patients had an increase in TSH from a basal of 2.4 +/- 0.7 microU/ml to a peak of 5.9 +/- 2.7 microU/ml (P less than 0.005) which occurred at 30 min. TSH values were increased above basal at all time intervals following metoclopramide. In contrast, TSH levels did not change in Group II patients or the controls after metoclopramide administration. Both patient groups had TSH responses to TRH similar to the controls. Following LHRH, the LH increase was greater in Group II and the FSH in Group I. In neither group nor the controls did gonadotrophin levels change after metoclopramide. In Group II females, PRL responsiveness to metoclopramide was associated with TSH non-responsiveness. In Group I females, PRL levels failed to rise, whereas TSH increased. The PRL and TSH profile in Group I females is typical of a prolactinoma. It is concluded that PRL as well as TSH determinations following metoclopramide are useful indices in the assessment of hyperprolactinaemia and may be of value in differentiating the functional state from that of a pituitary tumour.

Adult

Transient methimazole-induced bone marrow aplasia: in vitro evidence for a humoral mechanism of bone marrow suppression.

A patient with methimazole-induced aplastic anemia is described. Despite severe pancytopenia and the complete disappearance of hemopoietic elements from the bone marrow, recovery of hemopoiesis has been observed within 14 days of discontinuing methimazole therapy. In vitro studies of CFU-C inhibition of peripheral mononuclear cells harvested in remission, were performed by incubation with autologous sera collected at earlier phases of the disease. These studies provide evidence in favor of a humoral, and most probably autoimmune mechanism as the cause of transient bone marrow aplasia.

Adult

Clomiphene citrate does not modify the exaggerated thyrotrophin response to thyrotrophin-releasing hormone occurring in primary testicular failure.

Patients with primary testicular failure have increased basal TSH levels and an exaggerated TSH response to TRH in the presence of normal circulating levels of thyroid hormones. In order to evaluate it this TSH profile is an oestrogen-related phenomenon, sixteen patients with primary testicular failure were challenged with 200 micrograms TRH prior to and after the administration of clomiphene citrate. The latter was given in a dose of 100 mg/day for 4 weeks to ten patients; 200 mg/day for 4 weeks to three patients and 100 mg/day for 2 months to the final three patients. The patients demonstrated increased mean basal TSH levels with an exaggerated TSH response to TRH. Following the administration of clomiphene citrate, there were no changes in T4, T3 sephadex or total T3 levels and in basal or stimulated TSH levels. Clomiphene did produce an increase in oestradiol, testosterone, basal gonadotrophins and LH response to LHRH. Since the oestrogen antagonist, clomiphene citrate, had no effect on TSH secretion, it is unlikely that the exaggerated TSH response to TRH is mediated by oestrogens.

Adult

Increased prolactin response to thyrotropin-releasing hormone in primary ovarian failure.

To investigate prolactin (PRL) and thyrotropin-stimulating hormone (TSH) secretion in ovarian failure, 14 women with primary ovarian failure were challenged with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) (100 micrograms) and thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) (200 micrograms) given intravenously at 30-minute intervals. Responses were compared with those of 13 healthy female controls. In the patient group, basal follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), LH, and peak gonadotropin responses to LHRH were higher and basal estrone and estradiol levels were lower than in the controls (P less than .001). Mean basal PRL levels were similar in the 2 groups. However, the mean peak and integrated PRL responses in the patients were greater than in the controls (P less than .05). Ten patients had a markedly exaggerated PRL response to TRH. The mean basal TSH levels and the peak TSH response to TRH were similar to those of the controls. Estrogens are known to stimulate PRL secretion. These subjects had increased PRL responses with low circulating estrogens. The mechanism underlying the findings is not known, but could be related to increased aromatization of androgens to estrogens in the hypothalamus. Alternatively, other factors could be responsible for the exaggerated PRL responses to TRH noted in these patients with primary ovarian failure.

Adult

Prolactin response to metoclopramide and chlorpromazine in primary testicular failure and isolated gonadotrophin deficiency.

The aim of the present study was to measure the PRL response to metoclopramide (MET) and chlorpromazine (CPZ) in seventeen patients with primary testicular failure and eight patients with isolated gonadotrophin deficiency (IGD). The responses were compared with those to TRH. Basal gonadotrophins and peak responses to LHRH were increased in testicular failure and reduced in IGD. Basal PRL levels were normal in both groups of patients. However, when compared with controls, the PRL response to both MET and CPZ as well as to TRH was exaggerated in primary testicular failure, whereas the responses wee decreased in IGD. In both patient groups, as well as in the controls, the PRL response to MET exceeded that to TRH and CPZ. It is suggested that alterations in the steroid milieu are responsible for the exaggerated PRL response to MET, CPZ and TRH in primary testicular failure and the reduced response observed in IGD.

Adolescent

Hypertransaminasemia with subcutaneous heparin therapy.

An elevation of serum aspartate aminotransferase (GOT) and alanine aminotransferase (GPT) may be produced in patients treated with i.v. full-dose HEPARIN. We studied the influence of low-dose s.c. HEPARIN (5,000 IU X 2) in 34 patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and in 7 with cerebrovascular accidents or calf thrombophlebitis. Twelve patients (all males) with AMI showed a secondary elevation of GOT and GPT at about the sixth or seventh day after the commencement of therapy that persisted throughout the period of treatment. Four patients (two males and two females) with cerebrovascular accidents or thrombophlebitis showed similar increases of GOT and GPT.

Alanine Transaminase

Astigmatism of the mammalian cornea: evolutionary and perceptive significance.

Astigmatism enables spatial, linear and directional discrimination. These faculties are demonstrated by astigmatic photographic experiments. Comparative anatomic deductions lead to the assumption that the eyes of early mammals were astigmatic. Thereby these animals, lacking binocularity and accommodation, could achieve visual spatial information. This assumption is supported by the fact that features of astigmatic refraction, specially straight linearity, have been adopted by various intra-ocular structures, and by the neuronal structuralisation of receptive fields in the visual cortex of mammals.

Animals

A trichromatic test for spheric and astigmatic refraction.

An improved chromatic rotatable refraction test for simultaneous spheric and astigmatic refraction is described. Its new features are interposition of a bright yellow stripe between the conventional red and green fields and a pair of parallel test lines, which traverse vertically all colored fields. Thereby astigmatic errors become easily visible.

Astigmatism

Single intravenous bolus of dexamethasone for the differential diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome.

We developed a 24 hour intravenous dexamethasone suppression test for the differential diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome. Basal ACTH and cortisol levels were measured at 8 and 9 AM; a bolus of 8 mg dexamethasone phosphate (in children 5 mg/m2) was administered intravenously, and cortisol levels were measured hourly until 3 PM, then every 2 hours until midnight, and the next morning at 8 and 9 AM. We studied 13 patients with an ACTH-secreting pituitary adenoma, four with an autonomous adrenal adenoma, a 10 year-old girl with primary adrenocortical nodular dysplasia, one male with an ACTH-secreting medullary carcinoma of the thyroid, and one male with an ACTH-secreting non-small cell carcinoma of the lung, and compared their results to those obtained in 8 lean and 12 obese normal individuals (controls). The clinical diagnosis was first ascertained by the response to the oral administration of dexamethasone in low and high doses (standard Liddle test), then by the intravenous dexamethasone suppression test, and finally confirmed surgically. Although both controls and patients with an ACTH-secreting pituitary adenoma significantly suppressed their cortisol levels within hours after the injection (50% reduction of basal value at 2 hours, and 75% at 4 hours, p < 0.0001), levels remained suppressed the next morning only in the controls, while in the patients they returned to basal values. No suppression was observed in any of the patients with an adrenal adenoma and the child with primary adrenocortical nodular dysplasia (whose ACTH levels were low), or in the patients with ectopic ACTH secretion tumors (whose ACTH levels were high).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent