[A direct military attack on the hospital in Osijek].
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to S Strandgaard.
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In order to study the influence of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition on the progression of chronic nephropathy, 70 patients with a median glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 15 (range, 6 to 54) mL/min/1.73 m2 were randomized in an open study to basic treatment with enalapril or conventional antihypertensive treatment. The patients were followed for at least 2 years or until they needed dialysis. The groups were comparable with respect to age and sex distribution, etiology of renal diseases, initial levels of renal function and arterial blood pressure (BP), and protein intake. The therapeutic goal was a BP of 120 to 140/80 to 90 mm Hg. The GFR, estimated by the plasma clearance of 51Cr-EDTA, was measured every third month, and the individual rate of progression was calculated as the slope of the GFR v time plot. In the enalapril group, the median decline in GFR was -0.20 (range, +0.18 to -7.11) mL/min/1.73 m2/month and in the control group it was -0.31 (+0.01 to -1.97) mL/min/1.73 m2/month (P less than .05). There was no significant difference in blood pressure or plasma lipid levels between the groups. Thus, the progression of moderate to severe chronic nephropathy was slower on a basic treatment with enalapril as compared to conventional antihypertensive therapy.
A review is given of the normal regulation of cerebral blood flow (CBF) and its pathophysiology in hypertension and stroke. In otherwise healthy hypertensive patients, the absolute level of CBF is the same as in normal subjects. CBF autoregulation, however, is shifted towards higher pressure, thus impairing the tolerance to hypotension. In most patients, this does not interfere with the beneficial effect of treatment, i.e., stroke prevention. Cerebral ischemia, however, may be provoked by overzealous pressure lowering in selected clinical settings: initial or intensified treatment of very severe hypertension, treatment of hypertension in the elderly, and treatment of hypertension in acute stroke. In the latter, a complicated sequence of brain ischemia and hyperemia makes antihypertensive intervention difficult in the early phase, when blood pressure is probably best allowed to decrease spontaneously.
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The subject of the cerebral circulation in the elderly is reviewed. In old age, cerebral blood flow (CBF), which is closely coupled to cerebral oxidative metabolism, decreases along with the amount of brain tissue. In healthy old people, the cerebral circulation is regulated as earlier in life, by autoregulation, metabolic regulation, and chemical and other factors. CBF and its regulation is influenced by disease processes prevailing in old age, such as dementia, atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, stroke, and hypertension. Hypertension, apart from being a risk factor for stroke, causes adaptive cerebral vascular changes, leading to a shift of the lower limit of autoregulation towards high pressure, with an impaired tolerance to pressure decrease. In old age, this adaptation may not be reversible. With this background, a conservative approach to elderly hypertensive patients is suggested, aimed at some reduction of pressure but carefully avoiding overtreatment.
Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), angiotensin II (AII), aldosterone (Aldo) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) in plasma were determined in 12 healthy renal transplant donors before and 5, 12, 26, 54 days after uninephrectomy (Nx) in order to study the possible role of these hormones in functional adaptation to acute reduction in renal mass. Glomerular and tubular function was studied by measurements of the clearances of 51Cr-EDTA, lithium, sodium, potassium, and albumin. ANP was 7.4 +/- 3.1 pmol l-1 (mean +/- SD) before Nx and 8.7 +/- 6.1 pmol l-1 at 5 days after Nx and remained at this level through the observation period. Aldo showed a non-significant transient fall at 5 days after Nx. AII and AVP remained normal after Nx. At 5 days after Nx glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of the remaining kidney had risen from 45 +/- 7 ml min-1 before Nx to 57 +/- 8 ml min-1 (p less than 0.01), lithium clearance had risen from 13 +/- 2 ml min-1 before Nx to 20 +/- 7 ml min-1 (p less than 0.01), and sodium and water balance was normal. To conclude, plasma ANP, AII, Aldo and AVP do not appear to be responsible for the hyperfiltration and depression of fractional proximal sodium and water reabsorption observed in recently uninephrectomized man with normal sodium and water balance.
Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and renal uptake of dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) were measured in 31 patients with progressive chronic nephropathy before and immediately after the start of treatment with angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor in order to control adverse effects on kidney function. Scintigrams of the kidneys showed an unaltered distribution of DMSA during treatment. GFR estimated by 51Cr-EDTA plasma clearance fell by 14% (P less than 0.01), but renal uptake of 99mTc-DMSA increased by 10% (P less than 0.01). It is concluded that DMSA in chronic renal failure is mainly taken up by the tubular cells from the peritubular capillaries since the uptake was unaffected by the acute decrease in GFR.
The effect of the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor fosinopril sodium on regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was investigated in 8 patients with moderate essential hypertension. A constant dose of chlorthalidone (25 mg/day) was given to stimulate the renin angiotensin system, and fosinopril sodium was given in incremental doses (10 to 40 mg/day) with the aim of obtaining a diastolic blood pressure at or below 90 mm Hg. Regional CBF was measured with xenon-133 inhalation tomography. Repetitive measurements were made at the start of treatment and again after 4 to 12 weeks treatment in the resting supine position, and during lower body negative pressure (LBNP) as a substitute for the upright position. Four hours after the first 10 mg dose of fosinopril the mean arterial pressure (MAP) had been reduced from 127 +/- 13 mm Hg to 105 +/- 9 mm Hg (P less than .01) without any significant change in mean CBF (55 +/- 9 mL/(100 g X min) at baseline versus 52 +/- 9 mL/(100 g X min) after fosinopril). After prolonged treatment with chlorthalidone and fosinopril, mean CBF was still unchanged from baseline levels, when measured 4 and 24 h after a single dose of fosinopril, despite a 10% reduction in MAP (P less than .01). LBNP did not lead to any significant change in rCBF. The regional distribution of CBF was normal in all patients throughout the study. We conclude that treatment with fosinopril sodium causes a moderate fall in blood pressure without any adverse effects on rCBF.
Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors has been suggested to halt the progression of chronic renal failure. As the initial step of a controlled trial of this hypothesis, it was investigated whether start of enalapril in patients with severe chronic nephropathy might cause a critical fall in their renal function. Thirty-one patients were studied, 26 on chronic antihypertensive treatment with drugs other than ACE inhibitors and 5 untreated normotensive. 51Cr-EDTA plasma clearance and renal technetium-99m dimercaptosuccinic acid (99mTc-DMSA) scintigraphy were made before and 24 h after start of enalapril, mean dose 9 mg. Blood pressure fell from median 148/88 to 119/78 mmHg (p less than 0.01). Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) fell from median 14 to 12 ml/min/1.73 m2 (p less than 0.01). The median change in GFR was -14% (range -44% to +10%). The split renal function was unchanged and the scintigrams showed no intrarenal activity defects. In conclusion, enalapril caused a fall in GFR, which was clinically acceptable in most of the patients.
Therapeutic intervention in acute ischemic stroke must be directed at salvaging damaged, but viable, tissue. Ideally, treatment should start in the initial phase when the ischemic tissue still retains a potential for recovery. Furthermore, ischemic stroke may be associated with "chronic threatening ischemia," in which there is ischemic, but viable, tissue with collateral circulation distal to a stenosed or occluded artery. In chronic threatening ischemia, therapeutic manipulation may improve the clinical situation. Since cerebral vasomotor function is impaired or abolished in acute stroke and chronic threatening ischemia, vasodilator therapy tends to "steal" blood away from the lesion. Vasoconstrictors, by decreasing perfusion in healthy parts of the brain, may improve perfusion in ischemic tissue; it has, however, proved difficult to gain clinical benefit from this therapeutic modality. Converting-enzyme inhibitors may have a place in the management of ischemic stroke as they tend to shift cerebral autoregulation toward lower pressures. Calcium antagonists given acutely in stroke may create a steal effect. Despite this, clinical trials indicate that calcium-antagonist treatment may improve the outcome of stroke patients, possibly by an action on the ischemia-threatened brain cells.
Autoregulation of blood flow denotes the intrinsic ability of an organ or a vascular bed to maintain a constant perfusion in the face of blood pressure changes. Alternatively, autoregulation can be defined in terms of vascular resistance changes or simply arteriolar caliber changes as blood pressure or perfusion pressure varies. While known in almost any vascular bed, autoregulation and its disturbance by disease has attracted particular attention in the cerebrovascular field. The basic mechanism of autoregulation of cerebral blood flow (CBF) is controversial. Most likely, the autoregulatory vessel caliber changes are mediated by an interplay between myogenic and metabolic mechanisms. Influence of perivascular nerves and most recently the vascular endothelium has also been the subject of intense investigation. CBF autoregulation typically operates between mean blood pressures of the order of 60 and 150 mm Hg. These limits are not entirely fixed but can be modulated by sympathetic nervous activity, the vascular renin-angiotensin system, and any factor (notably changes in arterial carbon dioxide tension) that decreases or increases CBF. Disease states of the brain may impair or abolish CBF autoregulation. Thus, autoregulation is lost in severe head injury or acute ischemic stroke, leaving surviving brain tissue unprotected against the potentially harmful effect of blood pressure changes. Likewise, autoregulation may be lost in the surroundings of a space-occupying brain lesion, be it a tumor or a hematoma. In many such disease states, autoregulation may be regained by hyperventilatory hypocapnia. Autoregulation may also be impaired in neonatal brain asphyxia and infections of the central nervous system, but appears to be intact in spreading depression and migraine, despite impairment of chemical and metabolic control of CBF. In chronic hypertension, the limits of autoregulation are shifted toward high blood pressure. Acute hypertensive encephalopathy, on the other hand, is thought to be due to autoregulatory failure at very high pressure. In long-term diabetes mellitus there may be chronic impairment of CBF autoregulation, probably due to diabetic microangiopathy.
When patients with functional unilateral renal artery stenosis are treated with an angiotensin I converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-inhibitor) a risk is present for loss of the function of the affected kidney without clinical symptoms. Renal function should therefore be controlled in these patients before and after initiation of the treatment. Even a slight increase in serum creatinine must be followed by reassessment of the treatment and investigation for renocascular hypertension must be considered.
Autoregulation of the cerebral circulation is the regulating mechanism that keeps cerebral blood flow (CBF) constant within wide limits of arterial pressure. The lower limit is defined as the value of mean arterial pressure below which CBF decreases below the plateau, and the upper limit as the value of mean arterial pressure above which CBF increases above the plateau (60 and 150 mm Hg, respectively). Two possible mechanisms for autoregulation are discussed, myogenic response and metabolic regulation. Stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system and antagonism of the renin-angiotensin system modulate CBF autoregulation by shifting the entire curve toward higher or lower values of arterial pressure, respectively. The autoregulatory curve is shifted toward higher arterial pressures in chronic hypertension. Therefore, the tolerance to acute decreases in arterial pressure is impaired. Concomitantly, the tolerance of the brain to acute increases in arterial pressure is improved. This shift in the limits of autoregulation is due to structural and functional (hemodynamic) changes in the cerebral resistance vessels. These adaptive changes are partly reversible after chronic treatment with antihypertensive agents. The pathophysiology of autoregulation should be taken into consideration before drugs are used to decrease arterial pressure acutely.
1. Lithium clearance measurements were made in 72 patients with chronic nephropathy of different aetiology and moderate to severely reduced renal function. 2. Lithium clearance was strictly correlated with glomerular filtration rate, and there was no suggestion of distal tubular reabsorption of lithium or influence of osmotic diuresis. 3. Fractional reabsorption of lithium was reduced in most patients with glomerular filtration rates below 25 ml/min. 4. Calculated fractional distal reabsorption of sodium was reduced in most patients with glomerular filtration rates below 50 ml/min. 5. Lithium clearance data were independent of whether renal disease was of primarily glomerular or tubular origin and, further, were not influenced by long-term conventional antihypertensive treatment. 6. It is concluded that, even with a reduced kidney function, the data are compatible with the suggestion that lithium clearance may be a measure of the delivery of sodium and water from the renal proximal tubule. With this assumption it was found that adjustment of the sodium excretion in chronic nephropathy initially takes place in the distal parts of the nephron (loop of Henle, distal tubule and collecting duct). With more severe impairment the proximal tubule also becomes involved in the adjustment.
In chronic hypertension, the lower limit of autoregulation of cerebral blood flow (CBF) is shifted towards high blood pressure with a consequent impairment of the tolerance to acute hypotension. Despite this, antihypertensive treatment in the great majority of patients prevents stroke and the risk for treatment-induced cerebral ischemia is only real in a limited number of clinical settings such as malignant hypertension, hypertension in the elderly, and hypertension associated with acute stroke. During long-term treatment adaptive hypertensive changes in CBF autoregulation may be reversible, especially in young patients. Drugs used for emergency lowering of blood pressure may be classified into four groups according to their effect on CBF and intracranial pressure: (1) drugs with no pharmacological action in the cerebral circulation; (2) cerebral vasodilators; (3) alpha-adrenergic and ganglionic blockers; and (4) angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. Oxygen saturation in the jugular venous blood is of the order of 60% to 70% and is considerably higher than in the coronary sinus. It is hypothesized that this oxygen reserve enables the brain better than the heart to take hemodynamic advantage of pressure lowering without risking tissue ischemia. This may explain why antihypertensive treatment prevents stroke but not myocardial infarction. Acute hypertensive encephalopathy is probably caused by failure of autoregulatory vasoconstriction with focal or generalized dilatation of small arteries and arterioles. This is associated with a high CBF, dysfunction of the blood-brain barrier, and the formation of brain edema that is thought to cause the clinical symptoms.
1. Glomerular and tubular function was studied before and 2 months after unilateral nephrectomy in 14 healthy kidney donors by measurement of the clearances of 51Cr-labelled ethylenediaminetetra-acetate, lithium, beta 2-microglobulin, albumin and immunoglobulin G. 2. The glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of the kidney that remained in the donor rose from 45 +/- 10 (mean +/- SD) to 59 +/- 10 ml/min (P less than 0.01) 5 days after contralateral nephrectomy and remained at this level through the observation period. 3. The lithium clearance (CLi) of the remaining kidney rose from 11.6 +/- 3.7 to 20.5 +/- 8.2 ml/min (P less than 0.01) and remained significantly elevated throughout the observation period. 4. Absolute proximal fluid reabsorption rate (APR), which was estimated as GFR minus CLi, was unchanged 5 days after contralateral nephrectomy, but then rose gradually to reach significantly elevated levels after 4 weeks. 5. Fractional proximal reabsorption (FPR; APR/GFR) fell from 0.75 +/- 0.06 to 0.66 +/- 0.11 (P less than 0.01) but subsequently rose to levels not significantly decreased from normal. 6. Twenty-four hour fractional clearances of beta 2-microglobulin, albumin and immunoglobulin G rose markedly on the day of nephrectomy, peaked at 2-3 days and subsequently fell to moderately elevated levels. 7. Both the CLi and the plasma protein clearance studies demonstrate that the early response of the remaining kidney to contralateral nephrectomy in man is an increase in GFR, an unchanged APR and a fall in FPR. The proximal tubules thus initially handle the increased filtrate load by passing it on to more distal nephron segments.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
To establish appropriate standard circumstances for lithium clearance measurements, a study was undertaken in 12 healthy volunteers. In each subject, the glomerular filtration rate (GFR), as estimated by [51Cr]EDTA plasma clearance, and the renal clearances of lithium, sodium and potassium were measured four times at 1-week intervals: two in the supine and one in the sitting position, and one when the subject was walking around. Glomerular filtration rate was not influenced by posture changes. On the contrary, lithium clearance, which in the supine position was 30 +/- 9 ml/min (1 SD), tended to fall in the sitting position, and fell significantly to 26 +/- 5 ml/min (p less than 0.025) in walking subjects. Absolute proximal tubular reabsorption rate of fluid correspondingly rose from 83 +/- 16 to 92 +/- 15 ml/min (p less than 0.005) and sodium clearance fell from 1.52 +/- 0.81 to 1.00 +/- 0.52 ml/min (p less than 0.05) in walking subjects. Absolute distal reabsorption of sodium decreased during walking from 4052 +/- 1219 to 3449 +/- 658 mumol/min (p less than 0.025), while fractional distal reabsorption of sodium was unchanged. Our results show a rise in proximal tubular reabsorption during moderate physical activity. Hence, when renal tubular function is studied with the lithium clearance method, standardization of posture and physical activity is important. In such studies physical activity such as walking should particularly be avoided.
In the years 1977 to 1981, 47 cases of phaeochromocytoma and 19 cases of aldosterone-producing adrenal adenoma (Conn's syndrome) were diagnosed in Denmark as reported to the National Register of Hospital Patients. This corresponds to an average annual incidence of phaeochromocytoma and Conn's syndrome of 1.9 and 0.8 per million inhabitants, respectively. Treatment results were evaluated from the patient's records and follow-up questionnaires. Of 30 surviving patients operated upon for phaeochromocytoma and followed-up after 18-81 months, 23 were normotensive without treatment and seven were mildly to moderately hypertensive. Of 11 patients operated upon for Conn's syndrome, follow-up data at 1-2 years were obtained in seven, of whom five were normotensive and two hypertensive. Phaeochromocytoma and Conn's syndrome are rare diseases. The results of surgical treatment are often gratifying, but not all patients remain normotensive after surgery, even in the absence of recurrence of endocrine disease.