Pregnancy, oral contraceptives and multiple sclerosis.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to W Poser.
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The oral glucose tolerance test (oGTT) was performed twice in patients under long-term lithium treatment. Blood glucose and plasma insulin were determined. The oGTT results were evaluated by three criteria (Köbberling-Creutzfeldt, WHO, and Epidemiological Study Group of the European Diabetes Association) and were compared to two representative reference studies from normal populations. The frequency of impaired glucose tolerance in the patients was three times higher than expected on the basis of the studies on normal populations. The variability of the oGTT curves between the first and second tests as well as the steepness of the time-course of the 'insulinogenic index' suggested mild disturbances of carbohydrate metabolism (mild diabetes) in some of the patients. It is considered unlikely that the impairment of glucose tolerance in the patients was a direct pharmacological effect of lithium salts. The possible role of age, sex, manic-depressive disease, additional medication, and particularly obesity in the effects of long-term lithium treatment on glucose tolerance is discussed. The authors suggest that the oGTT should be carried out periodically in long-term, lithium-treated patients over the age of 40 years in order to detect abnormalities in their carbohydrate metabolism.
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Out of a data pool of 1271 patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) a total of 109 cases are selected having a sole spinal symptomatology throughout the course of the disease. This group differs in three particular features from the non-spinal forms of MS: In this group there is a higher percentage of females, the age at onset of the disease is higher, and the course of the disease is more often chronic progressive from the beginning. After the mean duration of 11 years, the spinal and the non-spinal cases show the same grade of disability. The ability to work is slightly better for spinal cases; office workers are able to keep their jobs longer after the onset to the disease than patients with any other occupation. The spinal form of MS is discussed in respect to its relationship to the classical form of MS and as a differential diagnosis to other spinal processes.
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Long-term treatments with neuroleptic drugs or lithium salts are well established and, with regard to side-effects, possess a common denominator: both treatments may increase the body weight, and may influence in different, even contrary ways the carbohydrate metabolism. In this study the oral glucose tolerance test (oGTT) including the determination of immunologically measurable insulin (IMI) has been performed in 49 lithium-treated out-patients, and in 125 inpatients under neuroleptic long-term treatment. The test was repeated within six months in the lithium-group. 3 different evaluation criteria were used. Among the patients with neuroleptic treatment there were 25 to 36% with a pathological glucose tolerance curve; the expected frequency would have been approx. 8%. 55% of the patients had overweight, which positively correlated to the occurrence of pathological glucose tolerance. 24.5 to 30.6% of cases with pathological oGT were found in the lithium-group. 69% of the patients had overweight; age and overweight positively correlated with pathological oGT. According to the very conservative criterion of the European Study Group (EDESG), the still increased frequency of pathological oGT curves in the second investigation, compared to epidemiological data, just failed statistical significance. The results suggest that also under long-term lithium treatment an increased lability of carbohydrate metabolism, be it due to the drug or the manic-depressive disease, must be discussed as a potential risk for the patient.
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A case of bromureide intoxication with 8 gm. of carbromal is described, in which an acute renal failure and bilateral deep vein thromboses occurred. After treatment with heparin and peritoneal dialysis the symptoms regressed completely.
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The tricyclic compound cyproheptadine (Periactinol, Nuran) inhibited glucose-induced insulin release from the perfused rat pancreas. Tolbutamide-stimulated insulin release was significantly reduced in the presence and completely suppressed in the absence of a substimulatory glucose concentration (5 mM). Arginine produced a slow rise of insulin release, which was completely abolished by cyproheptadine. Furthermore the biphasic glucagon release due to the stimulus was inhibited. Oxidation of 14C-glucose in isolated islets was unaltered in the presence of cyproheptadine, and pyruvate added to the perfusion medium failed to reverse the inhibitory effect on glucose induced insulin release, indicating that impaired glucose metabolism is not responsible for the inhibition. In addition, the inhibition remained unchanged when phentolamine was present, suggesting that the effect is not mediated by inhibitory adrenergic alpha receptors. Theophylline, in contrast, partly overcame the inhibition. When the calcium concentration of the medium was enhanced, the inhibitory effect of cyproheptadine was still visible, although the relative inhibition had become smaller. The results suggest that cyproheptadine blocks insulin release by affecting a fundamental step of the stimulus-secretion coupling common to peptide hormones. A participation of a calcium-antagonizing effect in the inhibition is discussed.
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