Volume 102  ·   Issue 03  ·  1989

45 acne patients and 38 healthy subjects were assayed for serum testosterone and estradiol levels by RIA. The results showed that serum testosterone levels of male patients were normal, but serum estradiol levels were significantly higher (40%) than in healthy males. In female patients, estradiol levels were normal, but testosterone levels were significantly higher (47%) than in healthy females. Of the 18 female patients, 16 had various degrees of menstral dysfunction, and some even had slight hirsutism. Therefore, male acne patients should not be treated with estrogen, and in female acne patients with ovarian dysfunction, artificial menstral cycle therapy is recommended.

Racial differences in the size of children make it questionable that a widely used Caucasian velocity reference standard can be used for Chinese children. In the present study, the growth velocity in 935 healthy Chinese children aged 4-6 was examined, showing that height velocity was significantly lower than Tanner's references. With the Caucasian velocity standard, Chinese children might be misinterpreted as growing abnormally slowly. In order to detect growth and endocrine disorders of childhood and adolescence, a Chinese growth velocity standard for children of 0 to 18 years must be established.

Two patients with blunt head injury were examined by CT scanning. It was found that there was brainstem hemorrhage with unremarkable changes in the other parts of the brain. Physical examination showed signs of upper brainstem lesion such as discoordination, bilateral Babinski signs, and internuclear ophthalmic palsy without persistent coma and decerebrate rigidity. The diagnosis of primary brainstem injury, well healed, was established. Basing on the results of these 2 cases, we believe that primary brainstem injury does exist, but it is not necessarily associated with persistent coma and decerebrate rigidity. CT scanning for diagnosing such cases is emphasized.

Serial cerebrospinal fluid immunoglobulin parameters were determined with the method of single radial immunodiffusion in 419 cases of 20 kinds of neurological diseases. The results were compared with the normal values of 36 subjects of corresponding ages and statistically analyzed. The authors believe that the elevated CSF Ig can occur in the following five pathological processes: (1) Ig endogenous synthesis within the central nervous system. It is the characteristic change of the parameters in MS patients; (2) inflammatory diffusion, it can be seen in cases of general inflammation with normal blood-brain-barrier (BBB); (3) impaired BBB diffusion, acute hemorrhagic and ischemic cerebrovascular diseases belong to this pattern; (4) inflammatory diffusion with BBB impairment, such as various meningitis and other acute inflammatory diseases of the CNS; (5) Ig endogenous synthesis in the CNS with impaired BBB diffusion, such as Guillain-Barre syndrome and sporadic encephalitis. The levels of IgG, IgA, IgM and C3 change correspondingly in the various neurological disorders. The patients with positive CSF IgM found by the SRID technique are regarded to have serious impairment of BBB.

This animal experiment was in succession to the research on paraplegia caused by spinal cord local ischemia in an animal model. Immediately after the operative production of local spinal cord ischemia, pedicled omentum spinal transposition onto the ischemic segments of spinal cord was performed. The animals recovered from paraplegia around two months afterwards. Spinal cord specimens showed adhesion of omentum to the spinal cord without compression. Omental vessels grew into the cord. Gross sections of specimen stained with Nissl method revealed that normal structure of nerve cells were preserved but number of nerve cell decreased.

Intra-articular fractures involving the subchondral bone were produced surgically in both left and right medial femoral condyles of twenty rabbits. The edges of the fractures on the left side were well approximated, while those on the right side maintained with a gap of 2 mm. Transmission electron microscopic study of the nearby articular cartilages conducted l, 2, 3, 4 and 5 months after the fracture revealed the following results: l) The neighbouring articular chondrocytes tended once to assume the configuration of fibroblasts; 2) Those remote from the fracture showed both degeneration and hyperplasia to form clones; 3) Even after the intra-articular fractures were well-healed, degeneration and hyperplasia of the articular chondrocytes nearby the fracture would persist for some time.

Intracellular accumulation of sorbitol, resulting from the increased glucose flux through polyol pathway with the action of aldose rednctasc, has been found pathogenic to chronic diabetic complications. It has been reported that baicalin and Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch can inhibit rat lens aldose reductase in vitro. In order to determine whether the said medicinal herbs give the inhibitive effect in vivo, 10 streptozotocin induced diabetic rats were treated with baicalin 150 mg/kg.d and liquid extract of licorice (LEL) 7.5 ml/kg.d for a week. RBC sorbitol was determined by a fluorometric assay before and after the treatment, as well as one week afterwards. It was found that oral baicalin and licorice dramatically reduced sorbitol levels in RBC without sffecting blood glucose levels. The sorbitol levels was restored to its original values one week after discontinuing the treatment. The present study has demonstrated the effectiveness of baicalin and licorice in reducing RBC sorbitol levels in diabetic rats. Its mechanism is presumably through inhibition of aldose reductase. The feasibility of its clinical application for the control of diabetic complications is under investigation.

A double blind clinical trial on prostaglandin for cervix ripening prior to vacuum aspiration for termination of early pregnancy in primigravidae was carried out in 68 patients with 6-11 week's, gestation. The patients were randomly treated with either l.0 mg of 15-methyl-prostaglandin F2α methyl ester vaginal suppository or a placebo suppository. A mean cervical dilation to 6.6 mm was achieved with minimal side effects in the prostaglandin group as against 4.3 mm in the placebo group. The 15-methyl-prostaglandin F2α methyl ester suppository technique seems to be effective, safe and simple in ripening the cervix for termination of early pregnancy in primigravidae.

The functions of glucagon were studied experimentally and clinically. It was found that glucagon (2×l0-6g/ml) could not induce any demonstrable changes in the longitudinal contraction and tonicity of the isolated muscle of the lower esophageal body in 4 rats, nor could cause (0.2 mg iv) significant changes in swallow motility of the esophagus and lower esophageal sphincter (LES) (the esophageal barium transit time, the largest esophageal caliber, the angle of esophageal contraction, the largest LES caliber, and the amount of barium retenOon at LES) in 6 volunteers under serial-radiography but it (0.2 mg iv) could cause hypomotility of the stomach and duodenum in 19 volunteers. No obvious side-effects were found in 20 volunteers. The recent experimental evidences have suggested that the inhibitory effect of glucagon on the motility of the smooth muscle of the alimentary tract may not be due to its direct action on the receptor, but to its interference with intramural cholinergic neuronal transmission.