ABSTRACT
The effect of chronic captopril therapy on serum angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) was studied in 30 patients with essential hypertension. Patients were assessed for serum ACE levels serially every week for 4 weeks. Thirty healthy individuals served as controls. The basal serum ACE level among hypertensives (57.4 +/- 37.2 u/l) was found to be significantly higher (p < 0.001) than the controls (33.3 +/- 8.8 u/l). One week after starting captopril therapy, serum ACE levels fell to almost half the basal values (p < 0.001). However, thereafter, it rose to levels higher than the basal level even though the blood pressure remained well controlled. Our study suggests that besides its action on ACE, captopril may lower the blood pressure by other mechanisms as well.
Subject(s)
Adult , Aged , Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors/administration & dosage , Blood Pressure Determination , Captopril/administration & dosage , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Hypertension/diagnosis , Male , Middle Aged , Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A/blood , Reference Values , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis patients (ten in the age group 5-13) were studied with respect to clinical and immunodiagnostic tests. All the patients showed wheal and flare reaction with A. fumigatus antigens. Clinical features included bilateral infiltration and hilar lymphadenopathy. Eosinophilic count in these patients was observed to be in the range of 300-2500/mm3. Sera of six patients indicated precipitin reaction with A. fumigatus antigens. An elevated total serum IgE was noticed in all the patients. A. fumigatus specific IgG and IgE antibodies were increased in these patients. Optical density of the sera of all the patients against controls were observed to be in the range of (0.426 to 1.8 for IgG and 0.147 to 0.562 for IgE) by ELISA. Western blot analysis indicated that there may be correlation between the clinical stages of the disease and immunological reactivity of the sera with various antigenic components.