Plasma free fatty acid levels in ischemic heart diseases

To evaluate the pattern of plasma free fatty acids [FFA] in ischemic heart diseases, we compared patients who had suffered a myocardial infarction with age matched control subjects free from clinically apparent ischemic heart diseases. We found significant low levels of serum palmitic. stearic. oleic, linoleic and linolenic acids in acute myocardial infarction [AMI] group as compared with healthy control one. Whereas no significant difference was found between chronic myocardial ischemia [CMI] and acute myocardial ischemia [AMI] groups On the other h and, there was significant low levels of palmitic, stearic and oleic acids in CMI group as compared to healthy control one. The positive ecological correlations between national intakes of total fat and saturated fatty acids and cardiovascular mortality found in earlier studies were questionable or absent in our recent study

Reversion of oesophageal acid perfusion test results after paracentesis abdominis in ascitic cases of bilharzial hepatic fibrosis

Twenty six patients with hepatosplemc schistosomiasis and tense ascites, having positive acid perfusion test results, were the candidates of this research. All cases were investigated for brtharzlal aetiology, portal pressure manometry, ascitic fluid volume and pressure estimation and oesophageal acid perfusion test were done before and 10 days after slow paracentesis abdominis. The following results were found: 1. Positive correlation between portal and ascitic fluid pressures before and after paracentesis. 2. Both portal and ascitic fluid pressures were significantly reduced after tapping in all patients. 3. The oesophageal acid perfusion test turned negative in 61.53% of patients 10 days after tapping. 4. The degree of portal and ascitic fluid pressure reduction was more significant in the group showed reversion of oesophageal acid perfusion test. 5. While test reversibility was linked to the portal hypotensive effect of tapping, non reversibility was indicative of inefficient non significant tapping. We can conclude from this work the great value of this simple test in indicating and evaluating the success of tapping in lowering the portal and ascitic fluid pressures in bilharzial ascitic patients