Sympathetic Response in Symptom Subgroups of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

Objective: To evaluate sympathetic adrenergic function in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients. Methods: Standard cardiovascular reflex tests were performed on forty patients with IBS and thirty healthy subjects. Sympathetic adrenergic function was assessed by measuring diastolic blood pressure response to hand grip test (HGT) at 4 min and cold pressor test (CPT) at 1min and also blood pressure response to head-up-tilt (HUT). Results: The change in diastolic pressure during (HGT) and (CPT) of IBS patients were not significantly different when compared to control. However, tilting resulted in less marked rise in diastolic pressure (6.14 ± 0.69 vs 12.1 ± 1.24 mmHg; p < 0.05) at 0.5 min and less rise in heart rate (6.03 ± 1.26 vs 10.35 ± 1.04 per min; p < 0.05) at 1 min in IBS patients. Conclusion: IBS patients had reduced sympathetic drive to (HUT) stress; however, subgroups of IBS had similar autonomic reaction.

Observations on the extragenital effects of oestrogen in females: a report.

Some extragenital effects of the female sex steroids are known for a long time and serious research is going on in this matter. A study was carried out at Medical College, Kolkata on 10 female patients suffering from perimenopausal syndrome--they were administered synthetic oestrogen tablets and the oestrogen-induced changes were noted on some parameters ie, psycho-analytical score, electroencephalograph, lung function tests, electrocardiograph, blood female sex hormone level. On the basis of the study it was observed that with low doses of oestrogen (ethinyloestradiol 0.5 mg once daily) the changes were not marked enough. But when it is compared with animal study, where it causes appreciable changes, it can safely be concluded that oestrogen causes (i) some desynchronisation (faster rhythm, lesser voltage) of EEG, (ii) bradycardia/increased sinus arrhythmia and increased amplitude of ventricular complex in ECG, (iii) reduction of scoring rate for anxiety and depression.

A study of extra genital effects of estrogen and progesterone.

Although some extragenital effects (EGEs) of the female sex steroids (FSS) have been known for fairly long time, serious research on it has been taken up only in recent time. This paper has tried to explore the EGEs of Estrogen (E) and Progesterone (P). This study was based on human beings as experimental subjects. In this clinical study, three further subdivisions were made: (i) Patients of dysfunctional uterine bleeding (DUB) who were therapeutically advised to use orally ingestible synthetic P tablets. These subjects were studied for any P induced changes in the psychoanalytical score, EEG, lung function tests (LUFTs), ECG; their blood Female sex steroid levels were also measured. (ii) Another group of women suffering from perimenopausal syndrome were given synthetic E tablets and the E induced changes (if any) of the same above mentioned parameters were studied. (iii) A third group consisting of healthy women were given oral contraceptive pills (OCP) containing both E and P and the above mentioned parameters were studied to see whether the OCP could cause any change. The results have been discussed. Attempts have been made to see whether our findings give any hint of any mode of action of the FSS studied and so forth.