Macular dystrophy, diabetes, and deafness associated with a large mitochondrial DNA deletion.

PURPOSE: To report the mitochondrial DNA in a 17-year-old patient with diabetes, deafness, cataract, and maculopathy. METHOD S: Ophthalmologic examination, fluorescein angiography, and electroretinogram were performed. Detection of deletion was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction and Southern blot, and screening for the A3243G mitochondrial DNA mutation was performed. RESULTS: A short fragment of approximately 8.5 kb corresponding to deleted mitochondrial DNA was detected. The A3243G mitochondrial DNA mutation was not found. CONCLUSIONS: A 7-kb heteroplasmic deletion of the mitochondrial genome was found in this patient. No mitochondrial DNA deletion has been reported previously in association with macular dystrophy.

Evaluation of Roche fructosamine test: use for diabetic patient monitoring.

A fructosamine assay using commercially available reagents on an IL Multistat III centrifugal analyser was evaluated. Within- and between-batch precision were less than 4% (CV). Results were similar using serum or oxalated plasma, but were 5% lower than those using sodium heparinate. We compared serum fructosamine and Hb A1c results in insulin-dependent and non-insulin-dependent diabetics: serum fructosamine correlated with Hb A1c (r = 0.80) and gave at least as good a separation of patients from normal controls as did Hb A1c.

Estradiol, progesterone and plasma lipids during the menstrual cycle.

Epidemiological data tend to relate some of the sex differences in plasma lipid levels to the physiological secretion of estrogens and progesterone. The influence of sex hormones on plasma lipoprotein metabolism has not been extensively investigated. Precise correlation between plasma lipids and circulating hormones levels are still lacking. The short term effect on plasma lipids of large variations in estradiol and progesterone plasma levels occurring during the menstrual cycle has been studied in eight fertile women over a total of 18 cycles. Concentrations of plasma lipids, particularly triglycerides and HDL cholesterol levels were remarkably stable in the three hormonal situations studied, namely during menstruation (low estradiol and progesterone levels), in the follicular phase of the cycle (high estradiol and low progesterone levels) and in the luteal phase (high estradiol and progesterone levels). Considerable variation of plasma estradiol levels (400%) did not modify, the plasma lipid values on a short term basis (8-21 days). The physiological role of 17-beta estradiol and progesterone in the sex differences of blood lipid levels remains to be clarified. If this metabolic effect exists, it does not seen to be influenced by short term variation in hormone levels.

[An unusual observation of a case of tuberculous dacryoadenitis (author's transl)]. / A propos d'une observation privilégiée de dacryoadénite tuberculeuse

A presentation of a case of tuberculous dacryoadenitis revealed by fistulisation of a cold abscess and accompanied by radiological lesions occuring unusually in the vault of the skull. The radiological appearance is discussed together with the eventual evolution and the treatment that could have been offered.

[Paradoxical effects of iodine overload on thyroid function]. / Les effets "paradoxaux" d'une surcharge iodée sur la fonction thyroïdienne

Any chronic iodine overload resulting from long term ingestion of a medication or the administration of a non-resorbable contrast medium, may result in a goitre with or without hypothyroidism, and in particular in patients with a past history of thyroid disease. By contrast, the administration of iodine is no longer indicated in the treatment of enedmic goitres since the hypothesis of an iodine deficiency in the pathogenesis of such goitres may be excluded in most countries, and in particular western countries, and the risk of the development of thyrotoxicosis in such patients is not negligeable. It would thus be desirable that iodine no longer be used in the composition of medications when its presence is not indispensalbe and where, furthermore, it may contribute to developement of an increasingly disturbing iatrogenic complication.

Effect of fat cell size, restrictive diet and diabetes on lipoprotein lipase release by human adipose tissue.

The lipoprotein lipase activity (LPLA) eluted from human adipose tissue was measured after percutaneous biopsy in the fasting state. A positive and significant correlation was found between LPLA per 10(6) cells or per cell surface unit and cell volume in 27 normal and obese subjects in weight balance and on maintenance diet. Such a correlation was also found in 13 diabetic subjects before treatment. In 11 obese subjects subjected to a restricted diet, LPLA dropped dramatically without a significant change in cell size, blunting the cell size effect. In diabetic subjects the LPLA per cell was significantly lower than in nondiabetic people with similar adipose cell volume.

[Is triacetyl oleandomycin-ergotamine tartrate combination dangerous?]. / L'association tricétyl oléandomyc-ne-tartrate d'ergotamine est-elle dangereuse

The authors report a case of ischaemia of all four limbs in an adolescent following the simultaneous ingestion of triacetyl oleandomycin and ergotamine tartrate in low dosage. Two cases involving this same association of medications have appeared in the literature and attention is therefore drawn to the possible danger of use of these two drugs together.