Effect of aluminium hydroxide on serum ionised calcium, immunoreactive parathyroid hormone, and aluminium in chronic renal failure.

According to the Bricker-Slatopolsky theory, secretion of parathyroid hormone (PTH) is switched on in chronic renal failure by hypocalcaemia due to phosphate retention. In an attempt to reverse this process 20 patients in preterminal renal failure (plasma creatinine 569 +/- 195 mumol/l) were given aluminium hydroxide, 3.8 g daily. They were studied for four weeks and all measurements were made at the start and weekly, except measurements of serum aluminium concentration, which were made at the start and at the end of the fourth week. Mean serum phosphate fell from 1.89 to 1.47 mmol/l (5.9 to 4.6 mg/100), mean serum calcium rose from 2.07 to 2.24 mmol/l (8.3 to 9.0 mg/100 ml), and serum ionised calcium rose from 1.07 to 1.20 mmol/l (4.3 to 4.8 mg/100 ml), but serum immunoreactive PTH did not fall. Thirteen patients had initial serum immunoreactive PTH concentrations at or near to normal and 11 were taking beta-blockers but even in those with neither explanation, PTH concentrations did not fall. Serum aluminium concentrations rose from 0.4 to 1.02 mumol/l (10.9 to 27.4 microgram/l). Aluminium hydroxide corrects serum phosphate, total calcium, and ionised calcium at the price of a rise in serum aluminium concentration; in this study it did not affect serum immunoreactive PTH. The Bricker-Slatopolsky theory still needs verification in studies of patients with chronic renal failure.

Superiority of B locus matching over other HLA matching in renal graft survival.

Graft survival after 348 consecutive first cadaver-donor renal transplants was significantly improved by HLA matching when recipients who had received pretransplant blood transfusions were matched with their kidney donor for two HLA-B locus antigens. No other type of HLA matching significantly improved graft survival in transfused recipients nor did any type of HLA matching in non-transfused recipients. Matching for one HLA-DR antigen had no benefit in transfused recipients. Only two patients received kidneys matched for both DR antigens and only two of those in whom DR matching had been performed had not been transfused. These results indicate that pretransplant blood transfusion and selection of graft recipients predominantly on the basis of HLA-B matching has significantly reduced the renal graft rejection rate in Newcastle upon Tyne over two years. Thus, HLA-B antigen matching should be adopted as the main criterion for kidney sharing between transplant centres.

Bilateral neuralgic amyotrophy complicating Weil's disease.

The case of a patient with leptospirosis (treated with trimethoprim) with late neurological complications manifesting as a bilateral plexus syndrome is described. The probable reasons for the continued weakness, in this patient, of the muscles supplied by the anterior interosseus nerve, despite improvement in the proximal muscles, are briefly discussed.