[Our experience in the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome with Metformin]. / Nashiiat opit pri lechenieto na polikistoznata bolest na iachinitsite s Metformin.

Basing on the key role of the hyperinsulinemia in the etiopathogenesis of the Polycystic ovary syndrome, the authors treat the affected women with Metformin. In an 1 year prospective study, including 30 women, they assess the effect of the application of Metformin in relation to some indexes--BMI, WHR, IRI, LH, LH/FSH ratio. After analysing the results, it is reported for a decrease in the absolute values of BMI, WHR and a tendency for redistribution of the adipose tissue from visceral to gynoid type. They report for a statistical reliability in the decrease of LH and LH/FSH ratio. The level of IRI decreases pointedly at every stage of the study. 28 of the patients influence favourably in one or other degree, regarding the menstrual cycles. A good results is also reported in reference to Arterial Hypertension. According to the authors, Mtformin is a good alternative in the treatment of the PCOS.

The autosomal recessive congenital intrauterine infection-like syndrome of microcephaly, intracranial calcification, and CNS disease: report of another Bedouin family.

We describe a Bedouin family with the rare autosomal recessive infection-like syndrome of microcephaly, intracranial calcification and CNS disease that has so far been documented in only eight families including one from Kuwait. In the present family, the female proband had congenital microbrachycephaly, hypertonia, early-onset tonic-clonic seizures, a palpable liver and mild pulmonary stenosis. Follow-up examination of the girl identified delayed developmental milestones while head CT scan revealed partial agenesis of the corpus callosum, brain atrophy, dilated ventricles and scattered calcific foci in the caudate nuclei, the thalami, and the periventricular white matter. The possibility of intrauterine TORCH infection was excluded by the negative results of repeated immunovirology study and by the failure to recover viral inclusions in urine cultures. The proband had three apparently affected cousins with spasticity and CT findings of microcephaly and intracranial calcification. Other previously documented cases with the congenital intrauterine infection-like syndrome are reviewed.

Cutis verticis gyrata-mental deficiency syndrome: report of a case with unusual neuroradiological findings.

The clinical and radiological features of a patient with Cutis Verticis Gyrata-Mental Deficiency syndrome are reported. The clinical features of the patient included severe mental retardation, drug resistant epilepsy, short stature, microcephaly with multiple furrows on the scalp and normally growing overlying hair. He was blind with bilateral optic atrophy, multiple joint contractures and spastic tetraplegia. Skull X-ray showed thickened calvarial bones but other features of pachydermoperiostosis were absent. Brain MRI showed well developed, albeit small, frontal and anterior temporal lobes with a normal gray-white matter interface. The parietal and occipital cortex were atrophic with widening of the occipital horns (colpocephaly). The sylvian fissures were accentuated because of atrophic parietal operculae. The splenium of the corpus callosum was hypoplastic. There was atrophy of the cerebellar cortex. Contrary to the previously described cerebral cortical polymicrogyria in Cutis Verticis Gyrata-Mental Deficiency syndrome, there was no evidence to suggest any migration disorder in our patient. The present report highlights the clinico-radiological heterogeneity of the syndrome.

Another Arab patient with overlap of Váradi-Papp/Opitz trigonocephaly syndromes?

We describe a Bedouin boy with multiple congenital anomalies/mental retardation (MCA/MR). He has frontal bossing, ridged metopic suture, bilateral ptosis, right squint, depressed nasal bridge, small nose, anteverted nostrils, lobulated tongue, polydactyly of both hands, microphallus, hypoplastic scrotum, microtestes, dysgenesis of corpus callosum, and a Dandy-Walker variant. This phenotype overlaps both the Varadi-Papp syndrome (OFD VI) and Opitz trigonocephaly (C syndrome). This phenotypic overlap is discussed in light of the concept of splitting and lumping in genetic diseases.

Determination of surface profile statistics from electromagnetic scattering data.

A new reverse Monte Carlo method for the determination of the surface profile statistics from differential reflection data for the scattering of electromagnetic radiation from rough surfaces is presented. The method is used to extract the power spectrum of the surface profile from scattering data recently measured by West and O'Donnell [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 12, 390 (1995)]. Excellent agreement with the power spectrum of the surface profile measured by contact profilometry is obtained.

Therapeutic efficacy of "Milgamma" in patients with painful diabetic neuropathy.

Forty-five diabetes patients with painful peripheral polyneuropathy were enrolled in a 3-month observational study comparing the therapeutic efficacy of Milgamma tablets (50 mg benfothiamine and 0.25 mg cyancobalamine) with parallel randomized treatment assignment with the conventional vitamin B complex treatment regimen Neurobex. Thirty patients in group one were randomized to receive two Milgamma tablets qid for three weeks followed by 1 Milgamma tablet tid for 9 weeks. In group two 15 patients received two Neurobex tablets tid for the entire 3-month study period. Therapeutic efficacy was assessed on the basis of within-patient differences in pain severity between Milgamma and Neurobex-treated patients and in vibration perception thresholds using the Rydel-Seiffer biothesiometer at baseline and at the end of the study. Statistically significant relief of both background and peak neuropathic pain was achieved in all of the Milgamma-treated patients and vibration perception thresholds dramatically improved with a median of 1.56 measured on the biothesiometer scale (t = 3.24, P < 0.01). The sensory symptoms improvement was insignificant in the Neurobex-treated patient group and the changes in the vibration perception thresholds failed to reach statistical significance. The therapeutic efficacy of Milgamma was greater in patients with early-stage diabetes as compared with those with advanced diabetic neuropathy. No adverse reactions were observed following the administration of the medication. Our results underscore the importance of Milgamma tablets as an indispensable element in the therapeutic regimen of patients with painful diabetic polyneuropathy.

Percutaneous ethanol sclerotherapy of autonomous thyroid nodules: preliminary results.

Percutaneous ethanol sclerotherapy was applied to 20 patients (17 women and 3 men, aged 30 to 77 yrs) with autonomous thyroid nodules. The patients either were contraindicated because of hazardous concomitant diseases or refused surgical or 131I treatment. Ethanol (95 alc%) was injected in 4 to 6 sessions at a mean dose of 0.63 ml/cc nodular tissue. Physical examination, T3, T4 and TSH assays, thyroid scintigraphy, sonography, and fine needle aspiration biopsy were used to evaluate the treatment results within a 12-month follow-up. Two months after ethanol injection all patients showed an improvement; in six patients the symptoms recurred in the 6th month. Two of them underwent a second cycle of ethanol injection. 12 months later an euthyroid state was maintained in 16 (80%) patients, while 4 (20%) did not respond to the treatment. The treatment results were markedly determined by the nodule size as no effect was achieved in nodules larger than 15-20 ml in volume. This method appears to be an appropriate and harmless alternative to the surgical and 131I treatment of autonomous thyroid nodules less than 15-20 ml in volume, especially in patients with grave concomitant diseases.

Studies on nephrolithiasis in patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.

Eighty two patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease were examined clinically. Nephrolithiasis was diagnosed in 23 patients (28.1%). In 17 (73.5%) the lithiasis was bilateral. There were no patients with nephrolithiasis under the age of 20 years. The disease frequency increased in the patients between 21 and 40 years (38.5%) reaching 58.1% in those above 41 years. Nephrolithiasis in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease is not induced by the chronic renal failure. The opposite is more likely-nephrolithiasis precipitates the onset of renal failure. The autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease is an etiologic factor for lithiasis.

Experimental models for optimization of insulin separation on reversed phase columns.

Experimentally defined relationships have been found to describe adequately the retention and separation of bovine and porcine insulins as well as their desamido products on reversed phases C4 30 nm and C18 10 nm pore diameter. The equations are valid for a region of initial acetonitrile concentrations from 16 to 31% and gradient rates from 0.04 to 0.60%/min. The peak heights showed an exact non-linear relationship with the time interval between the first and last peak of interest, independent of their retention time. The number of experiments required for obtaining the parametric estimates of the models depends on the particular task, but in all cases is less than eight. The relationships found permit the correct choice to be made in advance both for analysis conditions for a particular column and for different requirements of insulin analysis.

Purity evaluation of aprotinin by high performance liquid chromatography.

A separation to the baseline isocratic technique has been developed for the evaluation of the purity of aprotinin by internal normalization. The column used was a 30 nm pore diameter butyl-bonded silica stationary phase. An exact relationship was found to give an adequate description of the retention of aprotinin using acetonitrile concentrations of 17-22% and NaClO4 concentrations of 5-50 mmol. It can be used to optimize the mobile phase content for the particular user column and to compensate for possible variations in the retention time of aprotinin, analysed on different batches of butyl-bonded stationary phases.

Ionized calcium in patients with chronic renal failure.

Parameters of various renal disorders were studied in 31 patients (17 men and 14 women) who all were in the stage of chronic renal failure (CRF). These parameters included total serum creatinine, ionized calcium, serum creatinine, creatinine clearance and acid-base balance. The results were compared with a control group of 30 healthy subjects. In the patients with first stage CRF, the total serum calcium did not significantly decrease (mean = 2.19 +/- 0.12 mmol/l) and ionized calcium was within reference value limits (mean = 1.28 +/- 0.02 mmol/l). The percentage of ionized calcium in total serum calcium was higher for these patients (mean = 58.43%) than for the control group (mean = 52.25%). For patients with first and second stage CRF, the total serum was significantly lower (mean = 1.92 +/- 0.03 mmol/l) than for the healthy controls (p < 0.001) as well as for patients with first stage CRF (p < 0.05). The ionized calcium in these patients was not significantly lower (mean = 1.14 +/- 0.01 mmol/l); however, its percentage was higher than that of serum calcium (mean = 59.38%). There was a slight negative correlation between the levels of ionized calcium and serum creatinine in patients with first stage CRF (r = -0.30) and a significant correlation in patients with second and third stage CRF.

Results of TV imaging of Phobos (Experiment VSK-Fregat).

From February to March 1989 the Phobos 2 spacecraft took 37 TV images of Phobos at a distance of 190-1100 km. These images complement Mariner-9 and Viking data by providing higher-resolution coverage of a large region West of the crater Stickney (40-160 degrees W) and by providing disk-resolved measurements of surface brightness at a greater range of wavelengths and additional phase angles. These images have supported updated mapping and characterization of large craters and grooves, and have provided additional observations of craters' and grooves' bright rims. Variations in surface visible/near-infrared color ratio of almost a factor of 2 have been recognized; these variations appear to be associated with the ejecta of specific large impact craters. Updated determinations of satellite mass and volume allow calculation of a more accurate value of bulk density, 1.90 +/- 0.1 g cm-3. This is significantly lower than the density of meteoritic analogs to Phobos' surface, suggesting a porous interior perhaps containing interstitial ice.

[The nephrotic syndrome as a consequence of Feloran treatment in a female patient with rheumatoid arthritis]. / Nefrozen sindrom vsledstvie na lechenie s Feloran u bolna s revmatoiden artrit.

A case is presented of a 65 years old woman with a rheumatoid arthritis III stage who had developed a nephrotic syndrome due to the treatment with Feloran. The biopsy examination showed the pathomorphologic pattern of glomerulonephritis with minimum changes. The discontinuance of the Feloran treatment led to a full disappearance of the nephrotic syndrome. It is recommended that Feloran treatment should not be applied to patients with previous renal lesions.

[A congenital vascular anomaly--arteriovenous shunt to the right kidney with an aneurysm of the inferior right branch of the renal artery as a cause of asymptomatic hematuria and vasorenal hypertension]. / Vrodena sudova anomaliia--arterio-venozen shunt v desen bubrek s anevrizma na dolen desen klon na renalnata arteriia kato prichina za bezsimptomna khematuriia i vazorenalna khipertoniia.

A case of a 19 years old man with a congenital vascular anomaly is presented: arteriovenous shunt in the right kidney with an aneurysm of the inferior right branch of the renal artery as a cause of asymptomatic hematuria and vasorenal hypertension. The diagnosis was determined with the help of subtraction angiography. The method is recommended for the precise diagnosis of asymptomatic hematuria caused by arteriovenous malformations of the kidneys in order to help for a correct therapeutic decision.