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Query: UMLS:C0018799 (heart disease)
 34,133 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Unexplained cardiomegaly with cardiac failure was observed in a 42-year-old woman in whom a pituitary tumour had been treated by radiotherapy five years previously. She had been amenorrhoeic for 10 years. Thyroid and adrenal function was normal. Despite treatment with digitalis and diuretic, her cardiac disease progressed until she died suddenly at the age of 45. Hyperprolactinaemia was evident some weeks before death, her serum concentration of 68 ng/ml being well above both the reported normal range (2--20 ng/ml) and the concentrations in eight female controls being treated for severe cardiac failure (5--25 ng/ml). Although the association of these two disorders might merely represent coincidence, heart disease with similar features is common in acromegaly and does not correlate with plasma growth hormone concentration. Since prolactin is known to exert metabolic growth hormone-like effects in animals and in man, the possibility should be considered that prolactin hypersecretion might induce or maintain cardiac disease in some patients with pituitary tumours. A preliminary survey of 35 subjects with hyperprolactinaemia has shown five with raised blood pressure and four, two of whom were normotensive, with cardiomegaly on chest radiography.
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PMID:Cardiomegaly and heart failure in a patient with prolactin-secreting pituitary tumour. 15 31

We used color-Doppler echocardiography in an investigation of cardiac morphology and function to verify the cardiac anatomic and functional changes in acromegalic patients with or without hypertension and hyperlipemic states. Fifteen patients with growth hormone-secreting pituitary adenoma (mean age: 47.9 years) and 15 healthy control subjects were studied. We measured serum growth hormone (GH), somatomedin-C, cholesterol, triglyceride levels and carried out echocardiographic studies of the following cardiac morpho-functional parameters: left ventricular diameter, volume, mass and wall systolic stress. Serum GH and somatomedin-C levels were significantly higher in acromegalic patients than in controls (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001 respectively). Echocardiography evidenced increased left ventricular mass (60% of the acromegalic patients; p < 0.05) and increased wall systolic stress (53.3%; p < 0.05). Color-Doppler analysis evidenced abnormal diastolic function in 8 acromegalic patients (p < 0.001). We thus conclude that the most characteristic feature of acromegalic heart disease is left ventricular involvement, diastolic dysfunction, increased left ventricular mass or wall systolic stress. The pathogenesis is most probably multifactorial: essential hypertension, associated with slow and progressive evolution of heart disease, appears to be a determining factor.
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PMID:[Acromegalic cardiopathy: a morphofunctional study with color-Doppler echocardiography]. 145 53

The effect of recombinant human growth hormone on children with Down syndrome who had growth retardation and microcephaly was examined. Thirteen children with trisomy 21 without congenital heart disease who were short for age (-1.19 to -3.5 standard deviation score) and microcephalic (-1.58 to -6.60 standard deviation score) were given recombinant human growth hormone, 0.1 mg/kg subcutaneously, 3 days a week for 1 year. Before treatment, peak serum growth hormone concentrations were less than 10 micrograms/L after levodopa and clonidine stimulation tests in five patients, after clonidine in three patients, and after levodopa in three patients. Three patients had nocturnal integrated growth hormone concentrations of 0.5, 1.5 and 0.65 micrograms/L, respectively. The mean growth rate before treatment was 5.4 +/- 1.6 cm/yr and increased to 12.2 +/- 3.2 cm/yr (p less than 0.001) after 12 months of recombinant human growth hormone treatment. The mean head circumference standard deviation score before treatment was -3.1 +/- 1.3 and increased to -2.3 +/- 1.2 (p less than 0.001) at 12 months. Bone age before and 1 year after treatment increased in correspondence with chronologic age. Plasma hemoglobin A1c concentration was normal during treatment with recombinant human growth hormone. The mean plasma concentrations of insulin-like growth factor I at baseline and at 12 months were 0.54 +/- 0.19 U/ml and 1.25 +/- 0.97 U/ml, respectively (p less than 0.02). We conclude that recombinant human growth hormone therapy can result in a significant increase in annual growth rate and head circumference in children with Down syndrome, without significant side effects.
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PMID:Treatment of children with Down syndrome and growth retardation with recombinant human growth hormone. 153 64

Acromegaly is associated with an increased cardiac morbidity and mortality, but it is not clear whether this is the result of increased incidence of hypertension and coronary heart disease or of a specific disease of heart muscle. Thirty four acromegalic patients were studied by non-invasive techniques. Seven of these patients had raised plasma concentrations of growth hormone at the time of study; three were newly diagnosed and had not received any treatment. Hypertension was present in nine (26%) but only three (9%) had electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy. Echocardiography showed ventricular hypertrophy in 12 (48%) and increased left ventricular mass in 17 (68%) patients. Holter monitoring detected important ventricular arrhythmias in 14 patients. Thallium-201 scanning showed evidence for coronary heart disease in eight patients. Systolic time intervals were normal except when there was coexistent ischaemic heart disease. A comparison between 19 acromegalic patients with no other detectable cause of heart disease and 22 age matched controls showed appreciably abnormal left ventricular diastolic function in the group with acromegaly. The abnormalities shown did not correlate with left ventricular mass or wall thickness. There was no difference in diastolic function between patients with active acromegaly and those with treated acromegaly. Hypertensive acromegalic patients had worse diastolic function than hypertensive controls, suggesting that hypertension may further impair the left ventricular diastolic abnormality in acromegaly. This is the first study to find evidence of subclinical cardiac diastolic dysfunction in acromegaly and it supports the suggestion that there is a specific disease of heart muscle in acromegaly.
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PMID:Subclinical cardiac dysfunction in acromegaly: evidence for a specific disease of heart muscle. 239 Mar 94

Cardiovascular and Renal function were examined in two populations of long-term insulin-dependent diabetics, those with microalbuminuria, a sign of early, subclinical nephropathy and those with clinically manifest diabetic nephropathy. In addition, clinical variables of possible importance for the occurrence and prognosis of diabetic nephropathy were analyzed. Microalbuminuria - a mean of three over-night urinary albumin excretion rates greater than 20 micrograms/min - was found in 16% of Albustix-negative, normotensive, insulin-dependent diabetics. The microalbuminurics had higher supine blood pressures than normoalbuminurics. The albumin excretion rate in microalbuminurics correlated to blood pressure at rest but not to glycosylated haemoglobin. The cardiovascular responses to five different test manoeuvres revealed more evident signs of autonomic nerve dysfunction in microalbuminurics than in normoalbuminurics. The circulatory reactions during mental stress however, were almost identical in the two subgroups. Despite similar glomerular filtration rate and renal plasma flow the albumin excretion during mental stress increased in microalbuminurics, but remained unchanged in normoalbuminurics. It is postulated that a disturbance of glomerular basement membrane permeability is a pre-requisite for the elevated albumin excretion seen in microalbuminurics. Inability to regulate glomerular haemodynamics, due to autonomic nerve dysfunction, may also be a contributing factor. Such dysfunction perhaps even explains why microalbuminurics have higher blood pressures at rest compared with normoalbuminurics. In manifest diabetic nephropathy the rate of renal functional decline correlated to arterial blood pressure, while glycemic control showed no such relation. Patients with rapidly progressive nephropathy showed higher values of growth hormone than slow progressors. In patients with diabetic renal failure, cardiac catheterization revealed reduced stroke work and elevated left ventricular end-distolic pressure during exercise. Autonomic nerve dysfunction and arterial hypertension possibly contributed to the impaired cardiac performance. The existence of a specific diabetic cardiopathy must even be considered. There was a male predominance both in subclinical and manifest diabetic nephropathy. Age at onset of diabetes was lower in micro- as compared to normoalbuminurics. Duration of diabetes had no prognostic implication in subclinical or manifest nephropathy. The mortality rate was high in patients with manifest nephropathy.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:Studies of cardiovascular and renal function in subclinical and manifest diabetic nephropathy. 316 65

Forty percent of patients with insulin-dependent diabetes will develop nephropathy during the course of their disease, thus being the most important single disorder leading to end-stage renal failure (ESRF). Intensive metabolic control delays onset of diabetic nephropathy, the first omen of which is appearance of subclinical albuminuria, also termed microalbuminuria. Moreover, it is now established that intensive treatment of hypertension reduces rate of decline in GFR and thus postpones ESRF. When uremia eventually sets in, a range of biochemical and endocrine abnormalities can be included among those characteristics of diabetes mellitus per se. These include elevated plasma levels of growth hormone, glucagon and free fatty acids, which may participate in the uremic insulin resistance superimposed on the preexisting diabetic carbohydrate intolerance. Hemodialysis (HD) and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) are two established modalities of renal replacement therapy in diabetes mellitus. Controlled clinical trials for comparison of CAPD versus HD treatment of diabetics are, however, still needed. The survival rate is approximately 80 and 65-95% in insulin-dependent diabetic patients at 1 year during treatment with HD and CAPD, respectively. However, it is general experience that diabetics on CAPD exhibit a glycemic control, superior to that attained during HD. It has not been proved that patient survival after cadaveric renal transplantation is better than on dialysis. The degree of vascular heart disease seems to be the major determinant for survival of kidney-transplanted diabetic patients.
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PMID:End-state renal failure in diabetic nephropathy: pathophysiology and treatment. 391 47

Thirty eight acromegalic patients (A) and a control group (C) of subjects without heart disease, were studied with echocardiography. Acromegalies were divided in two groups, A1 and A2, who had increase or normal serum growth hormone (GH) levels respectively after treatment (pituitary adenectomy and/or bromocriptine), at the time of the study. In acromegalic patients (A) mean left ventricular (LV) dimensions were normal while LV wall and septal thickness, LV mass and left atrial (LA) dimension were increased compared to control subjects. LVH was present in 79% of acromegalic patients. Asymmetric septal hypertrophy (ASH) was found in 10,5% of our patients. In group A1, IVS, LVPW, LVMM/m2 were significantly increased as compared to group A2. Fractional shortening (FS), ejection fraction (EF), mean velocity of circumferential fibre shortening (Vcf), frequency-normalized Vcf (Vcfn), posterior left ventricular wall velocity (PWV), and normalized PWV (PWVn) were normal in both groups. In patients with active acromegaly (Al) IVS and LVMM/m2 correlated well with the total duration of the disease (r=0.550 p less than 0.01 for IVS; r=0.624 p less than 0.01 for LVMM/m2) and with the duration of acromegaly before treatment (r=0.568, p less than 0.01 for IVS; r=0.500 p less than 0.01 for LVMM/m2). Furthermore a positive correlation was found between IVS and GH levels (r=0,550 p less than 0.01). Concomitant coronary artery disease and or hypertension did not seem to play any role in causing the above mentioned echocardiographic changes. Echocardiography is useful in assessing the cardiac involvement in patients with acromegaly.
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PMID:[Acromegalic cardiomyopathy: an echocardiographic study]. 688 53

A 64-year-old woman with active acromegaly of 33 years' duration, severe carpal tunnel syndrome, and subclinical heart disease was treated with bromocriptine mesylate. Within eight months of therapy, basal growth hormone (GH) levels decreased from 90.0 to 7.0 ng/mL, and hand volume was reduced from 375 to 295 mL. Concomitantly, echocardiographic studies showed normal left ventricular size and function. Electromyographic studies demonstrated normal function in both median nerves. Bromocriptine may correct cardiac dysfunction and carpal tunnel syndrome in acromegaly either by reduction of GH oversecretion or by a direct effect of bromocriptine on dopamine receptors in the heart and peripheral nerve endings.
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PMID:Bromocriptine for an acromegalic patient. Improvement in cardiac function and carpal tunnel syndrome. 742 Jun 85

We describe three children with Noonan syndrome with cardiopathy. One female child had cardiopathy and ocular abnormalities. The other two male children had congenital heart disease of which one had uncommon association of tricuspid valve dysplasia with regurgitation associated with endocardial cushion defect. Karyotypes of the female and one of the male children were normal. The growth hormone and thyroid hormone studies in the first and second male children were normal. All the three children were managed conservatively and followed-up.
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PMID:Cardiopathy and ocular abnormalities in Noonan syndrome. 789 1

A number of interventions for delaying or reversing declines in body functions due to ageing are critically reviewed here, including their relation to neuroendocrine function. Diets severely deficient in calories retard the ageing of body tissues, inhibit the development of disease and tumours, and significantly prolong the lifespan of rats and mice. Such diets also decrease hormone secretion, reduce the metabolism of the whole body, and lower gene expression. Administration of hormones, thymic peptides and other immune factors, and appropriate drugs can improve declining immune function in old rats and mice, thereby increasing resistance to infection, autoimmune disease and tumours. In old rats, correction of faults that develop in the neuroendocrine system with age--particularly in the hypothalamus--can restore oestrous cycles, increase the secretion of growth hormone, increase protein synthesis, inhibit development of disease and tumours, and prolong life. Antioxidants administered to rats and mice in an attempt to reduce damage to cells caused by free radicals, do not significantly retard ageing or prolong the lifespan of these animals. Regular, moderate exercise in elderly humans decreases incidence of heart disease, improves lung function, reduces bone loss, and produces other beneficial effects. Suitable drugs that will improve memory function in elderly humans remain to be developed, although a few have produced small improvements albeit with undesirable side effects. Overall, the neuroendocrine and immune approaches offer the best prospects for delaying and reversing declines in body functions due to ageing.
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PMID:Anti-ageing interventions and their neuroendocrine aspects in mammals. 831 12


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