Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0026827 (hypotonia)
 5,860 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Blood flow disturbances in the gastrointestinal tract can lead to serious illness. They can be acute or chronic, their cause may be arterial or venous occlusion or hypotonia. Lesions of the gastrointestinal tract caused by ischemia depend on localisation, acuteness and degree of the blood flow disturbance. They may reach from focal and segmental ischemic lesions to extensive necroses of the entire intestinal tubes. The most serious ischemic disease is the embolic and thrombotic occlusion of the arteria mesenterica superior due to previous arterosclerotic damage. Infarction of a large part of the intestines and peritonitis can be the consequence. These patients' only chance of survival is early diagnosis--as a rule exclusively via angiography--and immediate surgery. Chronic occlusion of the arteria mesenterica superior leads to angina abdominalis which mainly occurs after food intake and can last for hours. The reason may also be a general arteriosclerosis. Men are affected more frequently and at a younger age than women. As a consequence of lowered intestinal blood flow these patients suffer from malabsorption and heavy weight loss. Conservative therapy is not effective. These patients, too, will have to be treated surgically after previous angiography. Vascular disease with decreased blood flow as its consequence can be found in a number of inflammatory diseases, in malign hypertensian, in collagen disease and in other more rare diseases as pseudoxanthoma elasticum or Ehlers-Danlos-syndrome. In the case of ischemic colitis arterial and more rarely venous occlusions cause decreased blood flow in the big bowel. A frequent consequence is colitis in the left colon which is characterized by acuteness, pain in the left side of the abdomen and by heavy rectal bleeding. Diagnosis is established by means of endoscopy, barium enema and angiography. Primarily therapy of ischemic colitis is of the conservative type. In severe cases with gangrene and peritonitis the colon has to be resected.
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PMID:[Disorders of the blood circulation in the gastrointestinal tract]. 32 26

l-Carnitine occurs naturally as an essential cofactor of fatty acid metabolism which is synthesised endogenously or obtained from dietary sources. In patients with primary carnitine deficiencies, which may be life-threatening, and some secondary deficiencies such as organic acidurias, the exogenously administered compound is clearly beneficial: by abolishing hypotonia, motor skills are improved, as are muscle weakness and wasting. In preliminary clinical trials in patients with ischaemic cardiac disease, therapy with l-carnitine has shown beneficial effects on myocardial function and metabolism and has improved exercise tolerance in patients with angina pectoris-findings which require further substantiation in larger controlled studies. Moreover, while some interesting evidence suggests that l-carnitine may find potential use in such diverse conditions as carnitine deficiencies secondary to prolonged total parenteral nutrition supplementation or chronic haemodialysis, hyperlipidaemias and the prevention of toxicity induced by anthracyclines and valproate, such findings must be regarded as preliminary. Exogenously administered l-carnitine is very well tolerated. Thus, while its role in primary deficiencies is established, with its profile of negligible toxicity l-carnitine is worthy of further investigation to more clearly define its therapeutic applications in a variety of conditions which may be indirectly related to alterations in fatty acid metabolism.
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PMID:l-Carnitine. A preliminary review of its pharmacokinetics, and its therapeutic use in ischaemic cardiac disease and primary and secondary carnitine deficiencies in relationship to its role in fatty acid metabolism. 330 9

Fifty-eight consecutive patients were investigated for spontaneous chest pain without symptoms of effort angina, previous myocardial infarction or other signs of cardiac disease, to determine the incidence of oesophageal spasm. The character of the chest pain, its context and the results of resting ECGs were analysed. An ECG recorded during chest pain was available in 23 cases and exercise stress testing was performed in 43 cases. Coronary angiography was carried out in all patients. The coronary arteries were normal or showed little change in 44 patients. Further investigations were ordered: oesophageal manometry (42 cases), echocardiography 44 cases) and ergometrine provocation tests (44 cases). The patients were then divided into 4 groups: 23 patients (40 p. 100) with coronary artery disease; either atheroma (14 cases) or spasm (9 cases); 8 patients (13,5 p. 100) with non-coronary cardiac pathology (myocardial hypertrophy or mitral valve prolapse); 15 patients (26 p. 100) with oesophageal spasm alone; 12 patients (20,5 p. 100) with no obvious organic disease. Often simulating spontaneous angina, clinically and electrocardiographically, oesophageal spasm may sometimes be distinguished (6 out of 15 cases) by the finding of painful dysphagia on swallowing ice-cold liquid. The condition is confirmed by oesophageal manometry which shows abnormalities of oesophageal contraction. In addition, 13 out of 15 patients in our series had hypotonia of the gastro-oesophageal sphincter. Dyskinetic phenomena and this hypotonia should be taken into consideration in the treatment of this condition.
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PMID:[Esophageal spasm: a common cause of spontaneous precordial pain]. 643 62

A case of a 49-year-old woman with episodes of syncopes as a first manifestation of variant angina is presented. She was admitted to cardiology ward because of recurrent angina associated with marked ST segment elevation in the inferior and anterior electrocardiographic leads. Previously she was diagnosed at a neurological ward because of nocturnal syncopes without accompanying chest pain but with associated hypotonia and bradycardia of about 36 beats/min. Coronary arteriography revealed non-significant coronary stenosis of two vessels (left and right coronary artery) and coronary spasm close to these obstructions. Therapy with calcium channel blockers as well as giving up smoking eliminated the episodes of chest pain and syncope in a twelve-month follow-up.
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PMID:[Syncope as a first manifestation of Prinzmetal's angina in a 49-year-old woman. A case report]. 1688 30