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Query: UMLS:C0028754 (obesity)
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A patient, who has been followed for thirteen years, developed the first symptoms of progressive hypothalamic atrophy at the age of 39. The diagnosis was confirmed by pneumoencephalography five years after onset. Hypothalamic dysfunction was manifested clinically by loss of libido, impotence, obesity, polydypsia, somnolence, and rage attacks. Assessment of endocrinologic function demonstrated low serum levels of testosterone, FSH, and LH, a diabetic glucose tolerance curve, decreased basal and hypoglycemic stimulated levels of HGH, and progressively increasing levels of serum prolactin. Repeated pneumoencephalography revealed an initial, and then progressive, enlargement of the third ventricle which was later associated with generalized, but proportionately less severe, atrophy of the cerebellum and cerebral hemispheres. Analysis of the physiologic and endocrinologic mechanisms underlying these abnormalities suggests diffuse hypothalamic damage, especially in the ventromedial area. The decreased somnolence and increased libido and potency which accompanied therapy with levodopa suggest damage to dopaminergic and noradrenergic pathways. Slowly progressive hypothalamic atrophy, confirmed by pneumoencephalography, but without specific etiology, has not been reported previously. This article describes such a patient followed over thirteen years, and the efficacy of therapy with levodopa in ameliorating certain aspects of his disease.
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PMID:Hypothalamic atrophy. 58 Feb 84

Researchers and health practitioners are becoming increasingly concerned with the problems associated with obesity among children and adolescents. Obesity tends to persist into adulthood and to be associated with a variety of physical and psychological problems. Treatment approaches used to date are generally impotent, but some promising short-term results have been achieved with some forms of dietary counseling, exercise programs, total environmental management, and behavior therapy. But even with these strategies, clinically significant weight loss is rare and advances during treatment are rarely maintained. Radical departures from current treatment strategies are needed in the form of more structured and intensive treatments, family involvement, and training in problem solving. Closer adherence to sound scientific methodology might at least provide a foundation from which more effective treatments might be developed.
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PMID:Treating obesity in children and adolescents: a review. 62 57

The value of the vascular examination cannot be over-estimated. Symptoms of vascular disease present in the foot and lower extremity may actually be manifestations of severe life-threatening disease. Symptoms, their location, and the frequency and quality of the patient's pain often provide valuable clues for the clinician's diagnosis. Central nervous system symptoms, ocular disturbances, cardiac symptoms, impotence, or constitutional disturbances may all indicate systemic arterial disease. Risk factors for this disease include smoking, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, genetic predisposition, diabetes, emotional stress, and physical inactivity. Those factors attributable to hypercoagulability and venous disease are birth control pill use, estrogen chemotherapy, obesity, prolonged immobilization, paralysis, previous thrombotic episodes, venous stasis disease, and varicose veins. An accurate bilateral assessment of blood pressure, pulses, and capillary perfusion is of critical importance. Careful inspection of the extremity for trophic changes, skin color, texture, temperature, edema, ulceration, atrophy, or paresis, will provide clues of vasculopathy. A relatively accurate assessment of circulatory status may be obtained without the use of exotic instruments. Simple tests such as the elevation and dependency tests, capillary bed return test, venous filling time test, along with blood pressure, pulse, and possibly oscillometry data are valuable in arterial evaluation. Such venous tests as inspection, percussion, Homan's sign, Trendelenburg, and Perthes' tourniquet are useful in the determination of the presence of venous disease. Fortunately, over the past few years tremendous advances have been made in the technology of the vascular laboratory. If symptoms are discovered during the vascular history and physical examination, the complete noninvasive study will provide impressive data to quantitate and specifically establish the diagnosis.
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PMID:The vascular history and physical examination. 173 54

The most common cause of death in hypertensive patients is myocardial infarction (MI), being three times more common than stroke. Lowering raised BP results in 40% fewer strokes, but only 14% fewer MIs. This may be because other coronary risk factors that often accompany hypertension (e.g. obesity, lipid and thrombotic disturbances, insulin insensitivity, increased plasma renin activity and increased sympathetic activity) are either unaffected or exacerbated by some of the traditional antihypertensive agents. Some of these risk factors show a diurnal rhythm peaking at 07.00-10.00 hours, thus this time constitutes a 'vulnerable period' for sudden death or death from MI. beta-blockers and diuretics have been effective in preventing stroke, but diuretics (at least potassium-losing diuretics) might actually increase the incidence of sudden death and MI in young to middle-aged hypertensive subjects (though elderly patients may benefit). Quality of life can be impaired by some beta-blockers, and diuretics can cause metabolic upset and male impotence. Thus, antihypertensive agents that are not only effective and well tolerated but are beneficial to the broader coronary risk profile are desirable. ACE inhibitors should prove particularly useful in terms of: good quality of life; non-exacerbation or improvement of coronary risk factors; treating patients with impaired left ventricular function; reversing left ventricular hypertrophy and vascular wall hypertrophy, thus improving coronary flow reserve; atheroma regression; renal protection, particularly in diabetes; and prevention or regression of LV dilatation (remodelling) following MI.
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PMID:What does the future hold for ACE inhibitors? 179 18

Sexual impotence is the main andrological complication of diabetes mellitus and is the consequence of nervous, vascular and psychological factors which act either separately or in association. An attempt to prevent this complication will be successful if performed early before impotence has became irreversible. Neuropathy-induced impotence can be prevented by obtaining a good metabolic control of diabetes and/or by using some specific drugs such as gangliosides and aldose reductase inhibitors. The vascular causes of erectile failure can be prevented by reducing or removing associated risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, obesity, hypercholesterolemia, sedentariness and insulin-resistance. Finally, correct information and reassurance of the patient and his partner can prevent the negative role played by psychological factors on the sexual dysfunctions complained by the diabetic subject.
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PMID:[Is it possible to prevent andrological complications in the diabetic patient?]. 183 28

The prevalence of diabetes is greatest among older persons, yet few studies have specifically addressed the impact of age on diabetic complications. The present study examines the prevalence of four diabetic complications: retinopathy, peripheral neuropathy, autonomic neuropathy, and hypertension, as well as depression, in older male patients with noninsulin-dependent diabetes. Participants ranged in age from 53 to 80 years. Multiple risk factors, including age, duration of illness, type of treatment, metabolic control, and obesity were evaluated as predictors of these complications using logistic regression. Results suggest a significant increase in the prevalence of retinopathy with aging, independent of the effects of metabolic control, duration of illness, and other risk variables. Age was also related to prevalence of peripheral neuropathy symptoms, hypertension, and impotence. Current metabolic control was significantly associated with retinopathy, peripheral neuropathy, and hypertension prevalence. Time since diagnosis was only independently related to impotence and hypertension. These findings suggest that the increase in many diabetic complications in older persons cannot be wholly accounted for by simple disease status variables, and may result from an interaction of diabetes variables and general age-related changes.
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PMID:Effects of age on complications in adult onset diabetes. 278 81

Sleep apnoea syndromes are a frequent disease, with an incidence of more than 1% in the adult population, a strong male predominance, and a maximal frequency between 40 and 60 years. Their clinical manifestations are dominated by snoring and daytime sleepiness, at times associated with morning headaches, intellectual deficiency, sexual impotence. Obesity, hypertension and polycythemia are not uncommon. These patients are at risk for accidents due to sleepiness, sudden death due to sleep apnoea-related cardiac arrhythmias, ischemic attacks related to hypertension and polycythemia and right heart failure secondary to pulmonary hypertension and alveolar hypoventilation. The most frequent form of sleep apnoea syndromes include obstructive and mixed apnoeas. Their mechanism involves both anatomic factors (upper airway narrowing) and functional factors (defective activation of upper airways dilatory muscles) which lead to upper airway occlusion upon inspiration during sleep. Two therapeutic strategies are possible: a surgical one, uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, the efficacy of which is inconstant and unpredictable and nasal continuous positive airway pressure, which is constantly efficacious but constraining. Central sleep apnoea syndromes are rare, less clearly defined and more difficult to treat.
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PMID:[Sleep apnea syndromes in adults]. 332 Dec 51

In a five year prospective study clinical features associated with the development and progress of retinopathy were sought in 296 randomly selected diabetic men aged 20-59. None had ophthalmoscopically detectable retinopathy initially, but during follow up 66 developed the condition (47 background, 10 exudative, 9 proliferative). Linear logistic analyses (two tailed tests) showed that the initial features independently predictive of retinopathy were duration of diabetes, poor glycaemic control, impotence, and--unexpectedly--heavy alcohol consumption. Poor glycaemic control in the interim and proteinuria at review were also associated with the development of retinopathy. No relation was found with smoking or obesity. Glycaemic control and alcohol consumption were therefore the only aetiologically relevant associations identified. The development of severe retinopathy (exudative and proliferative) showed a particular association with heavy alcohol consumption, occurring in nine of the 70 heavy drinkers (13%) compared with 10 (4.4%) of the rest. Alcohol consumption may be an important independent factor associated predictively with sight threatening diabetic retinopathy.
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PMID:Alcohol: another risk factor for diabetic retinopathy? 642 83

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the alpha 1-blocking agent terazosin on blood pressure (BP) and blood lipids in a large, variant population of patients with hypertension. A total of 16,917 patients with hypertension were evaluated at 2214 primary and community care facilities; 7808 of these patients had not been treated previously for hypertension; 3928 were switched to terazosin from another antihypertensive agent; and 5181 received terazosin in addition to an agent that had not controlled their hypertension. Terazosin produced highly significant reductions in systolic (-18.2 +/- 0.2 mm Hg) and diastolic (-13.2 +/- 0.1 mm Hg) BP when used as monotherapy (mean dose, 3.1 mg; range, 2 to 10 mg) without causing a significant increase in heart rate. Equal antihypertensive efficacy was demonstrated in men, women, blacks, and whites of all ages, with particular benefit to elderly patients (> or = 65 years of age) with systolic hypertension. Comparative studies indicated that terazosin had equal antihypertensive efficacy in combination with diuretics, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. Patients who had not responded to monotherapy with one of these classes of antihypertensive drugs showed significant reductions of BP after terazosin, in the following average doses, was added to diuretics, 3.1 mg; beta-blockers, 3.4 mg; calcium channel blockers, 3.3 mg; and ACE inhibitors, 3.4 mg. Terazosin produced highly significant reductions in blood levels of total cholesterol (-5.0%), triglycerides (-6.1%), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (-7.6%) without change in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol when used as monotherapy. Similar favorable effects on blood lipid levels were demonstrated when terazosin was used in combination with all other classes of antihypertensive drugs. The greatest reductions in blood cholesterol (-9.2%) were observed among patients with hyperlipidemia (total cholesterol > or = 240 mg/dL). Terazosin maintained its antihypertensive efficacy and was well tolerated by patients with a variety of concomitant diseases, including congestive heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, benign prostatic hyperplasia, diabetes, and obesity. Adverse effects occurred in 17.9% of patients and caused 2.2% to drop out of the study. The most frequent adverse effects were dizziness (4.8%), headache (2.5%), and asthenia (2.4%). Only 0.4% suffered syncope and 0.2% impotence. These data demonstrate the usefulness of terazosin as monotherapy or add-on therapy for treatment of hypertension.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Alpha 1-blockade for the treatment of hypertension: a megastudy of terazosin in 2214 clinical practice settings. 792 16

We assessed the clinical characteristics of newly-diagnosed diabetic patients presenting to the Mulago Hospital Diabetic Clinic for the first time between 1 January 1993 and 10 August 1994. There were 252 patients: 117 men and 135 women. Mean age at onset of diabetes was 45 years (range 2-87 years) and peak incidence was at 40-49 years. Body mass index (BMI) was available in only 71 patients, of whom 53.5% (33.8% female, 19.7% male) were overweight (BMI > 25 in women, in > 27 men) and 11.3% (8.5% men, 2.8% women) were underweight (BMI < 20). Obesity was more marked in young women. Almost all patients presented with the classical symptoms of diabetes, and the majority were severely hyperglycaemic. A family history of diabetes was identified in 16%. Concurrent illnesses at diagnosis of diabetes were unusual. Sepsis was commonest (11.9%), followed by malaria (7.8%), tuberculosis (1.2%), AIDS (1.2%) and pancreatitis (0.8%). Peripheral neuropathy was present in 46.4% of patients, hypertension (BP > 150/100) in 27.3%, impotence in 22.2% of the men, proteinuria in 17.1%, ischaemic heart disease in 4.8%, foot ulcers in 4.0% and cataracts in 3.2%. Insulin was the most commonly prescribed treatment (52.8%); 31% of patients received oral hypoglycaemic agents, only 15.1% were managed on diet only, and 1.2% opted for herbal medicine.
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PMID:The presentation of newly-diagnosed diabetic patients in Uganda. 891 47


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