Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0848237 (acute stress)
 4,619 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Young (90 days) and old (15 months) male, Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to an acute and massive myocardial infarct by giving them two injections of a large dose of isoproterenol. The animals were autopsied at sequential time intervals to ascertain the similarities or dissimilarities in the pathophysiologic events which attend acute myocardial infarction and repair in young vs old rats. Although the signs and severity of hypotensive shock appeared to be equal, mortality was higher in the old rats, especially during the acute necrosis phase. The older rats also manifested more severe and persistent congestive heart failure, i.e., hydrothorax. Serum enzymes (CPK, SGOT, SGPT, and LDH), lipids (triglycerides, free fatty acids, and cholesterol), glucose, and BUN levels manifested a dynamic rise and fall concomitant with the induced myocardial necrosis and repair phases with distinct differences in these metabolic changes between young and old rats. Despite initially higher circulating levels of corticosterone in the old vs young rats, the older animals manifested little or no increase in circulating corticosterone levels during the acute stress of myocardial infarction. This apparent lack of adrenocortical responsiveness was accentuated by the concomitant finding of greatly hypertrophied, hemorrhagic, and lipid-depleted adrenal glands in the old rats vs a dynamic increase in circulating corticosterone levels and alterations in the weight of adrenal and thymus glands of the young rats. During the myocardial repair phase, the young rats manifested extensive endocardial fibrosis whereas the old rats displayed little or no endocardial fibrosis but copous and persistent myocardial edema and ground substance in keeping with their higher concentration of cardiac hexosamine. The pathophysiologic course of events which attends myocardial necrosis and repair is quite different in young vs old rats and may be related to the degree of responsiveness of the pituitary-adrenal axis which changes with age.
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PMID:Myocardial infarction in young vs old male rats: pathophysiologic changes. 65 13

This study examined the effects of aging and chronic congestive heart failure on plasma corticosterone and cortisol levels in hamsters. It also assessed the effects of aging and heart failure on glucocorticoid responses to acute and chronic stress. Aging in healthy hamsters increased plasma cortisol levels, decreased corticosterone levels, and did not change total glucocorticoid levels. A similar pattern occurred as cardiomyopathic (CM) hamsters aged, until they developed severe heart failure. Plasma cortisol levels fell in CM hamsters with severe heart failure, and corticosterone levels remained low, so total glucocorticoid levels fell. Adrenocortical function similarly declined in very old healthy hamsters near the ends of their lives. Adrenocortical responses to acute and chronic stress were diminished in old healthy hamsters, and heart failure in CM hamsters also reduced the glucocorticoid responses to chronic stress. However, heart failure greatly enhanced the cortisol and total glucocorticoid responses to acute stress, but not that of corticosterone. These data suggest a number of conclusions. First, aging clearly changes the the ratio of corticosterone to cortisol in hamster plasma without changing total glucocorticoid levels and blunts adrenocortical responses to acute and chronic stress. Second, ill health, in the form of severe heart failure in CM hamsters and very old age in health hamsters, decreases adrenocortical function. At the same time, heart failure greatly enhances cortisol responses to acute stress. These results indicate that aging and chronic disease in hamsters have many similar effects on adrenocortical function, but that disease alone sensitizes them to the effects of acute stress.
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PMID:Interactions among the effects of aging, chronic disease, and stress on adrenocortical function in Syrian hamsters. 229 77

When two human corpses are found in temporal and locational context the assumption of a non-natural cause of death is close at hand. Suicide, extended suicide, homicide or accident (particularly with carbon monoxide) come to mind. When, however, a natural cause of death emerges for both after autopsy and further examinations, this provokes the question whether this incidence is coincidental. In our two presented cases, a married couple each was found dead together. In both cases, the wife needed nursing and was being cared for by a husband who died of cardiac disease shortly before the wife died. In one case, the wife died of acute uncompensated chronic congestive heart failure. In the other case, the cause of death of the wife was hypovolemic shock due to acute gastrointestinal bleeding from recurrent gastric mucosal erosion. It is to be discussed for both cases whether, given the pre-existing illness, the acute stress of the situation in view to the husbands' death may at least have favored the occurrence of death and may, thus, have led to the criminologically conspicuous situation of finding.
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PMID:Philemon and Baucis Death? Two cases of double deaths of married couples. 1776 64