Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P01275 (glucagon)
 26,492 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

In a randomized, controlled trial to investigate the possible benefit of insulin and glucagon therapy in severe acute alcoholic hepatitis, 86 patients were randomized to receive 30 U insulin and 3 mg glucagon in 250 ml 5% dextrose over 12 hr each day for 3 wk or a similar regime of identical placebo. No significant differences were seen in patients' clinical characteristics and disease severity in the treated and placebo groups. Of the 43 patients receiving insulin and glucagon, 15 (35%) died within 4 wk of randomization, compared with 14 deaths (33%) in the control patients (p = not significant). When the patients surviving the first 4 wk were examined there were five more deaths in the treatment group, compared with one death in the control group at 6-mo follow-up (p = not significant). No significant differences in the frequency of short-term or long-term complications of alcoholic liver disease or relapse to alcohol were seen when the two groups were compared, although hypoglycemia was seen in six patients during infusion of insulin and glucagon. Similarly, no significant differences were seen in the improvement in clinical or biochemical features at 4 wk and at 6 mo in survivors when the insulin and glucagon-treated patients were compared with patients in the placebo group. This study does not confirm previous reports that insulin and glucagon infusion improves the outcome of severe acute alcoholic hepatitis.
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PMID:Insulin and glucagon infusion in acute alcoholic hepatitis: a prospective randomized controlled trial. 195 60

The poor prognosis of severe acute alcoholic hepatitis has stimulated interest in specific forms of treatment aimed at reducing the short term mortality as well as preventing progression to cirrhosis. Several controlled trials of steroid therapy have suggested an improvement in short-term survival, but the benefit seems to apply to highly selected cases only. Treatment with propylthiouracil and insulin and glucagon infusions has also shown promising results in controlled studies but there is still no general agreement on their value. Despite recent interest in the use of colchicine to prevent progression of cirrhosis in chronic liver disease of other aetiologies, its role in alcoholic liver disease is not yet clear. In end-stage alcoholic cirrhosis, excellent results are now being achieved with liver transplantation, although this is limited to patients who are not alcohol dependent and in whom there is no alcohol-induced extrahepatic disease.
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PMID:Treatment of advanced alcoholic liver disease. 187 84

A randomized, single-blind controlled multicenter study of insulin and glucagon infusion was carried out in 66 patients with acute alcoholic hepatitis. Thirty-three patients were treated with insulin 10 U and glucagon 1 mg in 500 ml 5% glucose in water via a peripheral vein for 2-6 h three times every day for 3 weeks. Patients in the control group received 5% glucose in an identical fashion. Fourteen control patients and five treated patients died from liver failure during the study (P less than 0.02). Clinical features of liver disease on entry into the study were similar in the two groups, but the total serum bilirubin, aspartate aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase activities and prothrombin time significantly improved in the treated patients (P less than 0.05). Insulin and glucagon infusion appears to be a promising treatment of acute alcoholic hepatitis.
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PMID:A prospective multicenter study of insulin and glucagon infusion therapy in acute alcoholic hepatitis. 332 Jan 81

A randomized, double-blind, controlled trial of insulin and glucagon infusion was conducted in 50 patients with acute alcoholic hepatitis. Twenty-five treatment patients received 24 U regular insulin and 2.4 mg glucagon over 12 h daily for 3 wk. Twenty-five control patients received 200 ml dextrose solution in identical bottles over the same time period. Six control and 2 treatment patients died from liver failure during study, and another treatment patient died from hypoglycemia. In the 34 patients with prothrombin times greater than 3 s prolonged, fewer deaths occurred among the insulin- and glucagon-infused patients (p less than 0.10). Clinical features of liver disease on entry into the study were similar in the two groups, and total serum bilirubin and prothrombin time improved more rapidly in the treatment group (p less than 0.05). Insulin and glucagon infusion is a promising treatment of alcoholic hepatitis and merits further study in the most severely ill patients.
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PMID:A randomized clinical trial of insulin and glucagon infusion for treatment of alcoholic hepatitis: progress report in 50 patients. 701 49

Acute alcoholic hepatitis is the first alcoholic lesion of the liver in the process of progression to cirrhosis. It is due to the toxic action of alcohol on hepatocytes, in particular in the centrolobular region. It may affect a liver which is the site of fatty infiltration, fibrosis or cirrhosis, i.e. during all the stages of alcoholic liver disease. Its severity depends upon the degree of alcoholic intoxication. It may be fatal by malignant hepatic failure in a quarter of cases or, at the extreme, be totally asymptomatic. The aims of treatment are: 1) in the immediate, to prevent death; 2) subsequently, to prevent progression to cirrhosis. The majority of the wide range of treatments suggested have been evaluated in controlled trials. It is thus easy to show that corticosteroids are effective in severe acute alcoholic hepatitis, i.e. with encephalopathy and coagulation disturbances, but no in ordinary forms. Although logical, nutritional supplements, whether enteral or parenteral, have no influence on the course of acute alcoholic hepatitis. The same applies to anabolic steroids, the association insulin-glucagon, antifibrosis agents or "hepatoprotectors". The elimination of alcoholic intoxication remains the most important point, accepted by all hepatologists.
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PMID:[Treatment of acute alcoholic alcoholism]. 768 Jan 91