The PRL response to TRH constitutes an important clinical tool for diagnosing forms of hyperprolactinemic syndrome. Hence it is important to establish the characteristics of the circadian variation ...in the response of PRL to TRH to improve the diagnostic value of the test. Six male subjects, ranging in age from 23 to 24 years, participated in this study. All were considered healthy on the basis of clinical examination, biochemical and hormonal tests. Six TRH tests were performed on each subject, one test every other day during a total span of 12 days. Each test was performed at a different clock hour: 0000, 0400, 0800, 1200, 1600, 2000. For the test, subjects received 200 microgram TRH intravenously. Blood samples were drawn from a catheterized arm vein before the TRH injection (basal value) and 20, 30, 60 and 120 min after injection. At each timepoint 5 endpoints were determined for PRL on each subject. The population mean cosinor, according to Halberg, was used to investigate the circadian rhythm in each of the endpoints. All the 5 endpoints for PRL are consistent on showing p values near 0.5 and acrophase estimates before midnight (while basal value displays acrophase at 0400). Further investigations are necessary to clarify these circadian rhythms and the shift of the acrophases.
In Down syndrome there is a high incidence of overt or subclinical hypothyroidism as well as some immunological defects, early thymic involution associated to low serum zinc levels. Zinc ...supplementation to the diet has been reported to transiently improve thymic function; moreover thymic function has been shown to be in relation with the pituitary-thyroid axis. The aim of this study was to evaluate if, in Down patients, zinc therapy could improve also thyroid function, by determining serum levels of total and free thyroid hormones and basal TSH levels. In 52 patients studied, we found a high incidence of subclinical hypothyroidism (30%); in 17 patients treated with zinc sulphate we showed a reduction of FT3. More significantly, we detected 9 patients with low zinc levels in which zinc supplementation improved thyroid function, thus reducing the incidence of subclinical hypothyroidism.
We present the FP420 R&D project, which has been studying the key aspects of the development and installation of a silicon tracker and fast-timing detectors in the LHC tunnel at 420 m from the ...interaction points of the ATLAS and CMS experiments. These detectors would measure precisely very forward protons in conjunction with the corresponding central detectors as a means to study Standard Model (SM) physics, and to search for and characterise New Physics signals. This report includes a detailed description of the physics case for the detector and, in particular, for the measurement of Central Exclusive Production, pp --> p + phi + p, in which the outgoing protons remain intact and the central system phi may be a single particle such as a SM or MSSM Higgs boson. Other physics topics discussed are gamma-gamma and gamma-p interactions, and diffractive processes. The report includes a detailed study of the trigger strategy, acceptance, reconstruction efficiencies, and expected yields for a particular p p --> p H p measurement with Higgs boson decay in the b-bbar mode. The document also describes the detector acceptance as given by the LHC beam optics between the interaction points and the FP420 location, the machine backgrounds, the new proposed connection cryostat and the moving ("Hamburg") beam-pipe at 420 m, and the radio-frequency impact of the design on the LHC. The last part of the document is devoted to a description of the 3D silicon sensors and associated tracking performances, the design of two fast-timing detectors capable of accurate vertex reconstruction for background rejection at high-luminosities, and the detector alignment and calibration strategy.
Autonomous adenoma of the thyroid Francomano, F; De Remigis, P L; Rossi, M ...
Minerva medica,
1986-Feb-28, Letnik:
77, Številka:
7-8
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Toxic goitre often referred to in the literature as "autonomous" adenoma or nodule actually signifies a number of different pathologies that are characterised by autonomy and hyperfunction so that it ...is now thought more appropriate to call it an autonomous follicle. Clinical features and the hormone profile suggest the diagnosis which is confirmed by scintiscan with curve as well as dynamic inhibition and stimulation tests using TRH, procedures that reveal both latent hyperfunction and autonomy. The most common current therapeutic approach is surgical since this provides a complete cure while leaving the surrounding thyroid tissue undisturbed.
Glutathione peroxidases, glutathione transferase, glutathione reductase and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase activities were analyzed in human thyroid tissues obtained from 17 patients undergoing ...resectional surgery because of a malignancy. It was deduced, from measurements of glutathione peroxidase activity with both H202 and cumene hydroperoxide, that thyroid contains only the selenium enzyme. The absence of selenium independent glutathione peroxidase activity in thyroid was confirmed with gel filtration experiments. An interindividual variation of about 28-fold was found measuring glutathione transferase activity with 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene. Subjecting a fraction of human thyroid cytosols partially purified by G-100 Sephadex column to isoelectricfocusing run, a single peak of glutathione transferase activity centered at pH 4.6 was obtained. An adequate level of glutathione reductase and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase activities was also found in all specimens investigated.
We explored the circadian variation of core temperature, heart rate and blood pressure in hypothyroid and euthyroid male Sprague-Dawley rats. A circadian rhythm was quantified by the population ...mean-cosinor method for the core temperature of both hypothyroid and intact rats, whereas for the blood pressure and heart rate values a circadian rhythm was validated by rejection of the zero-amplitude assumption only in the hypothyroid rats. Whether hypothyroid rats adjust to new schedules at a rate different from euthyroid animals is an inference from these studies awaiting scrutiny.
The clinical significance of T3 assay is related to the discovery of T3 thyrotoxicosis, a form of hyperthyroidism caused by an overproduction of alone T3 with normal value of T4. We evaluated the ...prevalence and the clinical features of this form in a group of 850 subjects who were submitted to clinical examination and hormonal thyroid assay. We showed that T3 thyrotoxicosis is a mild condition of hyperthyroidism.
We have designed a silicon microstrip detector to measure angular distribution and multiplicity of charged particles produced in high-energy Pb-Pb interactions for the NA50 experiment.
NA50 will ...investigate the production of resonances decaying to dimuons at the CERN SpS. Given the low cross-section for these reactions, the experiment will have to function at very high rate, while the need to limit the background due to decays of π and K mesons imposes an absorber very close to the target, resulting in a very short space available for the multiplicity detector.
The multiplicity detector will therefore have to be very fast (dead time below 50 ns), radiation resistant (up to the Mrad level as dose and up to more than 10
13 particles/cm
2 as non-ionizing damage), compact (less than 12 cm along the beam) and of high granularity (in order to achieve a good resolution in central collisions with up to 1000 particles in the acceptance). The conditions on noise, speed and radiation hardness are comparable to the ones foreseen at the future Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
We present the detector design and the first results on the components of the system which have been produced and tested up to now. In particular, we report on the performance achieved by the first complete detector modules (including two full-custom VLSI ASICs) and by the transputer-based readout system.
