OBJECTIVES Fungi have been suspected of contributing to the pathogenesis of sarcoidosis. A previous intervention study demonstrated an improvement in the clinical condition in 15 out of 18 patients with a long-term history of sarcoidosis when antifungal medication was added to corticosteroids. The present study was performed to compare the effects of antifungal treatment with corticosteroid tre...

Gene Insertion/Deletion Polymorphism by the TaqMan Method, Werner Koch, Wolfgang Latz, Marianne Eichinger, Claudia Ganser, Albert Schömig, and Adnan Kastrati (Deutsches Herzzentrum München and 1. Medizinische Klinik, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany; * address correspondence to this author at: Deutsches Herzzentrum München, Lazarettstrasse 36, D-80636 Mu...

AIM To describe the pattern of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor doses prescribed by general physicians for patients with chronic heart failure and to review the current evidence favouring the use of higher doses. DESIGN A retrospective survey of the medications of 125 patients with chronic heart failure (in both inpatient and outpatient settings) was carried out between December ...

of fructosamine values between these two populations are not significantly different. These results imply two different distributions for measurements of Hb A1 but the same gaussian (anamorphosis) distribution for measurements of fructosamine. H,qerglycemk patients. Statistical analysis of the data (Mann-Whitney test) shows a significant difference of fructosamine averages between normal subjec...

The acute effect of cigarette smoking on serum angiotensin-converting enzyme activity was evaluated in 6 healthy subjects consisting of 4 non-smokers and 2 habitual smokers. Cigarette smoking resulted in rapid increases in serum converting enzyme activity in 5 of 6 subjects within 5 min. and the converting enzyme activity remained above the control value at 30 min. The increase in the enzyme ac...

1. Captopril or SQ 14 225, administered orally twice a day, reduced the blood pressure of hypertensive patients whatever their clinical diagnosis and even when their plasma renin activity was 'normal' or low. 2. Long-term administration of captopril, either alone or together with diuretics, provides a powerful new tool with which to treat ambulatory hypertensive patients. 3. The renin system ma...

In the early 1990s, the idea first arose that plasma concentrations of B type natriuretic peptide (BNP) might help target scarce cardiac investigations towards the most deserving. This mainly referred to the possibility that BNP could detect which patients had heart failure and which did not. This was based on the fact that echocardiography slots were limited, and that heart failure was hard to...

A 12-year-old girl was seen for a 2-month history of multiple asymptomatic lesions on the face. She denied applying any topical products and there were no accompanying systemic symptoms. Physical examination revealed multiple, confluent, infiltrated, yellowish papules in the central facial region (perioral, perinasal, and palpebral) (Figure 1). No similar lesions were observed elsewhere on the ...

Angiotensin converting enzyme was assayed in serum free culture supernatants from unstimulated rheumatoid nodule cells. Angiotensin converting enzyme was released spontaneously and the angiotensin converting enzyme derived from rheumatoid nodule cells was suppressed in a dose and time dependent manner by the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide. These data suggest the constitutive de novo ...

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