Plasma factor VII and its relation to adipose tissue fatty acids and other atherogenic risk factors in healthy men.

In this study the authors examined the relationships of plasma factor VII (F-VII) to adipose tissue fatty acid composition, as an objective index of the habitual dietary fat intake, as well as to a number of other atherogenic risk factors in 60 healthy male volunteers (aged 38 years). Significant positive correlations were found between plasma F-VII [measured as antigen (F-VIIAg) and coagulant activity, using bovine thromboplastin (F-VIIbt)] and body mass index (BMI), waist-thigh girth ratio (WTR), cigarette smoking and plasma triglyceride concentration. After adjustment for BMI, only plasma triglycerides remained positively correlated with F-VII (r = 0 center dot 27, P = 0 center dot 03, and r = 0 center dot 29, P < 0 center dot 01, for F-VIIbt and F-VIIAg respectively). A significant positive relation was found between F-VII and the total proportion of fatty acid as monounsaturated fatty acid (r = 0 center dot 26, P < 0 center dot 05, for F-VIIAg), whereas inverse relations were found between F-VII, the total proportion of fatty acid as polyunsaturated fatty acid (r = -0 center dot 26 and r = -0 center dot 25, P < 0 center dot 05, for F-VIIbt and F-VIIAg respectively), polyunsaturated-saturated fat ratio (r = -0 center dot 25, P < 0 center dot 05, for F-VIIbt) and, more significantly, between F-VII and adipose-tissue alpha-linolenic acid (r = -0 center dot 29, P < 0 center dot 01, for F-VIIbt and r = -0 center dot 49, P < 0 center dot 001, for F-VIIAg). All these correlations remained significant after matching for BMI. In a multiple linear regression analysis, only adipose tissue alpha-linolenic acid was a negative and independent predictor of F-VIIAg (P = 0 center dot 004) and, at borderline significance, of F-VIIbt (P = 0 center dot 061) when allowance was made for BMI, WTR, smoking and plasma triglycerides. In conclusion, this study shows significant relations between F-VII and adipose tissue fatty acid composition in healthy male individuals; it supports the possibility that adipose tissue poly-unsaturated fatty acids, derived from dietary intake, play a role in the relation between F-VII and coronary heart disease (CHD), thus suggesting that high dietary polyunsaturated fatty acid intake (especially alpha-linolenic acid) may reduce the risk for CHD by an improvement of a number of risk factors, including a lowering of plasma F-VII (both activity and antigen).

Excessive tea consumption can inhibit the efficacy of oral iron treatment in iron-deficiency anemia.

Intestinal absorption of non-heme food iron may be inhibited by tea, which, on the contrary, does not exert any appreciable effect on heme iron assimilation. Therefore, while an iron-deficiency anemia cannot develop in non-vegetarian subjects as a consequence of tea consumption only, it is possible that tea could inhibit the therapeutic effect of oral iron drugs, which are usually non-hemic ferrous salts, in iron-deficient subjects. This view is supported by the case we describe here, a young woman affected by hypermenorrhea and iron-deficiency anemia, who did not respond to oral iron treatment until she stopped her long-established habit of consuming large quantities of tea. We also believe that oral iron drugs should never be taken together with a cup of tea; therefore we think it useful to advise our iron-deficient patients clearly not to combine tea with the oral consumption of non-hemic ferrous salts.

Controlled comparison of ketanserin and nifedipine in Raynaud's phenomenon.

Twenty-eight patients suffering from either primary or secondary Raynaud's phenomenon were treated with nifedipine and ketanserin. Each patient was treated with one of the two drugs administered after an adequate washout period. Furthermore each patient was submitted before and after treatment with each drug to computerized digital thermometry to evaluate the therapeutic response. The data obtained during the intake of the two drugs at zero, five, and twenty-three minutes were compared with thermometry-relevant baseline data at the same periods. Ketanserin proved to be useful in the treatment of Raynaud's phenomenon and statistically significantly superior (alpha less than 0.05) with respect to nifedipine in the thermometric controls and also in the subjective evaluation of the patients (p less than 0.02). In this study nifedipine did not show particular efficacy. Furthermore only 2 patients had to discontinue treatment with ketanserin, whereas 8 had to discontinue treatment with nifedipine (p less than 0.001).