Effect of beta-carotene supplementation on the activity of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) in stomach mucosa of patients with chronic atrophic gastritis.

Increase of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity is known to be associated with cell proliferation and, very likely, with tumour promotion. This prompted us to study the activity of ODC in gastric mucosa of patients with chronic atrophic gastritis that has been considered as a precursor of stomach cancer. Examination of 124 patients with this disease revealed the considerable increase in ODC activity in atrophic mucosa (29.8 +/- 2.9 vs 7.9 +/- 1.8 units in normal mucosa, p = 0.001). Supplementation of the patient's diet with beta-carotene (20 mg daily during 3 weeks) results in a statistically significant decrease in ODC activity in gastric mucosa. The data obtained confirm the possibility of application of ODC determination to the detection of early premalignant lesions and suggest the antipromoter activity of beta-carotene in gastric carcinogenesis.

[Endothelin in arterial hypertension]. / Endotelin pri arterial'noi gipertonii.

A study was made of the concentration of endothelin (ET) in the plasma of patients suffering from arterial hypertension (AH), heart failure (HF) and in that of healthy volunteers. The concentration of ET in the normal subjects was within 4.0-8.6 pg/ml, in the patients with AH, it varied from 5.7 to 64.5 pg/ml, and in the patients suffering from HF, from 8.8 to 94.0 pg/ml. A subgroup of patients with essential hypertension, stage II B, showed a tendency towards a rise of the ET concentration in response to orthostatic load that was associated with an increase of the concentration of angiotensin-2.

[Plasma mineralocorticoids--aldosterone and desoxycorticosterone-- in patients with"low-renin"arterial hypertension]. / Mineralokortikoidy plazmy--al'dosteron i dezoksikortikosteron-- u bol'nykh s "nuzkoreninovoi" arterial'noi gipertoniei.

The plasma aldosterone (A) and desoxycorticosterone (DOCS) levels were measured in 10 patients with primary aldosteronism and in 2 subgroups with low-renin hypertensive disease (LRHD): (1) those with normal adrenal glands++ (n - 11) and (2) those with structural changes in the cortex (n - 11). The patients from Subgroup 1 showed the lowest basal A and DOCS levels (107.29 +/- 12.90 and 0.080 +/- 0.013 ng/ml, respectively) and low concentrations of the two hormones after stimulation of 4-hour walk (211.57 +/- 30.47 and 0.095 +/- 0.024 ng/mg, respectively). In the patients from Subgroup 2, the basal and 4-hour post-walk++ A and DOCS contents were increased in the cortex (basal 201.50 +/- 41.59 and 0.177 +/- 0.36 ng/mg and poststimulation 331.33 +/- 30.47 and 0.302 +/- 0.061 ng/ml, respectively). Some patients with primary aldosteronism displayed the same DOCS response to stimulation as did those with LRHD in the presence of structural cortical changes. Histological examination of operative biopsy specimens indicated that higher DOCS levels were associated with diffuse nodal hyperplasia of the zona fasciculata in the cortex. The results suggest that there may be a LRHD variant running with excessive DOCS secretion and related to pathogenetically related to hyperplasia of predominantly the zone fasciculata in the adrenal cortex.

[Use of prazosin in patients with hypertension]. / Primenenie prazozina u bol'nykh gipertonicheskoi bolezn'iu.

Clinical trials of the alpha-adreno-blocker prazosin (Pratsiol as produced by "Orion", Finland) were carried out in 42 patients with essential hypertension, stages 2-3 by WHO classification, and 3 patients with nephrogenic hypertension. Daily doses of the drug varied between 3 and 20 mg. Good hypotensive effect was noted in 51% of patients whose cardiac index had not originally exceeded 4.5 r/min/m2 and showed no basic rise under the effect of treatment, total peripheral resistance was never below 1200 din X sec X cm-5, and heart rate kept below 80 beats per minute. In cases of higher cardiac index and heart rate values, prazosin had little or no effect. A daily dose of 8-10 mg may be considered an optimum regimen. Sinus tachycardia was the most common of side-effects. The drug was particularly effective where hypertension was combined with bradycardia.

[Optimal method of the hypotensive treatment of hypertension with diuretics and sodium chloride substitutes]. / Metod optimizatsii gipotenzivnoi terapii bol'nykh gipertonicheskoi bolezn'iu diuretikami i zameniteliami povarennoi soli.

The therapeutic efficacy of combined and separate application of a diuretic (brinaldix) and beta-adrenoblocker (visken) was compared in the treatment of 69 patients with essential hypertension running a stable course; the patients were kept on a low-sodium diet (4-6 g NaCl daily) and given a potassium substitute for NaCl.