Effets de l'administration d'un decocte de thymus capitatus sur la fonction renale et la lithogenese chez le rat

Parmi les plantes medicinales les plus utilisees en Tunisie; figure le thymus capitatus; plus connu sous le nom de thym. L'administration pendant deux semaines d'un decocte de thym ameliore la fonction renale et entraine des baisses significatives des concentrations renales en exalates; en urates; en phosphates et en calcium. Ces baisses semblent etre provoquees par les chutes des excretions urinaires de l'acide oxalique et urique et par l'elevation de la zinciurie. Une legere amelioration de la fonction renale a ete mise en evidence egalement chez les animaux traites. Ces resultats laissent supposer que le thym pourrait etre une plante de choix dans la prevention et peut etre aussi; dans le traitement des lithiases renales

[Is sucrose a risk factor in calculus formation?]. / Le saccharose est-il un facteur de risque de la lithogenèse?

The addition of sucrose to drinking water of rats at the rate of 2.5 or 5 grams per 100 ml, for one month, induced hypercalciuria which appeared to be dependent on the degree of supplementation. In spite of these disorders, calcium deposits were not observed in treated animals. This protection against renal calculi was probably due to high urinary excretions of magnesium, phosphorus, zinc and copper. These lithogenesis inhibitors varied, like oxaluria and calciuria, in parallel with dietary sucrose intake.

[Diabetes and color vision disorder detected by the Farnsworth 100 Hue test. Diabetic dyschromatopsia]. / Diabète et trouble de la vision des couleurs détectés par le 100 Hue de Farnsworth. Dyschromatopsie diabétique.

Farnsworth 100 Hue test was used to investigate color vision in 100 diabetic patients. Blue Yellow axis dyschromatopsia was found in 66.5% of patients. Such a dyschromatopsia precedes diabetic retinopathy in 55% of patients. Its frequency increased as a function of the increasing severity of diabetic retinopathy. On the other hand, 36% of the patients suffering from dyschromatopsia misinterpreted the self-monitoring (urine and blood) tests. These results suggest that the investigation of color vision may be a useful tool for the early screening of diabetic retinopathy particularly in self-monitoring patients.

[Extraction of urinary pregnanediol and estriol by the Bio-Rad column]. / Extraction du prégnandiol et de l'estriol urinaires par colonne Bio-Rad.

In the present study, we have evaluated the quality control parameters of a new method for the determination of the urinary Pregnandiol and Estriol using a small column AG 1X2 proposed by Bio-Rad Laboratories. The principle of this method is based on a single extraction of steroids by ion exchange and methanol elution under different pH conditions. Compared to the "classical" methods using solvent extraction, the present method has some advantages mainly the elimination of the use of large volumes of solvents and the reduction of the sample volume to be analyzed. The preliminary results showed a recovery of 89,0% - 98,9% (C.V. = 5%) for Estriol and 83,8% - 93, 2% C.V = 5%) for Pregnandiol . The precision of the method evaluated by its repeatability and between-assay reproductibility showed 4% and 6% variation for Estriol and Pregnandiol . The Comparison of the present method with a classical one using Ether/Ethanol (4/1) for extraction gave us a very good correlation.

Amino acid composition of the diet in a region of Southern Tunisia.

As part of a study of the effects of lysine supplementation of wheat products in Southern Tunisia one qualitative and four quantitative surveys of food consumption were carried out. The average diet provided 7.1 MJ (1,670 kcal), 42 g of protein and 1,280 mg of lysine per person per day. The overall dietary protein thus supplied only 31 mg of lysine/g of protein, or about 56% of the level recommended by the FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Protein Requirements. Addition of lysine to all wheat products to a final effective concentration of 0.2% would raise the dietary lysine level to 45 mg/g protein, or 82% of the FAO/WHO recommended level, at which time threonine would become limiting. Irrespective of whether the FAO/WHO pattern of 1973, breast milk, cow's milk, whole egg or a modification of the FAO pattern of 1957 was used to assess the quality of the protein in the diet, lysine was the first, and threonine the second limiting amino acid (except in comparison with breast milk, which showed tryptophan as the second limiting amino acid). In no case did there appear to be any problem with the sulfur-containing amino acids.

Nutritional correlates of child development in southern Tunisia. IV. The relation of deciduous dental eruption to somatic development.

Deciduous dental eruption in a group of 658 children below 3 years of age in Southern Tunisia was found to be correlated with the general somatic development. On the other hand, this association was less close than that among the different components of somatic growth, suggesting that dental eruption is less affected by the factors which delay somatic growth in that area. Attempts were made to obtain methods of estimating the ages of children using the number of erupted deciduous teeth, both by means of regression equations and by a table of the median age of children with different numbers of pairs of teeth. In both cases the estimates obtainable are not accurate enough to do more than divide the children into coarse age groups. It is concluded that in anthropometric work there is no substitute for accurately known chronological ages.