Reduced consumption of analgesics in patients with diabetes mellitus admitted to hospital for acute myocardial infarction.

In a case-control study, the consumption of analgesics was analysed in 39 patients with diabetes, admitted with acute myocardial infarction (MI). The control group comprised of non-diabetics with MI was computer-matched to the diabetic group with respect to age and sex as well as enzyme-estimated size of the infarction. The median number of injections of opioid analgesics in the diabetes and non-diabetes groups was 2 and 5, respectively (0.01 less than P less than 0.05), and the median consumption of morphine was 20 mg and 35 mg, respectively (0.01 less than P less than 0.05). There was no statistically significant trend for the duration of pain to be shorter in the diabetes group. There was no difference between the two groups with respect to number of patients with Q-wave infarct, initial heart rate-blood pressure product or body weight, all of which are possible confounders. We conclude that diabetics admitted with acute myocardial infarction have a lower consumption of analgesics than non-diabetics.

[New molecular markers within the chronic myeloproliferative disorders. I: the PRV-1 gene]. / Nye molekylaere markører ved de kroniske myeloproliferative sygdomme. I. Polycythaemia rubra vera-1-genet.

PRV-1 is a new molecular marker within the Ph-negative chronic myeloproliferative disorders. PRV-1 is a useful, highly sensitive and specific marker in the differentiation between polycythaemia vera (PV) and secondary erythrocytosis (ET), and seems to identify those PV patients presenting in the early phase of the disease with dominating thrombocytosis and thus a clinical phenotype of ET. These PRV-1 positive ET patients can be regarded as having "masked" PV or, more accurately, as having early PV. Moreover, PRV-1 positivity may be associated with a particular risk of thromboembolic complications. The biological role of PRV-1 and the significance of alterations in PRV-1 gene expression levels during treatment remain to be clarified.

[New molecular markers within the chronic myeloproliferative disorders. II: the JAK2 mutation]. / Nye molekylaere markører ved de kroniske myeloproliferative sygdomme. II. Janus tyrosinkinase 2-mutationen.

The Philadelphia-negative chronic myeloproliferative disorders feature autonomous myeloid hyperproliferation and hypersensitivity to a number of growth factors, which most recently have been shown to be explained by a guanine-to-thymidine mutation in the Janus tyrosine kinase (JAK2) gene, implicating that phenylalanine is substituted with valine in position 617 (V617F mutation). JAK2 is of particular importance to haematopoiesis, since JAK2 proteins are activated mainly by the haematopoietic growth factors. The JAK2 mutation is present in most patients with polycythaemia vera and about 50% of patients with essential thrombocytosis and idiopathic myelofibrosis. The identification of the JAK2 mutation is a major molecular breakthrough in the understanding of the pathobiology of these disorders, and it is a new molecular marker to be used in the future classification of the diseases as well as a simple and rapid diagnostic test. The mutated JAK2 tyrosine kinase is an obvious potential target for a small-molecule inhibitor of tyrosine kinase activity.