PI and RI correlated to the severity of the renal disease, as reflected by the rate of decline in reciprocal serum creatinine during antihypertensive treatment. The median RI or PI value could separate the patients into groups one of slow and another of fast progression.
The aim was to study the methodological aspects of the muscle twitch interpolation technique in estimating the maximal force of contraction in the quadriceps muscle utilizing commercial muscle testing equipment. Six healthy subjects participated in seven sets of experiments testing the effects on twitch size of potentiation, time lag after potentiation, magnitude of voluntary force, stimulus amplitude, stimulus duration, angle of the knee, and angle of the hip. In addition, the consequences of submaximal potentiation on the estimation of maximal force from twitch sizes were studied in five healthy subjects. We found an increase in twitch size with increasing levels of potentiation and twitch size decreased exponentially following potentiation. We found a curvilinear relationship between twitch size and voluntary force, and these properties were more obvious when the stimulation intensity of the preload was reduced. The relationship between twitch size and force was only linear, for force levels greater than 25% of maximum. It was concluded that to achieve an accurate estimate of true maximal force of muscle contraction, it would be necessary for the subject to be able to perform at least 75% of the true maximal force.
Obese individuals are characterized by low circulating adiponectin concentrations and an increased number of macrophages in adipose tissue, which is believed to be causally associated with chronic low-grade inflammation and insulin resistance. Regular physical exercise decreases overall morbidity in obese subjects, which may be due to modulations of inflammatory pathways. In this randomized clinical trial we investigated the separate effects of endurance training-induced weight loss, diet-induced weight loss, and endurance training per se (without weight loss) on plasma adiponectin multimer composition (Western blotting) and adipose tissue macrophage content (immunohistochemistry) in young, moderately overweight men. Weight loss and endurance training per se decreased whole body fat percentage in an additive manner. No intervention-induced changes were observed for plasma total adiponectin. Surprisingly, endurance training, irrespectively of any associated weight loss, shifted the adiponectin multimer distribution toward a lower molecular weight (21% decrease in HMW/LMW, P = 0.015), whereas diet-induced weight loss shifted the distribution toward a higher molecular weight (42% increase in HMW/MMW, P < 0.001). Furthermore, endurance training per se increased the number of anti-inflammatory CD163⁺ macrophages [from 12.7 ± 2.1 (means ± SE) to 16.1 ± 3.1 CD163⁺ cells/100 adipocytes, P = 0.013], whereas diet-induced weight loss tended to decrease CD68⁺ macrophages in subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue. Thus regular physical exercise influences systemic and adipose tissue inflammatory pathways differently than diet-induced weight loss in younger, moderately overweight men. Our data suggest that some of the health benefits of a physically active lifestyle may occur through modulations of anti- rather than pro-inflammatory pathways in young, overweight men.
The limit of agreement between GFR(DTPA) and GFR(EDTA) are acceptable and, therefore, GFR estimated from 99mTc-DTPA renography is acceptable for clinical use in patients with reduced renal function. Furthermore, the method is simple and less time consuming compared with renal clearance techniques.
Progressive central hypovolemia is characterized by a normotensive, tachycardic stage followed by a reversible, hypotensive stage with slowing of the heart rate (HR). We investigated circulatory changes and arterial hormone concentrations in response to lower-body negative pressure (LBNP) in six volunteers before and after atropine administration. LBNP of 55 mmHg initially resulted in an increase in HR from 55 +/- 4 to 90 +/- 5 beats/min and decreases in mean arterial pressure (MAP) from 94 +/- 4 to 81 +/- 5 mmHg, in central venous pressure from 7 +/- 1 to -3 +/- 1 mmHg, and in cardiac output from 6.1 +/- 0.5 to 3.7 +/- 0.11/min. Concomitantly, epinephrine and norepinephrine levels increased. After 8.2 +/- 2.3 min of LBNP, the MAP had decreased to 41 +/- 7 mmHg and HR had decreased to 57 +/- 3 beats/min. Vasopressin increased from 1.2 +/- 0.3 to 137 +/- 45 pg/ml and renin activity increased from 1.45 +/- 4.0 to 3.80 +/- 1.0 ng.ml-1.h-1 with no further changes in epinephrine, norepinephrine, and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide. A tardy rise in pancreatic polypeptide indicated increased vagal activity. After atropine. LBNP also caused an initial increase in HR, which, however, remained elevated during the subsequent decrease in MAP to 45 +/- 6 mmHg occurring after 8.1 +/- 2.4 min.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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