Several reports suggest that urinary albumin excretion may be elevated in patients with essential hypertension and that this index may be a good predictor for cardiovascular complications. The aim of this study was to compare 24-hour urinary albumin excretion in a group of normotensives, borderline, and untreated mild hypertertensives and to assess, in a subgroup of them, the possible relations between microalbuminuria and arterial blood pressure. Fifteen normotensives, 16 borderline, and 19 mild hypertensive patients were studied. Slightly but significantly higher values of microalbuminuria were observed in the mild hypertensives compared to the other two groups. In 21 borderline and mild hypertensive patients 24-hour microalbuminuria was related to casual blood pressure and noninvasive ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. A significant correlation was found between microalbuminuria and average day-time diastolic blood pressure. Our data suggest that albumin excretion is slightly increased in mild arterial essential hypertension; the direct association between microalbuminuria and arterial diastolic blood pressure during daily activities seems to confirm a pathophysiological link between transcapillary protein escape and arterial blood pressure that warrants further studies.

The effect of endogenous thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) on the thyroid secretion of triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) was evaluated by serial determinations of serum T3, T4 and TSH concentrations in the following groups of patients: a) three patients submitted to surgical removal of a solitary, autonomous thyroid nodule which had completely inhibited the extranodular tissue; b) five subjects, with the same disease, in whom functional recovery of the extranodular tissue was induced by increased circulating TSH levels, produced by treatment with methimazole; c) one patient submitted to hemithyroidectomy for multinodular goitre; d) two hyperthyroid patients who had been treated with methimazole. In all these patients serum T3 and T4 levels progressively decreased, with a consequent progressive increase in serum TSH concentrations, leading to stimulation of the thyroid gland. During this TSH\x=req-\ induced stimulation of thyroid tissue, a significant positive correlation was found between the serum TSH concentrations and the corresponding ratio betwen the serum levels of T3 and T4 (T3/T4), both within each patient group (P < 0.001) and among all patients (P < 0.001). The same correlation also governs the relationship between the TSH and the T3/T4 values of 34 euthyroid control subjects and one patient with incipient hypothyroidism. These data strongly suggest that endogenous TSH can induce a preferential secretion of T3 over T4 by the human thyroid.A relative hypersécrétion of triiodothyronine (T3) over thyroxine (T,) may be observed both in mild, or incipient, hypothyroidism and in endemic goitre, as indicated by the observation of the ratio between circulating T., and T4 (T3/T4) being above the normal range (lngbar 8c Woeber 1974). The increased T3/T(

No abstract

Cases of contact dermatitis caused by Nereis diversicolor, a marine worm used as bait for fishing, are rare. The first cases were reported in 1957 by two French dermatologists, Monte1 and Gouyer (6), who applied the term escavenite to itchy lesions on the fingertips of the right hand, observed in some fishermen in the St Raphael area of the C&e d'Azur. In Italy, while the first cases were reported by Strani et al. (10) from the Ligurian coast (near Alassio), the most recent case has been described by Angelini et al. (1). A similar case of contact dermatitis from another kind of marine worm, Lumbrinereis impatients, was reported by Romaguera et al. (8), on the coast near Barcelona (Spain).Our report documents a case we observed in the allergology outpatient department. Case reportA 23-year-old male university student had eczematous lesions on the fingers of his left hand and on his right thumb. The finger skin showed marked erythema, induration, and scaling; the right thumb also showed rhagades and signs of onycholysis (Fig. 1). The lesions were itchy and painful. Dermatitis was absent elsewhere.His relevant past history included intermittent rhi-Copyright 0 Munksgaard 1995 ALLERGY ~