SUMMARY1. Stimulation by a continuous intra-arterial infusion of secretin caused a marked vasodilatation in the pancreato-duodenal preparation or in the isolated pancreas perfused with whole heparinized blood. There was no difference in the vasomotor effects of two unequally purified preparations of secretin. The fact that the vasodilatation was still observed when the duodenum was removed proved that the haemodynamic effect of secretin was initiated in the pancreas itself.2. The secretary response of the pancreas to a given dose of secretin was larger when the blood pressure was kept constant by increasing the blood flow than when the blood pressure was allowed to fall by maintaining the blood flow at a fixed value. It is concluded that the vasodilatation plays a role in the functional regulation of the pancreatic response to secretin. 3. The correlation between blood flow and arterial pressure on the one hand, and the secretary response to secretin on the other, was not mediated by the control of respiration since there was no variation in oxygen uptake in response to a variation in the blood flow. This correlation was still observed when the venous blood was discarded and therefore could not be explained by variations in the rate of recirculation of secretin. It was observed too in experiments where the duodenum was removed, the pancreas alone being introduced into the perfusion apparatus, which indicated that this effect was not mediated by a control of the release of secretin by the duodenum.

e c t . P r e l h i m r y data o f a s y s t e n n t i c s c r e e n i n g of neonates a r e presented. The v a l u e s o f senun thyroxine (T4) and TSH were determined in the c o r d b l c c d o f 271 i n f a n t s . I n 152 o f these c h i l d r e n serumTSH was a g a i n measured o n a f i n g e r puncture sample a t 5 days o f age. A t b i r t h the v a r i a b i l i t y is irqx~rtant f o r T4 and TSH. On th6 5th day the s c a t t e r i n g o f TSH v a l u e s is much srraller and t h e rrrean is lower than a t b i r t h (< 0.031). In agreement w i t h previo u s l y r e p r t e d d a t a we found serum TSH l e v e l s o f 160 and 5CO U/d i n 2 hypothyroid i n f a n t s younger t h a n 1 m n t h . The strikin: d i f f e r e n c e beedeen t h e s e high TSH v a l u e s and the c o n t r o l v a l u e s observed o n the 5th day a l l m to s u p p r t the v i e d that this s c r e e n i n g procedure is r e l i a b l e f o r d e t e c t i n g c o n g e n i t a l kypthiTr. s a y a r i and D.Augier. S e r v i c e de MGdecine I n f a n t i l e C , U.E.R.Toulouse-R a n g u e i l . F r a n c e . I n 5 c o n f i r m e d h y p o t h y r o i d i a n s i n f a n t s t h e a v e r a g e is 160 ' 6 0 pg. I n 2 c a s e s o f a t h y r e o s i s t h e a v e r a g e i s 8 0 pg. T h i s method was u s e d f o r d e t e c t i o n o f h y p o t h y r o i d i s m i n one thousand o f newbornsby u s i n g s a m p l i n g s o b t a i n e d from t h e p h e n y l c e t o n u r i c d e t e c t i o n c e n t e r . We d e t e c t e d by t h i s way a c a s e of h y p o t h y r o i d i s m which w a s confirmed by t r a d i t i o n a l t e s t s . T h i s method seems t o t o t a l l y j u s t i f y i n g a n e o n a t a l d e t e c t i o n of h y p o t h y r o i d i s m on a b i g s c a l e . NEONATAL DETECTION OF HYPOTHYROIDISM BY R The a s s a y of T h y r o x i n (T4) h a s been made by radio-immunoassly i n t h e e l u a t e o f a few d r o p s o f b l o o d d e p o s i t e d on a p i e c e o f b l o t t i n GOITER DUE TO CONGENITAL DYSHORMOGENESIS: 32 FOLLOW UP STUDY IN 28 CHILDREN. Sonia lorcansky, Noe Altschuler, Cesar Bergad; and Martin Cullen. Serv. Endocr., Hosp. de Niiios, Buenos Aires, ArgentinoWe have studied 17 boys and 11 girls ( 7 pairs of siblings) with goiter over a period of 2-15 yrs. Methods : In all patients, 13lI-uptoke, PB1I3l, CR, SCNKdischarge, PBI, BE1 or Tq, column chromatograms of radioiodinated aminoacids in serum have been performed ; in some, chromatograms have been done olso in thyroid tissue and urine.Based on laboratory data, 5 groups have been formed. Althoughsynthesis of thyroid hormones is blocked in all enzyme defects, the course of the disease is varioble but charocteristic for each group : 1) in 7 of 8 children with complete peroxydase defect, brain damage and idiocy developed despite thyroid theropy beginning shortly after birth. 2)4 patients with Pendred s ndrome were euthyroid and had smoll goiters ; of 2 sisters with the some J i n i c a l picture,one showed the typical 1'31 discharge wherea...

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Human growth hormone bincing to liver membranes of rats with renal insufficiency.Binding sites for human growth hcrmone (hGH) were studied in liver membranes of female rats with chronic renal insufficiency (CRI) associated to marked growth retardation. One month after a subtotal nephrectomy the animals kith a plasma creatinine level > 3 times that of controls were studied ; their mean statural gain wag 56 % that of controls. The specific binding of I251-hG~ to microsomal membranes of rats with CRI was low (62 % that of controls). The number of binding sites rather than the affinity of the binding was affected ; both the lactogenic and the somatotropic sites were decreased as judged on the binding of 1 2 5~-o~~~ and 1 2 5~-b~~. The binding sites of the plasma membranes as well as those of Golgi fractions were reduced. In plasma membranes of rats with CRI the specific binding of glucagon was low and the specific binding of insulin was elevated ; these modifications were associated with a high plasma glucagon level and a decreasei insulinemia in rats with CRI. But no modification of the plasma GH and PRL was found ; the hormone level does not appear to regulate the GH binding sites in this system.The link between the growth defec: and the decreased number of GH binding sites in the liver meml~ranes of rats with CRI remains to be established. Testosterone (T) and dihydrotestoaterone (DHT) were found to bind to a specific protein in fornskin fibroblasts of a male pseudohermaphrodite with 5d(-reductase deficiency. While maximum number of binding sites (B max) were similar for both androgens, the apparent dissociation constant (Kd) of the androgen receptor for T was greater than for DHT. In competition studies of 3~-T bound to the receptor with unlabeled T or DHT, the inhibitor constant (K;) for T was two to three fold greater than the Kj for DHT. Also, the dissociation rate constant (kd) for 3~-T bound to the receptor was greater than for 3~-~~~ (t 112 for T = 10 h and t 112 for DHT = 74.5 h).These results suggest that T may play a role in the sexual differentiation of patients with 51-reductase deficiency. Their incomplete masculinization would be explained by the lower affinity and faster turnover rate of the T-receptor complex relative to the DHT-receptor complex.A. ROSCRER*, U. WIESMANN*, K. ZUPPINGER, Pediatric 31 Clinic, University of Berr e, 3010 Berne, Switzerland.Reduced plating efficient) of Turner's syndromefibroblasts. Evidence for a peripheral rezistance to growth factors? Short stature in Turner's syndrome (TS) has been postulated to be caused by reduced target organ re:ponsiveness to growth factors, although the experimental proof is lacking. Therefore growth properties and cell kinetics cf cultured skin fibroblasts from 5 patients with TS (45,XO) were characterized and compared to those of 5 normal fibroblast cultures using 10% fetal calf serum in Eagle's MEM medium as a source of growth factors. Replicate cultures were plated at 2000 cells/cm2 and grown for 8 days without medium change. Although the f...

Osmolality and electrolyte composition in duodenal aspirate of 10 subjects were studied following stimulation by a continuous infusion of secretin. It was observed that osmolality was variable within a single subject by more than 80 mOsm/kg in some experiments. This variation was found to be a function of bicarbonate concentration. In vivo and in vitro experiments lead to the authors’ conclusion that this phenomenon is not the result of admixture of gastric or biliary secretion to pancreatic juice.