The results give further evidence that FDG-PET is an important non-invasive method for the differentiation of chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. Delayed image acquisition in the glycolysis plateau phase permits improved diagnostic performance. This imaging technique is extremely helpful before operation in patients with an otherwise unclear pancreatic mass, despite its costs.

Considering the different diagnostic circumstances, therapeutic strategies and the limitations of a systematic analysis of case reports due to the restricted number of case reports and limited follow-up we found no consistent relation of the TSHR mutation's IVA determined by LRA with the CC of patients with SNAH. This may also be due to the action of genetic, epigenetic, and environmental modifiers.

The biologic effect of human insulin (recombinant DNA) and purified pork insulin (PPI) was compared during insulin-induced hypoglycemia at two intravenous dosages 0.075 and 0.1 U/kg body wt in healthy volunteers. Serum insulin concentrations and plasma glucose curves were identical. PPI induced a significantly (P less than 0.05) higher output of epinephrine, growth hormone, and cortisol at both doses. Less inhibition (P less than 0.05) of endogenous insulin secretion was observed for human insulin at 0.1 kg body wt. An elevated incidence of sweating during hypoglycemia was related to epinephrine secretion. The results indicate that homologous insulin produces in vivo effects which are different from those produced by heterologous insulin.

The rate of bactaeremia following surgical endoscopy of the upper gastrointestinal tract is reported with up to 50% depending on the therapeutic measure performed. In a prospective study we examined 160 patients treated by surgical endoscopy of the upper digestive tract. The rate of bactaeremia showed a significant difference with 12.5% after diagnostic and 28.96% after surgical endoscopy. Our results recommend a single shot antibiotic prophylaxis depending on the endoscopic measure performed and the patient's individual risk.

The majority of constitutively activating mutations (CAMs) of the thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor display a partially activated receptor. Thus, full receptor activation requires a multiplex activation process. To define impacts of different transmembrane helices (TMHs) on cooperative signal transduction, we combined single CAMs in particular TMHs to double mutations and measured second messenger accumulation of the G(alpha)s and the G(alpha)q pathway. We observed a synergistic increase for basal activity of the G(alpha)s pathway, for all characterized double mutants except for two combinations. Each double mutation, containing CAMs in TMH2, 6 and 7 showed the highest constitutive activities, suggesting that these helices contribute most to G(alpha)s-mediated signaling. No single CAM revealed constitutive activity for the G(alpha)q pathway. The double mutations with CAMs from TMH1, 2, 3 and 6 also exhibited increase for basal G(alpha)q signaling. Our results suggest that TMH2, 6, 7 show selective preferences towards G(alpha)s signaling, and TMH1, 2, 3, 6 for G(alpha)q signaling.