The oral and intravenous glucose tolerance tests have been compared in middle-aged, normal-weight male non-smokers, ex-smokers and smokers who participated in a general health screening programme in Malmö, Sweden. Subjects with diabetes, previous gastric resection and/or present medication with diuretic agents were excluded. No difference was found when comparing fasting glucose in non-smokers, ex-smokers and smokers. In the oral glucose tolerance test, plasma glucose at 40 and 60 min increased stepwise from non-smokers (8.7 and 7.4 mmol/l) to ex-smokers (8.9 and 7.5 mmol/l), smokers (9.2 and 7.9 mmol/l) and heavy smokers (9.7 and 8.2 mmol/l). Blood glucose levels at 120 min were inversely arranged. Plasma insulin at 120 min was lower in heavy smokers (16.2 mU/l) than in non-smokers (24.8 mU/l). The mean intravenous glucose tolerance test k-value was lower in smokers than in non-smokers. K-values below 1.0 were twice as common in smokers (30%) as in non-smokers. It is concluded that smoking has a clinically significant influence on both the oral and intravenous glucose tolerance tests.

The observed benefits of venlafaxine treatment in elderly patients with major depression were similar to those observed in younger adults as were reported adverse events and side effects. Treatment with venlafaxine ER was well tolerated and induced beneficial effects of similar magnitude as those of citalopram.

We investigated the gastric emptying of a small solid meal in 21 healthy middle-aged men. Nine heavy smokers and 12 non-smokers were studied with a scintigraphic technique, using 99Tc-tin colloid as a tracer. All subjects had been instructed to abstain from smoking for at least 10 h before and during the examination. Smokers had on an average a shorter gastric emptying half-time (24.2 +/- 8.5 min) than non-smokers (40.6 +/- 14.1 min) (p less than 0.01). We conclude that habitual smoking has not only acute effects on gastric emptying but also a more long-standing influence.

Duplex Doppler ultrasound (DDU) was used to study the blood flow characteristics of the renal interlobar artery in 20 subjects with acute renal failure (ARF), 14 subjects with transient impairment of renal function and 23 control subjects with normal function. Renovascular resistance was assessed by pulsatility index (PI) and change in flow velocity by change in mean frequency shift (delta f). The 99% confidence intervals for PI in the three groups were 3.32-5.46, 1.58-2.34 and 0.99-1.33 respectively. Values for delta f were 0.2-0.38, 0.5-0.62 and 0.7-1.02 kHz respectively. Ten ARF patients recovered function, 99% confidence intervals for PI just prior to recovery were 0.9-1.48 and for delta f 0.52-1.02 kHz. There was increased renovascular resistance and reduced intrarenal blood flow velocity at the onset of ARF. These changes persisted during ARF; recovery of function occurred after they returned to normal. Similar, but less marked, changes were found in patients with a transient impairment of function.

This study describes a reliable and reproducible method of obtaining Doppler frequency shift waveforms from the uterine artery based on observations in 26 non-pregnant women. The waveforms werc detected easily but direct display of the vessel was inconsistent. The values of the pulsatility index calculated from the waveforms had a mean of 3.25 (SD 0-83). The standard error of the mean was 0.16 and based on this, the 95% reference range was 1.21 to 5.29. The stage of the menstrual cycle did not affect the pulsatility index nor was there any significant difference between subjects who were nulliparous and those who had had previous pregnancies. These results show that Doppler ultrasound can be applied to thc non-pregnant uterus and the data presented may be used as a baseline for the study of uterinc pathology.