Administration of fidarestat after breakfast was effective in significantly alleviating some symptoms of diabetic polyneuropathy. The C64 quantitative tuning fork analysis is useful in the diagnosis of diabetic polyneuropathy, and as a measure of the severity of the neuropathological symptoms of this condition.

To assess the significance of serum basement membrane- and type III procollagen-related antigens in reflecting the degree of liver fibrosis, we measured radioimmunologically the concentrations of 7S collagen, laminin fragment P1, and the aminoterminal propeptide of type III procollagen (P-III-P) in serum from 48 patients with chronic viral liver disease: chronic persistent hepatitis (9), chronic active hepatitis (13), chronic active hepatitis with lobular disorganization (17), and liver cirrhosis (9). Concentrations of 7S collagen, laminin P1, and P-III-P in serum were increased in respectively 92%, 69%, and 77% of the patients with both chronic active hepatitis with lobular disorganization and liver cirrhosis. Concentrations of 7S collagen and laminin P1 in serum correlated well (r = 0.65, P less than 0.001, and r = 0.55, P less than 0.001, respectively) with the histological grade of liver fibrosis, whereas P-III-P correlated only weakly (r = 0.33, P less than 0.05). Evidently, measurement of serum 7S collagen is a reliable noninvasive test for detection of fibrosis in chronic viral liver disease.

No abstract