Current medical research and opinion
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Controlled Clinical Trial
Corticotropin-releasing hormone expression in patients with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy after ursodeoxycholic acid treatment: an initial experience.
Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) is one of the most potent vasodilatory factors in the human feto-placental circulation. The expression of CRH was significantly down-regulated in patients with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP). ⋯ Maternal serum and placental CRH expression in ICP patients were up-regulated after treatment of UDCA. The up-regulation of CRH expression after UDCA treatment may play an important role in the therapeutic mechanism of ICP. All patients recruited in this study had severe cholestasis (TBA ≥ 40 µmol/L). Further studies are warranted in different gestational weeks and TBA levels to provide more evidence for the correlation between UDCA treatment and CRH expression in ICP patients.
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To identify the relationship between glycemic indices and β cell function in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. ⋯ A1C and glycemic variability were both associated with β cell function in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. The main limitations of the present study are the cross-sectional design in nature and the limited sample size.