Presse Med
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To study the relationship between retinal and renal microangiopathy, the albumin excretion rate (AER) was measured by radioimmunoassay in 111 insulin-dependent diabetics and compared to their stages of retinopathy, as assessed by ophthalmoscopic examination and fluorescein angiography. The prevalence of pathological AER differed from that of diabetic retinopathy. The stage of retinopathy was related to the duration of diabetes (r = 0.59; P = 0.001), which was not the case for AER (r = 0.06; ns). ⋯ The highest prevalence of hypertension was found in patients with macroalbuminuria (greater than 500 mg/24 h) and/or severe retinopathy. The mean AER was higher in hypertensive diabetics than in non-hypertensive diabetics (P less than 0.005). These results suggest that the risk of retinopathy is dissociated from the risk of glomerulopathy in diabetics, and that hypertension associates with diabetes mellitus in a greater risk of pathological AER.
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Air embolism may occur during neurosurgery if performed in the seated position. Paradoxical systemic air embolism represents a potentially severe complication in case of patent foramen ovale. Contrast echocardiography detected such a malformation in 10/100 patients, which contra-indicated the sitting position in these 10 patients. No episode of paradoxical air embolism was observed in the 90 remaining patients, although 16 cases of pulmonary air embolism were detected during surgery.