Pediatric research
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Carbohydrate metabolism was studied in 6 adult patients with phenylketonuria both on a low phenylalanine and an unrestricted institutional diet. Tolerance tests included PO glucose, PO phenylalanine, and combined glucose phenylalanine loading. Glucose, insulin, pyruvate, lactate, and phenylalanine were sampled at 0, 1/2, 1, 2, 3, and 4 hr. ⋯ Insulin response to phenylalanine alone, however, was lower than expected in the phenylketonuria patients. Both off and on low phenylalanine diet, blood pyruvate and lactate were also normal. Thus, our data from blood did not show evidence of the abnormalities in glucose and pyruvate metabolism which have been proposed to occur in phenylketonuric patients but did not suggest that the potency of phenylalanine as an insulin secretagogue is diminished by chronic hyperphenylalaninemia.
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Basal and pentagastrin-stimulated gastric acid secretion was measured in 26 healthy newborn infants on the 1st and 2nd days of life. Basal acid outputs (BAO) on day 1 (0.378 mEq/hr) and day 2 (0.388 mEq/hr) were similar and not significantly different from the maximal acid outputs (MAO) on day 1 (0.413 mEq/hr) and day 2 (0.452 mEq/hr). ⋯ Fasting serum gastrin levels obtained before the acid studies on each day were elevated (mean, day 1 = 100 pg/ml; mean, day 2 = 108 pg/ml). These findings suggest that either gastric acid secretion in the newborn is maximal under basal condition or that newborn parietal cells are unresponsive to pentagastrin on day 1 and 2 of life.
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A model of salicylate intoxication was developed in ferrets to permit the evaluation of the interaction with viruses isolated from patients with Reye's syndrome. Salicylate intoxication produced a mild elevation of the serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase and fatty changes in the liver, but these changes differed from those seen in Reye's syndrome on light and electron microscopy. ⋯ Influenza infection alone was not associated with decreased hepatic phosphorylase activity, but was associated with decreased activity of ornithine transcarbamylase. Influenza A was isolated from the livers of two of four animals cultured in embryonated eggs.