Diagnosis and classification of abnormal lipoprotein patterns

The Effect of Tetranicotinoylfructose (Bradilan) on Fibrinolytic Activity, Platelet Stickiness and Some other Parameters

Twenty patients, of both sexes, suffering from ischaemic heart disease and/or atherosclerotic peripheral vascular disease have been studied in a long-term trial of tetranicotinoylfructose (Bradilan) by mouth.

Cholesterol levels fell in Type II cases and triglycerides in Type IV, the falls being well maintained at 6 months. Significant falls in fibrinogen, free fatty acids, and platelet stickiness were also observed and maintained at 6 months. Fibrinolytic activity increased significantly and over a similar period of time. These results bore no relation to Fredrickson types.

Only one important side-effect, namely flushing, was observed. It was infrequent and tolerable and it diminished with time and adjustment of dosage.

Is hyperviscosity a treatable component of diabetic microcirculatory disease?

Blood viscosity at low shear-rates was significantly higher in sixty-four patients with longstanding diabetes than in sixty-one matched non-diabetic controls. This increase was most striking in patients with either proliferative retinopathy or nephropathy, although it was present to a lesser extent in diabetic patients with evidence of myocardial or peripheral ischaemia. Erythrocyte deformability was lower in the fourteen diabetic patients with the most extensive microangiopathy than in twenty-two diabetics with slight or no complications or in controls. Hyperviscosity and reduced erythrocyte deformability may well be important and potentially treatable factors in the aetiology or progression of microcirculatory disease is diabetes.

Xanthelasma and hyperlipoproteinaemia

Ninety-eight females exhibiting xanthelasma have been examined for hyperlipoproteinaemia. Fifty-four (55.1%) have shown signs of this defect and forty-two (77.8%) of these have shown the Type II abnormality. Low cholesterol diets have shown that the hyperlipidaemia can be reversed within nine months of the patients starting the diet, and in the majority of cases, the serum lipid concentration can be kept within normal limits by diet alone. The application of low cholesterol diets to patients with xanthelasma does not cause any regression of the plaques.

35 eggs per day in the treatment of severe burns

A regime involving the dietary management of 8 severely burned patients has been described, the main feature of this diet being the high egg intake. The eggs were given in a variety of forms without any untoward effects and without any distaste being developed. No pathological levels of serum lipoproteins or cholesterol were attained. Serum proteins from an initial low level reached normal values within a relatively short time. It is felt that a high egg diet is a valuable and safe addition in the management of severely burned patients.

Clinical, haemodynamic, rheological, and biochemical findings in 126 patients with intermittent claudication

Increased blood viscosity has been shown to be an important factor in reducing blood flow in a review and analysis of the history, clinical findings, and haemodynamic, rheological, radiological, and biochemical measurements in 126 patients with intermittent claudication. In some patients increased viscosity seemed to be the determining cause of claudication. A raised plasma fibrinogen was the most common single biochemical abnormality. The results of conventional serum lipid and lipoprotein estimations were abnormal in the series as a whole but did not correlate with clinical findings or flow measurements at individual patient level. There was, however, a significant correlation between some clinical findings and the susceptibility of the red cells to autoxidation.