Prospective randomized double-blind comparison of nephrotoxicity and auditory toxicity of tobramycin and netilmicin

Netilmicin or tobramycin was administered to 197 patients in a prospective randomized double-blind trial. Of these patients, 140 recipients of nine or more doses of netilmicin or tobramycin could be evaluated for nephrotoxicity. Fifty-five patients were able to cooperate in the administration of serial audiograms. Nephrotoxicity of similar severity developed in 7 of 73 (9.6%) recipients of tobramycin and in 7 of 67 (10.4%) recipients of netilmicin (P greater than 0.05). Mild or slight auditory toxicity developed in 5 of 28 (17.8%) recipients of tobramycin and in 2 of 27 (7.4%) recipients of netilmicin (P greater than 0.05).

[Acute Q fever: study of 23 patients (author's transl)]

Twenty-three patients with Q fever who were diagnosed over a 3 year period are described. The majority came from the Madrid urban area and less than half had epidemiological antecedents. Nine patients presented with pulmonary infiltrations, 12 with suppressed fever and in 2 criteria for fever of unknown origin were met. The majority had clinical or analytic data of hepatic disease and liver biopsy practiced in 4 patients showed granulomas. Diagnosis was established through the increment of seric antibodies against antigens of phase II C. burnetii, detected by complement fixation test. Acute Q fever is not a rare disease in our environment and must be taken into account when a differential diagnosis is looked for in processes such as fever of short evolution, fever of unknown origin, pneumoniae and granulomatous hepatitis.

[Asplenia: a study of 21 subjects splenectomized during childhood for spleen injury (author's transl)]

Clinical and biological studies were carried out in 21 subjects one to twenty-three years after the injured spleen had been removed. Asplenia did not give rise to clinical symptoms, did not facilitate infections and had no effect on growth. Laboratory investigations revealed a decrease in IgM in 6 subjects and minor quantitative and qualitative platelet abnormalities. The absence of Jolly's bodies in 7 subjects was suggestive of spleen regeneration, which was confirmed by scintigraphy in 2 cases. The significance of these findings in discussed.

Loss of immunological and biological activity of insulin with a human muscle extract

The isolation of a human muscle extract that degrades insulin to products incapable of any immunological or biological activity is reported. The extract Km value for human insulin is 0.79, and 1.43 for porcine proinsulin. It does not degrade Human Growth Hormone at the concentrations tested, it is inactivated by N-ethyl-maleimide, Trasylol, and heat, and it does not require glutathione for its action. Human muscle, therefore can contain an enzyme similar to "insulin-specific-protease" present in rat muscle.