Ralph E. Dolkart

Gestational trophoblastic disease: A comparative study of the results of therapy in patients with invasive mole and with choriocarcinoma

Abstract A study was made to compare the results of chemotherapy in patients with invasive mole and with choriocarcinoma as obtained in a Center for Trophoblastic Diseases with those obtained in 82 individual hospitals. In the Center 179 patients were treated. In the 82 hospitals 93 patients were treated, in most instances there being only one patient treated in an individual hospital. The data indicate that successful treatment is statistically better in the Center. In only one category of disease—choriocarcinoma, nonmetastatic—is the success of therapy equal in the Center and in the individual hospitals. In the 28 patients transferred to the Center, after failure of therapy in the 82 hospitals, treatment was successful in 17 (60.8 per cent). Possible reasons for the better results obtained in the Center are mentioned.

Comparison of antibody responses in normal and alloxan diabetic mice.

The reason for the increased incidence and severity of infections in diabetic patients has never been satisfactorily explained. This investigation was designed to study the circulating antibody response in alloxan diabetic, insulin treated diabetic and normal CF-1 mice injected with bovine serum albumin. Only those animals treated with alloxan who had elevated serum glucose levels (250 mg./100 ml. or higher) were included in the study, together with a group of normal animals. Animals were bled from the orbital sinus and the serum analyzed for antigen binding capacity of BSA, glucose concentration and serum proteins. BSA was iodinated with I-131 and the antigen binding capacity of each serum sample was determined as micrograms of BSA nitrogen bound by 1 ml. of undiluted serum. Our studies demonstrate that there is no significant difference in antibody response of alloxan treated mice, alloxan treated mice given insulin and normal mice when immunized with BSA under the conditions of the experiments. If the alloxan treated mouse may be considered a laboratory model of diabetes mellitus in man, the results described herein would be consistent with those studies of diabetics which have shown no primary defect in their immune systems.

Seven-hour radioimmunoassay of human chorionic gonadotropin

Abstract A 7 hr. radioimmunoassay for human chorionic gonadotropin has been developed. The standard reference curves obtained with the use of this procedure conformed to those described by existing methods.

Hepatic Enzyme Activities in Rats Made Diabetic with Alloxan and with Guinea Pig Anti-insulin Serum

In diabetes abnormally high rates of gluconeogenesis have been demonstrated by various methods. Here it is confirmed that in rats which have been fasted or treated with alloxan, changes occur in hepatic enzyme activity which are compatible with an adaptation to increased rates of gluconeogenesis; there are increased glutamic-pyruvic and glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase and glucose-6-phosphatase activities and reduced lactic dehydrogenase activity. Comparable effects were demonstrated in the livers of rats killed in a diabetic state twenty-four to sixty hours after injection of guinea pig anti-insulin serum, with the exception that glutamic-pyruvic transaminase activity was not increased and glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase activity was increased when expressed per liver protein or per body weight, but there was no change in the activity of the total liver. This finding provides suggestive evidence that increased gluconeogenesis is also characteristic of this experimental diabetic syndrome produced by anti-insulin serum.