Ultrasonography revealed a renal tumour (4 x 4 cm) in a 67-year-old man with right-sided lumbar pain and macrohematuria. In addition he had marked nocturnal dyspnoea with dry cough. He had lost about 10 kg in weight. On admission he had atrial fibrillation with an irregular ventricular rate (140 beats/min) and engorgement of the neck veins. Two-dimensional echocardiography, undertaken because of signs of increasing heart failure and a fall of systolic blood pressure to below 100 mm Hg, demonstrated a space-occupying lesion in the right ventricle, 4 x 2 x 1 cm, indicating an intracardiac thrombus or solid tumour. The heart failure continued to worsen, despite treatment with cardiac glycosides, verapamil and diuretics. Hence an exploratory thoracotomy was performed. This revealed an intracardiac tumour which had markedly displaced the right ventricular inflow tract and infiltrated the entire myocardium, but not the tricuspid valve. As much of the tumour as possible was resected, but the patient died postoperatively of heart failure. The intracardiac tumour proved to be a metastasis from the papillary carcinoma of the kidney. This had infiltrated the renal capsule and pelvis and invaded the branches of the right renal vein.

In four reaction steps, ginkgolide A (1) was synthesized from the enol-acetate 3, which is available in six steps from 1. The key step was the reaction of the ol-epoxy-acetate 4 with the lithium enolate of methyl propionate to give the compounds 5 and 6. C-14-Labelled ginkgolide A, which is of interest for pharmacological studies, can be synthesized using the C-14-labelled methyl propionate. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Ultrasonography revealed a renal tumour (4 x 4 cm) in a 67-year-old man with right-sided lumbar pain and macrohaematuria. In addition he had marked nocturnal dyspnoea with dry cough. He had lost about 10 kg in weight. On admission he had atrial fibrillation with an irregular ventricular rate (140 beats/min) and engorgement of the neck veins. Two-dimensional echocardiography, undertaken because of signs of increasing heart failure and a fall of systolic blood pressure to below 100 mm Hg, demonstrated a space-occupying lesion in the right ventricle, 4 x 2 x 1 cm, indicating an intracardiac thrombus or solid tumour. The heart failure continued to worsen, despite treatment with cardiac glycosides, verapamil and diuretics. Hence an exploratory thoracotomy was performed. This revealed an intracardiac tumour which had markedly displaced the right ventricular inflow tract and infiltrated the entire myocardium, but not the tricuspid valve. As much of the tumour as possible was resected, but the patient died postoperatively of heart failure. The intracardiac tumour proved to be a metastasis from the papillary carcinoma of the kidney. This had infiltrated the renal capsule and pelvis and invaded the branches of the right renal vein.

Ultrasonography revealed a renal tumour (4 x 4 cm) in a 67-year-old man with right-sided lumbar pain and macrohematuria. In addition he had marked nocturnal dyspnoea with dry cough. He had lost about 10 kg in weight. On admission he had atrial fibrillation with an irregular ventricular rate (140 beats/min) and engorgement of the neck veins. Two-dimensional echocardiography, undertaken because of signs of increasing heart failure and a fall of systolic blood pressure to below 100 mm Hg, demonstrated a space-occupying lesion in the right ventricle, 4 x 2 x 1 cm, indicating an intracardiac thrombus or solid tumour. The heart failure continued to worsen, despite treatment with cardiac glycosides, verapamil and diuretics. Hence an exploratory thoracotomy was performed. This revealed an intracardiac tumour which had markedly displaced the right ventricular inflow tract and infiltrated the entire myocardium, but not the tricuspid valve. As much of the tumour as possible was resected, but the patient died postoperatively of heart failure. The intracardiac tumour proved to be a metastasis from the papillary carcinoma of the kidney. This had infiltrated the renal capsule and pelvis and invaded the branches of the right renal vein.

The mode of action of the biguanides is still under discussion. We recently reported our results, concerning the effect of buformin on the metabolism of the isolated hemoglobin-free perfused hindlimb of normal rats, after several days of oral pretreatment (Stroh/eldt, Kettl, Obennaier and Weinges 1975). In order to have known concentrations of the drug in the system, the effects on the metabolism of the perfused hindlimb of buformin are reported after addition to the medium. - 24 hour fasting male Sprague-Dawley rats (160-240 gm) were used. Buformin (kindly supplied by the Chemie Griinenthal, GmbH, Stolberg/Rhld., Germany) was added to the medium at a range from 1 to 1000 I'g/ml. The perfusion lasted for 1 hour. The perfusion technique, apparatus, synthetic medium and used analytical methods have been reported elsewhere (Strohfeldt 1973, Stroh/eldt, Kettl and Weinges 1974). No change at a11 could be observed in the metabolic performance of the muscle tissue up to 100 J.Ig/ml buformin. At 1000 J.Ig/ml the glucose uptake was unaffected, the lactate production increased twofold accounting for a11 the glucose taken up; there was a significant rem oval of pyruvate from the medium with an increase of the Iactate/pyruvate ratio but without significant glycogenolysis; the oxygen consumption decreased without affecting the level of energy-rich phosphates (s. Table). In contrast to the findings of most authors working with the incubated diaphragm of rats or guinea pigs (s. review by Beckmann 1971), buformin was uncapable to increase the glu cose uptake of the perfused hindlimb although we partly used concentrations of the drug far above those

Using the isolated, haemoglobin-free, perfused resting hindlimb of normal rats buformin neither had a direct insulin-like effect on glucose uptake by muscle tissue nor potentiated the effect of insulin on glucose uptake after oral pretreatment for one or several days with low and high doses (30 mg-350 mg/kg). Effects on glycogenolysis could not be detected. Glycerol release was inhibited after several days of pretreatment with low and high doses of buformin. The utilization of added oleate was also partly inhibited. The level of energy rich phosphates in the muscle tissue and oxygen consumption were not affected under any of the conditions used in these experiments.

Perfused organs are useful for the study of contral mechanisms of metabolism. Many investigators published experiments on the perfused hindquarter of the rat with the animals both hemisected (Mahler, Szabo and Penhos 1968, lefferson, Koehler and Morgan 1972) and not hemisected (Ruderman, Houghton and Hems 1971). The perfusion medium was either pooled rat blood (Mahler, Szabo and Penhos 1968) or semisynthetic, containing Krebs-Henseleit bicarbonate buffer with bovine se rum albumin and aged washed human erathrocytes (Ruderman, Houghton and Hems 1971, lefferson, Koehler and Morgan 1972). By using these media, difficulties arise in getting a real standard perfusate because of different rates of glycolysis and hemolysis by the erythrocytes and therefore different levels of lactate derived from the erythrocytes.

1. 2 h after a single oral dose of 25 mg of buformin per normal rat, the blood glucose level was significantly lower when compared to the control group (78,9±1.4 mg/100 ml to 67.1±5.2 mg/100 ml,p<0.05). The incubated diaphragms of these animals showed no differences with regard to glucose uptake, lactate production and glucose oxidation in comparison to the control. — 2. When treated for 7 days with identical dosages of buformin the blood glucose level of the treated rats was lowered to a greater extent (80.5±3.7 mg/100 ml to 51.6±5.7 mg/100 ml,p< 0.01) and the incubated diaphragms showed a significantly increased glucose uptake, lactate production and decreased glucose oxidation. — 3. As a result of these findings and supported by reports in literature it is suggested that the drug may accumulate in the skeletal muscle of normal rats. — 4. No insulin potentiating effect could be detected. — 5. With regard to previous reported results from our laboratory we suggest that biguanides may increase Cori cycle activity in the rat.

After a short term oral administration of 25 mg buformin per animal (100–125 mg/kg/day) and final intraperitoneal injection of glucose we found a significantly increased content of glycogen in the diaphragm of normal male and female rats together with a higher incorporation of glucose. The latter effect was not observed if the last dose of buformin was given 24 h before the investigation. No effect on glycogen content or glucose incorporation into the glycogen was measurable after daily administration of 2.5 mg buformin per animal for 14 days or a single dose of 25 mg buformin per animal.

The influence of nicotinic acid on lipolysis stimulated by glucagon, epinephrine and DBAMP has been examined in vitro in isolated fat cells of rats.

Partly raceme (—)‐gallocatechin gallate was isolated from green tea by counter‐current distributins and column chromatography on Sephadex LH‐20. The structure was proven by mass spectroscopy of the pertrimethylsilyl ether and by n.m.r. and circular dichroism (c.d.). The compound is probably an artifact produced by heating (—)‐epigallocatechin gallate. Circular dichroism curves of several tea flavanols are presented.

Es wird über den Krankheitsverlauf einer chronischen Glomerulonephritis mit nephrotischer Verlaufsform und schwerer Hypertonie berichtet, die histologisch die typischen Veränderungen einer intercapillären Glomerulosklerose Kimmelstiel-Wilson aufzeigte. Eine Glucosetoleranzstörung war bei dem Patienten mit Sicherheit ausgeschlossen. Es bestanden jedoch deutlich erhöhte Insulin-Konzentrationen. Dabei wird festgestellt, daß die für die Glomerulosklerose Kimmelstiel-Wilson als charakteristisch angesehenen Veränderungen auch ohne manifeste diabetische Stoffwechselstörung auftreten können. Es muß abgeklärt werden, ob dabei dem Insulin eine besondere Rolle zukommt oder ob es sich um unspezifische histologische Veränderungen handelt.

Synthetic glucagon (nonicosapeptide) appears to be identical with the natural hormone in chemical analyses, and has a similar crystalline structure. Synthetic glucagon has the same biological activity as the natural, twice recrystallized, pancreatic glucagon when measured by its effects on glycogenolysis in the liver, on lipolysis in adipose tissue and on endogenous insulin release. In immunological tests both the synthetic nonicosapeptide and pentadecapeptide 9–23 showed identical immunoreactivity to the natural hormone. Proof of the total synthesis of glucagon appears conclusive.