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The aim of this study was to analyse the influence of diabetes mellitus as a prognostic factor for overall survival in endometrial cancer.Charts were reviewed from patients with endometrial carcinoma from 1985 to 2003. Data on clinicopathologic variables, adjuvant treatment, site of recurrence and survival were collected. The chi-square test was used to examine associations between variables. The Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis and Cox's proportional hazards model for multiple regression analysis.Multivariate analysis revealed that diabetes mellitus, FIGO stage and depth of myometrial invasion were significantly associated with overall survival.

The intracellular Na+ content of washed erythrocytes from stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP) and Wistar-Kyoto normotensive rats (WKY) was measured by a high resolution 23Na-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique using a non-permeant aqueous shift reagent, dysprosium triethylenetetramine hexaacetic acid, Dy(TTHA)3-. The initial intracellular Na+ of freshly isolated and washed erythrocytes was very low (approximately 5 mmol/l) and increased progressively with prolonged incubation in isotonic salt solution at 37 degrees C. There was no significant difference in the erythrocyte Na+ concentration between SHRSP and WKY over the entire period of measurement, nor was any difference detected in their osmotic fragility or total cellular volume, although the osmotic fragility decreased with incubation time. The high energy phosphate metabolites were also studied in the same erythrocytes by 31P-NMR. The level of intracellular ATP decreased with incubation at 37 degrees C but showed no difference between the SHRSP and WKY samples. Inclusion of 1 mmol/l ouabain in the incubation medium substantially retarded the breakdown of intracellular ATP and resulted in a concomitant increase in intracellular Na+. However, neither the ouabain-sensitive nor the ouabain-insensitive component of Na+ influx altered in SHRSP erythrocytes compared with WKY erythrocytes in paired experiments. Our results do not support the hypothesis that altered Na+ transport, resulting in an increase in erythrocyte Na+ concentration, is associated with spontaneous hypertension.

A high activity of renin was demonstrated in human pheochromocytoma tissue. This activity was inhibited by specific antibody raised against human renal renin, indicating that it was not due to the nonspecific actions of proteases such as cathepsin D. The specific renin shared some biochemical features with well-known kidney renin, such as molecular weight (47,000 daltons), optimum pH (6.0), the presence of trypsin-activatable inactive renin, and glycoprotein nature. However, the isoelectrofocusing pattern of renin from the pheochromocytoma differed from that of kidney and plasma renins hitherto reported, a discrepancy which could be interpreted as evidence for endogenous synthesis of the enzyme. Furthermore, angiotensin converting enzyme activity was found in the tissue. Since pheochromocytoma is considered to be of neural crest origin, these results provide biochemical and immunological evidence for the presence of the renin-angiotensin cycle within human neuronal cells.