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Clinical efficacy of enalapril, a drug belonging to a group of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, was studied in patients with pubertal juvenile dyspituitarism (juvenile obesity) coursing with arterial hypertension. A reactive increase of plasma renin activity and reduced concentration of plasma aldosterone were revealed. The drug was characterized by a pronounced hypotensive effect. No negative effects on the blood lipid spectrum or carbohydrate metabolism were observed. The study showed that enalapril may be a drug of choice in the treatment of the hypertensive syndrome in patients with juvenile obesity.

Goiter prevalence and iodine excretion levels were assessed in schoolchildren aged 9 and 13 in the city of Moscow (n = 91) and the Moscow region, 60 km East of Moscow (n = 92). Goiter prevalence was evaluated by ultrasonography. In Moscow it was found to be 31.1% among children aged 9 and 17.5% among those aged 13. The respective values in the Moscow region were 47.2 and 39.3%. Medium urinary iodine levels were 6.9 to 7.5 micrograms/dl in Moscow and 4.1 to 5.4 micrograms/dl in the region. According to modern criteria, iodine deficiency in Moscow may be regarded as mild and in the region as moderate. Control programs are urgently needed tc prevent development of iodine deficiency disorders.

Age-specific time course of prolactin secretion and features of dopaminergic regulation of this hormone secretion were studied in boys aged 3 to 15 and in adult men aged 20 to 25. Blood plasma prolactin concentration was found reduced in boys, and this hormone level, characteristic for adults, sets up at the age of 9-11. Dopaminergic regulation of prolactin secretion undergoes three stages in boys: Stage 1--hyperreaction to introduction of a receptor antagonist at the age of 3 to 8, Stage 2--at the age of 9 to 11--reduced reaction to D2 receptor blocking, though this reaction being much higher than in adults, and Stage 3 (at the age of 12-15)--development of a normal reaction characteristic of adults.

Comparison of the thyroid-sizes estimated by palpation and ultrasonic scanning in 282 women and 178 men has shown that if the thyroid is small (from 0 to 2nd degree, according to O. V. Nikolayev's classification), its size cannot be estimated by palpation and this method fails to assess the endemic goiter in epidemiologic surveys. Correlation between the thyroid size estimated by palpation and its ultrasonically assessed volume has made up 0.346 (p < 0.001) in women and 0.193 (p < 0.01) in men. Ultrasonic assessment of the thyroid volume appears useful both for clinical and epidemiologic studies.

Altogether 24 women with the syndrome of hyperprolactinemia (SH), including 5 patients with significant PRL hypersecretion against a background of macro- and microprolactinemia, and 19 women with normoprolactinemic galactorrhea were investigated. The activity of dopamine-B-hydroxylase (DBH) and monoamino oxidase (MAO) (the key enzymes of dopamine metabolism) was determined by spectrophotometry. A different time course of secretion of PRL and TSH in metoclopramide testing was revealed in the patients with regard to the level of basal prolactinemia. The determination of MAO and DBH activity made it possible to estimate in more detail the state of dopaminergic control of PRL and TSH secretion in the syndrome of hyperprolactinemia.

A study was made of the state of the hypothalamohypophyseal system in patients with different types of chromophobe adenoma. Altogether 62 patients were examined using metoclopramide and Parlodel tests (38 patients were with somatotropinoma, 13--with prolactinoma, 11--with somatotropinoma with hyperprolactinemia). The time course of STH, PRL and TSH secretion in the blood was investigated. Dopaminergic blockade in the Metoclopramide test was shown to cause no change in the time course of PRL secretion in patients with prolactinomas, and a PRL reaction in patients with somatotropinomas and adenomas with PRL and STH hypersecretion was sharply decreased. A paradoxical STH reaction (a decrease) in somatotropinomas and considerable disorders in the type of PRL and TSH secretion in all forms of adenomas was defined in the Parlodel test (a dopaminergic agonist). The results obtained suggest considerable disorders in the dopaminergic regulation of the hypothalamohypophyseal system of patients with chromophobe adenomas and the efficacy of the metoclopramide and Parlodel tests in the differential diagnosis of these conditions.