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The values of lung volumes (VC, FRC, TGV, FEV1.0, etc.) and airway resistances (Raw, Raw) were measured by the spirometry and plethysmography method in 35 physically well trained, healthy adolescents, aged 14 to 20 years, boys and girls coming from various schools from the Grenoble area. The data were correlated with body height and some also with age or weight through linear, exponential or power law relationships. All volumes increased with height (Ht), which was the best independent variable, with some preference for a linear representation. However the increase of lung volumes with height was also well reproduced by an exponential function proportional for all volumes to e0.020Ht in good agreement with recent results obtained for young children. Some significant sex differences were observed for lung volumes. Airway resistance measured by two different methods (Raw and Raw) decreased with height with some preference for a linear relationship. The mean airway resistance (Raw) obtained from a complete inspiration-expiration curve while the subject breathed at his own spontaneous breathing rate was systematically smaller (from 0.5 to 1 cmH2O/l/s) than Raw measured by a technique similar to the panting method. No sex differences for airway resistances or conductances were observed. Specific airway conductance was found to be age and height independent.

Horary plasmatic dosages of Dopa and metabolites in 30 treated parkinsonian patients have shown that, within the group of patients treated with L-Dopa combined with an extracerebral decarboxylase inhibitor, highly significant by increased plasmatic O-methyl-dopa levels can be found in patients with dyskinesias compared with those without dyskinesias. On the contrary, in these two subgroups of patients, plasmatic Dopa levels are not significantly different. By comparing some favoured Dopa and O-methyl-dopa levels between these two subgroups of patients, it seems more likely, that the elevated plasmatic O-methyl-dopa levels are due to an progressive accumulation on of its compound than to an excessive formation from Dopa.

Plasma epinephrine, norepinephrine and substrate concentrations (glycemia, free fatty acids (FFA), lactic acid) have been compared in same dogs exposed to cold then made to perform a running test. Under both conditions energy expenditure was increased to the same level for each dog, approximately 7 fold the metabolic rate at rest: 1. Catecholamines were increased in cold exposed as well as in running dogs. However plasma epinephrine and norepinephrine concentrations were respectively 2,5 and 3 times higher during cold exposure than they were during muscular exercise. 2. Under both conditions hyperglycemia was observed; however it was more noticeable during cold exposure than during running. Lactic acid increased under both conditions but average concentrations were not significantly different. FFA were increased only during cold exposure. 3. It may be concluded that for the the same level of energy expenditure a greater degree of involvement of the adrenal medulla and sympathetic nervous system is to be found during cold exposure than during exercise. This difference may partly explain that the relative contribution of substrates to the energy expenditure could be different during cold exposure and muscular exercise.

Recording the magnetic field of the heart poses enormous technical problems. Whatever type of captor is used, the parasite magnetic fields are 11000x more powerful than those of cardiac origin, and must be excluded. It is for this reason that magnetocardiography has remained a laboratory technique until the last few years. The authors present an induction magnetocardiograph whose specifications make it suitable for use in hospital practice. Thanks to the selectivity of the captor, it is possible to produce magnetic plots of the thorax.

The present investigation was undertaken in order to appraise the interaction between thyroxine and epinephrine in dogs exposed to acute cold. In normal, then successively thyroidectomized, adrenal demedullated and thyroxine restored dogs, epinephrine was infused in basal condition and during acute cold exposure. In thyroidectomized dogs epinephrine lost its calorigenic effects. So it did in thyroidectomized and adrenal demedullated dogs. Conversely, when dogs were restored in thyroxine, epinephrine recovered its calorigenic effect. Evidence for thyroxine-catecholamine interaction can be seen in basal condition as during acute cold. Nevertheless, this interaction is more obvious during shivering thermogenesis.